David Robinson wasn't on the track team in high school. He also didn't run cross country. Despite his relatively short history with competitive running, Robinson is running in the world's oldest annual marathon, the Boston Marathon, on April 21.

Robinson, 24, is a BYU student from Oregon and only since coming to college did he become interested in competitive running. The Boston Marathon will be his second marathon - his first was the Top of Utah marathon in Logan where he ran a time that qualified him for the Boston Marathon.

Once he wanted to run a marathon, he decided to go big and run a good enough time that would make him eligible for the Boston Marathon.

The Boston Marathon only accepts athletes who can run a certified marathon in a certain amount of time based on the athlete's age.

The 18 to 24 age group, a woman must run a marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes or less and a man must run it in 3 hours and 10 minutes. This means an average of 8:30 minutes per mile for women and a 7:15 minute per mile for men throughout the 26.22-mile race.

Robinson liked the feeling of accomplishment after he ran his first marathon. Even though he admitted a lot of the race wasn't much fun, he's running another marathon because he loved the atmosphere of the race.

"I think it was mostly the crowd at the finish line," Robinson said. "The energy of the spectators has a lot to do with it.

People from all over the world come to run the Boston Marathon. The men and women's top finishers in 2007 were from Kenya and Russia, respectively. Robert K. Cheruiyot from Kenya finished first last year with a time of 2:14:13. Lidiya Grigoryeva from Russia finished in 2:29:18.

Karilyn Henshaw, from Orem, has run two half marathons and two full marathons in Salt Lake and St. George. However, Henshaw is not running the Boston Marathon.

Running is fun for Henshaw. She said she loves the feeling when she has just finished a race. She began training for a marathon because she wanted to accomplish something she never thought she could do.

"Anyone who says they can't do it, can," Henshaw said.

Since the first Boston Marathon in 1897, technology allows runners to be tracked by microchips they attach to their shoes that work using a magnetic field and antennas. These chips make the times more accurate.

Friends and family of runners can enter the runner's bib number to get updates of where the runner is via text messages or email.

The Boston Marathon will be broadcast on Versus at 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. on April 21.