When Austin native Zach Fadness started to take running a little more serious three years ago, he had a clear set goal on running in the Boston Marathon.

On Monday Fadness, who graduated from Austin High School in 2011 and is now a student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, reached that goal. He took a flight to Boston and he ran in the Boston Marathon, where he finished with a time of three hours, 28 minutes and 27 seconds. Fadness finished in 9,580th place out of approximately 30,000 runners.

“The energy of the race itself was something I’ve never experienced before,” Fadness said. “It’s a downhill course and you want to start out fast because the field is very fast. It was a fun start and then it gets harder.”

Fadness qualified for the Boston Marathon when he ran in the Twin Cities Marathon a year and a half ago. He figured he might as well try and get into the marathon while he had the chance.

“I had the opportunity and I had to take it now. I didn’t know if I’d get it again,” Fadness said. “I wanted to put my name in the hat and try to get in it.”

Since there were so many runners with qualifying times, the cut time ended up a little over a minute faster than expected. Fadness’s time was two seconds under the new cut time and he avoided being one of about 30,00 people who were cut from the race.

Fadness said that the community pride behind the big race in Boston was a sight to behold.

“The whole city was super excited for the event,” he said. “It was very positive and everybody was looking forward to it. You could feel it.”

Some runners have to wait for a long time before they get to run in the Boston Marathon, but it was just the fourth marathon that Fadness has run in.

Fadness, who is the son of Austin head boys basketball coach Kris Fadness, focused on basketball with the Packers in high school and he ran cross country and track and field his senior year. After getting to college, Fadness decided to focus more on running. As he has spent more time in running, Fadness began to use it as his outlet for exercising on a regular basis.

In 2012 Fadness ran his first marathon, which he finished in three hours and ten minutes and he was hooked. Fadness likes running because he’s able to compete against himself and push himself harder every time he gets out and runs.

Fadness’s mom flew out to Boston with him and he stayed with a relative on the trip. While in Boston, he came across younger runners who were excited for their first Boston Marathon and he also met older runners who were running in their first Boston Marathon.

“I feel like the running community in general is a very friendly community. There’s a wide variety of people who come together on that weekend,” Fadness said. “I think the whole city has come together around the Boston marathon. The atmosphere around it is amazing and a lot of the city has the day off.”

Now that he’s experienced the event that is the Boston Marathon, Fadness is ready to take a little break. He doesn’t have any races currently scheduled and he’s set to focus on his studies a the U of M, where he is on pace to graduate in December with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

“I’m going to take it easy for awhile,” Fadness said. “My two races this year didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and I’m going to take a little time to recuperate and see how that treats me.”