Brief: 3:50:07, 7th Boston (4th in a row), second slowest (3:53:32 back in
1998 - my first; last year was 3:34:25), first time I didn't finish in the
top 10000 of a race, marathon #57 overall
Long:
As you know the big talk (besides all the wagering on the NoWDead list) was
the weather. As Bob Spencer (from the big list) mentioned, I must be in
Boston given my Tri-Cities experiences. Well, Bob, the weather was a piece
of cake in comparison to Tri-Cities. I hate to admit it since it would be
wonderful to use the weather as an excuse but it really wasn't that bad. It
really didn't rain during the race and the headwinds were pretty minor.
Plus the temps weren't bad. The worst weather was during the wait for the
busses, which turned the Athletes Village into a quagmire. But once we got
on the road, I didn't think it was that bad.
I've been running a lot slower all year and was hoping for around a
3:40-3:45 at Boston. I didn't know if it was possible (it turned out not to
be) but my race wasn't too bad. I didn't blow up though I did slow down
during the second half. My big concern was my left knee which started to
hurt around mile 22 or so at Carlsbad and mile 19 a couple of weeks ago at
Yakima. This time, my knee started to hurt around mile 12. I was pretty
concerned and thoughts of DNF started going through my mind. But I was
certainly going to run past Wellesley and then just tried to take it a mile
at a time. My knee never got any worse and, by the end, felt OK (not great
but not bad). However I did start to slow down just after Wellesley.
I felt OK after cresting the Newton hills and tried to push it a bit. I did
get a few miles back under 9:00 but couldn't get them down close to 8:00. I
thought there was a possibility of cracking 3:50 but just couldn't come up
with the speed over the last 5K. My least favorite part of the race (the
rise right around mile 25 -- Citgo sign) showed up as usual and took a bit
out of me. Even after making the left turn onto Boylston (my favorite part
of the course after Wellesley) the legs just wouldn't turn over quickly. I
still soaked up the great energy from the crowd and finished with a big
smile on my face. The crowd while definitely smaller was really great. The
folks that braved the weather were tremendously encouraging. Without them,
there was a good chance I would have DNF'ed after my knee started acting up.
As for my splits, you can see there was no bonk but a definite slowing,
especially on the hills:
Mile 5: 41:42 (included a porta-bush break of 30 seconds or so)
Mile 10: 1:24:06 (42:24)
Mile 15: 2:07:58 (43:52)
Mile 20: 2:53:55 (45:57)
Mile 25: 3:39:44 (45:49)
Mile 26.2: 8:41, 1:42
For a change, I'm going to listen to my body and take it a bit easy over the
next week or so. I've decided to bag Eugene next weekend, especially since
I've picked up a cold. Instead, I'm going to concentrate on some decent
training for Newport and see if I can't get close to 3:30 there (I will be
happy with a 3:35, which would be 8 minutes slower than last year at
Newport). You can see my goals have really changed over the last year.
As for the rest of the trip, as always, Boston was a blast. I spent a
couple of days in NYC before the race and then on Tuesday rented a car and
drove off to Cooperstown via Springfield (stopping for a visit to the NBA
Hall of Fame -- not nearly as interesting as Cooperstown). If you are at
all interested in baseball, especially stats, and history, make a trek
there.
This year we had a large crew of folks from Portland as well as the usual
large contingent of Maniacs. We had our usual post-race gathering at John
Harvards in Cambridge with around 30 folks and a great dinner in the North
End on Sunday night.
That's about it. It is odd writing a report almost a week after but I
didn't get back until Thursday night and then had a ton of things to do --
plus being sick. But I knew my fans were waiting :-).
Next race up is the Hagg Lake 10.4 miler on May 5.
marc