Notes
What a great day. Number 668 (days consecutive). Boston Marathon (my first). I used the Boston program that allowed you to enter your goal time and it calculated an "even effort". This took into account the terrain, so although you need to average 6:52 a mile to reach a sub-3 hour goal, some miles will be much faster/slower than others. This "even effort" philosophy is new to me, but makes perfect sense. Your heart rate (which is your bodies measurement of effort) should remain relatively the same over the course of the race. I printed off my splits and had them on a wrist band, and followed it religiously (using my Garmin 305's lap pace). What I hadn't taken into account is that I did not, could not run perfect tangents, so I wound up running almost .2 miles over 26.2. I realized this at the end and had enough left to still break 3 hours. My last mile was my fastest and "I ran out of race before I ran out of ME"! That was the plan, and my mantra!
The crowds were awsome and the Wellsley girls lived up to their billing (although they are not better than the crowds coming into Manhattan during the NY Marathon). I had written "Darrin" on my shirt, and hundred of spectators yelled out encouragement. I must have "high fived/low fived" 75 people along the course and the excitement level was fantastic. I could go on and on about how much fun I had, and here, in the hotel room, 5 hours later, I feel great!
659, 651, 643, 642, 652, 648, 646, 650, 646, 650, 655, 645, 653, 652, 654, 636, 702, 703, 645, 700, 711 (heartbreak hill, I call it heartbreak incline), 640, 646, 639, 640, 631 (bringing it home/fastest mile), last .2 even faster!
1st 1/2M 1:29:48; 2nd 1/2M 1:29:55 (much more difficult with Newton Hills)! Off 7 seconds!!! How much closer than that can you get? My 1st 1/2M in New York was 1:28:55 with a finish time of 3:03:46. I'm just in better shape, and ran smarter.
Boston Splits/Boston even effort pace plan/NewYork splits
5K-21:13/21:09/20:45, Boston downhill, New York major uphill (bridge) in 1st mile then downhill for 2nd.
10K-42:34/42:24/41:17,
15K-1:03:44/1:03:40/1:02:30,
20K-1:25:09/1:25:02/1:24:14,
1/2-1:29:48/1:29:41/1:28:55,
25K-1:46:31/1:46:14/1:46:20,
30K-2:08:13/2:07:50/2:08:20,
35K-2:29:59/2:29:47/2:29:47, AMAZING! 12 SECOND DIFFERENCE!
40K-2:50:53/2:50:33/2:53:22 Wheels fell off in New York.
2:59:43/2:59:59/3:03:46
NEVER OFF EVEN EFFORT PACE MORE THAN 23 SECONDS IN BOSTON!