Running in a race is nothing unusual for senior Vince Molosky, but running in a race where people line the course, screaming and cheering him on, was.

This year’s Boston Marathon had the third-largest number of participants with 16,638 entries, including one Bowling Green student, Molosky.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Molosky said. “I’ve always been a runner. It’s the most prestigious marathon in the world, and it’s always been one of my goals.”

The Boston Marathon was first run in 1897 and has been run almost every year since then.

In order to qualify to run in the Boston Marathon, you have to run in one marathon during the past year and finish in a certain time. For 18-24-year-olds, that time is three hours and 10 minutes.

Molosky ran in the Columbus Marathon in October and finished in a little over three hours and seven minutes.

“My time wasn’t very good in that,” Molosky said. “But it qualified me for Boston.”

The deadline for applying to run in the Marathon was February 5. A few weeks later, Molosky found out that he was going to run in the race.

“I was excited,” Molosky said. “But I was more excited from the standpoint that I had already bought the plane ticket, so I was kind of hoping I would go.”

He started training just after Christmas. While training, he kept his workouts the same but increased the mileage he ran.

“I increased my average weekly mileage by about 20 miles,” Molosky said.

His training didn’t really change from the preparation he did for other races.

“I had a good seat number,” Molosky said. “I was 3013, so I was kind of up toward the front when the race started, and it still took me 42 seconds to get to the start line.”

Crossing the finish was the best feeling for Molosky. He finished the course with an official time of 2:59.43, which put him at 1045 overall.

“It was very amazing,” Molosky said. “I’d never ran a race that big before. The course itself was really neat – imagine the entire 26 miles of the course with wall-to-wall people on both sides the entire way just cheering and screaming. The atmosphere was great.”

Molosky has been running for about 10 years. He ran cross country and track all four years in high school and during his freshman and sophomore years at Bowling Green.

“I’ve always been able to run,” Molosky said. “And I’ve always been fairly successful at it.”

He will graduate in two weeks with an environmental science degree and plans on working in government EPA or environmental consulting.