Boston Marathon calling for Warrnambool athlete Craig Bramley

The 51-year-old uses the endurance sport to show his children that no dream is out of reach.

Bramley achieved a long-held goal when he qualified for the famous Boston Marathon on Sunday.

Tackling his first full-length Melbourne Marathon, Bramley posted a time of three hours, 19 minutes and 47 seconds to book a ticket to the United States.

"It's surreal in the sense that you think you can do it, but going out and achieving it is another thing," he told The Standard.

"It's just starting to sink in. Your ultimate goal is to be the best you can be so that you have no regrets when you pass away.

"I have two young children and you want them to go 'nothing is unachievable, you just have to set your mind to it'.

"That's probably the whole process and journey I've been on in the last 10 to 15 years. That's in everything I do, not just running."

Bramley, a Warrnambool Athletics Club and Crossfit Warrnambool member, started running in his 30s.

The Fonterra employee tackled "a couple" of half marathons before moving to Townsville where he put running on the backburner.

But four years ago he rediscovered his passion for the sport and gave in to the itch.

"I saw Warrnambool Athletics Club was there and at the beginning, I couldn't run too far," Bramley said.

"I was running one or two kilometres maximum. I started gradually enjoying it more and more to end up where I was on Sunday.

"I've always enjoyed being active but in the last five years I've taken it more seriously.

"It's mainly been half marathons because of time commitments. I'm very time poor usually." Bramley's Melbourne Marathon time meant he slotted into the second round of invites to the Boston counterpart.

The engineering manager trained five to six days a week for the Melbourne run and will replicate that method in preparation for Boston.

"I'm about 20 months out - so I'll look at running a couple of other marathons," Bramley said.

"There's one on the Gold Coast and I'll probably look at the Melbourne Marathon again (next year).

"I'll have a small break, and start preparing properly for Boston.

"I'll probably run a half-marathon leading up to Christmas and see how the body feels because it's all about recovery."

Bramley said the support of wife Robyn, children Scott and Zoe and Warrnambool Athletics Club and Crossfit Warrnambool was "vital".

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