WILLOW WOOD — In the weeks leading up to April 21, Symmes Valley Elementary School guidance counselor Tara Schneider was averaging 50 miles a week in running.

It was all to get ready for a big event she had long planned for.

Schneider competed in this year’s Boston Marathon, finishing with a time of three hours and 41 minutes.

Her finish put her in the upper half of women running in the 26.2 mile race.

“The average woman’s finish time was four hours and 48 minutes,” she said.

Schneider said she qualified for the race after running the Marshall Marathon in November 2023 and began planning for this year’s event.

One of the world’s best-know road racing events, the Boston marathon averages about 30,000 participants each year, all of whom had to make a qualifying time to compete.

Schneider, who also coaches the cross country team at the school, said she started running about 14 years ago.

“I had two kids and I was running as a way to get in shape and lose the baby weight,” she said.

After she took up running, she met Alan Osuch, a 5K race director for Osuch Tri-State Race Planners.

He persuaded her to get into half marathons and Schneider said she has competed in39 to date.

She said her goal was to run one in every state.

“Then COVID hit,” she said, noting she has worked in 14 so far. But she has resumed plans and will be competing in one in Michigan in June.

In her preparation for Boston, she said she had friends and family, as well as her cross country students, running with her.

“That way, I wasn’t always out there running alone,” she said.

Though Schneider said, sometimes, she enjoys that. She says her family jokes that it is the solution when she needs to relieve stress.

They say I need to lace up my shoes and get outside,” she said.

On her way to Boston, Schneider said she and her family made a stop in New York City, where they visited Rockefeller Center as the Today Show was taping an outdoor segment on their patio.

She said a producer saw their signs referencing the marathon and put her on the air.

“And they asked me to play a game and I won an Amazon Kindle,” she said.

When asked what the experience of the Marathon was like, Schneider said, “If I were to put it into words, it was overwhelming.”

“There were 2 million spectators,” she said. “They take you 26 miles away from the city and the crowds were bustling. There were tons of people cheering. There were visually impaired people running with guides, which was inspiring.”

She said she hopes to make a return to the event and qualify again.

“I definitely want it again — one more time,” she said.