Most students wouldn’t consider a 20-mile run on the weekend very much fun. For sophomore Michael Roherty, though, the weekend run, along with various other weekly runs, is necessary.

Roherty, a special education major, is running the Boston Marathon on April 18 as his fourth marathon.

In October 2009, Roherty ran his first marathon in the Twin Cities with a time of 3:14. His second marathon was last spring in Green Bay.

Last fall, Roherty ran his most recent marathon in Chicago. It was this marathon that Roherty made his best time of 3:03; leading him to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

Roherty began running in middle school to help lose weight. He thought running would be a fun way to get into shape. His profound passion led him to run through high school.

“I kind of struggle with tension,” Roherty said. “So running lets me put my energy towards that so I can stay grounded and focus on my school.”

Generally, marathon training takes 16 weeks. Roherty, however, has a different approach to training. For the last two marathons, he strengthened himself by speed work prior to marathon training.

His speed runs consist of two weekly fast-paced runs of 12-miles each. On the weekend, Roherty challenges himself by running an additional 15-20 miles. A couple of easier runs are also thrown into the week, Roherty said.

During his runs, Roherty formulates his thoughts and uses the time to organize his schedule.

“I’m kind of getting nervous,” Roherty said. “I was just thinking about it this morning and I thought ‘Wow, [on Friday] I’m going to be getting on a plane to go to Boston and then it’s going to be real.’ It’s going to be a race with all the big boys.”

A marathon time of less than three hours is Roherty’s tentative goal, however, he said he thinks he could even go as low as 2:55.

“I have big goals for this race,” Roherty said. “I’ve been training hard for it.”

Roherty said during training it’s not uncommon to get let down when you have a few bad runs in a row.

“You have your highs and lows, kind of like anything in life,” Roherty said. “The people who can fight through those lows are the people who succeed.”

Other than marathons, Roherty enjoys running shorter distances, with the 10K as his favorite.

After the Boston Marathon, Roherty plans to try out for UW-Whitewater’s cross-country team.

“I’ve kind of reached the top of the mountain as far as marathoning,” Roherty said. “My next goal is to attempt to get in good enough shape to be on that team.”

Roherty will depart for Boston at 6 p.m. Friday with his father, mother, younger sister and close friend.

In Boston, Roherty plans to pick up the bid for Thomas Paull, the iCIT staff member who planned to run the Boston Marathon.

Paull had been raising money through donations for Hole in the Wall Camps by planning to run the Boston Marathon.

In early March, Paull pulled out of the race because he hadn’t met his goal of $5,000. Some of the money would have helped Paull pay for the trip to Boston.

“I really started to lose heart,” Paull said. “I just wasn’t going to make it because donations weren’t coming in anymore.”

Paull raised more than $4,000 for the charity. Since Paull had been training to run, he still wanted to compete in a marathon.

Paull ran the Trailbreaker Marathon April 2 in Waukesha.

Paull is hopeful that he will make it to the Boston Marathon next year by qualifying. Paull said he felt as if he was still going to the Boston Marathon.

“Mike [Roherty] is going to bring that back for me,” Paull said. “To know I have friendship with the college kids and that he would do that for me; it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Paull also plans to run a marathon in Marquette, Mich. during Labor Day weekend.

Roherty will run the Madison marathon this May with his younger sister, where she will run a marathon for the first time.

“I would encourage everyone to run,” Roherty said. “You don’t have to do things like marathoning for running to be good for you.”