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Comments: My target goal was to BQ at Boston, so under 3:36. I had read somewhere 37% of Boston starters actually run a BQ time at Boston. I came up 70 seconds short but still very happy with my time. I had a pee break (side of road) during mile 5 and a right hamstring cramp right in front of our hotel, the Commonwealth, at mile 25. The last 1.2 mile were not very smooth but I was pushing it cause I thought I still had a chance to break 3:36. I felt close to cramping again in both legs and was running in a stiff legged shuffle but moving pretty good. I took a throw away water bottle and drank lots of gatorade, basically no water. At the water stops I would usually fill the bottle with 2 cups and drink as needed. I used 2 gels at mile 6 and 10, then ate jelly beans I got from a spectator for the rest of the race. Had electolyte tablets but did not use them. I thought I did a good job of pacing early trying not to go too fast early. I did not focus on the miles/distance but used the Garmin to track lap and avg pace. Different than most races for me I did not track my miles and percentages left to run. I just ran, knowing I had a long way to go. Citgo sign was a welcome sight. Highlights were people all along the course. Wellseley was neat, lot's of high 5s and I even stopped to kiss one of the girls. Crowd support was unbelievable. We got back to the hotel around 3:30 and there were still runners on the course and still people cheering them on. Here are my official splits with some add'l calcs Chk. Time.....Pace.....5ktime....5kPace 05k 00:25:16 08:08 00:25:16 08:08 10k 00:50:53 08:11 00:25:37 08:15 15k 01:16:11 08:10 00:25:18 08:08 20k 01:42:01 08:12 00:25:50 08:19 13.1 01:47:35 08:12 xx:xx:xx 08:12 25k 02:07:30 08:12 00:25:29 08:12 30k 02:33:30 08:14 00:26:00 08:22 35k 02:59:47 08:16 00:26:17 08:27 40k 03:25:33 08:16 00:25:46 08:17 26.2 03:37:09 08:17 xx:xx:xx 08:17 Garmin data Lap Time Distance Pace AHR MHR Notes Pace Factor 01 8.12.46 1 mile 08:12 135 150 Hopkinton / E. Main St 1.039 02 8:00.69 1 mile 08:00 144 155 E. Main St 1.02 03 8:04:71 1 mile 08:04 146 153 W. Union St 0.976 04 7:57.46 1 mile 07:57 147 151 Ashland / Union St 0.986 05 8:10:76 1 mile 08:10 149 157 Waverly St 1.004 06 7:56.38 1 mile 07:56 151 161 Waverly St 0.981 07 7:58:61 1 mile 07:58 154 161 Framingham / Waverly St 0.99 08 8:13.28 1 mile 08:13 152 161 Waverly St / W. Central St 0.995 09 8:07:76 1 mile 08:07 151 156 W. Central St / Fiske Pond 0.984 10 8:20.21 1 mile 08:20 149 156 Fiske Pond / W. Central St 1.003 11 8:26.59 1 mile 08:26 150 155 Natick / E. Central St 1.003 12 8:03.55 1 mile 08:03 151 158 E. Central St 0.98 13 8:12.81 1 mile 08:12 155 160 Central St. / Wellesley College 0.989 14 8:16.57 1 mile 08:16 153 158 Wellesley / Washington St 0.989 15 8:11.67 1 mile 08:11 156 159 Washington St 1.001 16 7:51.80 1 mile 07:51 157 160 Wash. St / Newton lower falls 0.966 17 8:19.69 1 mile 08:19 161 165 Hill #1 / Newton-Wellesley Hosp 1.017 18 8:15.00 1 mile 08:15 162 170 Newton Fire Station / Hill #2 1.016 19 8:23.45 1 mile 08:23 159 165 Commonwealth Av 0.986 20 8:30.74 1 mile 08:30 160 168 John Kelly Statue / Hill #3 1.014 21 8:43.64 1 mile 08:43 162 170 Heartbreak Hill (Hill #4) 1.039 22 8:01.83 1 mile 08:01 164 169 Commonwealth (Boston College) 0.991 23 8:12.63 1 mile 08:12 162 168 Beacon St (Cleveland circle) 1.011 24 8:18.02 1 mile 08:18 164 169 Beacon St (Coolidge Corner) 0.989 25 8:14.34 1 mile 08:14 165 168 Beacon St (Citgo Hill) 1.008 26 8:19.82 1 mile 08:19 165 172 Kenmore Sqr / Commonwealth 1.017 27 3:02.19 .38 mile 07:56 170 173 Boylston St / Boston Public Libr 1.011 Total 3:36:26.34 26.38 08:12 155 173 What would you do differently?: For races I need to set my Garmin to include stop times. I was going by avg pace but that did not include stop times for my pee break and cramp. I also wore my watch but never really thought to use it at the start so I could track elapsed time. I mainly wanted it pre-race so I knew how long I had before the race. Make sure you are on same page as your personal spectator and run on correct side of route for a shout out. Scott and I messed up. He thought right side, I ran on left side. The density of runners is so high he missed me.  Post race
Warm down: Medical tent. After finishing and going thru line to get refreshments/drop bag my right calf cramped, then on way to medical tent my left. Art in the medical tent took great care of me. I was in medical for maybe 20 minutes. I should have stopped and got some post race food but went direct to buses to get warm clothes. Packed with runners at this point. I met up with Scott at family spot and we took orange line to green to hotel. I was moving pretty slow in my post marathon shuffle. Very helpful to have Scott there at end of race. What limited your ability to perform faster: Right hamstring cramp just after mile 25 Pee break - I didn't have to go real bad but I knew chances to go would be limited the farther we went so I decided to take the opportunity. Maybe I should have waited and not needed to go, who knows. When you miss your goal time by only 70 seconds, you have to consider some of your race time decisions. Event comments: Great 1st time Boston experience! If you ever get the chance, definitely run Boston. Last updated: 2009-02-12 12:00 AM
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United States
Boston Athletic Association
48F / 9C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 9363/22849
Age Group = 50-54
Age Group Rank = 817/
The Boston Marathon was everything I had hoped and more! Great organization, volunteers, spectators out of this world. If you ever get the chance to run Boston, do it, you will not regret it. The whole weekend was great for me. We got in on Sat nite, arrived at the hotel about 7pm. We were at the concierge trying to get seafood dinner reservations when we got the opportunity to go watch the Red Sox play. It was only a 5 min walk from our hotel. Great seats, great fans. Sun we went to Expo, I got the jacket and a hat, Scott got a "My Dad ran the 2009 Boston Marathon" T-shirt, kids XL fit him well. We did most of the Freedom Trail, ate at a Italian place in North Boston went back to room for some rest. Duck tour at 5:30. On the way home we stumbled upon the finish line & got some pics.
The hardest part of the race was pre-race on Mon. Up early 4:50 am to eat, shower get dressed and take t to Boston Commons to ride bus to start in Hopkinton. We got to Hopkinton about 7:00am so looking at a 3 hour wait. I had plenty of warm clothes and was glad. 2 big garbage bags stuffed with crumpled Sunday New York Times was my "bed". An old blanket would be good to bring. 1st port-a-potty stop took maybe 5 min but the next took about 45 min, right up to past 9:30 and time to head to start. By the time I dropped off my bag and got to the start my corral was almost full. It went pretty fast getting to actual start line.
On the way from the Athletes Village to the bag drop busses and start I stopped and did my normal IT band stretches.