My goal for this race was to run 2:53-2:55, come hell or high water - but it wasn't meant to be. I don't care about a BQ - my own standard is 3:00 or below for Boston. I wouldn't run Boston with a time over 3:00. That may change in 5 years, but for now, that's my personal standard. The old BQ time is sub 2:50 which is where I would like to get to long term. I listed my mile splits above, And the gaps were unreal in aid stations and mile markers - not even with a 1/2 mile in some instances. I usually run by effort and not pace in a longer race, but it is nice to have some assurance that you are on track during a long race. So - everything was clicking through mile 6 - no wind yet - I went through 6 at like 39:19 or 6:33 pace - pretty easily, legs felt great, lungs weren't working hard. Life was good. After mile 6 we turn into the side wind. The next mile came up and my time was 9:11 - huh - ? - whatever - they have mismarked a mile - then I hit the next marker in 8:55 - what is going on here? - just kept running - keeping the same effort - went through 10 at 1:08 or 6:48 - but now I don't even know if that's right, and right after 10 we go right into the wind and the rollers. The rollers weren't bad, but the wind was steady, no breaks in it whatsoever - just a steady wind - relentless - and a bit demoalizing - but I am sticking to my goal of 2:55 - I don't care about 2:59 or 3:01 or anything else - I usually race pretty conservatively and today was one time that I was going to push from the start to see what would happen - In the 7 miles my times ranged from 5:31 to 11:09 - some miles were 6:45, but I don't even know if they were right - so I just kept plugging along. I lost my gel flask at mile 16 or so and I couldn't get my endurolytes out of my flask holder - just a beatch of a day - anyway, once I got to mile 18, I had been drilling myself for 12 miles into that wind and mentally I was fried - I was pulling a few guys along who I asked to take a pull - of course they said they couldn't but when we got to mile 16 or 17, they pulled away. Thanks guys! ;-) - so at mile 18 I pulled the plug, which I don't often do, but I was determined to run 2:55, took a chance and it wasn't my day. Being the last race of the season I was going to change race tactics a bit. But once I hit mile 18 at 2:03, I knew it wasn't going to happen unless I ran 6:15 the rest of the way in for the last 8 miles, so I just cruised it in, got my fluids at each aid station, took a potty stop, worked out some hamstring cramps - one thing I learned about slowing down, is that once you do, it's hard to run faster again! Once I got into my 8:30 pace I couldn't go back to the 7:00 pace. So I chugged it in and used the last 2 miles as cool down - I even walked from mile 24-25 and it only took my 8:34 - I don't think that mile was right either. When I ran from mile 25-26, that took me 3:24 or something. Weird.

Nothing.

Walked back to car. Ice bath later - water was 48 degrees - took a shower - did the ice bath again. Legs felt great after and great now too.


Wind!


Race packet pick up was organized, but once we left the city limits the mile markers were screwy, and post race food wasn't existent. Bummer on this race- other than those things, I would reccomend this race.