Forums >Racing>2019 Boston Marathon Thread
2019 will be my first Boston. I'll be traveling with my wife & 7 year old daughter, as well as a few other qualifiers from my local running group. Do any past participants or locals have any suggestions on "must-do" activities or eateries that are kid friendly?
My first Boston as well but I've been there a number of times. A great city, so much to do! You can certainly search online and look at all the options. My first recommendation though is to walk the Freedom Trail. It is path through the city that passes by a number of historical and/or otherwise noteworthy sites. You can do as much of it as you want and stop anywhere along the way; there's actually a red line built into the sidewalk making it easy to follow. Not sure if you're worried about overdoing the walking before the race, but it's the best (& really only) way to get around & see the city. I'd also suggest visiting Quincy Market - it's a big public market loaded with little shops. Very touristy, but you're a tourist. A great environment to just mosey through and/or hang out.
Dave
My second Boston, hopefully the weather is gracious to us! Also dig the jacket and am glad to have it. Maybe it will come out of the closet a lot more than last time.. (2016)
Hey guys, I'm running my first Boston this year. Starting pfitz 12/70. Any suggestions on substitutions I might consider to prepare for the hills? How much is necessary, and if I should be doing them now or later on? My regular runs are relatively flat. There is a major park system with lots of trails that I can easily run on, but most of them are at least moderately technical and have pretty steep sections, so in the past I've tended to mostly avoid them during the heart of my training since it's hard to get in a good rhythm for my workouts.
5k- 18:55 (2018) 10K- 39:04 (2017) Marathon- 3:00:10 (2018)
My $0.02 is if you're running a spring marathon you should be running hills now--that's true for any marathon but especially Boston. Doing hills and hilly long runs are the best bang-for-your-buck workout, period.
And the fact that hills break up your rhythm is exactly one of the reasons you need to prepare for them, especially at Boston. The Newton hills are not anything extreme but it's where they happen in the marathon that gets you. You've been running mostly flat to downhill for 16 miles, possibly running faster than you should be because the course has so far created a false sense of security and then, bam, you hit the Newton hills. I would want a combination of flat long runs where you can just find that good marathon rhythm and roll, and hilly long runs where you have to meter your effort over changing terrain. And I'd definitely do some specific hill workouts.
Specifically in the Pfitz 18/70 plan the mid week medium-long run is the best place to include some hill repeats. One of my staples is to run a hill loop that's about 1 mile in length with a 100 foot climb in the first 1/3 of it. So I do a 2 mile warmup over to the hill, run the hill loop 8 times, run 2 miles home. All in it's 12+ miles with some ups and downs. I work the ups and downs--it winds up being basically a long threshold workout. But there's lots of ways you can work hills into that med-long run.
Can you get marathon fit without doing specific hill work? Sure, I guess. But you'll be more prepared if you run hills.
Runners run
Agree with the above. Building on it, hill workouts build overall strength in addition to helping you be good at running hills. Hence why you want to especially be doing them early in training, because hills help build a strong base (although we're getting late for base-building for Boston). Anyway, a couple more thoughts...
If you really don't have much in the way of hills, consider putting more emphasis on hard progressions at the end of longer runs. That is, add blocks of something like sub marathon pace miles in the back half of the long run to force yourself to do a harder effort on tired legs. This will help build strength and at least somewhat mimic hitting hills later in the race.
The same but instead (or in addition) doing late-run hills of course achieves this as well.
Also, see if you can get creative with finding hills. Any bridges around you? They often can be a good substitute. Doing stairs (like in a stadium) could also help build strength and mimic the pounding...but I honestly don't have much experience incorporating that. If considering that do some research first; definitely not ideal.
mikeymike +NorthNorthwest-
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll look to make many of my midweek long runs (or aerobic runs) hilly. And I'll look to find a good hill to do some repeats on. That will get easier as daylight returns. There are definitely hills where I live, but for aesthetic and health reasons I try to avoid running on concrete most of the time... my runs are pretty much all on a gravel path or trails, but maybe a couple times of month or so I'll make an exception. I've definitely been doing hilly running the last few months, but I wasn't sure how marathon specific it's been (a lot of ~6-8 mile runs with ~1000 feet of elevation or so, and the hills tend to be short and steep, and sometimes barely runable).
FYI, the race uploaded the course video to Youtube.
My blog is JT Running DC. It's awesome. Guide to Washington DC Area Running Routes. Guide to the New York City Marathon. Guide to the Boston Marathon. Guide to Running Gear. Guide to Running Clothes.
Also everyone should have received an email with some race weekend info.
As a first-timer - do any of the experienced folks have any input on whether the pre-race dinner and post-race party are worthwhile? I assume I’ll do the dinner, since I am not bringing spouse/family with me, it’s free, and seems like part of the whole race experience. Hopefully there will be some food items that are not almond milk-infused. As far as the party, I guess it depends on how I feel physically, and the weather.
Also - when do they usually send out wave/corral info?
RIP Milkman
Thanks Julia. Watched the video today. Having only run the NYC marathon, it’s going to be a bit of a shock running through mostly suburbs for a race, but I know the crowd support will be great!
5K: 16:37 (11/20) | 10K: 34:49 (10/19) | HM: 1:14:57 (5/22) | FM: 2:36:31 (12/19)
Also everyone should have received an email with some race weekend info. As a first-timer - do any of the experienced folks have any input on whether the pre-race dinner and post-race party are worthwhile? I assume I’ll do the dinner, since I am not bringing spouse/family with me, it’s free, and seems like part of the whole race experience. Hopefully there will be some food items that are not almond milk-infused. As far as the party, I guess it depends on how I feel physically, and the weather. Also - when do they usually send out wave/corral info?
I went to the dinner a few years ago. The line was long but the food was surprisingly good - pasta, bread, salad, and drinks. If you're chatty and traveling solo, I think it would be a good way to meet some fellow runners.
I think bibs come out in early April. But, maybe it's late March. It'll still be a while.
delicate flower
I'm getting tired.
<3
Well stop running so damn much!
Now excuse me while I set my alarm for 4:00 AM so I can run 14 miles before work.
UM 45 Ohio 23
Well stop running so damn much! Now excuse me while I set my alarm for 4:00 AM so I can run 14 miles before work.
and I thought my 5:00am with the occasional 4:30am wake-up was early! Nice job!
LOLOLOL
I see they provide Gatorade Endurance on course. This is awesome news to me. I will not have to carry a bottle of nutrition. Gatorade Thirst Quencher wrecks my stomach, but Endurance works just fine.