DETROIT (4/24/2018) -- University of Detroit Mercy track and field senior Greg Ingle didn't know it when he crossed the finish line at the 2018 Boston Marathon on April 16, but not only did he PR by nine minutes, but he finished inside the top 150 overall in the prestigious 26.2-mile road race.

"I didn't know that was my place until my sister texted me," Ingle, 22, said in an interview a couple days after returning to Detroit. "They invite 100 elite runners to come and presumably they would all finish ahead of me, so I was thrilled to hear my place."

Ingle, a Civil Engineering major from Mason, Mich., crossed the Boston Marathon finish line in a time of 2 hours, 40 minutes, 30 seconds with a pace of 6:08 per mile. His time was a PR by 9:01. He was competing in his second Boston Marathon and first since 2014. He qualified with a time of 2:52:53 at the 2017 Charlevoix Marathon.

He was 147th overall and 146th among men's finishers. Boston Marathon champion Desiree Linden was the lone female runner to finish ahead of Ingle as she crossed with a winning time of 2:39:54.

Ingle, who made the trek to Boston with his family, didn't struggle with the cold, windy and rainy day like so many other runners. He said his goal heading into the race was to run in the 2:40 area. Ingle's sister and brother-in-law also ran the race.

"I felt comfortable the whole race," Ingle said. "Right from the get-go, I was just trying to settle in. My plan was to drift behind and draft off people. I was running with a group of three guys for awhile. They all had the same singlet on, so I asked them, 'What are you guys trying to go and they said they were planning on 2:40.' However, at Mile 12 they were like, 'We aren't even looking at our watches anymore,' so I took off.

"The weather was pretty bad, but once you got into it, it wasn't as bad as you I thought it was going to be."

Ingle said that the fact that he's been training all season definitely prepared him for the Boston Marathon. He competed during the cross country season for the Titans and now during the on-going track and field season.

"In the distance group, we run quite a few miles, definitely in the adequate range for marathon training," he said. "But we don't do the exceptional long runs required for marathon training so on a given weekend day, when we'd need to do a long run, I'd go out and do 18 miles. I think the shorter runs helped out as well with muscle recovery and quick endurance. I haven't done a lot of speed training in the past, so I think it helped out."

Ingle, like his track and field teammates are gearing up for the Horizon League Outdoor Track & Field Championship, which are held at nearby Oakland University in Rochester. He's slated to compete in the 5K for the Titans and could race in the 10K as well.

He looks forward to running Boston again and said he'd also like to compete in the New York Marathon, held in New York City. He also wonders if he could have done better than his 2:40:30 time during the 2018 race if there was better weather conditions.

"It's a bittersweet accomplishment because obviously I'm happy to run the time, but I kind of feel like I ran a 2:35 effort for a 2:40 time," Ingle said. "(With the weather), you kind of wonder what you could have done. But maybe I would have done worse, who knows? Overall, I am thankful for the support of the many people at Detroit Mercy that were cheering me on."