Notes
I was really hoping to get back into Boston for 2017 and with the 24 hour race no longer an option, I figured a May marathon was one of the last chances to get in as I don't really have time to travel. Sugarloaf and Vermont were good options but a little less convenient. Providence is an easy drive to do the morning of the race and relatively low key. I decided to fly under the radar and go for the BQ.
February 21st I went down with the left calcaneus stress fracture, spending about a month in the boot coming out of it around March 21st. On April 1st, I was cleared to start running again. In the mean time, I had been doing daily spin classes between the Y, CycleBar, and Rev'd. Joke all you want, it's a pretty darn good workout for an hour. It may not be running or provide the same fitness, but it does maintain some level.
April 1st began a week of every other day running doing a run/walk routine. I was probably a little more aggressive in the ramp up this time through but listening closely to my foot to ensure no real pain and not pushing too hard. Not being smart, I ran Doyles on April 10th since I had already signed up for it with an intent of just taking it easy. Went a little harder than planned and felt great over the last couple of miles, a good sign that some fitness was maintained. At this point I put a May marathon on the table as a possibility to BQ. I worked up to a 10 mile run on 4/18 and then my battle road favorite 14 mile run on 4/24. I felt like the distance for the marathon would be possible, but perhaps a struggle in the later miles. The pace was feeling labored, especially during my easy days. Running mid 7:00's felt like I was struggling. That said, I did Tuesday workouts leading up to Providence, the first being the 4x1600 with the first at T and then the next three at T-10. Didn't quite hit the pace on the last two reps but wasn't wildly off. This Tuesday was Lou Ristiano, which was close to target pace but not far off. Now, I did the Lou off my old marathon pace of 6:00 rather than my Providence plan of 6:40. I figured if I could do Lou at 6:00, then Providence at 2:55 - 3:00 could be feasible (not that 4800 on a track extrapolates to being able to run 26.2 miles).
I had an ultra conservative taper leading up to Providence taking 3 days off entirely (no run or spin). The day before, I did an easy 4 miles around 7:30 pace, which felt really labored and as though I hadn't run in months. Not really a feel good prep run.
Morning of Providence, saw Brendan, Urvi, and Eva so was nice to see some fellow SRR runners out there. Goal was still 2:55 but wasn't sure if the endurance would hold. I had every intention of going for 2:55 and then perhaps pushing the second half if it felt good. I was nervous but optimistic that I could pull off the BQ on the limited training. I was in good shape pre-injury and hoped that enough of that fitness remained.
The gun went off close to on-time and immediately went out too fast, not realizing at first that Matty P and Pat Moulton were leading the charge along with what looked like some 12 year old boy and perhaps a GBTC runner. I quickly settled back slightly and as I began to slow, Felix Moser, who was the guy who beat me two years ago came along side and we caught up to chat. Before we knew it, we were cruising along at 6:00’s at conversation pace and feeling ok. We both acknowledged this was faster than what we planned but at the same time never quite slowed down further. We pondered whether the four ahead of us would maintain pace but otherwise just caught up on life and running.
Around four miles in, another runner, Nick, caught up with us and we had a solid pack of three going strong. Felix and I continued to chat while Nick settled in to a draft position and was a man of few words. I was a bit nervous with our pace and was just waiting the inevitable blow up that would hit later in the run.
Around mile 10 we caught GBTC who was clearly hurting. It was the last runner we would pass (other than the DreamFar early start who we were able to provide mutual cheering throughout the entire race). We hit the half at 1:19:50 as a group of three and still going relatively strong.
Mile 14 is where the group began to drift apart. Nick picked up the pace, I went along with while at the same time trying to encourage him not to get carried away. Felix didn’t want to make a move too early and maintained his original pace. The next several miles was often Nick pulling away by 10 yards and then him coming back to me. We were going probably a bit quicker than planned but still holding up.
At this point I had a couple of goals. (1) make it to the 20 mile mark at this pace, the point of where I blew up two years ago, (2) make it to the 22 mile mark where Liz and James would be, (3) make it to the 24/25 mile mark where Liz and James would be, (4) make it to the finish.
At the half, I knew maintaining pace would put me sub 2:40, which I thought was still out of the question at that point. I was wondering how much I would need to blow up to hit various times. I wasn’t looking for excuses or ways to slow down, just curious how much the wheels would need to fall off. A half time of 1:20 would give me wiggle room of a 1:40 second half to still BQ. Again, this wasn’t a plan to have banked time, but rather giving encouragement that I could still run a more moderate pace if needed (perhaps the original goal pace) and be fine.
Around the 21 mile mark I could tell Nick was starting to feel the strain. He mentioned his heavy legs and he continued to waste energy weaving (for some reason the guy couldn’t run in a straight line even from the early miles). Coming out of the bike path, we start the stretch of hills and I passed him going up and never saw him again. I never looked back and to be honest, I thought he was on me the entire time, especially as I slowed a bit myself on the hills.
Heading into Liz around 22, there is a pretty good downhill that really trashed my quads and left me hurting the rest of the race. Liz and James gave me a little boost before the next hill, which the top feels like you’re going straight up. Luckily it’s not very long but enough that it really sucks the pace out of you. I maintained mindset of just making it to the next goal target spot and getting to the finish.
Around 23 there was a water stop on the top of a highway bridge. I went for Gatorade, tipped my head back to take a swig and to be honest, felt like everything went dark for a second. I think I stumbled for a second, got my bearings back, and focused on just running. Not sure what happened there, but now I knew it was a matter of making sure I can get back to the finish line standing up and not giving up.
The last three miles of this race is a challenge as you connect with the half marathoners. Some of the roads are open to traffic so the running lane is marked off with orange cones. The cones are pretty wide but quickly fills up with core mid pack of the half marathon coming through. I tried to maintain the outside edge of the cones as much as possible, with a few instances of having to weave and avoid hitting people. Legs are in pretty rough shape at this point and weaving is not really ideal. I was struggling, especially over the last two miles.
The 25 mile mark came with a nice surprise of seeing 2:31:XX on the clock and realizing sub 2:40 would be possible. To be honest, I wasn’t really doing math in my head over the last 10 miles as the strain was beginning to grow so I lost track of where the projected finish was coming out. I knew if I could maintain pace, i could pull it off.
Somewhere after the 25 mile mark I saw Jessee on the sides providing some much needed support at the end (and surprising Urvi in the process). At this point I started losing feeling of my left arm (not quite sure how to describe it but it didn’t feel right). Again, goal was to just make it to the finish and hopefully not get passed. Finally, the remaining mile ticked down and the finish line came in sight mercifully.
I crossed at 2:38:29, I couldn’t have been more surprised to ecstatic. It wasn’t a PR but was way above any expectations I could have had given the way this training cycle progressed. My foot held up and I got back into Boston. Need to double check, but this could possibly be my second best marathon time, only behind the 2:37 in Boston in 2013.
Overall, couldn’t be happier and feeling lucky with this race. Again, maybe not the smartest move but things just fell into place.
Negative split: 1:19:50 / 1:18:40
Place Name Bib Age Gend Pos Group Rnk Time Pace Rnk Time Pace Time
1 Matt Pelletier 6222 36 M 1Top Fin 3 1:14:49.0 5:43 1 1:13:07.0 5:35 2:27:55.0
2 Zachary Hoagland 439 26 M 2Top Fin 2 1:13:52.0 5:38 2 1:15:50.0 5:47 2:29:42.0
3 Patrick Moulton 6223 34 M 3Top Fin 4 1:17:21.0 5:54 4 1:19:07.0 6:02 2:36:28.0
4 Christopher Klucznik 512 33 M 1 30-39 6 1:19:50.0 6:06 3 1:18:40.0 6:00 2:38:29.0
5 Felix Moser 659 31 M 2 30-39 7 1:19:50.0 6:06 5 1:21:28.0 6:13 2:41:18.0
6 Nicholas Cunkelman 6267 27 M 1 20-29 5 1:19:09.0 6:02 7 1:25:08.0 6:30 2:44:17.0
7 Micah Mohler 651 33 M 3 30-39 17 1:26:09.0 6:35 6 1:22:53.0 6:20 2:49:02.0
8 Peter Teixeira 922 20 M 2 20-29 11 1:24:37.0 6:27 9 1:26:32.0 6:36 2:51:09.0
9 Paul Reilly 6266 36 M 4 30-39 930 2:51:53.013:07 2:51:53.0
10 Tom Bousquet 34 34 M 5 30-39 12 1:25:03.0 6:29 11 1:27:18.0 6:40 2:52:20.0