Boston Marathon - RunMarathon

Great run! Unfortunately, the first couple miles were slower than I had wanted and I was actually a bit behind 2:55 pace at the 2 mile mark. I picked it up and ran a pair of 6:18 miles for 3 & 4 which put me back on track and didn't seem to spike my HR at all...although my first 5k should have been sub-20min without any problems. My HR data shows that I got my body up to speed by mile 5 where I hit low-mid 160's and held fairly steady up to mile 15 when the hills started and my HR bumped to the upper 160's before making a gradual climb from mile 19 to the finish. I ended up averaging 165bpm which is only 2bpm higher than when I ran Richmond. Interestingly, my HR was roughly 3-5bpm higher at Boston over the first 15 miles compared to Richmond...not sure what to make of that.

I typically set out to run negative splits on longer races like this but knowing the profile of the course I decided it would have been foolish to run Boston with that plan so I decided to base my pacing on equal effort splits instead. I printed out equal-effort splits for a 2:55 marathon on the Boston course and taped them to the gel flask that I carry in my hand. Honestly though, aside from picking it up a bit early on to get back on track, I just ran by feel with HR as a secondary guide. I didn't really want to let my HR crack 170bpm till I hit the Newton hills. Miles 20, 21, 22, and 26 were my slowest. which is a bit strange considering I was past the hills by mile 20. Mile 26 was slow because I kind of relaxed and decided to just enjoy the home stretch. I knew I was under 2:55 and wasn't going to make 2:50 so I didn't push it to the absolute limits. I also took a quick pit-stop at the final turn for the finish. I saw my dad and girlfriend standing in the front row so i swung y and gave her a quick kiss before rumbling on to the finish. That was almost a huge mistake. It was kind of a rolling stop but as I took that step to get back up to running speed i felt every muscle in both legs threaten to go on strike. Yep, I almost completely cramped up 400m from the finish. Luckily I got things moving again and crossed the line. This is the first race I can remember not pushing as hard as possible down the last few 100m...I was just so happy to be there that I put it on cruise control and soaked everything in.

HRavg = 165bpm, HRmax = 175

5K - 20:30
10k - 40:38 (20:08)
15K - 1:00:50 (20:12)
20K - 1:21:20 (20:30)
25k - 1:41:41 (20:21)
30k - 2:02:33 (20:52)
35k - 2:23:50 (21:17)
40k - 2:44:19 (20:29)

Mile splits (*I missed a couple splits so I divided the 2-mile splits evenly to estimate the mile splits).

Mile #1 - 7:02 (HRavg = 142bpm)
Mile #2 - 6:31 (HRavg = 158bpm)
Mile #3 - 6:18 (HRavg = 162bpm)
Mile #4 - 6:18 (HRavg = 164bpm)
Mile #5 - 6:36 (HRavg = 167bpm)
Mile #6 - 6:29 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #7 - 6:28 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #8* - 6:32 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #9* - 6:32 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #10 - 6:37 (HRavg = 165bpm)
Mile #11 - 6:37 (HRavg = 165bpm)
Mile #12 - 6:29 (HRavg = 165bpm)
Mile #13 - 6:39 (HRavg = 167bpm)
Mile #14 - 6:27 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #15 - 6:40 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #16* - 6:32 (HRavg = 167bpm)
Mile #17* - 6:32 (HRavg = 167bpm)
Mile #18 - 6:55 (HRavg = 168bpm)
Mile #19 - 6:37 (HRavg = 166bpm)
Mile #20 - 7:01 (HRavg = 167bpm)
Mile #21* - 6:51 (HRavg = 168bpm)
Mile #22* - 6:51 (HRavg = 168bpm)
Mile #23 - 6:39 (HRavg = 170bpm)
Mile #24 - 6:27 (HRavg = 172bpm)
Mile #25 - 6:41 (HRavg = 173bpm)
Mile #26 - 7:00 (HRavg = 174bpm)

I wish I had opted to wear my racing singlet instead of the long-sleeve Cool-Max shirt. It didn't kill me but I got slightly warm. I could have lost my gloves after the first 5 miles also but they didn;t get annoying till mile 20. I also wish I had pushed a bit harder in the opening miles.

The usual...tried to keep walking and not fall down. Slowly made my way down the several blocks, got my metallic "blanket", my little bag of food, dropped off my chip, and got my finisher metal. I went directly to the massages. Those cruel bastards put the massage room in the basement of a hotel. That's right...run the Boston marathon and then walk down 2 flights of stairs to the massages! They had cups of warm broth down there that was exactly what I needed. After the massage I hooked up with my fans and we walked a couple miles back to the hotel.


Probably a lack of experience on this particular course and the fact that I'm very early in my marathon "career" so I've got a lot of base yet to build. Overall though I think I ran a near perfect race. I know I could have been ~1min faster if I hadn't been stuck in traffic at the start and on a different course like Richomond I probably could have run very close to 2:50.


I decided to keep a bit of a diary in the weeks leading up to the race. I've got lots of thoughts bouncing around in my head but I'd rather not stir up a lot of excitement and pressure from the forums. I really need to remain focused...but I still want to get my thoughts down on "paper" I'll publish everything along with my race report once the race is in the books.

March 30 - So I've been thinking about this race a lot. I'm excited, anxious, and confident. I can't get over how well my training has been going the last 10 days or so. It's like someone flipped a switch and I instantly became faster and more efficient. If I didn't know better I'd swear I just started taking EPO or something. Really, the difference is dramatic and seemed to come overnight. My last 10 weeks of training have been very consistent so I feel like I'm ready to give it my best shot. I decided that I'd be satisfied if I can PR...anything faster is a bonus. But with what I've been seeing from my training the last couple weeks I'm really curious to see what I can really do. This started back when I ran the Shamrock 1/2 as training. I did a ~7 mile warm up and had planned to run the 1/2 at a bit faster than goal marathon race pace. I figured I'd shoot for 1:25-1:26 but thought it would be challenging. Well, I ran 1:23:41 and it was easy! Then I had a 15 mile run on Sunday after riding 3 hours Saturday and doing a hard track workout on Friday. I ended up running an average of 20sec faster per mile over my usual loop at my usual HR. Then there was my most recent lifting session. I've been doing ~50 rep sets of squats, usually 2 sets, and it's tough. I started with 50 and felt good so I tried 75 for set #2...that felt good (and easy) so I went for a third set at 100 reps...no problem! Then that same afternoon I did a 10 mile run with 7 miles of "race pace" effort in the middle. I based it on HR and went with ~162bpm which is what I average at my marathon in November. I was hoping that would get me 6:40/mile pace. it ended up being 6:28/mile! Any one of these workouts I would have chalked up to "one of those days" when everything just clicks but these have all been within the last 10 days. I feel like I've moved to the next level but I haven't changed anything in my training to get me there...just been consistent.

April 9 - Okay, I'm officially in the taper. The hardest thing for me is cutting out the caffeine. I'm not a huge caffeine freak but I usually have a cup of coffee in the morning at work and then a diet Coke in the afternoon. As minor as that seems it makes a huge difference. I feel exhausted in the afternoons now...same way a couple weeks ago when I cut back before the Shamrock 1/2.

April 11 - I'm dealing with the taper pretty well...still feeling tired in the afternoons though...miss my diet coke. I don't really feel lazy from cutting back on the volume but when I do go out for a short race pace run I definitely don't feel as loose and relaxed as when I'm running more often. I'm also beginning to get a bit frustrated and anxious with my trip to Boston. I've got a lot of family in the area (mostly my dad's aunts and uncles) that we haven't seen in a while so of course we need to plan on catching up with everyone at some point. My dad is also comig up for the race and he wants to go out with me when I check the course. He gets a bit carried away with taking pictures and stuff so he wants to investigate a good location to watch the race from. That's all fine but I kind of need to do some of these things on my own time so that I can stay relaxed and focused. It's going to be tough dealing with a handful of other activities that I can't completely plan around my schedule. I decided to take the bus out to the start so I can just get away on my own and focus on the race for the last few hours.

April 14 - This will be my last post before the race. It's Friday and we're hitting the road around 1pm. Staying with my dad in PA tonight and then heading to Boston Sat morning. I went out for a short easy run with a couple race-pace accelerations this morning. Things just aren't feeling smooth and relaxed this past week or so. I may have over-shot my peak by 5-7 days. I should still have a good race in me although I wonder if it will feel good or if I'll have to push through discomfort for ~3hrs. Well, the weather is supposed to be about perfect so it's all up to me to make it happen.