Race Report: 2010 Boston Marathon.
Well, here it is. Another one off of the bucket list! My first Boston Marathon! After being really high strung about planning for the Boston Qualifier I used for this race, I was remarkably low-key for Boston. I didn't really get started with training until the first of March (though I had had about 50 or mpw before that), I didn't really have a plan for training beyond one or two workouts a week, and I really didn't have any goals for the longest time, other than to finish and enjoy myself. Finally, as training solidified at the beginning of April, and the weather really started looking up this week, I decided that instead of just having fun, it was time to go after it and see how things would work.
The strategy I used was roughly the same as I used at Bayshore, use the early downhills and pick up a small to medium cushion during the first half (about 5-6 seconds per mile). On the Newton Hills hang on for dear life and try to work the downhills into Boston for a fine finish.
Boston is my first really big race, almost twice as big as Disney, and I don't think I ever realized the scale necessary to get that many people fed, watered, and corralled. I have family out in Westborough so, rather than stay in Boston, and taking the bus, I stayed out by the start, and then drove in with my brother in law. We arrived at Hopkinton state park at about 8 am, and hopped right on one of the buses right into town. I was pretty happy to get there so early, I was worried that I was going be stuck waiting for a bus, but that wasn't the case. After a decent walk from the bus to the Athlete's Village, I grabbed a banana and water and found myself a piece of pavement to sun myself on until they called us to move to the start at about 9:15.
The weather at the start was about 45 degrees, with wind out of the NW at about 10-15. The weather at the finish would be about 55-60 with a small shift to NNW. This means that the wind would be at my back the whole way. Excellent! We started walking down to the starting line (about 0.7mi), stopping at the portapotties along the way for one last pit stop. I dropped all of my clothes off with my brother in law, and headed to the starting line just in time for the National Anthem and the low flyover from two F-15s from the Mass Natl Guard.
I got settled in my corral (#6) with about 5 minutes to spare, and waited. When the start came, I waited some more...and a little more, before we finally started walking. Happily, by the time we reached the start line, some five minutes after the Go, we were running rather than still walking.
The first few miles through Hopkinton, Ashland and Framingham were very smooth. I executed my race plan easily, and felt like I didn't push too hard on the downhills, just took it easy and went with it. I worked the first 5K at 22:26, and the second in 22:38 (45:04). As the course flattened out I felt really good, but I started getting a little tight in the right hamstring. Happily, though, it sorted itself out by Wellesley. Crossing over Lake Cochituate, I kept up the consistency, and felt good about it, hitting the 15K split at 22:40 (67:24).
We passed through the Natick Town Common, which is really beautiful, very much a classic New England Town Common, except on a grand scale, and headed toward one of the major points of the course that I was looking forward to...the Wellesley Scream Tunnel. Here, the course abuts up against Wellesley College, and screaming girls cheer you on (and ask for kisses from anyone who will stop and plant one). While there were gobs of people along the Natick and Framingham parts of the route, here was the first stop where I really felt uplifted by the cheering. I, alas, did not stop for the kisses. I was on a mission. At 20K, I passed through at 22:36 (90:10). Just after that was the half split, which I hit right on at 1:35:08.
But, as everyone tells you, the first half isn't really the first half, it's more like the first third. At 25K I came through at 1:52:57 (a 22:47 clip). The fun really begins at mile 16, as you enter Newton and the Newton Hills, a series of four hills that aren't really brutal, so much as inopportune. Already at 16, you are starting to feel pretty rough, tight in various places, maybe a little low on energy, despite anything you can take in to try to relieve it. I felt like I weathered the first hill over 128 just fine, maybe a little slower, and found the second more difficult, but made it fine through the third. By the time I made it through the third hill, I hit 30K at 23:03 (2:16:00), about 30 seconds slower than the first 5K, and actually much better than I expected. Heartbreak, also didn't feel that bad, though by the top I was really tight.
After the top of Heartbreak at 21, it's mostly downhill through the BC campus and student slums to Cleveland Circle, and then along Beacon through Brookline. I picked up some time again through the first mile downhill, but I really tightened up, much worse than I thought I would, and I as I went through 35K down Chestnut Hill, I had slowed even more, going through at 23:25, another 20 second slowdown.
The worst was yet to come. I knew there were two shallow hills at Washington Square and at Summit Ave/Coolidge Corner, having lived in that area when I was a grad student, but I was unprepared for the tightness through there. Those hills took far more out of me than just stamina, I felt broken by them, and I just didn't care how fast I was running, just putting one foot after another to get to the finish. It took a better part of 2 miles to shake that feeling, until I got to BU Campus and the 40K mark at Kenmore. I hit the 40K split at 3:03:21 (or 23:56), a full 90 seconds off pace.
While the fans up to this point were enthusiastic, the fans from BC on were wild, mostly being students from the BC/BU student areas. There were a couple of areas where they were encroaching on the course, something I wasn't very happy about since I was running along the edges and having a couple of them being pushy about high fives. I moved into the center which helped quite a bit. The most annoying part was mile 24. I'm suffering through Washington Square, and I come up behind a Mobility Impaired runner,helped with two or three orange shirted "Team Noah" clad joggers. All of a sudden another 10 or 11 other "Team Noah" members run out on to the course, and swarm around him, and completely get in the way. I had to dodge a bit to avoid them, and it was really annoying. I'm ok with helping someone reach their goal, but don't impede the other athletes please!
I put down the jets as much as I could for the last mile and pushed it in as best I could, and with the crowd's help putting down a 7:13 last mile, and finishing very strongly!
Chip time: 3:13:12
overall place: 3190/22,000
ag place: 1899
splits: 1:35:08/1:38:04
I gotta say, despite the pessimistic sounding report, I'm really happy that I was able to perform this well. In order of goals: I requalified for next year (which is what I wanted to do as of 30 days ago). I PR'd, which was my goal as of last week, but I fell short of 3:13, (which was a pretty arbitrary goal I created when the weather forecast really started turning for the better). I didn't train as much as I had for Bayshore, but I still managed to run much the same splits (like within several seconds each way) despite the much more difficult course. I think with enough training, I can break through 3:13, that is if life works in my favor someday soon.
I can see why this race is so addicting. The crowds on this course are amazing. This is one of the few best chances that a normal mortal like you or me can have people cheer them on as if we were superhuman like a Meb, or Kara, or Hall. They were positively uplifting turning down Hereford, and up Beacon. The crowds are AWESOME!
I don't think I would change much about the race strategy if I do it again. I'll still aim for 3:10 ish and try to hang on through the hills to make it to the downhills on the other side. I just hope that I can put something together next time to make a run at it!
The strategy I used was roughly the same as I used at Bayshore, use the early downhills and pick up a small to medium cushion during the first half (about 5-6 seconds per mile). On the Newton Hills hang on for dear life and try to work the downhills into Boston for a fine finish.
Boston is my first really big race, almost twice as big as Disney, and I don't think I ever realized the scale necessary to get that many people fed, watered, and corralled. I have family out in Westborough so, rather than stay in Boston, and taking the bus, I stayed out by the start, and then drove in with my brother in law. We arrived at Hopkinton state park at about 8 am, and hopped right on one of the buses right into town. I was pretty happy to get there so early, I was worried that I was going be stuck waiting for a bus, but that wasn't the case. After a decent walk from the bus to the Athlete's Village, I grabbed a banana and water and found myself a piece of pavement to sun myself on until they called us to move to the start at about 9:15.
The weather at the start was about 45 degrees, with wind out of the NW at about 10-15. The weather at the finish would be about 55-60 with a small shift to NNW. This means that the wind would be at my back the whole way. Excellent! We started walking down to the starting line (about 0.7mi), stopping at the portapotties along the way for one last pit stop. I dropped all of my clothes off with my brother in law, and headed to the starting line just in time for the National Anthem and the low flyover from two F-15s from the Mass Natl Guard.
I got settled in my corral (#6) with about 5 minutes to spare, and waited. When the start came, I waited some more...and a little more, before we finally started walking. Happily, by the time we reached the start line, some five minutes after the Go, we were running rather than still walking.
The first few miles through Hopkinton, Ashland and Framingham were very smooth. I executed my race plan easily, and felt like I didn't push too hard on the downhills, just took it easy and went with it. I worked the first 5K at 22:26, and the second in 22:38 (45:04). As the course flattened out I felt really good, but I started getting a little tight in the right hamstring. Happily, though, it sorted itself out by Wellesley. Crossing over Lake Cochituate, I kept up the consistency, and felt good about it, hitting the 15K split at 22:40 (67:24).
We passed through the Natick Town Common, which is really beautiful, very much a classic New England Town Common, except on a grand scale, and headed toward one of the major points of the course that I was looking forward to...the Wellesley Scream Tunnel. Here, the course abuts up against Wellesley College, and screaming girls cheer you on (and ask for kisses from anyone who will stop and plant one). While there were gobs of people along the Natick and Framingham parts of the route, here was the first stop where I really felt uplifted by the cheering. I, alas, did not stop for the kisses. I was on a mission. At 20K, I passed through at 22:36 (90:10). Just after that was the half split, which I hit right on at 1:35:08.
But, as everyone tells you, the first half isn't really the first half, it's more like the first third. At 25K I came through at 1:52:57 (a 22:47 clip). The fun really begins at mile 16, as you enter Newton and the Newton Hills, a series of four hills that aren't really brutal, so much as inopportune. Already at 16, you are starting to feel pretty rough, tight in various places, maybe a little low on energy, despite anything you can take in to try to relieve it. I felt like I weathered the first hill over 128 just fine, maybe a little slower, and found the second more difficult, but made it fine through the third. By the time I made it through the third hill, I hit 30K at 23:03 (2:16:00), about 30 seconds slower than the first 5K, and actually much better than I expected. Heartbreak, also didn't feel that bad, though by the top I was really tight.
After the top of Heartbreak at 21, it's mostly downhill through the BC campus and student slums to Cleveland Circle, and then along Beacon through Brookline. I picked up some time again through the first mile downhill, but I really tightened up, much worse than I thought I would, and I as I went through 35K down Chestnut Hill, I had slowed even more, going through at 23:25, another 20 second slowdown.
The worst was yet to come. I knew there were two shallow hills at Washington Square and at Summit Ave/Coolidge Corner, having lived in that area when I was a grad student, but I was unprepared for the tightness through there. Those hills took far more out of me than just stamina, I felt broken by them, and I just didn't care how fast I was running, just putting one foot after another to get to the finish. It took a better part of 2 miles to shake that feeling, until I got to BU Campus and the 40K mark at Kenmore. I hit the 40K split at 3:03:21 (or 23:56), a full 90 seconds off pace.
While the fans up to this point were enthusiastic, the fans from BC on were wild, mostly being students from the BC/BU student areas. There were a couple of areas where they were encroaching on the course, something I wasn't very happy about since I was running along the edges and having a couple of them being pushy about high fives. I moved into the center which helped quite a bit. The most annoying part was mile 24. I'm suffering through Washington Square, and I come up behind a Mobility Impaired runner,helped with two or three orange shirted "Team Noah" clad joggers. All of a sudden another 10 or 11 other "Team Noah" members run out on to the course, and swarm around him, and completely get in the way. I had to dodge a bit to avoid them, and it was really annoying. I'm ok with helping someone reach their goal, but don't impede the other athletes please!
I put down the jets as much as I could for the last mile and pushed it in as best I could, and with the crowd's help putting down a 7:13 last mile, and finishing very strongly!
Chip time: 3:13:12
overall place: 3190/22,000
ag place: 1899
splits: 1:35:08/1:38:04
I gotta say, despite the pessimistic sounding report, I'm really happy that I was able to perform this well. In order of goals: I requalified for next year (which is what I wanted to do as of 30 days ago). I PR'd, which was my goal as of last week, but I fell short of 3:13, (which was a pretty arbitrary goal I created when the weather forecast really started turning for the better). I didn't train as much as I had for Bayshore, but I still managed to run much the same splits (like within several seconds each way) despite the much more difficult course. I think with enough training, I can break through 3:13, that is if life works in my favor someday soon.
I can see why this race is so addicting. The crowds on this course are amazing. This is one of the few best chances that a normal mortal like you or me can have people cheer them on as if we were superhuman like a Meb, or Kara, or Hall. They were positively uplifting turning down Hereford, and up Beacon. The crowds are AWESOME!
I don't think I would change much about the race strategy if I do it again. I'll still aim for 3:10 ish and try to hang on through the hills to make it to the downhills on the other side. I just hope that I can put something together next time to make a run at it!