Robyn Luthi was happy to finished her third Boston Marathon, but running a personal best time on the course made it even sweeter.
The Melfort resident took part in the race on Monday, April 18. She said the weather was the best in all of her years running the course.
“This year was fantastic,” Luthi said. “The weather couldn’t have been more perfect. It was right around 10 degrees and the wind wasn’t too strong. Weather wise it was much better than my first one in 2018 when it was pouring rain. (In) 2018 it poured rain. (In) 2019 it was hot and humid and this (year) we finally got the conditions right on the day.”
Luthi finished the marathon in a time of three hours, nine minutes and 13 seconds. This was her best time in the Marathon in her first run since 2019 after competing in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2021.
“I was eight seconds off my personal best that I set in Chicago but I ran 13 minutes faster on this course than I did in 2019,” Luthi said.
“Boston is one of the hardest marathon courses because it is so hilly and coming from Saskatchewan, it is so flat where we are, it is kind of hard to train properly for this one. You sure get humbled in the hills on that course because there is a huge set of hills there and you really get to see what you are made of mentally,” she explained.
Her personal best time in Chicago was 3 hours, nine minutes and five seconds.
Luthi credited the weather and solid preparation for the improved time. She said that for marathon running, there’s always something to improve on.
“It has been a couple of years,” she explained. “I have got to work on some of my conditioning and just getting quality long runs in and whatnot. I feel like I was better prepared for this one than I was in 2019. The weather certainly played a big role in it Monday as well.”
Luthi placed 55th overall in the 40 to 44 age group, 505th in gender, and 5,062 overall out of 30,000 racers.
This run is part of her new goal to complete all six of the Abbot World Marathon Majors. Chicago in 2021 was one of the six. She has also run Boston Marathons in 2018, 2019 and 2022. The other four marathons are in Tokyo, London, Berlin and New York.
Luthi’s next marathon will be in Berlin on Sunday, Sept. 25. She still has London, Tokyo and New York left to complete.
“After Berlin I will time qualify for New York, so I do know that if I am ready to do that one next I have the opportunity to get into that one,” Luthi said.
For London and Tokyo, Luthi will have to enter a draw. With London, there is also an age class championship.
“If I do acquire enough points from my finishes in Berlin, Boston and possibly if they would include Chicago from 2021, then I could get invited into London,” she explained. “Otherwise I have to just go in the draw like everybody else.”
Luthi said there are many steps to complete all six stars on the Abbott World Marathon Majors. It costs a lot of money too.
“You have to plan it out accordingly because it is expensive to be in any of these marathons,” she explained. “Nothing is cheap.”
Luthi represented both Melfort and the Melfort Multi-K, whose committee she is a long-time member of, in Boston. She hopes that her running of marathons can inspire others.
“I just one day thought I wanted to run a marathon, so now five later I am still doing it,” she said. “I hope other people get inspired to take up any type of distance and work towards a goal and to continue searching for running goals for fitness, for fun, for wh
