Boston marathon

I would not recommend training for a marathon the way I did for the 2019 Boston marathon.  Since you have to sign up for Boston nearly a year in advance, anything can happen leading up to the race.  I decided when I signed up that I'd either race it all-out and try to do well in the 55-59 age group or I'd just go and have fun.  Whichever one I did would depend on my training.

I ran the Baystate marathon last October with the hopes of a 50+ PR (2:57:10) but ended up with an injured ankle and hobbled through the final miles in misery.  After that I had a steady stream of injuries that didn't finally loosen their grip until last month.  I spent most of the final part of 2018 trying to recover and then get back to racing in 2019 (I didn't race between Baystate and March).  I put in some decent miles (the last 10 weeks averaged 80 miles per week) but was sorely lacking in long runs.  In 2019 I did TWO runs longer than 10 miles (a 12 mile in Feb and the New Bedford 1/2 marathon in March).  Not exactly what you want to do to get ready for a marathon.  My goal would be to just finish but I wasn't even sure that I would START the race until a few days before.  I did not want to aggravate my already aggravated ankle.  Now that I'm running and racing again I want to continue doing so.

My goal for race day was to run under 3:30 (8 minute mile pace).  I thought I could run as fast 3:15 if conditions were good and I didn't have any issues. 

Dave La and I met up on race morning and got on the GLRR bus in Lowell for the rainy drive to Hopkinton.  GLRR had things dialed in and all we had to do was sit back and relax.  Dave was aiming for sub-3 but was back in corral #8.  I was in corral #4 so I figured he'd go by me about 6 miles.  We walked most of the 1.4 miles to the start together and then went on our separate ways to line up.  I got in the back of the corral and had about 15 minutes to stand around before the start.  I chatted a bit with a guy from Houston as we killed some time.  National anthem then flyover, then off went the elite.  Two minutes later we started, and 1:30 later I was past the start line.

I tried to relax as literally THOUSANDS of people moved around and past me.  It was tight but if you kept your wits about you it wasn't too bad.  You just had to be extra careful at water-stops when idiots would sprint, swerve, or even stop!  I reached the mile in 7:09, so well ahead of schedule.  It is a downhill mile and it felt very easy.  I figured 7:30's was probably going to be slower than I wanted to go but would just stick with whatever felt good.  It was difficult to judge pace as EVERYONE was flying by me, so I just dialed in on how I felt and kept it relaxed.  Miles of 702,710,701, and 717 got me to 5 miles.  My posterior tibial tendon was really bothering me now.  Ugh!  So early in the race and it was flaring up.  I moved to the middle, the left, and the right of the road trying to find what might make it hurt less.  I also started figuring "if I can get to 15 I can stop when I see my parents and sisters".  That'd be the worst case.  Soon after that my foot stopped hurting and that was it.  Nothing else hurt for the remainder of the race.  The next 5 were covered in 708/809/713/705/715.  I felt good and kept thinking "don't pick it up until 16".  Something about 10-to-go makes it easier to manage.  Another 3 miles in 716,710,714 got me to the half in 1:33:55.  I was having a bit of trouble with the math as the clocks on the course were from the 10am start so I was looking at 1:36 when I crossed the half-way.  I was pretty sure I'd be under 3:15 and thought that with a strong second half I might even crack 3:10.

The next milestone was seeing mom, dad, rose, and denise who were enthusiastically cheering for me at the 15 mile mark.  I had been getting a lot of cheers "go GLRR" and "go Lowell" which was nice.  I was also starting to feel very good despite the high 60 degree temps and humidity.  Maybe it was because after 10 miles very few people passed me and by 13 I was starting to pass people.

I was also moving a bit quicker despite the hillier terrain.  Spilts of 658,717,650 had me moving by people.  Dave La finally caught me at 17 and then went by at 18 miles.  I wished him good luck as his pace was too fast for me.  Miles of 718 and 713 still had me passing people as we turned the corner at 18 miles and had 3 more hills.

I watched Dave pull away and concentrated on getting to 20 miles and beyond the "wall". A 657,713 and 718 had me at the top of Heartbreak hill and ready for 5 miles of cranking downhills.  The toughest part of the hills was navigating between people at all paces from walking to barely moving.

I was doing the math now for slowing to 7:30's but a 650 and 657 got me to 22 and back to Dave La.  We locked in together sweeping by a lot of people as I ran my fastest miles of the day (651, 658,654).

I turned on to Herreford street with Dave but he went into a finishing kick that I could not match.

It was good to have a teammate to run with but I couldn't muster that extra something at the end.  Dave (who started a couple of minutes behind me) finished in 3:03 while I came in very satisfied at 3:06:15 (7:08 pace) well under my goal and more importantly it didn't seem like I did any additional damage to my ankles.

So, I'm done with Boston for at least another 30 years.  I must say it was a lot of fun but not something I'd want to do very often.  There are so many other races out there I'd like to do.  Next big goal will be a sub-3 in 2020 which would give me 5 decades under 3.