What’s love got to do with it?

In the long run, everything, especially when the subject is long runs, as in marathons.

For rural Wellington (Colorado) resident and Boston Marathon qualifier Natalie Gall-egos, “it” is all about love.

Life, running, working or working out, Gallegos’s love of all of the above is what motivates her for miles and miles at a stretch.

The 31-year-old Fort Collins native swears she was neither track star nor cross-country runner while at Cache La Poudre Elementary or Fort Collins High School, although she did once consider making a run at ice speed-skating for the 1996 Winter Olympics.

Instead she became a cosmetologist, wife and mother. The difference between then and now is that now she runs…a lot.

“I’m a stay-at-home mom and love it,” exclaimed Gallegos, who styles hair in her home on 40 acres at County Roads 15 and 78.

Jim Gallegos, 36, Natalie and their three children — Hannah, 8, a third-grader at Rice Elementary School; Colton, 6, a Rice first-grader; and 3-year-old Haylie — moved into their new house Christmas Eve and even decorated “a little” for the holiday.

“We live next to my in-laws, whom I absolutely love,” said Gallegos, continuing to challenge stereotypes. “My mother-in-law (Martha Gallegos) is amazing. I couldn’t do it without her.”

Gallegos considers running and working out her hobby as well as “kind of an obsession.” She came into it rather late and only at her husband’s suggestion.

“We ran a 5k together. I was slow as molasses,” Gallegos said with a laugh. “I’m very competitive and love to be athletic, so we kept on doing it.”

For the record, Gallegos has run three marathons in her entire life and the first one — the Colorado Marathon two years ago — was Jim’s idea.

“I had no goal other than to finish,” she said, recalling the annual May race billed as “America’s Most Scenic Course,” winding through Poudre Canyon down to Fort Collins. “Afterwards all I could say was, ‘I’m never running again!’”

When the couple discovered Gallegos was only 5 minutes off the qualifying time of 3 hours and 40 minutes for the Boston Marathon, she had to eat those words.

“Never say never,” Gallegos said. “Jim was my inspiration. He pushed me to reconsider and I decided I could do it again.”

The pair ran the Memorial Day Bolder Boulder, and then the Colorado Marathon again. Gallegos’s finishing time of 3:26 in last year’s Colorado earned her the spot in April’s Boston Marathon.

“My watch broke at the halfway point so I had no idea until I crossed the finish line. I was so excited,” she recalled. “I’ve never been to Boston. I look forward to seeing everything.”

The Boston Marathon is the world’s longest-running, annual city marathon. What started out with 18 runners in 1897, now boasts about 25,000 participants and more than 500,000 spectators. Its largest field of runners to date was in 1996 when more than 35,000 people finished the 100th Boston Marathon.

The 2010 race is on April 19, keeping with its annual tradition of commemorating Patriots’ Day, the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Gallegos and her immediate family plan to fly in April 16 and leave April 20.

“I’m not at all familiar with the course,” she admitted. “I’ll train hard until two weeks before, then taper down.”

The course has remained virtually the same throughout its history and is known for its level of difficulty, especially after the 25k mark where it gets hilly; so hilly, in fact, that the last of the hills is known as Heartbreak Hill.

“Hey, I love hills,” Gallegos quipped. “What I hate are long stretches where you can see for miles.”

Gallegos coaches herself and thus does “whatever I feel like today,” which translates to at least five days a week of running, including intervals, sprints, and tempo runs; lifting weights; riding her bike; or swimming. She may run anywhere from 4 to 21 miles on a given day.

“I don’t want to burn myself out,” she said. “I was on a schedule last year, and I hated even looking at it. It’s a mental game, a lot of which for me is figuring out how to enjoy it.”

On this particular day, Gallegos ran around Horsetooth Reservoir to focus on her hill work. Another day she may run from Wellington to Fort Collins, listening to country music all the way. When the weather gets dicey, she runs indoors on a treadmill at home or at Fitness1 in Wellington.

Jim, who is in the excavating business, often runs side-by-side with his wife of nine years. Another motivator is Gallego’s “very active” mom, Sherry Meyer, a former body builder who is now a personal trainer in Windsor.

“I like staying fit. Running isn’t always fun but I try to have a positive attitude,” Gallegos said, acknowledging she’s in the best shape of her life. “You get in a zone where it feels good and the endorphins kick in. My mind wanders. I think about my life, my family, mundane things. Sometimes I don’t think at all.”

Gallegos said she has a sense of accomplishment after each and every run, but crossing the finish line is something else entirely.

“I feel alive — and dead — at the same time,” she explained. “There’s literally salt all over me (from perspiration). It’s amazing what the human body can do.”

Gallegos will load up on carbohydrates two to three days before a race, but said, “I eat everything!” Her favorite indulgence is yogurt parfaits at The Chocolate Rose.

Since Gallegos’ goal was to make it to the prestigious Boston Marathon, she said she now just hopes to finish in about the same time that got her there in the first place. Next she thinks she may try triathlons, which feature running, swimming and cycling. She and her husband will be running the Colorado Marathon on May 9.

The mere thought of “it” is enough to make the non-runner’s head spin, but Gallegos obviously loves “it” and she — and Tina Turner — certainly have the legs for “it,” too.