In 2014, American marathoner Meb Keflezighi won the Boston Marathon in historically significant fashion. Not only was he the first American to win Boston since 1983 but he did it the year after the tragic Marathon bombings, making it all the more symbolic. Despite an 8th place finish in 2015, Meb is still setting his sights high.

In May, he’ll be 40-years old. But he won’t let relatively old age (in the sporting world) keep him from trying to make the United States Olympic roster.

Meb, who finished with a time of 2:12:42, told the press directly after the race that “Besides London 2012 this was one of the gutsiest races I’ve done.” When asked about his future, he said confidently “Hopefully compete at 41 [years old] … make the Olympic team at 40.”

He said he isn’t sure if he’ll run Boston again.

This year’s race was equally emotional for Meb, if not more, due to the stiff competition and the difficult weather conditions. There were times he led the race but unfortunately for him, his stomach didn’t particularly agree with his pace.

“I Stopped 5 times and threw up,” said Meb between laughs.

But he was motivated to keep pushing through the pain which constantly cheered “USA, USA” and “Go, Meb, Go.” Meb said that he was so struck by the crowd’s overwhelming support that he, too, joined in chants of “USA, USA.”

Turning onto Boylston Street, memories of 2014 flooded back and, coupled with the continuous roars from the crowd, incited an emotional response from the second American male finisher (Dathan Ritzenhein of Grand Rapids, Michigan, bested Meb with a time of 2:11:20).

“I started crying,” he said.

Though eighth place certainly wasn’t what Meb had planned to follow up his first place finish in 2014, he’s satisfied with his performance. Sure, the water he tried to put down at around the 21-mile mark wasn’t agreeable and no runner wants to regurgitate once, let alone five times, but Meb knows he left everything he had on the course.

“I gave my best today,” said Meb. “I dug deep today.”