I want to qualify for Boston?

Boston is the only marathon in the world, short of the olympics and championships, that you have to qualify for. I just learned this.

I am doing my first marathon in October of this year. I have never run a marathon. Why would I think I could qualify for Boston.....anytime soon. I have no idea how fast I could/would run a marathon. I doubt you just double your half marathon time  - which my best is 2:04. I haven't run a half marathon in a year. I am pretty sure I could better that time and I would hope go sub 2:00.

I just looked it up. AFTER I age up to the next age group - next year - I would need to run a 3:55 marathon to qualify. That boils down to between an 8:50-9:00 minute/mile. Hmmm...I have no idea if that is doable over the next several years or not. I have read stories of women taking a year or two to really 'work' at qualifying.

If you don't know me well, you probably don't know that I LOVE a challenge. I LOVE being told that I can't do something because then I want to do it even more than ever.

( I was told in high school by an ignorant guidance counselor once that I would never go to anything more than community college. I was an A student in high school - I really never understood it and boy, did it tick my mother off!! The rest of the story......I went on to a 4 year college, then got accepted to 7 veterinary schools, graduated second in my veterinary class, went on to do an internship and a residency, and passed my board certification exam on the first try. What an a$$ that guidance counselor was!)

So, whether or not I can or will BQ is a story still to be told. I think I need to run my first full marathon and see how I like the distance.

Has anyone had to work hard to finish a challenge they started?