Forums >Racing>Goal of Sub-3 Hour Marathon
YoYo
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." Goals: Keep on running!
Non-Stroller-Still Crazy
There is no pressure on Wayfool, JDF or myslef to deliver this next weekend I am not sure I can be like UPS this race ... I ran 2:58 on 10/11, followed by a 129 mile next week and a 120 mile week last week. I have called it my anti-taper as this is not a goal race. But ... This is the sub 3:00 thread, so I am tapering this week and will give it my best effort.
Well done Ken - fantastic time on what sounds like a tough course. You can add another graduate to the list: I'm just back from finishing Dublin in 2:58:35, so I'm delighted with that. Went through half way in 1:29:40 and then managed to pick it up for the next 10km or so before slowing back down to exactly 3 hour pace for the last 10km. My calves are in bits now, so I'm off to soak in a nice warm bath. No ice bath for me, I'm afraid. It was only about 50 degrees F on the course, so I need a bit of warming up.
This is no easy course, btw. Not what you would call brutal, but definitely harder than average. I checked a list of 179 marathons and their BQ percentages. Silicon valley ranked 108/179, putting it in the toughest 40%.
Ricky —our ability to perform up to our physiological potential in a race is determined by whether or not we truly psychologically believe that what we are attempting is realistic. Anton Krupicka
I thought this stat by Jim was pretty interesting. I've run a couple different courses (but not so many that my recollections of them run together!) so I thought I'd compare the ones I've run in the past. So below are the courses I've run along with their rank in terms of % of finishers BQ'ing (http://mysite.verizon.net/jim2wr/bq_2-year_overview.htm): Boston.......1 Austin........72 Si Valley.....110 RnR AZ......124 Chicago......137 Portland.....141 SanFran.....143 BigSur.......150 My ranking, in order of 'easiest' to BQ on would be: 1....Boston 2....Chicago 3....Austin 4....RnR AZ 5....Portland 6....SanFran 7....Si Valley 8....BigSur Doesn't really match up to the rank but there's lots of reasons that could be. 1 & 2 are the easiest by a clear amount. 3, 4 & 5 are probably really close to each other (Pick 'Em) and 6, 7 & 8 are just plain hard to run fast on.
Absolutely! Boston only lets in people for the most part that have already qualified. But, of all the courses I've run, Boston is the most favorable course to run a fast time! Chicago is another outlier in that it's BQ percentage is way lower than I would expect. It's a flat course with great crowd support. But it's also a mega-marathon with more than it's share of walkers and 'just finish' runners (nothing wrong with that, it just skews the percentages). Also the bad weather in '07!
ON DECK for this weekend: Dopple Bock - 11/02/08 Trails to Rails wayfool - 11/02/08 NYC, New York, NY Good luck guys.
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Was 08 that much better? It was still freaking hot. They just had a lot more water this time.