{"id":147133,"date":"2021-10-14T03:56:03","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T08:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=147133"},"modified":"2021-10-15T03:52:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T08:52:19","slug":"vantages-mike-knott-achieves-goal-runs-the-boston-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/10\/14\/vantages-mike-knott-achieves-goal-runs-the-boston-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Vantage’s Knott runs the Boston Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mike Knott is able to cross one thing off his bucket list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vantage Career Center High School Director reduced that list by one by running the most famous 26.2 mile race in the world \u2013 the Boston Marathon, which was held on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Vantage Career Center High School Director Mike Knott ran in the world famous Boston Marathon on Monday. Photos provided<\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe experience was amazing,\u201d Knott said. \u201cThe Boston Marathon is the world\u2019s longest running marathon (125 years) and with that I think they take a lot of pride in the race. With most of the runners in the race having to qualify to run it, there was just a different energy during the race than you experience in most other races.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knott, who lives in the Delphos area with his wife Gina and three children, ages 6, 3, and 1, is no stranger to marathons. He\u2019s run in nine of them, including the Glass City Marathon in Toledo in 2019, a race in which he churned out his best time, 2:57.17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knott\u2019s days of marathon running date back to 2011, when he was coaching track at Fort Jennings High School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the seniors on that team actually talked me into running a marathon and I ran my first one in the fall of 2012 in Columbus,\u201d Knott explained. \u201cIt took me three hours and 44 minutes to finish (8:34\/mile). After I finished, I told my wife that I would never do that again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, that next spring the bombings at the Boston Marathon happened and after that, I wanted to show support for the city of Boston and a sense of patriotism. I felt compelled to one day run Boston.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Qualifying for Boston didn\u2019t come easy, as it meant Knott would have to shave over 90 seconds per mile off his time to meet his age group\u2019s qualifying stand of about three hours flat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn 2013 and 2014 I really started to focus on my nutrition and started working out consistently five to six days a week,\u201d Knott said. \u201cI ran three marathons during those two years and I was able to get my time down to around 3:15. However, I had a couple injuries and my wife and I had our first child in 2015, so it took me a while to recover and then adjust to fit training in while being a new parent. I got back to running consistently in 2016 and over the next couple of years built up a good base fitness level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the fall of 2018, I did a lot of research on training and nutrition and put together a good plan to train for the Glass City marathon in April of 2019 with the goal of running a personal best around 3:00. My training went well and I was able to run 2:57:17 in Toledo (6:46\/mile).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a qualifying time in hand, Knott was set to run the April, 2020 Boston Marathon but like many other things it was canceled because of COVID-19. Instead, a virtual race was held and Knott ran in and around Delphos, but it wasn\u2019t the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to April of this year, when registration began for this year\u2019s in-person race. At first, Knott thought he was out but he later learned otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNormally the field size for the race is 30,000, but because of COVID the race committee decided to cut the field size down to 20,000,\u201d Knott said. \u201cAs a result the cutoff qualifying time for each age group was lowered and I missed the cutoff by four seconds. So I was out and as a result, I took some time off running to rest and get in the best place mentally to start training again to try to qualify for a future race.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wearing Bib No. 3266, Mike Knott ran the 26.2 mile course from Hopkinton to Boston, Massachusetts. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHowever, in early August I got an email from the BAA (Boston Athletic Association) saying that they would like to extend an invitation to those runners that just missed the cutoff by a few seconds for this year’s race, so with two months to go before the race I was back in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knott admitted that he was excited but also worried about building up his fitness to marathon distance in such a short amount of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithin those two months I was able to build up enough fitness to run 10 miles comfortably, so going into it I knew it would be a physical and mental challenge to complete the 26.2 mile course,\u201d Knott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knott ran the course, which starts in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and goes into Boston, in 4:03.59, putting him in 10,035th place. All the while, he was able to truly enjoy the experience and the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGoing into the race knowing that I wasn\u2019t in the physical shape to run a great time actually gave me the chance to focus on soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying the trip,\u201d Knott explained. \u201cThere was no pressure to perform at a certain level, the main goal was to just finish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoston was electric the entire weekend,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe city takes a lot of pride in the marathon and you could tell they were excited to have the race back after a year off. Everywhere we went before the race, Bostonians would say \u2018good luck\u2019 and \u2018we\u2019re glad to have you back\u2019 and then after the race everyone on the streets were telling you congratulations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were crowds lining the course the entire way cheering you on and top of that, the Red Sox were hosting Game No. 4 of their playoff series with Tampa Bay on race day, so when we ran past Fenway Park, the baseball fans were out in full force to cheer on the runners.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the runners approached the finish line, things became even more electric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDuring the final half mile you make a right turn onto Hereford St and then a left onto Boylston St. for the final stretch,\u201d Knott said. \u201cThe energy and adrenaline in that last stretch was off the charts. It was an amazing feeling
to cross that finish line and complete a long time goal of mine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor Mike Knott is able to cross one thing off his bucket list. The Vantage Career Center High School Director reduced that list by one by running the most famous 26.2 mile race in the world \u2013 the Boston Marathon, which was held on Monday. \u201cThe experience was amazing,\u201d Knott said. \u201cThe Boston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-01 15:20:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147133\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}