It's finally that time. After 14 weeks of training the only thing left to do is to wake up, get on my race gear, eat and hydrate and jog over to the Boston Commons to catch a bus out to Hopkinton at 6:45. I expect to be at Athlete's Village and chilling under cover no later than 8 am where I plan to do absolutely nothing but stay off my feet, lightly eat and hydrate and make a few trips to the bathroom lines.
The weather for tomorrow should be absolutely perfect for the marathon. It looks like temps will span the mid-50's to maybe lower 60's in Brookline before we head into the Boston and it's expected to be a little cooler. The only real issue is we're looking at a 10-12 mph headwind out of the east which will be pushing on us a good part of the race since the route is basically from west to east. There's nothing anyone can do about the weather anyway except to prepare mentally, adjust accordingly and just deal with it.
The race strategy I've landed on for tomorrow is decidedly simple and also influenced by the reality of my lower-right leg tendon still not being fully healed from an injury it sustained (while doing track intervals) in late January). While I don't expect a problem with finishing the marathon, the pain over the first 5-6 miles will slow me down a bit until it's fully warm and the rush of the race sweeps it all away.
My approach for tomorrow will be to really ease back on the first couple of miles that are downhill and run 8:20's and then ease into something through 5 miles that will probably have me there in about 41:00 - 42:00. Slow compared to my normal race pace but the goal is to hit the half marathon mark in 1:46:00 - 1:47:30 leaving enough gas in the tank to start picking it up a bit heading in the Newton Hills, maintain on the hills through 21 and then hit the gas from 21 - to the finish.
I'm really not sure what to expect tomorrow other than I've trained hard and been as committed as ever to my coach and the plan we built for Boston -- and trust that I will run the best race I can. If I'm struggling early I'm going to back off and find a pace I can support without going to the pain cave too early. I figure I could even run a 1:50:00 opening half and leave enough gas in the tank to get into Boston at a faster pace leading to a decent time.
What time am I going to run -- hard to say. I'm sticking with my predictions from 10 days ago. Anything sub 3:33:00 is an A performance. If I don't have my A game anything sub 3:40 is still a great day; otherwise I'm going to enjoy the run into Boston and look forward to a great steak and bottle of wine tomorrow night!
The weather for tomorrow should be absolutely perfect for the marathon. It looks like temps will span the mid-50's to maybe lower 60's in Brookline before we head into the Boston and it's expected to be a little cooler. The only real issue is we're looking at a 10-12 mph headwind out of the east which will be pushing on us a good part of the race since the route is basically from west to east. There's nothing anyone can do about the weather anyway except to prepare mentally, adjust accordingly and just deal with it.
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| Winter's grip is still evident in the Boston Commons as there are no early leaves or even bud break to signal Spring's arrival. |
My approach for tomorrow will be to really ease back on the first couple of miles that are downhill and run 8:20's and then ease into something through 5 miles that will probably have me there in about 41:00 - 42:00. Slow compared to my normal race pace but the goal is to hit the half marathon mark in 1:46:00 - 1:47:30 leaving enough gas in the tank to start picking it up a bit heading in the Newton Hills, maintain on the hills through 21 and then hit the gas from 21 - to the finish.
I'm really not sure what to expect tomorrow other than I've trained hard and been as committed as ever to my coach and the plan we built for Boston -- and trust that I will run the best race I can. If I'm struggling early I'm going to back off and find a pace I can support without going to the pain cave too early. I figure I could even run a 1:50:00 opening half and leave enough gas in the tank to get into Boston at a faster pace leading to a decent time.
What time am I going to run -- hard to say. I'm sticking with my predictions from 10 days ago. Anything sub 3:33:00 is an A performance. If I don't have my A game anything sub 3:40 is still a great day; otherwise I'm going to enjoy the run into Boston and look forward to a great steak and bottle of wine tomorrow night!
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