Forums >Racing>2018 Boston Marathon Thread
You too?
Results went final and I’m not listed.
Somehow it had my first 5K at 4 minutes for a 1:17 per mile pace and the split for 10K and 15K were also wrong. The half seems correct and it looks right from then on.
I put in an adjustment request and offered to show my GPS track and I was actually broadcasting live with Runkeeper so I have some coworkers that can vouch for my pedestrian normal splits.
It says 7 to 10 days to get resolved. Hopefully this doesn’t end up being a hassle. I am good with my splits from my phone but official splits for the first few 5K splits that are correct would be nice. Having an official time would be nice too.
Age: 50 Weight: 224 Height: 6'3" (Goal weight 195)
Current PR's: Mara 3:14:36* (2017); HM 1:36:13 (2017); 10K 43:59 (2014); 5K 21:12 (2016)
Sounds like most of the folks on this thread did pretty well, especially considering the conditions.
I thought my bib # was way lower than I deserved since I qualified on a downhill course, but if I look up others who finished the same time as me I beat my bib by 2,000 places as well.
It really was amazing with the American women doing so well and it seemed like there were just some folks who embraced the suck and persevered despite the conditions.
Congrats to all!
not bad for mile 25
its amazing to me that the first male and second female are both employed full time and fit their training around their work schedules! that's inspiring to say the least!
Yeah, Sellers is a nurse, right?
Results went final and I’m not listed. Somehow it had my first 5K at 4 minutes for a 1:17 per mile pace and the split for 10K and 15K were also wrong. The half seems correct and it looks right from then on. I put in an adjustment request and offered to show my GPS track and I was actually broadcasting live with Runkeeper so I have some coworkers that can vouch for my pedestrian normal splits. It says 7 to 10 days to get resolved. Hopefully this doesn’t end up being a hassle. I am good with my splits from my phone but official splits for the first few 5K splits that are correct would be nice. Having an official time would be nice too.
Sounds like their split timing was totally messed up. They may have 30000 corrections to make. Hope they get yours straightened out without too much hassle.
It was miserable out there...
My time will be ~4:02x, which is my slowest marathon and the first time I haven't run a Boston Qualifying time in a marathon - including my first! (I already have a BQ-20+ for 2019 from NYCM last fall.)
Full race report to come but... I could tell I was under-dressed in a singlet, arm warmers, and shorts from the moment I got to Hopkinton. When the wind was still, it was just cold. But, when it was blowing, it was freezing! I shed my throw-aways in the corral but wore a thin poncho almost the entire time. (One I got from the Langham in 2015 that I didn't feel I'd need in the Athlete's Village let alone the race, so I saved it. This was so much worse than that day!) My upper body felt comfortable throughout the race but my hands were frozen in the socks I'd bought the day before and used as gloves. My hands were so utterly useless that I didn't eat or drink very much. Taking off those socks - which I will keep and treasure - just didn't seem worth it. Besides, even if I got them off, I couldn't comprehend how I could find a gel pack in my shorts or hold cup for that long. I turned this into a long run between the half marathon and Newton when I got nauseous. That was also around the point I could tell my thighs were cramping from exposure to the elements. This was also the first time I made a bathroom stop, which was pretty comical in retrospect considering my hands were barely functioning. But, I finished!
Again, amazing work to everyone who finished!
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I ran 3:28. It was my 14th Boston and by far the slowest. That includes 2004 and 2012, and 2007, which was not that bad actually. i ran in a singlet and shorts, plus hat and gloves. Same as 2007. There was some rain in 2015, but nothing like this year. It was just ridiculously difficult at times. First, you get a heavy cold shower and then they turn on the headwinds.
3:22 is a great time and I've never seen weather that bad for any race.
I haven’t raced in weather that bad since... last weekend. Really. Try 100 miles in that, but drop the temps a bit more, add freezing rain, sleet, hail, and snow. At least Boston wasn’t so bad by comparison. Except for the constant headwind.
RIP Milkman
Snow is not bad weather for running. Also, you almost surely did not have hail if it was sleeting/snowing. Let's at least keep the facts straight here if we're talking about weather.
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
I didn’t say all that happened at the same time. Yes, it all happened. And yes, the snow was the easy part.
Julia and Alexander R, I am sorry it went poorly for you two. For sure you were not alone judging by the race results overall. And yeah, I agree completely with this assessment:
"It was just ridiculously difficult at times. First, you get a heavy cold shower and then they turn on the headwinds."
And Julia, I also understand the loss of the use of hands thing. I was wearing cotton gloves that got pretty wet from early in the race, but I was still able to take and drink Gatorade most of the way. By the time I got to about 18 or 19 though, I could barely use my hands anymore. I gave up on getting any more Gatorade by about mile 21, and they were completely numb by the end and I stood in the hot shower for a good 10-15 minutes before I could feel my hands (and my feet) again. It was pretty miserable.
I also ran in 2004 and 2007. 2004 was my first and by far my slowest -- so I'm still pretty afraid of heat to this day! And yes, 2007 was not as bad as it was made out to be (NOT EVEN REMOTELY AS BAD AS YESTERDAY), but I think those of us who ran it should keep that little secret to ourselves. ;-)
- Joe
We are fragile creatures on collision with our judgment day.
I ran a 3:56 and feel alright with that given, well, what we were given.
I missed a BQ by a minute, but that is okay. This is my third BM, and i decided very early on in the race that I was taking atleast a year off from Boston.
I have been nursing a groin pull and by about mile 9 or 10 i had to decide between playing it safe and having a chance of finishing, or push the pace and salvage a better time. In very short order, and my cold exposed legs starting tighteng up rather badly, that it was not a question if i would fully cramp up, but only when. So, i decided to try to hold my pace, abandoning my initial race plan to increase effort throughout the race.
The weather got worse as the race progressed, and there were some very substantial headwinds,and periods when the rain just went into torrential downpours. The newton hills slowed me up just enough to push me below where i needed to be for a BQer. But all in all, i felt pretty good as this was a pace that was considerably slower than what i had been training at. After the newton hills, the downhills were beating up my quads pretty badly, and while i had intially wanted to ramp it up a lot at mile 20, i revised that to mile 23 just to make sure i would finish. By mile 24, i knew i would make it without question but also understood that tucking it under the BQ was impossible. But i gave it a shot and kicked hard for the last two miles, only letting up once or twice. I sprinted that last 300 meters through the finish.
It is clearly the slowest marathon i've done ever by a big margin, but i still feel okay about it given the conditions, given my injury, and the fact that coming that close to a BQer on a day like that is not so bad.
Honestly, I don't want to do Boston next year, and i'm kind of glad the old town dished up something memorable. That was really something! I know there's plenty of runners that would hate on me big time for saying that, but they are failing to understand one thing, And that one thing is this: there's more to the measure of your performance than only your time.
The official results don't show a start time for me or a 5k split. The race updates had me starting 25 minutes before I actually did, which screwed up my official time completely. I also put in a request for a change of result. It's frustrating, because I got a 10 minute PR and I want that to be official, not just on my GPS.
That was miserable. I barely made it to my corral in time, they started calling for wave 3 when I walked up from the bus and I got stuck in a massive runner traffic jam. By the time I made it to security they had already started calling wave 4 runners. I ran/walked to the start line and made it about 3 minutes before the start. So I didn't get to pee, and by about mile 4 knew I'd have to stop for that. After waiting in line for a port a potty around mile 7 (at least I ate a gel while waiting, which was the only get I ate because my fingers stopped working even with gloves plus socks as mittens), I just couldn't get into a groove and realized I better slow down a bit or I probably wouldn't make it. Slowed down even more for the hills, taking walk breaks on each one. I never crashed, but with the slowdown and walk breaks ended up with a 10 minute positive split and finished in 4:10. Training and shorter race results say I should be in 3:45-3:50 shape.
But I feel pretty good about what I did, and that I did it. I twisted my ankle pretty bad in the airport running to make a connection on Saturday and I could still feel it race morning. It hurt about the first 1/2 mile, then I think everything went numb so yay?
Got some horrible chafing in places I've never chafed before.
There were no volunteers for my section of gear check at the end and we had to squeeze in behind the table and dig through for our own bags, which really sucked as i was shivering and cold, but at least I was eventually able to find my stuff.
I qualified with a 3:52, and with my 4:10 finish beat my bib by over 5,000.
It sucked, but was also kind of amazing and I'm glad I did it.
I said I was going to be a one and done after 2014 because it was so awesome, doing it again would be a letdown. That lasted four years. I love everything about the entire marathon weekend and I want to do it at least one more time.
That's all my random thoughts for now as I'm back home icing my ankle and waiting for this Advil PM to hit.
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I agree weather was much worse than 2015, which was my first Boston (this was my 4th, so I also ran the 2 warm years in between). It was colder than 2015 especially in the first half, the wind was worse, plus we had those sheets of rain which I didn't experience in 2015. And another big difference in 2015 it didn't start raining until I was getting into my corral, was not raining the whole time on the way to the buses and in the village.
I actually was pretty comfortable most of the race on Monday and really enjoyed myself despite the horrible weather. My time was slow, 3:58:22 (half split of 1:57:35), which at least is a BQ for me (though a super squeaker one that would never get me in, but I already have a better BQ for next year).
I went into it not planning to race it anyway--I didn't even particularly train for it, have been busy taking classes trying to change my career, so with that on top of my current job I haven't really been running much. However I did train fairly high (~70ish) mpw for a January marathon so I guess I still have some base fitness (I also ran a 47K trail race in Feb and then paced the 4:30 group at my local marathon in March).
I ran in singlet, shorts, arm warmers and until around 24-25 I was wearing this little thin recovery jacket my club gives out after races. I had to keep it unzipped because my bib was pinned to the singlet. I intended to discard it after a few miles but I decided I needed to keep it on, but ditched it near the end so I could go a little faster and also for the finish pics I guess. I also had gloves and a visor over another cap with a brim which looked really dorky but I felt pretty good. The hat I picked up at a thrift store I walked to the day before (ended up being more walking than I really wanted to do, went there to get more clothes for the AV because I didn't bring enough). I also had hoped to discard the hat in the village, but I felt like it helped my visor stay on better, and I really felt I wanted a hat to not feel the rain directly on my head (I had wanted to bring a cap from home in addition to the visor, but packed kind of in a hurry and couldn't find it, but this thrift store cap was thicker and warmer than my own cap that I forgot). I wanted to ditch the blue thrift store cap before the finish line since it looked goofy under my red visor, but then I decided I didn't want to toss it since it had helped me so much.
I had no real time goal but I did have a thought that if I felt good I might try to get under 4. I was in a farther back corral than usual, because last year's Boston I was coming off of injury (my Charleston time in January was only 8 seconds faster than my 2017 Boston because I failed to adjust pace properly for a headwind at that race, so I didn't bother to submit the updated time).
Anyway, physically I felt much better this year than last year. I don't race that well in warm conditions, and last year I think I got carried away with the excitement and ran just a little too fast early on. Last year I felt horrible the last couple miles, and cramped so bad after the finish that I had to suddenly flop on the curb where a med tent volunteer asked if I was okay. I couldn't even keep liquids down for hours post race and stayed in bed with horrible chills until late evening.
This year I just really made sure to keep the pace easy because I know I'm not in great shape. My quads and feet did feel a little cold in the later miles. I was really, really cold after I finished but it was only a short walk to my hotel and after a long, hot shower I felt pretty good.
PRs: 5K: 21:25, 10K: 44:05, HM: 1:38:23* (downhill), M: 3:32:09
It is clearly the slowest marathon i've done ever by a big margin, but i still feel okay about it given the conditions, given my injury, and the fact that coming that close to a BQer on a day like that is not so bad. Honestly, I don't want to do Boston next year, and i'm kind of glad the old town dished up something memorable. That was really something! I know there's plenty of runners that would hate on me big time for saying that, but they are failing to understand one thing, And that one thing is this: there's more to the measure of your performance than only your time.
I'm having a similar feeling about not wanting to run it next year. It's a similar feeling to how I felt after 2012. (Which I still think was worse than Monday's race.) A race like that can take something out of you mentally. For me, when I get through something tough like that, I don't really want to go through it again. But, having gone back after 2012, I know I can feel differently about the race because I have enjoyed other years. In fact, I enjoyed last year so much that it felt like the first time I'd every run it. So, I'm going to put a pin in the decision and see how I feel later in the summer. Can't wait too long to decide since hotels fill up so quickly.