Joel Flora wants to make this year's Boston Marathon be number five

Joel Flora recently qualified for his fifth Boston Marathon. He is able to register in September and if successful, he will run the marathon in April of 2019. Flora’s journey began when, at the age of 35, he quit smoking. This led to him gaining some weight he wanted to get rid of. He was watching the Tour de France and got inspired to start bicycling again, something he did often as a teenager. He began biking a couple miles a day, and before he knew it, he was biking 20 miles a day. When he was 36, he got a membership to the YMCA to continue his training in the winter months. There, he started running. Unfortunately, he developed shin splints, but he didn’t let it stop him. He began walking on the treadmill and strengthened his shins and lower legs. When he turned 37, he was able to run without shin splints. This year, he plans to run 12 marathons. “I’ve always had a fall challenge, it has been going on for nine or 10 years now. Why I have these is because I’m a football fan. If they can do it every week, I can do it every week. My goal, I try to get eight to 10 races weekends in a row. Last year, I ran 17 in a row. They were 13 halves, one full, 10K, 7K, and a five miler,” Flora said.

posted Sunday July 15th