2017 Boston Marathon
OK, Here's my race report. The funny names referenced below are online friends from a Boston Marathon forum.
It was a fantastic weekend. I had a fun time at Beerworks hanging out with fellow forumites Saturday evening and then went to the Expo on Sunday.
Sunday morning I did the usual Aussie Carb Load. There was a suburban office park with no traffic that made for ~1 mile loop. So, a short warmup run over to the park, then a 5:56 mile and a cooldown back to the hotel. I chugged a ton of Gatorade powder and then it was off to the Expo.
One challenge with driving in from the 'burbs was that I didn't know that the toll lanes have all gone automated so at some point there is going to be an additional bill from Hertz and I'm a little scared what the extra convenience charges are going to look like. Before heading into the Expo I went to the Runner's World pop up store and scored some free gloves with the name of 8 of the towns on the fingers. Molly Huddle was giving an interview in the store at the time and it was cool seeing her in person. At the expo I was directed to an incredibly long line that looped around and seemed to stretch on forever. Apparently, bib pickup wasn't quite open. Once it did open, a line with literally a thousand plus people disappeared in a slow walk. The entire wait to get into bib pickup was maybe 10 minutes total. A quick walk through the Expo and I found nothing to buy this year! I need new compression shorts but the Boston edition for 2017 has gotten rid of the really useful Gu pockets on the side.
Once the Expo was done, it was time to walk over to Hackker's hotel to drop off an extra meal ticket that I wouldn't be using. It was a pleasant walk, but when I got there I found that the ticket had fallen out of my pocket. Fortunately, Multi saw me in the lobby and was able to pass along his ticket so everything worked out fine. After a walk back over to the parking garage there was another celebrity sighting. Jordan Hasay walked up next to me while waiting for a crossing signal to change. I wasn't certain it was her until I saw the start line photos. I wish I'd had the courage to ask her at the time. She is tiny!
Now onto the racing part...
Monday morning I got to the South Street parking lot in time to hop on the first bus to the Athlete's Village. By about 6:05am, I was at the red dot and just relaxing until people started to show up. Multi was the first one to arrive, but soon we were joined by several others. Like Shreve, I was enjoying the red dot so much that I didn't really care so much about running the race. I did really want to get to the shorter porta potty lines by the start so when I realized that Wave 2 was already on the way out of the parking lot, I bolted and left all of my stuff laying around. Thank you volunteers for picking up after me, I promise it won't happen next year.
With the heat/sun the way it is I was feeling no pressure at all to kill myself for a fast time, but I did want to make sure that I had at least a BQ-5 and that I finished healthy. The plan was to run around 7 minutes a mile for the first few miles and then look at HR and assess how I was feeling and adjust from there.
Over at the start I got to the front of my corrale and for several minutes I stood behind a guy that had a custom t-shirt on. I must have looked at it 10 times before I realized what it was talking about. The shirt had a cartoon brick wall on it and at the top it said, "Hate the Wall Running Club". At the bottom it said, "Mexico". I tapped the guy on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs up, but I'm not sure he understood much of what I said.
Once the gun went off it was really hard to find any running lanes. I usually have an easy time finding ways to weave through a crowd efficiently. I've not had a problem at Boston trying to run 10 minutes faster than my qualifying time when I was in Wave 1, but in Wave 2 and with people being cautious of the conditions I felt trapped. For at least the first 10 miles of the race I was constantly getting stuck. The most effective thing after a mile or so was to get over on the shoulder of the road and skirt along the edge, but at times even that was blocked. I was routinely doing sprints whenever the shoulder of the road opened up. The other notable challenge from the first few miles was that around mile one I tore my bib. I was adjusting the race belt and pulled a hole in the bib. I spent the entire race with my bib folded over and tucked into my belt afraid that it would get lost.
Around mile 10 I had friends on the side of the road with a quart sized plastic bag full of ice. For the next 3 miles until the ice finished melting they were my favorite people in the entire world. There was actually too much ice so as I passed people I kept asking runners if they wanted some. Once I gave half of it away, I kept switching the bag between hands trying to get my body temperature down. Some of it went into my hat and some of it was eaten, but all of it was enjoyed thoroughly.
Someplace between miles 10 and 16 I heard someone call out, "Couch, hey Couch". I turned around and it was Matthew. He was the first forumite I've ever seen on the course. We exchanged a few words and then I took off again. It was great to see you Matthew!
By the time I got to mile 16 things had opened up, but I held back on the downhill trying to remind myself that bombing down this last hill was just going to cause more suffering going back up the Newton Hills. Up through this point I had been pretty steadily passing people. Once I got to the hills, I was surprised that I was still passing people. I wasn't passing as quickly, but for every 1 or 2 people that passed me I probably passed 10-20 other people. I used the counting trick where I count every time my right foot hits the ground until I reach 100 and then repeat. It worked really well through the first few miles of hills. Once I got to heartbreak I started slowing down but there were very few people passing me, that is until our own bouncy, happy Alberto came flying by. He called out to me with a big smile on his face. It really was a highlight of the race to watch him leave me in his dust!
Once I got to mile 21 it was time to go to work. I was working hard to get good turnover out of my legs. I was surprised when the splits were only showing 8ish minute miles. I really felt like I was running a lot harder than that. But I just kept pushing and as the finish line got closer I was pushing harder and harder. I figured out later from the running dynamics on my watch that my stride length had gotten pretty short for these last 5 miles, so that explains why I wasn't seeing better times.
Mentally, I prepared for the race by telling myself that it was going to be a 16 mile warmup followed by two 5 mile races. In the first 16 miles I ran mostly by feel with only an occasional HR check, but nailed the effort with 166 HR. My successful marathons are typically in the mid 160's. The next 5 miles going up the Newton Hills I was surprised to see that my HR was in the low 160's. In most races I would have taken that as a sign to suck it up and push harder, but with modest goals and warm weather I let it go and just kept running 'easier'. The last 5 miles my HR looks like a ski jump. Early in that last segment I was back up around 166, but then a few miles later was in the low 170's (HM effort) and by the last mile I was in the 180's (5k effort) even though for these last 5 miles I never looked at my watch. I'm very pleased about being able to feel my effort without constant watch checks.
When I had the finish line in site it said 3:20+ but I knew that couldn't be right since I was a few minutes back at the start. I just kept pushing and figured it would all work out. The final time was 3:19, so I was thrilled. Once I stopped I did get a little woozy, but after a minute was fine. A short walk later I was on a bus back to the start listening to the war stories of everyone around me.
All things considered, I felt pretty good after the race. I had to pee by the time I got back to the start line so hydration was successful. By the next day I was on a bike and two days after that I was in the pool. I'll resume running this weekend. I only managed 3 runs outside in the 18 weeks leading up to Boston so I am thrilled to escape that course without feeling like I've been beaten up with a baseball bat.
It was a fantastic weekend. I had a fun time at Beerworks hanging out with fellow forumites Saturday evening and then went to the Expo on Sunday.
Sunday morning I did the usual Aussie Carb Load. There was a suburban office park with no traffic that made for ~1 mile loop. So, a short warmup run over to the park, then a 5:56 mile and a cooldown back to the hotel. I chugged a ton of Gatorade powder and then it was off to the Expo.
Once the Expo was done, it was time to walk over to Hackker's hotel to drop off an extra meal ticket that I wouldn't be using. It was a pleasant walk, but when I got there I found that the ticket had fallen out of my pocket. Fortunately, Multi saw me in the lobby and was able to pass along his ticket so everything worked out fine. After a walk back over to the parking garage there was another celebrity sighting. Jordan Hasay walked up next to me while waiting for a crossing signal to change. I wasn't certain it was her until I saw the start line photos. I wish I'd had the courage to ask her at the time. She is tiny!
Now onto the racing part...
With the heat/sun the way it is I was feeling no pressure at all to kill myself for a fast time, but I did want to make sure that I had at least a BQ-5 and that I finished healthy. The plan was to run around 7 minutes a mile for the first few miles and then look at HR and assess how I was feeling and adjust from there.
Over at the start I got to the front of my corrale and for several minutes I stood behind a guy that had a custom t-shirt on. I must have looked at it 10 times before I realized what it was talking about. The shirt had a cartoon brick wall on it and at the top it said, "Hate the Wall Running Club". At the bottom it said, "Mexico". I tapped the guy on the shoulder and gave him a thumbs up, but I'm not sure he understood much of what I said.
Once the gun went off it was really hard to find any running lanes. I usually have an easy time finding ways to weave through a crowd efficiently. I've not had a problem at Boston trying to run 10 minutes faster than my qualifying time when I was in Wave 1, but in Wave 2 and with people being cautious of the conditions I felt trapped. For at least the first 10 miles of the race I was constantly getting stuck. The most effective thing after a mile or so was to get over on the shoulder of the road and skirt along the edge, but at times even that was blocked. I was routinely doing sprints whenever the shoulder of the road opened up. The other notable challenge from the first few miles was that around mile one I tore my bib. I was adjusting the race belt and pulled a hole in the bib. I spent the entire race with my bib folded over and tucked into my belt afraid that it would get lost.
Around mile 10 I had friends on the side of the road with a quart sized plastic bag full of ice. For the next 3 miles until the ice finished melting they were my favorite people in the entire world. There was actually too much ice so as I passed people I kept asking runners if they wanted some. Once I gave half of it away, I kept switching the bag between hands trying to get my body temperature down. Some of it went into my hat and some of it was eaten, but all of it was enjoyed thoroughly.
Someplace between miles 10 and 16 I heard someone call out, "Couch, hey Couch". I turned around and it was Matthew. He was the first forumite I've ever seen on the course. We exchanged a few words and then I took off again. It was great to see you Matthew!
By the time I got to mile 16 things had opened up, but I held back on the downhill trying to remind myself that bombing down this last hill was just going to cause more suffering going back up the Newton Hills. Up through this point I had been pretty steadily passing people. Once I got to the hills, I was surprised that I was still passing people. I wasn't passing as quickly, but for every 1 or 2 people that passed me I probably passed 10-20 other people. I used the counting trick where I count every time my right foot hits the ground until I reach 100 and then repeat. It worked really well through the first few miles of hills. Once I got to heartbreak I started slowing down but there were very few people passing me, that is until our own bouncy, happy Alberto came flying by. He called out to me with a big smile on his face. It really was a highlight of the race to watch him leave me in his dust!
Once I got to mile 21 it was time to go to work. I was working hard to get good turnover out of my legs. I was surprised when the splits were only showing 8ish minute miles. I really felt like I was running a lot harder than that. But I just kept pushing and as the finish line got closer I was pushing harder and harder. I figured out later from the running dynamics on my watch that my stride length had gotten pretty short for these last 5 miles, so that explains why I wasn't seeing better times.
Mentally, I prepared for the race by telling myself that it was going to be a 16 mile warmup followed by two 5 mile races. In the first 16 miles I ran mostly by feel with only an occasional HR check, but nailed the effort with 166 HR. My successful marathons are typically in the mid 160's. The next 5 miles going up the Newton Hills I was surprised to see that my HR was in the low 160's. In most races I would have taken that as a sign to suck it up and push harder, but with modest goals and warm weather I let it go and just kept running 'easier'. The last 5 miles my HR looks like a ski jump. Early in that last segment I was back up around 166, but then a few miles later was in the low 170's (HM effort) and by the last mile I was in the 180's (5k effort) even though for these last 5 miles I never looked at my watch. I'm very pleased about being able to feel my effort without constant watch checks.
When I had the finish line in site it said 3:20+ but I knew that couldn't be right since I was a few minutes back at the start. I just kept pushing and figured it would all work out. The final time was 3:19, so I was thrilled. Once I stopped I did get a little woozy, but after a minute was fine. A short walk later I was on a bus back to the start listening to the war stories of everyone around me.
All things considered, I felt pretty good after the race. I had to pee by the time I got back to the start line so hydration was successful. By the next day I was on a bike and two days after that I was in the pool. I'll resume running this weekend. I only managed 3 runs outside in the 18 weeks leading up to Boston so I am thrilled to escape that course without feeling like I've been beaten up with a baseball bat.
