IT was a dream come true for Narelle Frichot, competing in this year’s Boston Marathon last month.

The 38-year-old returned last week after a dream trip, ticking off a bucket list item after 12 years of running.

Frichot said it was surreal to finally take to the streets for the world’s oldest marathon race, with this year’s event the 126th running.

“It was more than I could have ever dreamt, it was 42 kilometres of thousands of people lining the streets and screaming,” she said.

“It was more than I ever thought it would be, it was amazing.

“I just want to keep it special, if I go back, it might not be as good as this one was.”

The Boston Marathon is one of six major marathons in the world along with New York, Chicago, London, Berlin and Tokyo.

Runners must complete a qualification process for the Boston event with Frichot needing to record a time of three hours and 35 minutes to register, a feat she achieved when running in Hobart in January 2020.

With COVID forcing the cancellation of the 2020 event and the 2021 event being an American runners only event along with a global virtual race, organisers extended the deadline and the local runner registered in November to compete in her dream race.

With 30,000 athletes taking to the streets for this year’s event, Frichot said it was a long road to get to the prestigious event.

“I had been trying to qualify for Boston for many years, it is one of the hardest ones to get into in the world,” she said.

“It is something that when I started running, I never thought I would be able to get the time to get into, then when I did, I wanted to make it happen.”

Frichot ran three hours and 28 minutes in Tasmania to get inside the qualification window and was one of less than 150 Australians in the 2022 race.

The avid runner soaked up the whole experience, including a tour of the course the day prior to the event, where she got some tips from a seasoned runner who was the tour guide.

“We did a bus tour the day before then heard from the tour guide, who had done 28 Boston Marathons himself,” she said.

“He gave us some tips, where the windy parts are and the hills; the city just puts on an amazing show for us all.

“Boston is renowned for awful weather, but we had cold but okay weather and the sun came out in the last half.

“I soaked it all up, high fived everyone and my mum and a couple of friends came and I met them at half way then again at a mile to go.”

Frichot ran her first marathon in 2010 and Boston was her 12th marathon.

She said it offered her an outlet when she left Hamilton to study and has pursued it ever since.

“I started running once I left school, so I started running once I stopped playing team sports here and went to university in Melbourne,” she said.

“I am very much involved in running, setting up the Hamilton Running Club, we have got a really good group of people here.

“It is such a good running community here, we head off to events together and I coach people right around Australia, so there are others who are interested in my running as well.”

Clocking up about 100 kilometres a week in the final few months leading up to her American trip, Frichot said she hopes her achievement can motivate others to strive to get better.

“I hope others can see it is achievable, everyone says this but if I can do it, others can do it,” she said.

“There are others in Hamilton who run marathons and anyone can do it if they want to.

“My first marathon was over four and a half hours, so there has been a lot of improvement.”

With a three-month holiday planned for later in the year, Frichot will ease back her training loads and said she still hoped to improve her marathon time, completing the Boston course in three hours and 35 minutes.

“It is not about doing a certain time, it is about doing something I wanted to do for me,” she said.

“Running is my social outlet, my mental health outlet, my physical outlet, it is a big part of my life.”