Mississippi State football coach Dan Mullen had never attempted to run a 5K race, much less a 26.2-mile marathon. But Mullen, 43, tackled the most famous marathon of them all Monday, completing Boston in 4 hours, 28 minutes, 35 seconds. That’s a 10:15 per-mile pace, very impressive for a neophyte distance runner.
“So proud of my extraordinary husband,” Megan Miller tweeted after Dan finished 21,655th among a field of about 30,000 registered entrants.
Mullen decided to enter the race to serve as an example to his players for starting and finishing difficult assignments and to raise money for his Mullen 36 Family Foundation that distributes donations to 36 charities in Mississippi.
He trained for most of a year and received a sponsor’s exemption from Adidas to participate, despite not having a qualifying time.
