Sub 1:30 Half Marathon in 2019 (Read 641 times)

Piwi - that's awesome. He's such a straight shooter, would love to have been along for that run. I hope you're not too winded after 11K after all of your 6K runs the past few months 

Mark - Thank you for agreeing that they're hills! Do you guys have a lot of rolling hills, or is it mainly flat with just big climbs here and there? That was the most unique thing about Boston for me compared to NYC. A lot more little bumps. There were few parts of the course that were flat for more than 1K.

Me - yeah, feels like a train hit me. Besides the usual soreness, one odd point of soreness is where I get my usual stitches in my abs (way better than NYC, will detail in a race report). But it's so weird to be sore from battling stitches in a race, this might take a week to feel better!

Haha Marks picture is almost as epic as Piwi behind the fresh looking female.

Flavio: that hat just makes you look ridiculous. You have to run without it or turn it around next time. Cool pictures though, they took a lot of pics my god.

Jmac: really happy to see that you arent badly injured. Boston checked off and now off to chase Marks HM record.

lots of good stuff going on here...

Piwi Mickky that's cool you guys got to meet up and go for a run

Steve Mark Flavio nice race photos!

As an update on the issue with my abdomen I went to my Dr. appointment today and the verdict is a hernia...I go to the surgery center in the next day or to to meet with them and see what the next steps are.

I just hope I can get this behind me and get back out there soon...but not too soon.

Jmac congrats again on another impressive performance and in that weather too.

Corey - sorry to hear, I had mentioned a while ago that I feared you had a hernia. You should reach out to JTReeves on the sub 3 forum. He had his surgery in November I think and recovered quickly enough that he just ran a marathon in the low 2:50s this weekend. He should have some good advice for you on how to get back into things at an appropriate pace.

Boston Marathon 2019 Race Recap:

Woke up around 5:20, to catch the train to the gear drop off and bus loading near Boston Common by 6:45. Once we arrived at gear drop off, it started raining and was pouring by the time I made it onto the bus to Hopkinton. Luckily I was wearing a large trash bag to keep me relatively dry (except for the shoes, socks, and hat). I kept snacking on various carbs starting at the time I woke up until we got to the athlete's village in Hopkinton around 7:30-7:45. I also took a chance on a GU Energy electrolyte drink instead of straight water before the race to avoid over-hydrating and peeing out all my electrolytes before the race started.

The race got underway and the plan was to stay relaxed the first 10k or so as it was mostly downhill from the start. As I crossed the starting line, I pressed my watch's start button, but about a minute later, I realized it hadn't started! This contributed slightly to my estimated effort as I had no idea at the time how long or far I had been running. I clocked 20:51 through 5k, which was quite a bit quicker than I had anticipated, but due to how good I was feeling, I kept rolling with some hesitance. I remember telling myself to ease up but I must have gotten caught up in the swarm and with the adrenaline and crowds, I felt like I was going slower than I actually was.

Still feeling good by 10k and my second 5k split at 21:02. I felt pretty good about how things were feeling here, and kept cruising along the flat part of the course. My third 5k was a 21:16, but still very even on mile splits and all that. At this point I felt pretty optimistic about the rest of the race. Going in I had a tentative goal of sub 3 (I really had no idea where I was at), but feeling out the first 15k, I was really hoping more for a PR. This definitely made me a little more greedy instead of conservative, as I rolled out a 22:00 for the next 5k. This drop in time was mostly due to a quick bathroom stop that probably cost me 45-60 seconds.

Post bathroom break I made a significant mistake, as I felt the urge to pick back up a few seconds from the time I "wasted" using the restroom. The mile I stopped in (mile 12), I split a 7:28 but then the following two miles I split a 6:43 then a 6:39! BIG mistake there, I really should have eased into my original goal pace of 6:52 per mile leading into the hills that started at mile 16. My fifth 5k was a 21:10 and I knew I was in trouble right as I hit the hills, as my calves were on fire and I had just started the first of four hills between miles 16 and 21.

I knew I was in trouble now, but was still optimistic about sub 3. My original plan was to relax up the hills and push MP on the flats and downhill parts, but I was struggling too much too early on. Miles 17-20 were all between 7:00-7:30, which I was fine with, as long as I could push the rest of the way after Heartbreak Hill. The next 5k (30k mark) was a 22:46, which was a pretty sizable slowdown, but not a terrible split out of context.

I had been taking GU gels every five miles (5, 10, 15, 20) and I wasn't really feeling the 20 mile gel, but I decided to force it down anyways. Mile 20 is where I started to face a world of hurt. That last gel was the tipping point for my stomach, and I couldn't make it up Heartbreak Hill without a walking break (The first time I have ever walked in a race besides walking a few steps to drink water without it splashing all over). Soon after I made it up Heartbreak, I had to take pit stop number two, which was much longer than the first one as I contemplated how I was going to finish this race. It was so dark in the porta potty and so bright outside at this point that I became quite disoriented. It only went downhill from there as I was forced to walk in multiple other sections and dry heaved a couple times. Honestly, I think I would've felt much better if I just threw up, but it wasn't happening.

Miles 21 to the finish were very brutal and humbling as I walked large portions and was out of it both mentally and physically. The only thing that kept motivating me were the crowds of people, and fans that singled me (and others that were struggling) out to get us moving again. I ran the final stretch on Boylston, which was an amazing experience as people were packed like sardines to see everyone finish. I had visualized flying down Boylston numerous times over the past few days, so this finish wasn't what I expected or anticipated, but at least the fans brought the best out of a pretty crappy finish for me. Post race I was fairly lightheaded and pretty nauseous, so I spent some time in the medical tent as a precaution as well as just sitting to regain some strength.

Before running this race, I had no plans to run another marathon anytime soon, and this result surely hasn't changed that for me. As of now, I plan on focusing in this summer on some more speed in order to come back and hopefully race some shorter distance (5k to HM) the rest of the year. I figure while I'm still young, I ought to make the most out of the speed I have and I will surely come back to Boston sometime down the road.

JMac- definitely not a lot of flat stuff around here.  The venue for the Waterfront Half is pretty much the only 10km flat stretch in the entire city (incidentally it's also where I run most of my workouts for that reason).  We've got mainly rolling hills with a few steeper ones.

It is quite different where I am.  It is pretty much nearlynearl or steep hills.

Corey - good luck with the hernia.

Mathew - yikes.  What was your final time?

Matthew great race report and congratulation to get to the end !!!

Jmac - I was thinking you'd run Berlin, the Queen of all marathons, but I see you'd need to train through summer for that.
I hope you will be more conservative post marathon this time heh
Also Your 5k PR is looking very, very soft at the moment...

Piwi/Mikkey - Great forum encounter. I can see Mikkey's got the fountain of youth on his backyard as he looks younger than me.

Piwi - I'm glad you found Cock in England (see his Strava feed).

MickJogger - thanks for the fashion advice haha. I can see you're posting some 5min/km runs lately,
are you picking up the paces?

Corey - trust your doctor. Hernias come in all shapes and sizes and we're all different.

Matt - Yup, I was posting live updates of you guys during the race (see a couple pages back).
Honestly (and this is a very controversial opinion I have), you should probably have dropped out.
There's no benefit to finishing that race and the added damage to your tendons is not worth it.
IIRC you had quite a few injuries during training, sometimes you lose the battle to win the war.