This Monday saw the 114th running of the Boston Marathon. Under near-ideal
conditions with some sunny skies, some clouds and moderate temperatures in the high 40s to low 50s,
a course record as well as US Mens record were set. Having run this race
in 2007
and
in 2009
(with
2008 in London),
I knew the difficult course and was aiming to run it more evenly. So no breakdown on those famous hills!
But without too much fire in my belly over the winter, training was somewhat minimal: one 20 miler,
two 18 milers. Friends and co-runners were joking that I had turned my trusted 'run less, run faster'
program by the
FIRST lab into my own 'run less, run lesser' program.
And then were a nagging achilles tendon and a little strain from the
underwhelming recent half-marathon
so that I was really trying to hold back and not go out too fast on the initial portion which is mostly downhill.
Which seems to have worked. My pace was more even, and I conserved some energy and made it past the last of the hills around mile 21 without walking
a single step while staying a few second under a 8 min/mile average pace. But then around mile 23 and 24 I had two sharp short cramps which forced me
to walk. Interestingly enough, Bob Richards writes about
cramps as a main theme for many runners in this year's race. Maybe the wind and temperature combined with the hills to get us after all! Anyway, I
ended up with 3:29:14 which, at a 7:59 pace, is right between the 2007 and 2009 results and quite decent given the circumstances.
And of course the weekend as whole was again a hoot even if I had only a short stay of around 30 hours in Boston given our R/Finance conference on Friday and Saturday. We'll see if I
will manage to qualify once more for next year.
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