From Couch to 5 World Majors: Bobby Mack's Boston Marathon Journey | Boston Bound

DFW Running Talk: Robert Mackey - Boston
===

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

Hey, real quick, wanted to shout out to the Panther City Ultra. Coming up now on May 16th at Marion Sanso Park in Fort Worth. So quick backstory, this one was originally scheduled for April, but it got moved due to weather to May. So good news is there's still time to sign up. This race is put on by Rise Racing Co, that you probably know as.

The sponsor of this show, they've got four distances, 5K, 10 K, 20 5K, and a 50 k.~ Running through natural trails with the rocky terrain, elevation changes some steep climbs, especially down near the river and waterfall areas.~ If you're newer to trails to 5K, 10 K, or solid entry points, if you want, ~you know,~ a real challenge, ~you know,~ move it up to the 20 5K or ~you know,~ 50 K.

One thing I love about this race is ev. Everyone finishes with a metal and swag, so no matter the distance, keep in mind. It's capped at 300 runners, so spots are limited. Use code DFW for registration for 10% off. So it's Marion Sanso Park, Fort Worth, Texas May [00:01:00] 16th. Links from the show notes. Go check it out.

All right. Welcome to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel. And before I get today's special guest, I just wanna say we are doing 10 interviews, 10 or 15 minutes to get to know these runners backstories about how they get to Boston, why they think it's so special. And today's special guest is Robert Mackey.

Robert, how are you?

Robert Mackey: Great, Chris. Thanks for having me. It's a pleasure.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I'm really excited to have you on and you live in df, where do you live? What's the

Robert Mackey: almost to Denton? I'm up in Aubrey, Texas.

Chris Detzel: Okay, great. I was gonna ask if you knew his name's Jim super fast over there. I forget I'll remember his name in a minute.

But let's get to you. So you've won two Boston marathons and so I wanna get to your first experience, maybe a little bit before and during the Boston, and then we'll get to the other stuff, if that's cool.

Robert Mackey: Okay. Sure. I didn't start running until late thirties. I was almost 40 before I ran my first 5K and my son got me into it and then progressed up to a marathon.

And that was 2013, my [00:02:00] first marathon. And pretty soon after that my wife. Planted the seed in my head of, why don't you try to qualify for Boston? And the first one out of the gate was just to finish. I ran over four hours ran a second one to try to go sub four, and then that's when she said, Hey, what about Boston?

And I didn't even know about the qualifying standards at the time. And so I looked it up and that scared me off, and I didn't think about it for another couple of years, but it, I get it. It kept beating at me.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Robert Mackey: I made an attempt in my third marathon, I went for a bq. And I just got under, I was, I think my standard was 3 25 at that time, and I just got under by about two minutes.

And then that year ended up being, I didn't really know about the cut before when I went into the race. It was just get under 3 25 and I had two minutes, and then that cut turned out to be like almost five.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Robert Mackey: that was, I remember that was the most extreme year. So I was cut and I almost hung up my shoes and then.

I kept thinking about it. Went for another attempt.

Chris Detzel: Dude, you're so close. You can't stop, that's

Robert Mackey: crazy. It was [00:03:00] heartbreaking though. Heartbreaking.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, of course.

Robert Mackey: So I eventually went for it. Again I upped my training and made an attempt at CIM in, in Sacramento in 2019.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: And I think that's a December race, so Yeah,

Chris Detzel: it is.

Robert Mackey: I made it by about five and a half minutes right after.

That was a scary time and a lot of people were affected, but just to compartmentalize my emotions as I was waiting for that registration surrounding making it into that race.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: I thought for a moment, oh, the race is canceled, and then, oh no, this will be quick. We'll be shut down for a couple of weeks and then back on.

Yeah, the Tokyo Marathon I think was canceled for all, but the elites in 2020. And then,

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Robert Mackey: Boston maybe ran a virtual, and London was canceled. So then I started to think these qualifying races are being canceled. I'll be good with my buffer. I'll be in. But then registration time came in September and they delayed it and we didn't know if the race was going.

So all summer it was up and [00:04:00] down my motions finally. In 2020, I think late spring they started to announce what they were going to try to do was hold that fall race. Yeah. When they came back in 2020, the 125th, Boston was in October.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: So I registered, they opened up the qualifying window to two years instead of one.

And when that cut was announced, it turned out to be something crazy like seven and a half minutes. So I was cut again. I had five and a half.

Chris Detzel: Was it really? Wow. I don't for,

Robert Mackey: for a short period of time because, so

Chris Detzel: no cut.

Robert Mackey: My emotions were down. I weighed, I committed to New York actually that fall, and then I got a late invite back to Boston.

They had cut the field to 20,000 and that's what made the cuts so large. Oh, okay. As far as time. But then I think international runners weren't able to, yeah. To travel and some people just declined. And so I got a late email in August, Hey, we've got some limited spots. We are opening these up to qualifiers.

Who signed up to run the virtual? And you did that? So would you like [00:05:00] to run the actual race in October? And I thought absolutely. But. I'm committed to New York, so this is now two marathons and four weeks apart. I had never done more than one. I've done it two years.

Chris Detzel: It's still rough.

Robert Mackey: Yeah. But I jumped on the chance.

I treated it as just a long run training for New York. Yeah. And had a fun time.

Chris Detzel: Good. Let's talk about, so I kind of wanna talk about that in a way a little bit more. But let's talk about this upcoming 2026 Boston. So you ran it several years ago, and then you came back. What made you decide to come back?

And then two is what race did you run to qualify? And then let's go into those. Sure,

Robert Mackey: sure. So about the time. I qualified for Boston the first time is when I learned about the Abbott six stars. So that Uhhuh became a loose B goal, to work on over years. Yeah. And so after that, Boston, that qualifying time at CIM actually got me into 2021 and 2022.

So I ran

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Robert Mackey: Boston, New York, Boston in the spring, Chicago that fall from the same CIM [00:06:00] qualifying time. Dan,

Chris Detzel: You already did twice. You did Boston twice already?

Robert Mackey: Yeah, within a couple of months. So after forgot after Chicago 2022, I started to just go for those international ones once a year.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Robert Mackey: and just fun run them.

Chris Detzel: Why

Robert Mackey: not jog at a slow pace and enjoy the race? Take in all the scenery. And then about early 2024 found a running group at White Rock Lake. I run with endorphins on Saturday mornings. Okay. And started to get sentimental about Boston again, the, for the 2024. For the 2025 race, the swag started to drop online.

I started to see what that looked like and wanted to earn that jacket again.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: Yeah, just as I. As I started running with the group in early 2024, I was committed to Berlin in that fall, and I decided to make that a real effort again for the first time since CIM.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Robert Mackey: I trained all summer. It was one of the best training blocks I had running the long runs with a group and having somebody to chat with all the time.

And then Wednesdays had a quick run. I did [00:07:00] extra strength training for the first time and went to Berlin with that being the goal to, to run another bq.

Chris Detzel: Okay. So you did Berlin?

Robert Mackey: I did I showed up really feeling fit and healthy and had a little, what'd you run? Tight calf in Berlin?

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: Three 11.

Chris Detzel: Dang, dude.

Robert Mackey: Yeah, it turned out to be. Is that the

Chris Detzel: pr

Robert Mackey: It's still my lifetime. Pr I had a little scare. I got there and on Friday with the, my last shakeout run, I felt like I pulled a calf muscle and I couldn't put any weight on it. I limped back to the hotel and I laid up doing everything I thought I could, massaging it.

Icy Hot all day Saturday. Didn't walk limp to the starting line and just eased into that first mile. But

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Robert Mackey: it loosened up and it was good. It was great weather. Couldn't have been a more perfect conditions.

Chris Detzel: That's great that you did that. Brilliant. A great course to run, with the sleep kind of thing and the time difference sometimes that can get to people you, but congratulations now you're going to Boston. What is it that you look for? You've been there twice. Just within, but what is it that one is, I know you looked at the [00:08:00] swag and stuff, but what do you like, why do you wanna go back to Boston? What's the special thing about it to you?

Robert Mackey: The history of it just hits me.

It's crazy to think it's been around since the 18 hundreds. The crowds the entire way. The support you get, the way the city comes out for the race is just a really special environment. And I've been there twice. I qualified with the same time, got me into two, but both of those kind of went south on me.

I took the first one easy because I had another race following, and then for the 2022 race, I caught COVID myself right in peak week. Oh wow. Training. So that ended up being my slowest time of all my races.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: So I want to go back again and get a real honest effort and go for it. My goal really is to technically run another BQ on the Boston course.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: Whether it qualifies me or not. After the cut. I don't care. I just wanna run. For me it's sub three 20. Okay. This time out, I wanna be healthy and really go for it.

Chris Detzel: How's your training block so far? It's almost done. Pretty much done now, so [00:09:00] how'd it go?

Robert Mackey: Yeah. Yeah. It feels good. I'm in the taper.

Definitely one little long run to go.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: Here again. I was committed to this race and got a late invite to Tokyo back on March 1st. Oh, wow. So I, that was my last Abbott race from the original six, so I had to jump on that.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: That became in my training block, one of the long runs leading up to Boston.

So I, I took Tokyo a bit easy, but went and just finished that.

Chris Detzel: How'd you get into Tokyo? What'd you do? Did you get qualified for it? I don't even know. I know it's really hard to get in, so

Robert Mackey: it's a tough one to get into. Yeah, something fell on my lap. A friend of mine with the running group and I both got this invitation from a charity that partners with Chicago, they do some work outta Chicago, and we are both Abbott Gold Club members, which gives you occasionally extra draws into the lottery.

Chris Detzel: I don't think I've heard that.

Robert Mackey: Now they're starting to partner with some agencies who have bibs and

Chris Detzel: yeah,

Robert Mackey: they reached out to us and said, we see that you were unsuccessful applying for Tokyo and you tried a [00:10:00] lottery and you were unsuccessful for that and we've got a couple of bibs, would you like them?

And both of us thought this was a scam. At first it was a, an email with a link to click and make a donation and then we'll give you a bib to Tokyo. But we checked it out and it worked out.

Chris Detzel: Sweet man. That was awesome. You wanna do well in Boston three 20 or under feels like that's probably doable.

How'd you do in Tokyo? Tokyo just took it easy. You said

Robert Mackey: Tokyo? Yeah. At three 20.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, just, oh, you ran at three 20. It's not that easy. It's not,

Robert Mackey: yeah.

Chris Detzel: And so you wanna do it again? Cool. Is there anything about the course that that you look at and think, oh my gosh, I gotta do this, like the first three miles I need to make sure I take it slow.

What do you like the most? Anything about that course? Stands out.

Robert Mackey: I do the start. Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in the crowd and go too fast. Everybody says hold back on the first half, and I'll do that, but I'll also, I'll use that downhill to my advantage and cruise it just slightly better than goal pace and try to get ahead a little bit for the hills.

Yeah, the hills, I haven't had a good experience, like I said, at that [00:11:00] race, but I used to train hills a lot and on a healthy day, I don't think. Don't worry

Chris Detzel: anything that we missed, whether it's about, some of the things that you might do at Boston or that you wanna do, just I don't know anything.

We missed that and it's quick hits, so we missed a lot, but. Anything you can think of

Robert Mackey: two times before the one time I was sick and so I wasn't doing much outside of the hotel the other time I didn't know what to do or anything about Boston. So I'd like to enjoy the city. I'd like to take in more of the sites of the city.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Robert Mackey: Spend more time at the expo. Hit a couple of shops and do some site

Chris Detzel: expo's changed since you've been there, so it's it's not great, but they have these shops, I dunno if they've had this when you went last, but these shops outside of Boston, or not Boston, but the expo and.

They're popups. And so all, and I pretty much said is all these podcasts, but there's these popups that are really cool, whether it's, Nike store or whatever. There's just a lot of different places that you can go to that are specifically Boston Marathon Gear. Boston [00:12:00] Marathon stuff.

So make sure you, I don't know when you're getting there, Saturday or Sunday. Check those out. It's fun.

Robert Mackey: Okay. I see a couple on Instagram, advertise the popup on one of the street surroundings. So yeah, I'll hit some of those.

Chris Detzel: There's a lot of them. Robert, this has been really great. Really appreciate getting on as quick hit, so it's cool.

It's really cool. Thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. Please subscribe to our newsletter, DFW running talk.substack.com. Also rate and review us. Please. It's really helpful. Thanks everyone and thank you, Robert.