PRINT ADS

For an athlete who threw the shotput and discus as his primary events in his final two years in high school in track and field, Onalaska resident Scott Krall took to the distance running portion of the sport pretty well over the last 10 years. Well enough to finish in the top 20 percent of all finishers and Wisconsin finishers at the April 21 Boston Marathon.

Krall, who works for Kwik Trip, finished 3,864th among nearly 22,000 finishers with his time of 3 hours, 18 minutes, 5 seconds, Krall, 28, posted a mile pace of 7:34 over the 26.2-mile course, and finished 70th among 350 Wisconsin finishers. Krall was running at Boston for the first time, but was competing in his 12th marathon over the last four years.

“I wished the weather would have been worse,” Krall said. “I'm a better cooler-weather runner.

“Last year they had rain from a Nor'easter. So they lucked out and had a gorgeous day this year, but it was a little too warm for me.”

Krall qualified for Boston with his personal-best time of 3 hours, 10 minutes from last year's Green Bay Marathon. His time at Boston was his second-best in 12 lifetime starts.

Krall said he trained for Boston by reading the book “Advanced Marathoning” by Pete Pfitzinger and Scott Douglas. Krall wil run in the Chileda Classic at Riverfest next weekend, and at a marathon at Appleton in September.

“I'm going to change my training a little bit for my next one,” Krall said. “I want to find something that works as well as possible for me. It's hard to train with all the snow in the winter in Wisconsin.”

Krall said he ran the mile as a sophomore at high school in Marshfield, but the development of shin splints forced him into the throws. Krall went to Mid-State Technical College after his time at Marshfield and eventually transferred to UW-La Crosse, where he connected with Jen Branes.

“I decided to try running again in college, and I met Jen, who was into running marathons,” Krall said. “She got me addicted on it.”

Krall said the many differences between Boston and the other 11 marathons he's run fuel the drive to run again in Boston. Krall needs to run a time of 3 hours, 18 minutes to re-qualify for Boston in 2009, a time he missed at Green Bay last month.

“Boston took more out of my legs than I thought.” Krall said. “But if I go again I'd like to improve.

“I learned the experience at Boston compared to the rest of the marathons I've run is totally different. There's 22,000 finishers, and they're all running all 26 miles.

“It's a different environment with an athlete's village and having to get bussed to the start line, and all the people there are amazing. There's rows and rows of buses bringing people just to the start line.”

Krall said his largest previous marathon featured 11,000 runners in Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego. Krall also has competed in marathons in Tennessee in Missouri, with the largest marathon in Wisconsin at Green Bay. Krall earned a medal just for finishing the race.

“You look up the road and you see a snake of people in other races,” Krall said. “At Boston the whole race there were people all around me. It's all run on two-lane roads, and they were packed the whole race.

“I find it interesting that when you see the race on TV and they show the leaders, you see a lot of space. When I was running I couldn't tell where the crowd started.”

Krall said the sport is expanding in Wisconsin. In addition to the race in Green Bay, future race sites could include Eau Claire and La Crosse.

“A lot more road races are going to the marathon distance,” Krall said.