Check “compete in the U.S. Olympic women’s marathon trials” off Kristin Barry’s lifetime to-do list.

The 34-year-old Scarborough resident placed 73rd out of 124 finishers at Sunday’s trials in Boston with a time of 2:46:58. Only the top three qualified for the Beijing summer games, but that was never Barry’s goal.

“For me, the trials themselves are kind of the Olympics,” Barry said at a press conference last Thursday in Boston. “To get on the line and be in a race with the best runners in the country is a dream for me.”

Barry was hoping to top her qualifying time of 2:45:37 from last November in Philadelphia, but she ran into some difficulties during the marathon’s final six-mile loop. The course began on Boylston Street and went for about two miles through the city to Commonwealth Avenue. From there, runners ran four loops that took them on Massachusetts Avenue, over the Charles River via Massachusetts Avenue bridge, back onto Boylston Street, to Dartmouth Street and then back onto Commonwealth Avenue before finishing at the traditional Boston Marathon finish line in front of the Boston Public Library.

“I actually had a really good third lap where I picked off a lot of people, but that final lap – I really struggled at the end,” Barry said in a telephone interview shortly after finishing the race.

Barry said she battled leg cramps and struggled a bit on the flat, sunny stretches of the course. She said she looked forward to the part of loop that went over the bridge, as there was a refreshing breeze.

An attorney and mother of two (7-year-old Gwyneth and 3-year-old Zachary), Barry didn’t dwell on falling short of her goal, time-wise. She said the experience was “surreal.”

“I’m just so grateful that I’m here,” she said. “It was an amazing experience. The crowd, having my family here, the city of Boston, it being the trials… I can’t even believe it was happening. I just tried to enjoy it and take it all in. I waved to my family and waved to all the people in Maine who came down to support us.”

Barry prepared for the trials with 5 a.m. runs with training partner Sheri Piers of Falmouth, who was the top Maine finisher, taking 16th in 2:38:46. Barry said Higgins Beach and Route 77 between Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth were two of their favorite places to run. And those early mornings not only allowed her to get home before her kids awoke, but it also provided some lovely scenery on the Prouts Neck peninsula.

“One run in particular, the harvest moon was setting on one side and the sun was rising on the other, so that was amazing,” Barry said.

A former South Portland High School and Dartmouth College track standout, Barry said Maine icon Joan Benoit Samuelson, originally of Cape Elizabeth and now of Freeport, had a significant impact on her running career. For Barry, Meeting House Hill in South Portland conjures up memories of Samuelson’s book “Running Tide”, as well as her 1984 Olympic marathon victory in Los Angeles.

“Every time I run Meeting House Hill…I think ‘wow,’ someone who won the Olympic gold medal ran on these roads, and while I never expect to be anywhere near her, it just made my own personal aspirations seem achievable, sharing these roads with someone like that,” Barry said.

And on Sunday, Barry was able to hold off Samuelson, who, at 50 years old, placed 90th in 2:49:08 to set a women’s U.S. 50-plus marathon record.

Barry plans to spend a bit of time resting and recovering, but is anxious to get back to shorter races like 5k and 10ks. “The shorter stuff, those are the races that I love,” she said.

She plans to run the Beach to Beacon in August. Then in September, there’s yet another extreme athletic endeavor on the horizon. She is planning to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with her father, Larry Pierce.

“My dad is a passionate hiker,” Barry said. “He does Katahdin every year. He’s done Mt. Rainier. I think hiking means to him what running means to me.”

Barry has never been to Africa. She was supposed to go during her junior year of college. “But,” she said, “I didn’t want to miss a season of track.”

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