Boston Race Report

Saturday finally came around, as it inevitably would, and it was time to head off for Boston at last. On my own, no family, no club mates.

For anyone who has not been, Boston is a really beautiful city. My hotel was very centrally located, right at Boston commons and garden. The day I arrived the weather was lovely, cloudless skies, and the park was full of people, walking, jogging, lying on the grass, playing tennis, and just enjoying the atmosphere.

I spent the day getting my bearings, and having a good look around. I struggled to find somewhere for dinner, just because I probably wasn't looking in the right places, and ended up with Pizza and chips. Hydration is important in the days leading up to a marathon, not just on the day, so I was drinking plenty of water.

On Sunday, I had planned to go to the expo. Unfortunately, I was faced with a bit of a mini drama with the hotel. When I booked through booking.com, I requested a late checkout as I was planning on flying home on the day of the marathon, and I needed somewhere to shower and change afterwards.
The hotel however, could not give me a late checkout, and I was faced with nowhere to freshen up after, and as the airport didn't have showers either, I was getting a bit worried. So I checked the website again, and there were lots of hotels in the area with late availability. (Not worth the risk, but they were significantly cheaper than advertised months earlier).
I found a hotel, just as convenient to the finish line, which could do the late checkout, but I had to walk to it to find out the details. Then back to my own hotel, which then decided they could do the late checkout, then I went to the expo. Long story short, a lot of walking on Sunday.

Up at 5 am on marathon Monday, and a hearty enough breakfast. The system for start/finish at Boston is as follows: Bring your kit bag to the finish line early in the morning. Then get a bus, which takes about 45 minutes to the start line. Athletes village is fairly impressive. There was lots of free tea and coffee, fruit, water and energy bars. Importantly, there were lots of portaloo's!

I had turned my garmin on in the hotel the day before so it could orientate itself, then turned it off again. When I got to athletes village, I again turned it on, and nothing, just an info page. Not to worry, off and on again. Nothing. Off and on again, and so forth. Panic starting. No pacers, its Boston. I spotted a couple sitting on the grass with the same model garmin, and I asked them if they had seen the problem before, and they had. They advised a reset should do the trick, but try as they might, they could not remember the sequence. A lady was walking by with a phone, and I asked her if she could google the reset procedure, and within a short space of time, I had a whole rescue squad working on trying to get the watch working. After a few minutes, success! panic over, we had a watch.

Wave 1, corral 7, was my start position. Some advice, leave the athletes village at the earliest opportunity to get to the start line. Its about a 10 minute walk, and the last chance for loo break. The loo's here had long lines. There is not much chance for warming up pre-race either.
The weather forecast had varied over the previous few days, with temperatures ranging from 14 to 22 degrees Celsius. as it turned out, it was hot, very hot. The paddy had no sunscreen, and a more well prepared guy than me offered me some of his. One thing I will say, runners are always a friendly bunch, but the friendliness at Boston is outstanding.

Approaching 10am and the anticipation was building. Another thing, there is no skipping corals at Boston. Security was very tight, there were snipers and soldiers on roof tops, police everywhere, and even two black hawk helicopters, along with multiple police helicopters.

As we waited, I could already feel the sun starting to burn, it was hot! At the gun, it took about 6 minutes for us to make our way across the start line. and we were off. Exciting stuff, and I felt very proud to be a part of it. Not long in, a runner came along side and said 'howya Stamullen'. it was an Irish guy who had known I was there, we chatted briefly and off he went aiming for a sub 3. I found out later he did 3:01, and I subsequently apologised for delaying him chatting to me!
The first mile is downhill, and the corral system worked brilliantly, everyone pretty much on the same pace. My target was 3:10 to 3:15 so I set a 7:10 pace on the watch. Mile two came and the shelter of the trees was less. I knew I would have to stay hydrated on a day like this, so I elected to take on fluids early. Normally in training I would take no water until at least 6 miles, but that was in temperatures of around 8 degrees. Everyone had the same idea, and there were water and Gatorade at every mile. Unfortunately, the biggest flaw in the Boston system was about to reveal itself. Cups! Cups of water, and Gatorade. 30,000 runners, all grabbing for cups. Half full cups. and the result? Chaos at the water stations. a nice steady 7:10 pace, screwed up every mile, whether you wanted water or not, people slowing to grab cups, crossing each other etc, those of you who have run a marathon know what its like. The temperature for the first seven miles was 25 degrees (I found out after), so you had to hydrate. Losing 10 to 15 seconds at water stations, meant having to run 6:50 to 6:55 for the rest of the mile, but the worst part was the break in the rhythm. Well, I say worst part, closely followed by trying to drink from a cup while running, and more going over your face and up your nose than actually in your mouth! The amount you take in each time is less than a mouthful, but you can't try to grab a second cup for fear of a pile up!

7:07, 7:06, 7:04, 7:04, 7:09, 7:02, 7:03, 7:10, 7:07, 7:10.
After 10 miles, the heat was taking it's toll. At 11 miles, I came across something I have never seen at another marathon, runners walking. That would not usually happen so early, and these guys started ahead of me.

7:15, 7:06, 7:10. Temperature drops to 22 degrees.
The half way point. Time to assess, as I always do at this point. Again, like Dublin last year, I was fine with the pace, but knew that at 10 miles later, I would not be. I decided to keep it going for the moment, and ease back shortly to conserve energy. The water stations were still pissing me off though!! It was making tough work even tougher.
7:10, 7:19 (the hills are starting) 7:08 (push hard into the hills) 8:00 (the hills win!!).
8:36, 8:32. I decided to ease up the pace over these miles to conserve some energy, if I can make it to 21, the hills will be over.
8:50. The hills are not over yet, I resort to walking through the water stations, this gives me a break and ensures I get an adequate amount of fluid in.
10:02, heartbreak hill. Its not overly steep, it does drag on tough, and I just had to get over it, so I walked a bit. At this point, I swear, there were more walkers than runners.
Unfortunately, the medical tents at each mile, all had people in them, most I suspect suffering from the heat and dehydration. I later found out that the medical tent at the finish treated 1400 people.
8:45, 9:05, walking through the water stations and a slow steady run for the rest of the mile. While it was slow, and the legs were tired, my head was up, and I didn't feel like shite! I just knew I didn't want to kill myself, I had undertaken at the outset to try and enjoy the experience, and not curse it.
9:38, 10:31 (some walking I'm afraid), 8:51 for mile 26 to finish.

Around the corner onto Boylston street, with the finish line in sight, a very emotional experience.
The year of the bombings, I was so angry that sport, and particularly running, had been attacked, and so many innocent people had been killed and injured.
You could feel the sense of defiance and determination from both runners and spectators alike, beyond the act of just finishing the marathon, it was a statement from all present to the scum who kill and maim the innocent. I have enjoyed every finish, but this was something special, and the time was irrelevant,(luckily)! At the finish, the temperature was only 18.5 degrees, practically chilly.

Back to the hotel, shower, and a well earned pint in the local Irish bar, then off to the airport for the flight home, back at the house 13 hours after finishing.

On balance, again, I obviously didn't have the training done that I thought I did. Pre-race, I was actually pretty confident of my target, but again, I need to adjust my expectations I think until I start making the time for more miles. Having said that, I made up my mind last year that I would never again be disappointed with a 'bad' time. I was delighted to finish, and loved the experience. Boston, and its people, are brilliant.

Comparing London and Boston, for me, London wins by a whisker. The expo at London was brilliant, Boston not so much. The start and finish logistics for London are a bit more runner friendly. The hydration strategy at London, bottles, is far superior. Support from both crowds is brilliant, although the Americans are a bit more whacky with their ideas!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho.

It's off to Boston I go!

Flight in the morning, bag almost packed.
The last two weeks have been a bit of a disappointment in running terms. I had hoped to keep the mileage going at around 50 last week, but it didn't happen. I had a plan for a tempo and a long run, and ended up doing a hybrid of both.
So last Saturday was 9 days out from Marathon day, Gary's advice is to run your last hard run about 10 days out from the target race. So I did one mile warmup at 7:20, and then into a planned 10 mile at 6:55. The reason it was 6:55 was that I wanted to run about 20 seconds faster per mile than target.
I wasn't sure how the 10 miles would work out. It went quite well, the pace feeling quite easy, and banking a few seconds each mile unintentionally. At the 10 miles I stopped and clocked in at 6:49 average for the session, with almost 2 miles home that gave me just short of 13 miles.
Rest on Sunday and Monday, 5 miles easy at 7:35 Tuesday.
Wednesday I went to the track. After 1 mile warmup, I planned 3x1 mile at 6:40 with 1 minute recovery. The paces were 6:16, 6:29 and 6:27. They just felt so easy, I struggled to slow them down. I think it's a combination of two things. The taper is leaving me with fresh legs so they are strong, which is a good sign, and when I run on the track my brain thinks I should be running hard.

Today was a 1 mile warmup, 3 miles at planned 6:50, which ended at 6:42 average, and a 1 mile cool down, and that's it!

Weather forecast is 22 degrees Celsius for the marathon day, which does not bode well. The website already talks of the dangers of heat stroke, and recommends running slower than planned pace, which makes me wonder do they know their audience!

I will play it by ear on the day and assess the conditions. No pressure of a sub 3 attempt, it was never on the cards. I would like to finish this one at a consistent pace after the crash at Dublin, just to get my confidence back. If I can pull it back towards a 3:10 time I would be delighted, but once I beat my Dublin time then it's a win.

A Gap in the Market

So as previously mentioned, not a lot of miles this week.
Due to many variables, I didn't get out on Friday or Saturday which was very disappointing.
Today was the last planned 20 miler, with 15 days to go. Gary has no difficulty advocating high mileage right up to the week previous to the marathon, and then the mileage drops off a cliff for the week before.
The weather was forecast for rain, clearing towards afternoon. I tried to leave it as late as possible, but at 1pm I just had to get going or the rest of the day would be gone.
It was still spilling as I headed out. Boston are using Gatorade endurance formula as their sports drink. As I have never had it before, last week when I was in the US I picked up a six pack of Gatorade in the same flavour. It was not endurance formula, but thirst quencher, which is a less strong  formula, but I figured it would give me a good idea if I could stomach it or not. Last thing you want to do on a marathon is taste a new drink for the first time.
So as I went out I was carrying two bottles, one of water, and a Gatorade. I hate carrying drinks!
After a few miles I was thoroughly soaked. I had set the garmin for a 7:25 pace, but for some reason it measured the first mile way too fast at 6:55, which it was not. I reset it, and kept going into the rain.

A thought struck me as I was trodding along. Athletes go to the likes of Sevelle for warm weather training, Madrid and Portugal for altitude training, why don't we market Ireland as a wet weather training destination! There is no shortage of the stuff, and if the rain is not around, it will surely be windy! Genius, no?

Anyway, back to the run, 7:25 was proving a very easy pace, likely as I hadn't run the previous two days and the legs were fresh. The Gatorade was no problem on the stomach at mile 11, and I drank it over the next three miles. Mile 17 and 18 were the fastest at sub 7:10 each, and I finished quite strongly at an average of 7:19 for 20 miles.

Being critical, two things. I had only 18 miles on the legs for the preceding 6 days, and i only ran for less than 2:30hrs. The second point is crucial. I know that the real test comes passing that 2:30 point, on the day I will still have plenty of minutes left to do, and that is what the longer slower runs are designed to simulate.

Shorter faster stuff for this week, and then the taper.

Getting Closer

Off on my travels last week so not much updated.
After the last reported 20 miler, Monday was rest day. The rest of that week was fairly standard.
Tuesday was an easy 6 miles, Wednesday easy 10, Thursday 8 miles with 4x1 mile repeats at 6:15 pace. Friday 8 miles easy, and Saturday was a rest day due family and weather.
Sunday was forecast to be sunshine and showers, and the morning was lovely, but I didn't get out until later towards the afternoon, and the skies were getting ominously darker in places.
Out I went for 20 miles anyway, and the first 12 miles went well. The plan was a steady pace 7:30.
At 13 miles the heavens opened. It wasn't just rain, it was hailstones associated with a thunderstorm, and I was forced to take shelter. I remember the very same thing happening this time last year before London. I was stopped for around 10 minutes, and I began to get very cold. I started to run from tree to tree, taking shelter as I went. It was only when the worst of the rain had passed that I began running steadily again, and it was a bit hard to get the rhythm going.
From 14 to 20 miles went well enough, although I felt a bit cheated that I had to stop, as it didn't really give me the big picture of 20 consistent miles.
What did surprise me though, was that after I had showered, it was as if I hadn't run at all.

I was off to USA on Monday, so a rest day on the trip over, and again, not much sign of 20 miles on the legs walking around. I did 10k on the treadmill on Tuesday which as always, felt like a real struggle.
Flying home Wednesday ruled out a run again.
Yesterday was a lovely day so I was hoping for a solid tempo run. One mile warmup, and I set off at a planned 6:50 pace, the distance uncertain, but it was hoping for a minimum of 10, ideally 12 at the pace. Not long in, at around 6 miles, it was evident that things would not go to plan.
I struggled badly, and ended the pace run at 8 miles, with 3 at 7:10 to finish on 12 in total.
I have to put it down to jet lag and the 20 miles in the legs still lingering behind the scenes. I will try that one again next week for the last time, and this weekend will be the last 20 miler.