Canada Girl wrote:
I ran it with even splits, which involved a much harder effort for the second half. Everyone warned me about going out too fast, but back where I was (3:30 female) the congestion prevented me from being able to go out too fast.
I trained specifically for this course, including weekly hill workouts for most of the four months leading up. I found that the hills were really easy, but noticed that after them, I started seeing a lot of pace bands on the ground, and people who are normally much, much faster than me doing the marathon death march. So, as a few people previously mentioned, train for the hills and watch those first few k.
Yep. You have to watch out going out too fast or be subject to the death march. People love to motor down those first downhills with the adrenaline and lots of other fast runners with you or ahead of you. Not what you want to do but still lots and lots of experienced marathoners do it.
Get one of those pace bands she saw on the ground after the Newton Hills and stick to it. I used one last year after being one of those that got caught up in the easiness of those first 4-5 miles in my first Boston and paid for it dearly. The wristband just reminded me that I needed to slow down because it really felt like my pace should be 30 seconds faster. I got it from findmymarathon.com and I see now you can get one with 2 sides that has the elevation on the back of it. There are other sites too. Link to the Boston one.
http://findmymarathon.com/pacebandresult.php?race=Boston%20Marathon.
In the next few weeks, train on hills. It's a hilly course - a net down hill, but in Newton there are uphills right at the time you don't want hills. It helped me to know where each of the hills are in Newton too. Not just where heartbreak is. Good luck.