This was my second attempt at qualifying for Boston. The first attempted ended with my time coming up 2 minutes and 15 seconds short at 3:17:15. Now that I will be in the 45-49 age group bracket for the Boston 2017 I get an extra 10 minutes, so a 3:25:00.<\/p>\n
Going into the race I was pretty confident that I would be able to hold at least 7:30s for the first 20 miles. At that point I would reevaluate how I was feeling, but at least I would have about 6 minutes in that bank at that point. I would just have to hold 7:49 the rest of the way and I would be in. Well, that was the plan anyway.<\/p>\n
The weather race day morning was going to be cold. A little colder than I had actually hoped for. I like it cold, but I didn’t want it so cold that I was going to have to wear running pants. I got to the race early and walked over to the Tsongas Arena and back to get a feel for how cold it was. I finally decided when I got back to the car that I would go with shorts and my long sleeve tech shirt and one other shirt that I would throw away if I got to warm. I think the temperature was 37 and the high for the day was going to be around 43.<\/p>\n
Looking around at the start of the race as we are all lined up I noticed the pacer holding the 3:15 sign. I know that is about a 7:27 pace. I feel like I’m close to that, but then I read the back of his shirt and they have taken into account that to qualify for Boston this year you needed a BQ-2:30. That means this guy is going to run a 3:12:30. I know I’m not going to hit that, if I’m having a good day 3:15 is possible. I decide that I’m going to try to keep that group in my sites for the first half of the race.<\/p>\n
The race starts and it is pretty crowded until the half-marathoners break off, but not to bad. There is a guy next to me dressed as bacon as we run. EVERYONE keeps yelling to bacon, “Yeah bacon”, “Bacon is awesome”. It was really pretty funny, but around mile 5 bacon disappeared. During those first few miles we were going at a pretty good clip, average 7:21 for the first 5. I had made a decision to take a Gel every 4 miles this year instead of every 5 like the previous marathon. I made sure they had more sodium in them and also made sure to drink at every water stop. I was determined not to have my calves cramp up like last time.<\/p>\n
I was feeling pretty good and the miles were just ticking by. The next 5\u00a0miles (6-10) were 7:27 and I fell a little behind that 3:15 group, but I could still see them. They were probably about 100-150 yards ahead of me. I was ok with that though, I needed to run my race and stay in my zone. Another 5 miles go by and we cross the bridge to head back out and the crowd is getting thinner, people have either kept up with the 3:15 group or they have dropped way back because it was just too much for them. I’m averaging 7:25 for these 5 miles (11-15) and still feel pretty comfortable.<\/p>\n
Running out toward the bridge the second time there is a group that fell off the back of 3:15 and they are chatting and discussing strategy and I thought I heard them say they were going to try to average 7:30s the rest of the way. I’m thinking great. I can do that! The problem is they are slowing more than that and they are all in the way. Running out to the bridge all you have is a little shoulder to run on. I finally decided I need to be away from them and take off around them and get out in front of them a little bit. I don’t see them again. However there is a young woman that was running just a few yards ahead of me for a while and she was also stuck behind them. When I made the move apparently she did too. When she catches up to me I joked with her that “hey my pacer is back!”, because she was doing a great job of just ticking off the miles and I was hardly ever having to look at my watch.<\/p>\n
The next 5 miles (16-20) were tough. They were into the wind and on the road with busy traffic. I couldn’t wait to get over the bridge. Average pace was 7:30 according to my watch. Unfortunately at this point it seemed like my watch was off on the distance a little bit. Not enough to have me overly concerned, but I knew that I was really about 5 seconds slower overall than what the watch was telling me. As I crossed mile 20 they a picture of a wall painted or chalked out on the ground. I didn’t really care for that. Really, we need that psychological nonsense while we are running?<\/p>\n
Twenty miles in. This is the point when I thought, just 10K to do. Don’t do anything crazy like pick up the pace, don’t skip a Gel, don’t skip a water station. Keep on ticking off those miles. This strategy was working pretty well, until around mile 22 and 1\/2 when I my left quad started to tighten and I thought to myself just relax, don’t get excite, it will pass. Well, it never really went away, but it didn’t get any worse either. Miles 21 and 22 were both 7:30s so still rolling along.<\/p>\n
Mile 23 I kind of caught up with a group and we rolled through a water station together and as we came out I was feeling good. A little too good as I’m running along with this group I look at my watch and it says 9:30 pace. Holy Shit! Am I lying kid? Luckily the entire mile wasn’t over and I picked up the pace and managed to get it back to 8:07. It would be my only mile that was over 8 minutes. My pacer friend had fallen behind and I wasn’t paying attention. Luckily I didn’t lose too much time. I rolled through the last 3 miles at 7:35, 7:35 and 7:32.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t until I crossed the last bridge with about a half mile to go that I finally let myself believe that I was going to qualify. After my last experience I just wanted to cross that finish line. Total time was 3:17:57. A\u00a0BQ-7:03!!! I’m thinking 7 minutes should be enough of a buffer to get into the Boston 2017 Marathon.<\/p>\n
I want to thank my family for coming out to support me and be there at the finish. Also thank you to coach Fernando Braz for preparing me for the race.<\/p>\n
Here is the Garmin and Strava uploads, because if it isn’t on Strava it didn’t happen. As you will see the distance was a little off. Says I did 26.45 miles.<\/p>\n
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\nhttps:\/\/www.strava.com\/activities\/415687723<\/a><\/p>\n