Notes
2:57:50.14 with two watch stops, not the other 4. Tough day. Felt amazing through 17 or 18 but poor fueling led to calf cramps which derailed my race. Prob will never race a marathon in NB 1400s again
Not a fan of those hills at the end, but I cannot get over how cool that race was. From the jets flying over, to the Wellesley scream tunnel (anyone get a kiss?), to the guy running next to me who grabbed a beer at BC, there was never a dull moment. That was an experience I’ll never forget.
Race Recap:
Was feeling fantastic through 17 or 18 miles, was consistently between 6:20-30 per mile. Underestimated the first hill in Newton but was maybe 6:53 for that mile. Kept that pace through the second, but going up heart break I started to cramp up. Hips and calf’s got super tight and the pace slowed a lot after that. Tried to use the downhills to recover but it wasn’t enough. I was in a weird place where my body was ready to start moving, but if I did my calf would seize up. With 4 miles to go, it got way worse. I ended up stopping and stretching my calf 6x. I actually ended up limping across the finish with cramps on both calves. Was sitting on the ground after and my calves were pulsating.
Root Cause: Poor fueling. I went through three Huma goos (at the start, 10k, 20k) and grabbed one of those cliff ones. I tried it and it was so thick that I barely had any. That was my last goo. Had three cups of water during the race since I really struggled to drink out of the cups, even when pinching it.
Kind of bummed how today turned out. I thought ~2:50ish was reasonable. Learned a valuable lesson today about the importance of fueling and it’s definitely something I need to practice in the future, especially drinking water/Gatorade. Wanted to train without fueling but there are some pros and cons to doing that as I learned today. Pre race prep was perfect, I think I’ve nailed what to eat to not have issues on race day.