Just how bad was the weather for Boston 2016? 90+% of my acquaintances tanked.

Yes, most were people I know that went into the race with at least solid preparation and no other big races looming.

Doclove wrote:

Why are you including off of and preponderance in one sentence? There is no reason to add of to off and adding a long word will not correct that gramatical abonimaton.

Sorry, brother. I write how I talk.

The runners I know from the dirty south tanked as well. One guy I know ran a 1:19 half recently so I figured he'd at least break 3:00 for a full. I was thinking he was capable of running 2:48 or 2:49 or so. He ran 3:40+ at Boston. It makes me want to run Boston even more now but I like challenges. I need to qualify first.

Somebody posted this earlier, but I don't think it can be over looked. A lot of runners see Boston as something put on the resume, but that is it. They put a lot of effort into the qualifier, then just do Boston as a long run.

I know very very few people that ran faster at Boston than their qualifying race.

I ran it. Was shooting for sub 2:50 and ran 3:04+. It wasn't the headwind acting slowing you down. For me, the headwind just quickly dried any sweat and combined with the heat, the hot sun, and the lack of training in those conditions in the leadup made replenishing fluids impossible. I took water from almost every station and from spectators and actually stopped sweating at mile 17. I imagine here were a lot of others in a similar situation.

It was pretty warm and dry out there until we hit the top of Heartbreak and the headwind cooled us down. In particular, running thru Natick (Mile 10) was brutally warm.

This was my 17th marathon. Last year I ran 2:59 but this year I was 3:13 and I dont think I could have run any faster.

Doclove wrote:

Why are you including off of and preponderance in one sentence? There is no reason to add of to off and adding a long word will not correct that gramatical abonimaton.

Good thing it's not a Grammatical abonimaTRON. I hear those things bite if you misspell.

Here's my account for what it's worth:

First Boston and I had a pretty massive blowup (1:22:30, 1:32:00) but was still rolling people until about halfway up heartbreak before the wheels came off. At that point a lot of the people I passed through Newton came back on me through Brookline. I trained incredibly hard (by old working dad standards) for this and am the fittest I've been since stopping running after college. This was by no means a victory lap. For fitness reference, did 6:28s for 15 3 weeks ago feeling like I had a lot left at the end at 5200' altitude.

It was a LOT hotter in Hoptkinton and Framingham than in Boston but I felt I handled the heat as well as possible. I ran with a much faster college teammate who was high fiving fans along the side and a lot handed him bottles of water that we shared. We probably took on 20+ bottles plus what we got in the aid stations and were dumping a lot on our heads and getting almost sloshy stomachs. Most people around us were grabbing one water, maybe two where as we were drinking 2 and dumping another 1-2 at every station. I didn't see anyone hydrating or cooling as much as we were. I also took 3 salt stick pills. And in spite of all that I didn't pee until 5 hours after the race and it was pretty dark, indicating that I was still quite dehydrated. I've got to think that most people were substantially dehydrated. I'd done some 70 degree runs in CO but 95% of my long runs / tempos were below 50 degrees.

I felt what did me in was insufficient training on downhills. In spite of reading a lot of threads on here warning of the dangers of the downhills, I totally underestimated them and didn't train for them adequately. The closest my quads have felt to this was running down Longs Peak in Colorado with no training.

In order to have run down Longs Peak you would have had to hike up Longs Peak...which I've done but respect someone who can do that and then run down which I absolutely was not doing. Did you run through the boulder field?

They planned poorly. Spring is tricky in Boston. One year starting temp was around 100F. Other years I bet the concern was hypothermia.

In prep, runners should be spending the last two weeks preparing in case there is a warm start. If you are used to running in the 40s and it is 70, that is huuuuuuuuuge!

Spend the last 2 weeks overdressing and/or running inside on a treadmill to acclimate to the heat. I have yet to see any conclusions that if the weather is cooler you are doing yourself any harm with this strategy.

Pretty sure I was still "running" the boulder field on the way up, but didn't run much between there and getting below the boulder field on the way down. It really is the only experience that can describe how my quads felt coming off Heartbreak. I really failed to respect the Boston course.

hall and oakes wrote:

In order to have run down Longs Peak you would have had to hike up Longs Peak...which I've done but respect someone who can do that and then run down which I absolutely was not doing. Did you run through the boulder field?

Most local runners I followed cratered badly.

However, I saw a few just absolutely crush it and set PRs. It is hard to explain.

Were they just made for the marathon or ran slower than their fitness? Why did a few people manage ok in these conditions? Did they carry gels instead of relying on gatorade on-course? I'd love to know.

I blame a lot of the poor performances on the food court in the Copley Place Mall being closed. A lot of runners usually go to the expo and eat at the food court. This year they didn't have that option and skipped on their calories. They missed out on their cookies at Paradise Cafe, tacos and burritos at Qdopa, Sbarro Pizza, their clam chowder, their chicken and sides, and Ben and Jerry's. I sure hope the food court is back open next year.

The key to running well on Monday was to be well hydrated during the morning (maybe even over-hydrated) and to drink early and often.

Most people who I train with who went out looking for a time in the 230s and 240s will take fluids every other mile or even every 3. You had to go every mile. Didn't need to be a large amount of fluids, but you needed something.

The heat in the first 8-9 miles was direct and noticeable. In Wellesley and Newton there at least was a breeze to help cool off, but for most by then, it was too late and dehydration was already setting in.

Around here in Boston, it was a very tough day for local runners to try to race. We had maybe 10 days where that kind of sunlight had been present and felt strong. The problem was that we were stuck in the 40s for the 6 weeks leading into the marathon. There was one Sunday when we got up to 60 degrees in March, but that was it. The weekend before the marathon, I remember it was in the 30s. Just such a noticeable difference.

I will say that I've read comments on these boards from people claiming they had no knowledge these conditions were coming and were surprised that morning that it ended up that way. I can remember this happening in 2014 - we were expecting a high of the mid to upper 50s and temps hit 70. But this year, the news reports had reported for days leading up to the marathon that it was going to be warm until we hit Boston, where the seabreeze would overtake the temps and conditions that were more inland.