Goal of Sub-3 Hour Marathon (Read 15845 times)

Congratulations to the new sub-3'rs! bhearn - that was masterful, you game-planned that race perfectly.

bhearn, amazing run to neg split that bitch today. Huge congrats. You must have had a 2:56 in you Great run! The wind kept picking up strength as the race went on...after heartbreak was tough. Conditions were pretty comfortable (actually on the cold side toward the end) but not fast.

Awesome efforts from all, this really made my afternoon at work! Special congrats to bhearn for the most impressive bit of surgical racing I've seen for a long time! I thought you might just miss out after the in-race tracker predicted 3:00:40 at 35k, fantastic! I was following 5 runners, mikey, wet bus ticket (gotta support the fellow brit), bhearn, dcv2002 and ksrunr. And a massive congrats to dcv for hanging tough and nailing the sub 3 too, everything pointed to a sub 3 before the race but you nailed it perfectly! I hope everyone is celebrating or commiserating with a few well earned beers....

Thanks everyone! I can't tell you how incredibly satisfying this is. To negative split Boston for my first sub-3 -- I don't know what can compare to that. Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated. I stuck very close to my plan -- posted a page or two back -- and never fell behind, notwithstanding Boston's predictor. More later; iPhone is slow. But Congrats also to today's other graduates!

Nice work in Boston! See you all there next year!

Congratulations to all on the strong races! I've been lurking on this thread, and it was great to see plans come together. The women's finish was particularly exciting to watch, but tracking all the RAers added to the fun.

Congratulations to those who managed sub-3 in Boston! A bit of a different race report - from someone who didn't make it under 3 hours. I started out with Maclin spreadsheet-designed pacing for 2:55 which was predicted on my HM time. For the first few miles I was hitting those times okay, but my HR was a bit too high in doing so, (around 164 c.f. my goal of 159-160), which was a bit of a worry. I spent a mile or two chatting to a couple of people to try to relax into it a bit, but just dropped back off the pacing by about 90 seconds. I left them and managed to stay 90 seconds off 2:55 pace for a couple of miles, but couldn't get my HR down. Decided at that stage that it was not going to be a 2:55 day, and focused on my 3:00 targets (which I also had as a back-up). The (obviously too fast) start, hills and perhaps the head wind took a bit much out of me and I slowly dropped back to 3:00 splits, and then even past those. For a while I was hoping I could make up some time after Heartbreak, but that is already factored into the Maclin spreadsheet. I couldn't hold the pace I needed going up or down the hills and once 3:00 was gone I probably lost a bit of the desire to "take the pain" in order to try to push the pace. Felt like I was plodding along and surprised to still get under 3:10... although had to push it for the last few hundred yards to make sure that happened! I have tried to think about why it didn't go well, and to report those thoughts in case they help someone else avoid the same mistakes. The crowds were incredible and everyone in Boston was so supportive, but I must say I don't think I really got into the hype emotionally/mentally. On the morning of the race, right up to the start I was (I think) far too relaxed. I didn't have any nervous energy or adrenaline, certainly not like I have had in my only two other marathons, so wasn't quite pumped up for it. Not sure why that was. I also had a little bit of a cold - not enough to say I was actually sick, but was (and am still) a bit run down - which might explain the elevated HR. Looking back I think my last few weeks' training were also a combination of forced breaks (due to work and injury) and trying to make up for the breaks with work-outs that were too hard. Two in particular - a MP 17 miles two weeks out which I think lead to six days off with an Achilles strain, and a 5M workout including an 8*400m interval session 5 days out (which I stupidly did on a downhill incline and too fast) which left me with really sore quads that barely came right by Monday) - were too much for me. I had not trained enough on downhills, or probably on hills generally, but definitely downhills. Perhaps I am also an example of Jim's mantra that higher mileage is the way to go. But I did manage to get to the Celtics game on Monday night and see Ray Ray break the Bulls hearts with 2 seconds left. My first live NBA game after being a fan for over 20 years. So the trip to the US was not a complete disappointment! I am switching to triathlons for a couple of months with a half-ironman in Switzerland in June but (and I can't believe I am saying this given my thoughts through the pain of the last hour on Monday) I am thinking about giving sub-3 another shot in either Berlin or the French Riviera Marathon in November.