Heading east on the Mass Pike at 2:00p.m. the day before the marathon, I have to have the a/c on in the car. I think to myself, this isn't good. 22 hours for a long race and it is hot enough to run the a/c.
Prior to driving up to New England to run Boston, I volunteered at a local race in town. Everyone knew I hopping into the car with the kids to run the marathon and asking me what my expectations and goals were. According to some different web sites, including one which has a link from Allan Rube's site, I can run a 2:57 Boston Marathon. This is based on some very recent races times: 18:17 5K, 37:58 10K, 59:23 15K (very hilly) and a 1:23 20K. I know a sub three is not realistic so I set my goal for a 3:10. This would be a 6 minute PR for me but my confidence is high and it is just a matter of executing and hoping what is uncontrollable works out in my favor.
Arrive at the Boston Park Plaza during the 6th inning of the Yankee/Red Sox game. This is great as I get to watch the rest of the Yankee game on TV. But the hotel does not carry Red Sox games when they are on cable so we listen the rest of the game on the clock radio in the room. After the game, it is a short walk to the expo where I buy a jacket and golf shirt and some bargain priced shirts from last's years marathon. Grab some takeout dinners at a local Italian restaurant and back to the room to carbo load and hydrate.
Marathon morning does not produce the expected rains and temps are close to perfect but it is humid. Humidity leads to excessive sweating which leads to dehydration which leads to cramping. But I have a half dozen Succeed! capsules to help ward off the cramping.
The bus ride from Copley was uneventful, drank water, ate salted crackers and listened to Joey Ramone on my walkman. We did pass two broken down busses on the turnpike, both full of marathon runners. Felt sorry for those guys but I'm sure they made it to the start. At least they were warm and dry.
Upon arrival to the Athlete's village, I found some port-o-johns in the upper parking area with absolutely no line. The food tent had a line that seemed like a mile but luckily, the information tent was passing out bagels without a wait. Sat and stretched with some other runners from New Jersey and at 11:00, it was time to make my way down Hayden Lane to check my bag and checkout out the corral. Last year, I was way in back of my corral and this year I was hopeful for a spot close to the top of the corral. When I got there, there were only a handful of runners in each corral, so I took the opportunity to relax an bit and stretch some more. Ran into Dan Wellner from New York and exchanged greetings. Once in my corral, I looked for David Hayes who was also looking to a 3:10, but couldn't find him.
The link from Allan's web site gives you the split needed to obtain your goal for each mile based on the terrain. Basically it was 7:10 in the beginning, 7:20's in the hills, and back to 7:10's. My plan was to take the first four miles a pace that was not hard but with effort and run the remainder of the marathon hard. But as you can see below, it didn't turn out that way. I way aggressive from the start, looking to score a better time then 3:10. I really didn't feel I was exerting myself, but was running at a hard pace. Just hoping I could continue to the end. I figure if I'm going to reach my potential, I have to run hard throughout the race.
Only dead runner I saw during the race this year was Carl Jessup. We ran for a little bit together but not very much. Made it to the top of Heartbreak a full 4 minutes ahead of 3:10 pace. My Nextel Alert at the 30K mat predicted a 3:07 finish or 7:10 pace. This did not include the 2:18 seconds it took me to cross the start once the gun sounded, so we are looking at a 3:05 chip time. Upon cresting Heartbreak, the back of my legs starting cramping despite the two cups of water consumed at each water station, two gels and 2 Succeed! capsules taken since the start. I took another Succeed! and the cramping dissipated a bit but would return on occasion in the final 10K. My 10K between the 30K and 40K mats was 47 minutes, and as the announcer from ESPN2 says: "Dreams clashed with reality". With 3 - 4 miles to go, the sun breaks through and I can really feel the rise in temps combined with the already high humidity. My pace falls considerably and my splits for mile 25 crosses the 8 minute barrier in the wrong direction. Pick it up some at the one mile to go point and really pick it up upon turning right on Hereford and left on Boylston where my watch read 3:09:05 crossing the line. I'm happy, I beat my goal and set a marathon PR by 6 minutes on a tough course. Take a quick shower at the hotel and drive back to New Jersey to watch the ESPN2 coverage I taped.
There were a lot more spectators this year as opposed to last year and they were louder to. Probably cause the weather was much better for spectating.
Upon analysis of my splits, it looks like I ran first 13 and mile 18 to fast resulting in a slow final 10K. But I went for much bettor the goal time and fell short but I'm glad I did go for it as I would always be wondering "What If"
Thanks for all the "go dead runner" I heard
Mile Goal Actual Diff Accum Diff
1 7:00 7:17 -17 -17
2 7:09 6:40 29 12
3 7:06 6:50 16 28
4 7:01 6:46 15 43
5 7:23 6:59 24 67
6 7:12 6:53 19 86
7 7:12 6:53 19 105
8 7:22 7:00 22 127
9 7:11 6:58 12 139
10 7:21 6:56 25 164
11 7:21 7:06 15 179
12 7:12 6:55 17 196
13 7:13 7:02 12 208
14 7:14 7:05 9 217
15 7:23 7:10 13 230
16 6:59 7:00 -1 229
17 7:29 7:39 -10 219
18 7:26 6:59 27 246
19 7:14 7:14 0 246
20 7:23 7:27 -4 242
21 7:40 7:44 -4 238
22 7:03 7:17 -14 224
23 7:08 7:29 -21 203
24 7:10 7:39 -29 174
25 7:08 8:14 -66 108
26 7:16 8:03 -47 61
26.2 1:29 1:34 -5 56