Boston Marathon - It's a Wrap!

It's hard to believe that with today's 12-mile tempo run at Green Lake (Seattle) that I'm in full taper mode for Boston on April 18.     After 6 months of training in what turned out to be the rainiest winter in Seattle history (44" of rain fell from 10/1/15 - 3/31/15), my last run of substance in this training cycle was under blue skies and temps approaching 70.    I was doubly lucky in that my 17 year old son Ethan is on Spring Break and was able to run with me today and help pace me over 12 miles.    

For all of my prior marathons, I've always come to Green Lake to run a final 12-14 mile time trial 14-10 days before my race as a final indication of what to expect on race day.    When I ran a 3:20:00 PR in 2011 in Vancouver B.C., I got through 14 miles in 7:29's and crushed it.    For the Portland Marathon in October of 2014 (another BQ) where I ran 3:27:30 I got through 14 in 7:45's.     Today's 12-mile in 7:54's and 1:34:00 felt solid with the final 5 miles in 38:40 and finding a good rhythm in the 7:45 range.     If it weren't for my tendon injury which has kept me off the track, I can only wonder just might've been had I been able to train a full cycle of tempo and intervals over the last 14 weeks, but that I've been able to ham-and-egg my fitness with help from my coach and a lot of innovation on the PT front (Alter-G's, Dry Needling, etc.).

What does race day have in store for me?   It's too early to say; however, the good news is that early indications on the weather are temperatures in the 50's with wind at about 10 mph out of the NE.   As long as it's not hot or a gale force headwind, I'll take whatever comes on race morning.   

I plan to sift through my data, take feedback a race plan review with my coach yesterday and publish my final race plan next week.  Stay tuned!

Me and my 17 year old son Ethan who accompanied me today.

Seattle's 2.8 mile loop around Green Lake has always been my choice for a final pre-marathon time trial over the years.  The weather today was simply spectacular after a winter of heavy rain and bad weather on nearly all of my outdoor runs.

Not a record my any stretch based on past performances, but I will take it given the soft tissue tendon injury I've been managing this training cycle.   To expect a BQ on April 18, I likely needed to run this in 7:30 splits.