thanks for the reply, vitch.

my other running experience is... zero. i applied for the nyc lottery on a whim and was excited when i was selected. i had a great time at the race and now feel hooked on running. i'll shoot for boston another year... don't want to injure myself.

thanks, aurang.

to be clear, the next marathon would be almost three months after my first (nyc was 11/5; miami would be 1/28), not three weeks. you may have meant months... in which case i can see that even three months might not be enough time to bring my speed up to qualify for boston. i can say that i ran nyc with some ease and i ran the 10:23/mile pace while stopping to take photos and walking through all of the aid stations. at mile 23 i felt like i still had a lot of energy reserves and could have increased my pace significantly.

i'm curious to understand why my lack of experience helps me with this goal. are you saying it could be possible only because i don't have other baseline times to really get a feel of what speeds i'm capable?

thanks again for the replies, everyone.

brook trout: i don't have any other running experience besides the nyc marathon. after i give my body a couple weeks to recover, i'll see what i can do for a 5K. a 20 minute 5K is a 6:24/mile if i did the calculations correctly. sounds difficult, but not unreachable right now.

paulmitch: i'm definitely more of a quality over quantity guy... i'm just pretty excited about running right now and since i live in boston i'd really love to run the marathon here. i pushed myself a little too hard when i started training for the nyc marathon, so i'm wary of doing the same in order to qualify for boston. again, my mind and heart would definitely be up for the challenge. i'm not so sure about my shins and ankles.