Jeff Bedell is already pumped for his fifth Marine Corps Marathon — the third-largest in the country — next month.
“At this point, you’re ready,” he said.
But his first was “pure hell,” said Bedell, who works for MicroStrategy, a McLean software company. He said he had a bit of a workout lapse before the 2005 race, after wrestling and rowing crew in high school and continuing to row through college and for some time afterward.
He started running when his brother — three years older — started running marathons and basically shamed him into it, Bedell said.
The 40-year-old Arlington resident said he doesn’t row competitively anymore, but does use the rowing machine to train.
“The mentality’s the same,” he said of the two sports. “The same competitive compulsion” is involved.
Bedell has made a smooth transition from rowing to running. He ran in the Boston Marathon last spring, as well as the National Marathon in 2008.
Bedell ran the National Marathon in just over 3:18, which was good enough to qualify him for Boston in April this year. But, fighting off sickness, he ended up finishing in 3:22 in Boston — just minutes from automatically qualifying again.
For the Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 25, Bedell said he wants to beat his personal best, which is 3:18.
“I should be able to go under that,” he said.
He says he tops out at about 70 miles per week during training, typically runs between 50 and 70 miles.
“It’s progressing — it’s getting tiring,” he said of the training, adding that he is just trying to keep up momentum now. He is weighing running the Army 10-Miler next Sunday as a tuneup, preferring to use shorter events as build-up runs.
For good reason. Bedell finished seventh out of 592 runners and second in his age group with a time of 18:48 at the 5K RunStock, part of the Marine Corps Marathon series, on Aug. 15 in Virginia Beach. In June, he turned an even more impressive performance at Run Amuck, finishing first in his age group and sixth overall out of more than 1,100 finishers.
The marathons, of course, are vastly different than short races — “pure endurance,” he says — but are rewarding when finished.
“I’m always happy when they’re done,” he said. “I feel like they’ve all been different for me.”
He never felt like he ran his absolute best, but conceded that everyone who finishes a race likely feels like that. But if he’s able to qualify for Boston, this year’s run will have been satisfying.
“I’m definitely trying to requalify for Boston,” he said. Runners in the 40-44 age group have to finish in 3:20 to qualify for the April race.
