The RunRunLive 4.0 Podcast Episode 4-382 – Dave Mcgillivray – 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents  (Audio: link) audio:http://www.RunRunLive.com/PodcastEpisodes/epi4382.mp3] Link epi4382.mp3 MarathonBQ – How to Qualify for the Boston Marathon in 14 Weeks - http://www.marathonbq.com/qualify-for-the-boston-marathon-in-14-weeks/ Hello and welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast episode 4-382 Hello.  This is Chris.  Today we have an excellent interview with Dave McGillivray about his recent experience of running 7 marathons on 7 continents in 7 days.  We go off script a bit and do a bit of old-guy trash talking too. I was originally going to skip this week because I’ve been so beat up by work and training recently.  But, when I spoke to Dave and heard how great the conversation was I had to get it out.  In section one I’ll talk about how struggling through bad workouts isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  In Section two I’ll drop a chapter from the audio book version of my Marathon BQ book called “The Dark Place”.  That’s the theme for this week I guess, struggle and perseverance.  Stick to the plan.  As of today, we are 50 or so days out from Boston.  My training, although challenging, is, in the grand scheme, going well.  Coming into this weekend I saw that the weather was going to be heavy freezing rain on Sunday and petitioned coach to move my long run to Saturday.  He acquiesced and I did a nice sunny run with my buddies yesterday.  They ended up running about 2:15 and I went a little longer and hit 2:45.  It ended up around 19 and ½ miles for me.  Having run the same 2:45 last weekend on Sunday, that means the two long runs fell into the same 7-day week and I ended up with over 60 miles for the week.  That’s something I haven’t seen for awhile.  My legs are holding up ok.  I went back out today with some other guys from my club and we did an easy hour in the trails in the freezing rain.  No issues.  I do need to work more core strength and stretching in because I’m tight, but, hey you can’t do everything. My tempo runs are coming in around a 7:30 pace which is encouraging.  My engine is very strong.  My heart is solid.  The legs are the constraint right now.  I imagine that should improve with all this volume. Bottom line I’m in a good spot for a strong 20th Boston Marathon if we get good weather. … It’s funny, I wrote that Marathon BQ book a couple years ago because it insisted on getting out of my head.  If you were to train with me these are the kind of stories you’d hear over and over.  I started the podcast for the same reason, to take all this stuff about running I’d accumulated and get it out into the public where it might do some good.  The book, putts along at a dozen or so a month, spiking in the spring and fall when people tend to think about qualifying!  I suppose I should make some effort to find a real publisher given the staying power and what they call “irrational enthusiasm” people have around the topic.  I’m too busy.  If you know an enthusiastic publisher who wants a market tested vehicle I’ll take the meeting.  But, what really turns me on, what really makes me think ‘huh’, is when I get these emails out of the blue that thank me for it.  It really blows me away.  I’ll share one here.  Redacted, because I don’t have permission.  Chris, I know that you receive countless "thank you" emails from runners who have found success using your Marathon BQ training plan.... but I wanted to offer yet another. Last year, I ran the Chicago Marathon - giving it all that I had - finishing in 3:44:24....essentially the same time that finished at the Disney Marathon several years prior. In one year, using your program, I dropped 23 minutes off of my time, finishing the 2018 Houston Marathon strong in 3:21:04. My goal was to qualify for Boston....and with a BQ cutoff of 3:25 for my age (46) group, it looks like I will get a bib. All of those speed workouts really worked! Looking forward to running Boston in 2019. Can't thank you eno