Retired american auto race driver Danica Patrick preparing for first Boston Marathon

Three years after she retired from professional auto racing, Danica Patrick is preparing to take on the Boston Marathon.

The 39-year-old is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel car racing. Boston will be her very first marathon. She said it’s something that has been on her bucket list.

“I didn’t put much thought to it other than I want to run a marathon, but when the opportunity came up to run Boston, that was like a for sure yes,” Patrick said. “It wasn’t a put it off another year kind of thing, that was like let’s go.”

At the beginning, Patrick said she wasn’t sure if she wanted to train for the marathon.

“Part of it was kind of wanting an excuse if it didn’t go well maybe, but then the other part of it was, I just like running,” she said. “So, I thought I’ll be able to do this. It will be hard but I think I could go do it mentally tomorrow, because I’m strong mentally, but that was kind of that turning point where after those 16 and 18 mile runs, I was like, whoa I better put the miles in.”

Since her racing career ended, she said she has found herself doing lots of things out of her comfort zone including skydiving, bungee jumping and snowboarding.

“I realized I really enjoyed putting myself in those uncomfortable positions to really test myself,” she said.

Patrick is running as the captain of the Light Foundation marathon team.

posted Tuesday October 5th