Notes
126 B.A.A. Marathon
2:39:30 / 456th (430th man)
Things didn’t go perfectly but I got it done! Minute plus PR and finally sub 2:40 (after thinking I was in shape for it 5 years ago…) Pleased with this.
I was feeling good about this training cycle. I didn’t do anything crazy, but I ran a pretty consistent volume, nailed a few key workouts, and ran well at the 20 miler and NB. I was pretty confident that I was in sub 2:40 shape if I just raced smart! Really wanted to keep it conservative. The only wrinkle was that I came down with a head cold after getting back from VA last weekend and it pretty much lingered all the way to this morning - I didn’t feel bad, but I had a mild cough and congestion and it definitely didn’t seem ideal. I took some cold medicine on the bus and it seemed to help, but I definitely didn’t feel at 100% throughout the race…
Rode the bus to Hopkinton with Shannon, Manny, Shaun, and Shaun’s friend Josh. We were able to meet up with Eric, Matt, and Jaime in the athletes village. It wasn’t nearly as much time in the village / Hopkinton as I remember! Pretty much stuck with Shaun right until the last minute which was a good way to stay relaxed.
Felt comfortable from the start, wasn’t worried about a “slow” first mile and was able to tune out and enjoy how easy the first few miles came. I had a plan to run conservative (staying on the north side of 6:00 pace) for the first half of the race or so, but I ended up being consistently fast and ended up literally throwing out my race plan (I had written some splits on an index card which was too sweaty to read by 15k). Met a guy named Sam in Framingham with a similar goal time and we agreed to run together, which was awesome! I was feeling really strong, and was consistently holding back a little bit while still running at or under goal pace, which was a great place to be in. Still, I was feeling weird at times (which I sorta attribute to the sickness) and especially drinking water was a bit of a struggle, although I got some at every stop (probably too frequent…?) As we approached the hills I felt *good* , I knew I was well on pace to break 2:40 if I just maintained through the second half, but I was definitely not that confident… kinda waiting for the wheels to fall off! I focused on relaxing and sticking with Sam and we just crushed the hills, I couldn’t believe it. 6:06 pace for the 4.36 mile “Newton Hills” segment from LNF to the top of Heartbreak!! Sam broke away on HBH, but as I was rolling down past BC I knew I felt good and has sub 2:40 in the bag. Turned onto Beacon and I just had a well-known stretch of the Hermanos loop left to go!!!!
In my head I always imagine myself crushing those last miles, and usually it’s a death march down Boylston, but this wasn’t really either - just a hard, focused, careful grind to the finish. I definitely wasn’t redlining at any point really- I did the calculations in my head and I knew that I had a good cushion to break 2:40 as long as I didn’t slow down significantly, so I think I was “playing it safe” a bit - didn’t really push to the limit. Might have left a little bit of time on the table, but that’s okay! I was happy to be done and ecstatic to hit my goal - finally.
Another fun training cycle and a fun day. I think I lost some time because I was sick, but it was also really nice conditions for running in. Time to keep the ball rolling!
APPENDIX A: Pacing notes
Checkpoint/2019 (Prev PR)/Actual Time/Diff
5k / 18:41 / 18:57 / +16
10k / 37:05 / 37:23 / +18
15k / 55:39 / 55:53 / +14
20k / 74:13 / 74:36 / +23
HM / 78:15 / 78:41 / +26
25k / 92:56 / 93:22 / +26
30k / 1:52:10 / 1:52:10 / +0
35k / 2:12:02 / 2:11:22 / -40
40k / 2:31:47 / 2:30:51 / -56
Finish / 2:40:31 / 2:39:30 / -61
Fascinating! I ran a bit behind 2019 through 25k (at the top of Newton Lower Falls), then I ran over a minute faster through the hills to 35k, then another 21s from Cleveland Circle to the finish.