On Monday, Farmingdale runner Michael Nusblat will be pounding 26.2 miles of pavement in the 107th annual Boston Marathon.

"You want to see what your body can do," said Nusblat, 50, a former computer programmer and vice president at Bear Stearns in New York. "You're running against yourself."

He started running, he said, six years ago, after meeting his wife, Michelle, 39.

According to Nusblat, he "was incorporated into" a family of runners. "My father-in-law is a big marathon runner. Her mom runs too," he said. "There's a big rivalry between him and I."

Monday will be Nusblat's fourth marathon. In November's New York City marathon, Nusblat clocked his best time, finishing in 3:30:26, allowing him to qualify for the more prestigious Boston race.

He hopes he can match that New York time in Boston. "But I'd like to do under 3:30," he said.

Nusblat said he trains year-round, running 45 to 50 miles a week, with one day a week set aside for a long-run of 18 to 20 miles. His ideal training time is "before supper and after lunch," he said. "I don't like the morning that much."

He said he has a "need to move" and, getting his body acclimated to slowing down after the long-run is what he finds hardest about training.

The difficulty in marathons is "not so much the speed, it's the distance," he said. "You have to be focused in order to run... Sometimes it clears your mind. You think about something else - not running."

Nusbalt said he considers it a milestone to be running the Boston marathon at the age of 50. "Not everybody gets to do this," he said. "You gotta strike while the iron is hot."