Carrie Burns Finishes Her First Boston in 3:28:16.

Last fall Carrie Burns completed the Detroit Free Press Marathon. This spring she finished the Boston Marathon. Impressive?

Hold on, there's more.

She ran the Free Press as an 18-year-old, winning her age group in 3:33:23. That qualified her for Boston, where she improved to 3:28:16.

Oh, and Burns just finished her freshman year at Michigan State University, where she is a pre-pharmacy major - you know, classes, labs and studying required.

Burns was introduced to running in seventh- and eighth-grade track.

"But I wasn't into it," she admits.

When she moved on to Sterling Heights Stevenson High School, "Coach Kevin Hanson recruited me. I ran cross country for him in the 10th, 11th and 12th grades." Burns and her teammates competed in the 2004 state finals her senior year.

Entering college at MSU, "I ran on my own, for fun," she says. "I decided in summer 2005 to train for the Ludington Lakestride half-marathon. I really liked it. It was fun." It was also fast: Burns finished second in her age group with a 1:42:13.

Later, "Some of my friends who were training for a marathon talked me into training for it too." The friends ended up in Chicago, but Burns ran closer to home, in Detroit.

She didn't run the Freep just "for fun," Her goal was to qualify for Boston. That meant running 3:40 or better in her first marathon.

Burns started out with a pace group, "but they were going too slow," she remembers. "So I picked it up and gained time." She also learned an important lesson about the marathon. "At mile 23, I hit 'the wall.' I slowed about a minute a mile the rest of the way." She still finished fast enough to qualify for Boston by six-and-a-half minutes.

Burns' entire family came to Detroit to cheer and lend support. So did friends from high school.

While gearing for Boston the following April, "I did some 5Ks at Michigan State, and came home to do races with my old high school team," she says.

Her "whole Boston experience" was memorable. "It was a huge race. Everyone in the city was there, tons of people on the whole course, cheering." She especially enjoyed "the little kids who gave 'high fives.'"

Boston's 26.2 miles weren't as taxing as she'd expected. Cautiously, "I held back," Burns recalls. "I didn't even know I'd passed Heartbreak Hill. My fastest mile was mile 24."

Again, her family was her fan club. "They flew out for the weekend," she remembers. Burns was so excited she didn't notice the MSU clothes they wore in support.

It was a challenge to squeeze in training between her schoolwork. "I would either run during breaks between classes or at night, whenever I could find the time." Mostly she ran alone. "Not many people at school run as far as I do," Burns says.

She "did a lot of workouts with the Hanson team at home," generally following the coaches' marathon-training formula (see www.hansons- running.com) as closely as she could.

Although the formula calls for 16-mile long runs, "I got lost on one of those runs - in Bath or someplace," Burns says. "It ended up being 19 (miles) or something."

She devoted two days a week to more-intense work. The schedule called for a weekly tempo run "15 seconds faster than marathon pace, up to 11 miles." Another weekly workout consisted of "three minutes hard, two easy" repeats.

"I also did weightlifting three times a week. And I biked to classes," Burns says. She set aside one day a week for rest.

But "rest" isn't in the big picture for Carrie Burns. She already has plans for "another marathon, as soon as I recover from this one (Boston). I don't know which one yet," she says.

In the meantime, she's lining up "10Ks and shorter races," some to run "with girls on my team," she says.

Classes, studying, labs and training: an ambitious slate for a college freshman. Who knows what waits?

Ron Marinucci can be reached by e-mail at ron_marinucci@comcast.net. MR