By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
The good news is Great Bend’s Rubi Spray has qualified for the Boston Marathon. The bad news, at least it would be for most people, is that she now must continue training to run marathons. Spray, however, was on cloud nine after running Sunday’s Chicago Marathon in 3:16:20, nine minutes under the qualifying time for Boston, and 10 minutes ahead of her personal best marathon time.
“I think for people who train for marathons, it’s one of the biggest achievements,” she said. “People who understand what goes into marathon training realize the magnitude of that. The Boston Marathon, you can’t just sign up and run it. You have to qualify for it. Even when you get a qualifying time, you may not make it.”
The Chicago Marathon was just Spray’s third race at 26.2 miles. After running in Salina in 2024, Spray set her eyes on the qualifying time for Boston. In April, she came up less than a minute shy of that mark at the Oklahoma City Marathon. Following Salina, she had entered her name for a lottery selection in Chicago, submitting an optimistic 3-hour, 40-minute goal. The goal pace changed to 7 minutes, 30 seconds per mile for a 3-hour, 20-minute finish.
“Once you realize how hard it is to get into the world majors with a lottery pick, you realize the magnitude of it all,” Spray said. “Once I had that under me, I knew I couldn’t stop. Now it’s turned into chasing the world majors.”
There are several World Major Marathons, six of which have a lottery for non-qualified runners. The Boston Marathon, which dates back to 1897, does not have a lottery. Sunday’s Chicago race featured more than 54,000 runners. Spray finished 1,373rd out of all female competitors, or in the top five percent among women runners. At the conclusion of the race, she received a Boston Qualifying patch and got to ring the BQ Bell.
“They have two stations specially for people who have qualified for Boston,” she said. “It was a surreal experience for sure. I never thought I would turn into a marathon runner. I kind of thought I was done with running, especially competitive running, after college. To now become a marathon runner, and even toying with the idea of ultras, it’s like what is life right now?”
Running 26.2 miles is never not work, but Spray also relished her experience of collecting her first world star by running in a major. The race took the runners through 29 Chicago neighborhoods. Spray originally planned to listen to her own playlist. That was sidetracked early on when her headphones stopped working.
“My playlist was timed to when I knew I had to take off, which was ‘Thunderstruck,’” she said. “Of course, I had some Taylor Swift songs thrown in there, and I know what those meant mile-wise and when I needed to be at a certain point. It threw me off that way, but honestly it was for the best. Chicago was nuts. The people just kept me going.”
Then there were the treats along the way. A young girl handed Spray a banana at Mile 13 to provide some energy. Spray also received a call from mom at Mile 13 with the realization she was on pace to qualify for Boston.
“I joke around that I can’t math and run, but I knew that 1:40 translates to 3:20 finishing, so I knew I was within the qualifying time,” Spray said. “I got the zoomies during that second half.”
Spray is also cautious about staying hydrated during races, taking in water, Gatorade, and pickle juice when available during the run. Spray, who is of Mexican heritage, was vaguely aware of bebidas en la bolsa, or drinks in a bag. She received another treat at Mile 21.
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“I’ve always been a very intuitive eater,” she said. “When my body is asking for certain things, I will give that to me body. Sometimes it’s fruits and vegetables. At Mile 21, this guy has Coca-Cola in a bag. That is my weakness. I love Coca-Cola. It sounded so refreshing. The sun is coming out and they’re changing the level from green to yellow, meaning it’s starting to get warmer – not the best conditions. I grabbed the bag and I got the zoomies. I ran that mile in 6:54, which is pretty good for me.”
Spray was a 3-sport athlete at Great Bend High School. She became a four-time individual state medalist at the state track meet, and also had three all-state finishes in cross country. That led her to Wichita’s Newman University, where she set several school records and was later inducted into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame. Then she became a mom and a medical professional. Her friends, Megan and Kayti, got her back into competitive running.
“It really was more about finding other women, especially women who have had kids, which is something that is talked about but not so much,” Spray said. “There are very few professional women, especially, who come back after having kids. Megan got me started on it. Then I met Kayti, who was running while pregnant with twin boys.”
Spray’s kids were at the top of her mind following Sunday’s race. That evening, she was on a train headed to the airport when a bystander expressed disbelief that Spray was heading back to Kansas so soon.
“I said, ‘I miss by babies! I have to get back to them!’ Who is going to get them ready for school tomorrow? My husband has to go to work. I think that’s the great thing about moms. We just get it done. People always say they wish they had the time to do it. I make the time.”
Spray is now outlining her spring marathon schedule and hopes to run in the New York City Marathon in November 2026 to collect her second world-major star. She plans to run in the Boston Marathon in April of 2027.