Notes
I had pretty much no mileage coming into this thing, but had a halfway decent New Bedford HM on a ridiculously windy day and recent runs had felt pretty OK. I had been focusing on turnover, and my pace had been picking up. Good signs, but actually training for a marathon is highly recommended.
In the start corral I was chatting with a guy from New Jersey that I have raced with a couple of times (one thing about being a kinda sociable long haired old hippie freak dude is lots of people remember running with me). I said I am "relatively fit, undertrained, but uninjured", and he said "me too, that's a good way to toe the line!"
My stock doesn't go up on hot days, but it doesn't seem to go down as much as it does for others on average. So the value of my stock SEEMS to go up, an unfair advantage that I could live without. The value of a cool overcast day for marathons can't be overstated. Since 2014 I have been carrying a damned monkey on my back, I have no desire to ever repeat that epic blowup. I felt the heat at mile two, and tried to back off just a bit but it's almost impossible in the early miles of Boston.
Was cruising along, trying to run relaxed and make sure my feet were falling right under me. Made it to just beyond the 10k mark, and lost the thirty seconds for my goal in a porta crapper. Having to take a leak actually inspired a bit of confidence, at least I knew I was fairly well hydrated at that point. Really not much to report from the middle miles, just rolled pretty steady until Newton Lower Falls when I notice the little toe on my right foot bitching. Whatever, shut up.
Took the firehouse turn feeling pretty OK, and ran the hills pretty well. Foot is really bitching now, it's just starting to leak like Curt Schilling's ankle. Just got worse as I headed toward Copley, in some pics I can see that I'm really rotating that hip even more than I usually do. Last 10k or so was really tough, stride/form/cadence was gone and I was just trying to prevent any really bad blowup miles. I had nothing left for a kick on Boylston, just took in the madness and enjoyed the relief of knowing I would make the line. Felt really good about this one. There have been years of joy, emotional numbness or disappointment but 2017 was just instant happiness and appreciation.