Boston Marathon Streak: 14 Years, One DFW Runner, and the 2013 Bombing | Carrie Varner

DFW Running Talk: Carrie Varner
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Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] Welcome to DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, so let's get started.

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All welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. And before we get started on our guests this is, I'm gonna have 10 guests. They're 15, 20 minutes long. It's quick hits. We just wanna get to know some of these folks that are running the Boston Marathon from the Dallas Fort Worth area. And today's special guest is Kerry Varner.

Carrie, how are you?

Carrie Varner: Fine, thank you. Good.

Chris Detzel: I'm glad you came. I really appreciate it.

Carrie Varner: I was surprised to get your. But I thought, yeah, that's pretty, yeah, I've done a couple. I can talk about this.

Chris Detzel: I know you can. That's why wouldn't want me to get you on for a long time anyways. I was like, I gotta reach out to her right now, so nobody Perfect but you now to do this and so let's get into it.

Tell me a little bit about number one you've run. How many Bostons

Carrie Varner: I run 13 and I end running in a couple weeks without Boston. 14 in a row.

Chris Detzel: Okay. That's pretty awesome. So tell me about your first [00:02:00] Boston. Now let's go back. 13, 14 years ago, when you qualified. What was that like? Were you excited? I don't know.

Tell me your story.

Carrie Varner: My first marathon that I qualified was in Las Vegas Uhhuh. I didn't know what it was the first night run. I didn't even know what a BQ was, so that's

Chris Detzel: awesome.

Carrie Varner: I ran my marathon. He calls me up that night and I'm in Vegas, and he goes up. You bq and I'm like, okay, what does BQ mean? You Boston qualify your marathon.

So anyways, that's where it all started. So then my first one was the bombing 2013.

Chris Detzel: Oh wow.

Carrie Varner: Okay. That was my first Boston. And I did cross the finish line. I did finish and it was about six minutes later when the bomb went off. It was just, just unreal. I could not believe this was happening.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Carrie Varner: And I was so sad for the ones that didn't get to finish. It was awful. I just, it was just an awful, but it made me wanna [00:03:00] come back for 14 more than ever because I wasn't gonna let these guys win. Yeah. Now you did this and you thought, you've changed the marathon for us, but you didn't stop the marathon.

For us, it really made me wanna come back in 14.

Chris Detzel: That's pretty awesome. That one. It's a dangerous time back then. And I, I remember watching the documentary about it. I knew some people at that time that ran Boston Marathon and just, they had different stories, to where all the phone stuff went off and this guy was in a tent, over he was sick or whatever, and then he went to go look for his wife couldn't find it.

It was just like. All kinds of crazy stuff, going on.

Carrie Varner: It was a lot, it was in really mad chaos and we didn't get to celebrate that night 'cause the mayor came on and said, everybody, please stay in your hotel. So that was we made us all wanna come back and experience it the way we should have gotten to experience it.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And let's talk about the next one then, just because we won't go through the whole history, but I'm [00:04:00] interested in, because you get to go back that second year, what was that like?

Carrie Varner: It was great 'cause more pe I went by myself in 13. Yeah.

I didn't want anybody known in my club went. So when 14 rolled around there was like six more that qualified. So I felt like I was getting to do it again for the first time. People that have never done it before and I got to experience it with them. And it just seems every year that I do it, someone new qualifies and I get to go back and do it with them.

And it's just so much fun to watch them experience it. It's just one

Chris Detzel: group, do you run with

Carrie Varner: Rockwall Winning Club? We pretty much go by the run house now. Yeah. Runs it. And that's my tribe, those people and yeah, it's just a ton of them. It's all

Chris Detzel: about the community. Ya though?

Carrie Varner: Sure is. Sure is. I

Chris Detzel: love that.

Carrie Varner: Yeah. And since I had, many of them are trying to get their 10 in a row, so it's all encouraging them, keeping them going, finding the right marathon to qualify. Austin's not the easiest [00:05:00] race to qualify, so you have to do another one to qualify for a lot of people.

Chris Detzel: What's your qualifying time? How old are you?

Carrie Varner: I'm 56.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Carrie Varner: So my qualifying time now is 4 35.

Chris Detzel: What are you hitting now? What's your what are you generally

Carrie Varner: putting? I try to run a four hour marathon best box this year I ran a 4 0 2.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Carrie Varner: So I, I always wanna break four hours no matter how old I am. I don't

Chris Detzel: know.

Yeah.

Carrie Varner: This is my goal, so I

Chris Detzel: love it.

Carrie Varner: Yeah. I'll just keep going for.

Chris Detzel: What is some of the best memories about Boston when you go there? The atmosphere, all those kinds of things. What's that like for you? What do you do? What's a,

Carrie Varner: I love it when we, when the same people go and we all, it's on Easter weekend, we go to the old salad church.

We go to church there. They have the blessings of the athletes. It is best service. I love to watch the people that it's their first marathon or 10th or their 25th. It's incredible that people can stay healthy that long [00:06:00] and not. Have to be busy in April. I remember my daughter was getting married and I was like, any weekend, but Boston weekend.

Yeah. So she gives me, so the next weekend, I'm, that's good walk, but she gave you the weekend off. It's fun.

Chris Detzel: How long do you plan on going to Boston for? What's your kind of goal? Your goal to, like how many do you wanna hit?

Carrie Varner: I don't, 15. I'm gonna, I do wanna hit 15 because that's just too, yeah.

I qualified for 47. So I'm gonna go back in 27, so that will be that will be 15. Okay. This is 14. Yeah. I was doing the math about trying to hit the quarter Century Club. I don't really think I can really do that.

Chris Detzel: Who knows? That's another 10, 12.

Carrie Varner: I'll be 80 years old.

Chris Detzel: Hey, there's 80-year-old running, you're gonna have some luck, but still,

Carrie Varner: yeah. I weren't

Chris Detzel: be able to do it.

Carrie Varner: I really ha I really enjoy the journey. Yeah. Even when we're not Boston training, I like to be ready in case [00:07:00] someone says, Hey Carrie, let's go run this marathon and I'm ready. I go, okay, let's go.

Or,

Chris Detzel: what's your routine? I'm interested you get to Boston, you do do you do like a, Sunday run with specific people and then do you go to dinner afterwards? So you know, what does that look like?

Carrie Varner: Yeah, we get there and then we try to, we always sign up for the Boston 5K

Chris Detzel: Uhhuh.

Yeah. Done that a few times.

Carrie Varner: And then I'm a part of the Boston Buddies run Club, so then I always try to meet them on Sunday and I really don't run again. I just run walk, 'cause I already ran Saturday, but I wanna meet these people that I've met on Facebook. Yeah. And I want the name with a face with a name and it's a terrifying.

And then we all go to dinner like Saturday night. After church on Sunday, and then kinda go back and do your thing and get ready,

Chris Detzel: relax a little bit.

Carrie Varner: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: And then do you do any, so you do the race. Tell me about the parts of the race that you love? Anything specific?

Carrie Varner: Gosh, it [00:08:00] never gets easier.

No. It's, you just think, with people like you've done it so many times, it just doesn't get easier and yeah. Same hills try to do better. And I remember why I am there and how I trained to be there. I run on hills, I train on hills. Yep. To keep talking to myself. You know how to do this, just do it.

Go,

Chris Detzel: yeah.

Carrie Varner: But

Chris Detzel: that's awesome.

Carrie Varner: I ran with a friend that I met there and we ran 24 miles together. And it was probably the first time I ran above my headphones. Never turned them on. I never thought I could do that, but it was so nice to run with somebody for that long, yeah.

Even if

Chris Detzel: not like a training run,

Carrie Varner: it was like we were supporting each other and it was just nice.

Chris Detzel: Do you still talk to that person at all, or no?

Carrie Varner: Yeah, we do. I'll meet her up there again this year. No. We the unicorn club now.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I know.

Carrie Varner: And that's fun. Get a little pampered a little bit.

And that's, yeah, so she'll [00:09:00] meet us there, like Miranda and I, we'll meet with her and maybe I'll run at her.

Chris Detzel: So last year was my first time to be part of the Unicorn Club, only because my wife bought an additional pass.

Carrie Varner: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I go, because she goes, and so it was a hundred bucks and I was like, it's worth it.

Yeah, I get to go as a spectator to the breakfast, hang out with the runners as you guys leave to go run. I go back to my hotel, whatever, and then come back for lunch, have a little bit of lunch, and then I get to go to the finish line and get to watch Leah come in and other runners that I've seen, and it's hard to see, but that's pretty cool.

Carrie Varner: Yeah, that's good. Yeah, it's just a little pampering and we get to the bus and that's a, it's so nice to be on a charter bus.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. There's a bathroom, everything.

Carrie Varner: Yes. And if it rains, you get to stay on the bus. You don't have to get off. I think you should experience both. I think you should experience the yellow school buses, because that's,

Chris Detzel: you have to.

Carrie Varner: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Pretty much.

Carrie Varner: Then when you can get a charter bus, it's fun too.

Chris Detzel: [00:10:00] What are you looking forward to the most? This Boston 2026

Carrie Varner: doing? Just finishing number one. Yeah. I do want a Boston qualify. Again, I like to qualify at Boston. I usually qualify. And I want to qualify, so I will run as well as I can.

Chris Detzel: You do your qualifying time's four 30, so you generally have four hours. So I think you're probably pretty good. I know it depends, but. Probably a good chance

Carrie Varner: have to line up and all that kind of stuff, but you have your head in the right place, that's stop the battle and I'm pretty positive.

And anyway, I'll do my best. So

Chris Detzel: you're looking forward to just getting on the line and qualifying and that's what you're looking forward to the most or? I

Carrie Varner: think so. I just wanna be able to come back next year. I earned it and it's, this is an note she signed up for. You have to earn it.

So it's,

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Carrie Varner: it's just an honor to be there. Everybody that's running basically earned it, and you're proud and great to be around that atmosphere. [00:11:00]

Chris Detzel: Is there anything that you know, that you would advice or anything that you would give to folks listening in, you've done this 13 times and for their first timer, first time, or anything like that?

Carrie Varner: The only thing I have told, we have a couple that are going for their first time. Do not go out so fast. Yeah. You get so excited. I know it's hard, it's downhill, first three or four miles and you just wanna roll. You think you're gonna make up some time and it know, it'll help you in the end.

And it doesn't because I mean it pressure pause and just stick with your plan, do your goal pace and try to enjoy it. Soak it in. You're at the Boston Marathon.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Carrie Varner: Pretty incredible.

Chris Detzel: I do have a question 'cause it came up with one of my interviews and I wasn't a hundred percent sure.

So the 10, we talked about this. If you do 10 in a row, that means that all you have to now do is qualify. You don't have to worry about the time or anything. Does that count, [00:12:00] do you have to keep doing it consecutively or can you skip a year and then.

Carrie Varner: No, it's still consecutive. I think I have to do it every year.

If I took up a year or two and my streak is done, I'm back to work. You

Chris Detzel: lose it. Okay.

Carrie Varner: And people thought that, you, since you had your streak, you don't have to qualify anymore. But yeah, you do have, I had to qualify. I just don't have a buffer, if it's a four minute buffer, it doesn't matter for me as long as I break 4 35.

Chris Detzel: That was awesome. End to our audience. Make sure you go to DFW running talk.substack.com. Subscribe to the newsletter. I will see you in Boston and I can't wait.