any advice on how to run it for a 2.30-40 marathoner?
any advice on how to run it for a 2.30-40 marathoner?
I am not experienced enough with marathons or Boston to help you with that like many on here are. I was aiming for about a 2:40 last year and just completely "fell apart" after the hills.
Training was not adequate, and my only advice (as you have probably heard a thousand times) is to somehow save your thighs on the first half of downhills. It is hard to do, but whatever you think is the right pace, slow down another 10-12 seconds per mile until it feels like you are walking and maybe you will have enough to make a strong push the last 8 miles or so. Good luck and hope for cool weather and overcast clouds (I am still nursing my sunburn from a year ago-ha!)
The hotels in Copley Plaza are expensive but save you a lot of hassles by staying there. You can get to them by train from the airport and you can walk to them after the race. There are tons of places to eat close to them and you are near the expo. Driving in Boston is a nightmare.
any advice on how to run it for a 2.30-40 marathoner?
I think the keys are to eat enough in the morning and dress warm enough for when you sit out in the park. A lot of people don't eat enough in the morning and run on fumes because their stomach is empty due the fact that they haven't eaten anything all day and they are running at 2:00 in the afternoon and wasted a bunch of energy being cold sitting out in the cold at the park.
Of course, everyone else will warn you about going too fast. It is a weird thing to start a marathon with everyone around you going around your speed.
Get your legs prepared to run lots of downhills. Everyone who tries to race Boston will warn you that it is the downhill, not Heartbreak, that limited them from running faster.
Watch out for the downhill around 15. A lot of people fly the first half and then slow down from around 13 to 15 then try to make up some time and get back to the pace they ran the first 15 and fly down this long downhill. Don't do it. It will wreck your legs. Same thing for the downhill around 21. A lot of people get too excited about cresting the last uphill and open up too soon and fly from mile 21 to 22 only to then have some baseball beaten quads for the last couple miles.
The start is fast at Boston. Steeply downhill and no public servants as impediments. I went out one year looking to hit 5:30 for the first mile and came through in 5:05. It felt like I was going 6:00. There was a thread about this a few weeks ago. The advice then was sound: negative split the effort and you will run almost equal splits which is about as good as can be done in Boston. Other than Ndebereba, the winners have almost always run nearly dead even splits. Hold off as much as you can for the first 16, work the hills but don't redline, and then start emptying the tank from 22-26.
Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? No!Well it ain't over now! Just because Boston ain't like it used to be (back in 1986 and 87 my brother dropped me off thru the back door about a 1/4 mile from the start 1 hour before race time), doesn't mean it's not worth running.
conor fitz wrote:
Confucius we don't want you anyway. Boston isn't about PRs, it's about kickin' ass and taking names on Heartbreak Hill, it's about Bill Rodgers winning in a t-shirt he made himself, it's about Comas Ndeti 3-peating and naming his son "Boston," it's about guys from BC in jeans running alongside you at mile 21 with a beer in their hand, it's about THAT.
So I'm not gonna sit here, and let you badmouth the United States of America. Now who's with me!
It was us Japs, you idiot, not the Germans! We never get any respect!
7 years of college down the drain........
Fuji wrote:
It was us Japs, you idiot, not the Germans! We never get any respect!
Bluto: "Over ? Nothing is over until WE say it is ! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor ? Hell no ! And aint over now !"
Otter: "The Germans ?"
Boone: "Forget it, he's rolling."
Bluto: "'Cuz when the going gets tough.......(dramatic pause),.....the tough get going ! Who's with me ? Let's gooooooooooooo !!!!"
I've got it on DVD, will be watching it again tonight!"Oh boy this is gonna be great"!
nikeman wrote:
Bluto: "Over ? Nothing is over until WE say it is ! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor ? Hell no ! And aint over now !"
Otter: "The Germans ?"
Boone: "Forget it, he's rolling."
Bluto: "'Cuz when the going gets tough.......(dramatic pause),.....the tough get going ! Who's with me ? Let's gooooooooooooo !!!!"
I recently purchased the "Double Secret Probation Edition" myself.
Yup, that's the one.
nikeman wrote:
I recently purchased the "Double Secret Probation Edition" myself.