lessons learned from Boston 2018 (cold, wet, wind)

sixthfastestman wrote:

Not sure I agree with the idea of checking gear if you have other options. It was madness last year and took 30-40 minutes to get your checked bag when I finished (I was in wave 1 corral 4 and finished around 3:04). It was actually really dangerous as some people waiting for checked bags were in rough shape and one guy next to me was literally turning blue.

Absolutely correct. I was fine the whole race (under 3:30), but the worst part was getting stuck in the cold rain at bag check shivering afterwards. by the time I got my bag i couldn't feel my hands or toes.

I too was on time goal for the first 10K or more even with a right hamstring that was not 100% after a mid-January injury. What slowed me down was the left hamstring suffered the same injury in the marathon.

I got to see the start of all the divisions and knew some pros would be very cold especially the elite women that had singlets and no arm warmers and probably no gloves. One or more women even wore singlets that showed their bare midriff. I thought many looked like they were dressed for dry, 50+ weather and wondered if they had ever run in sub-40 degree weather much less sub-40 with rain and head wind. I wish I had taken and worn compression sleeves on my legs although I don't recall my legs feeling cold. I did need the arm warmers I had on and appreciated my wool blend Darn Tough Vertex running socks.

I took my own gels about an hour before the start, one 15 minutes before the start, and ones around 4 and 8 miles. After that I took the gels provided on the course. I don't feel comfortable putting too many in the pockets of my racing shorts or attaching more than a few to the inside of the waistband. For those that find the gels provided on the course acceptable I would recommended taking those and only taking your own if you want some before the first BAA provided location. You can take more than one at a gel distribution point and hold onto it for later in the race if you think you need more.

My legs buckled at the finish line so I was wheel chaired to the heated medical tent. My legs have buckled before at a marathon finish line once I switched to walking or I just have a little trouble with balance and walking straight so I don't think the cold was the cause. I felt strong enough to walk out of the tent at a very slow pace after about 15 minutes. I figured they may have needed the chair for someone else. As soon as I left the heated tent I started shaking from hypothermia. The thermal ponchos should have been handed out first at the finish line rather than last. It was a cold day so the water did not need to be first at the finish line. I had a short wait at gear pickup because I came so much slower than my bib #/BQ time predicted so most of the runners I started with finished long before I did. The BAA rules do not allow runners to change in the gear tents but volunteers thankfully ignored the rule and choose to not see runners changing inside even as they announced the rule out loud. I did see runners 4 to 6 deep at higher bib number location. The BAA should spread out the gear based on the end of the bib number rather than the start so that all gear tents are getting about the same number of runners throughout the day. They stilled need one or two volunteers at each tent even though few were approaching for gear while at the high demand tent they could only put so many volunteers in it before they had little room to work. After I changed I entered the nearest MTBA station. Once underground there was a very long hallway were many runners were changing into their dry clothes. That looked like a much better place to change rather than out in the ran by the gear tents.

Last year in the week before the race there was an official announcement from the BAA that stated due to the expected weather conditions runners would be allowed to carry a pair of shoes with them onto the BAA buses. The shoes did not need to be in the official 1 gallon plastic bag. I would carry them in your own clear, water tight, plastic bag along with a dry pair of socks in the shoes. I did not want to bring an old pair with me on the plane due to limited luggage space so I placed plastic bags over my racing socks that I wore. I took the bags off just before the race. The point is to keep our feet dry and warm before the race which I accomplished. Everyone's shoes and socks were soaked shortly after the start of the race no matter what so I did not see a need to keep my shoes dry before the race as long as the bags over my socks kept my feet dry before the race. My shoes did not get muddy as I skipped the runner village. Some tried to keep their shoes and socks dry by placing thin bags over the shoes they were wearing. Those bags likely tore within minutes at the runner village.

Lots of good advice so far on here. These are my thoughts, some of which have been mentioned already:

1. The forecast looks to be better than last year, at least as of today. It looks like it will be warmer and less windy. I'm not sure which direction the wind will blow, but last year it was a head wind for a large chunk of the race and it got stronger as we got closer to the finish. It looks like it could rain just as much or more than last year though. But because the other two things aren't as bad I'm guessing we will all be much more comfortable.

2. Know yourself. My wife and I both ran it. She's a tiny girl and I'm a bigger guy. She wore a long sleeve, hat, gloves, and short tights. I wore short shorts and a singlet. I had gloves and a hat on at the start, but I threw the hat off at about 5k and the gloves off at maybe 10k or 15k, can't remember. Both of us prefer colder conditions and I think we wore the right things during the race, but we were both freezing after the race until we got our stuff. Had either of us stopped to walk I'm sure we wouldn't have finished. Instead I ran a 2:51 when I was hoping for about 2:48 (PR is 2:40) and she ran a PR of 3:17, although she was hoping for sub 3:15.

3. Bring throwaway clothes. They didn't limit what we could bring so I brought throwaway shoes, pants, and a sweatshirt and wore a trash bag. I changed into my race shoes maybe 5 minutes before the race and threw off my sweats probably 2 minutes before. I was immediately soaked once I got racing, but I was plenty comfortable at the start and I think that made a big difference mentally.

4. Take your nutrition. I'm bigger so I discovered a while ago I need more nutrition. So I bring several Gu's ( I think I took 5-6 during Boston last year, Boom is my brand of choice) and always try to do Gatorade and water at every station. Just because the weather sucks doesn't mean you should skip these stops. They're still very important.

5. Just race. Forget about time. You've done at least one successful marathon before this. You know how it should feel. I always try to feel bored the first 10 miles of a marathon to make sure I stay within myself. I certainly wasn't bored mentally as it was my first Boston and I was soaking it all in. But I definitely let alot of people pass me (started in wave 1 corral 1). It felt like I was getting passed for at least the first 15k of the race. But then I spent the rest of the race passing people. My splits weren't great. I think I was 1:23-1:28? But the first 5k is especially fast on that course. But I will say that the carnage on the course definitely helped me. Every time I passed somebody who was walking I would use it as motivation. In weather like this I think it's really helpful to use the things around you to keep going. I used the crowd alot too. They were already great, but I would wave my arms to tell them to get louder (yes, I was THAT guy) and it really helped me out. I normally don't do that, but I thought it was appropriate for this race and it seemed to work.

6. Smile. this is not so much my advice but Kipchoge's. I read somewhere that when he starts hurting in a marathon he smiles and it makes him feel better. I tried it for the first time in a marathon and it really helped.

My beans and frank were shriveled up to nothing.

For what it's worth, if current forecast holds up, it looks fairly similar to conditions for 2018 Chicago marathon. Having run both 2018 Boston and 2018 Chicago, I can tell you that there was an enormous difference in conditions between the two races was enormous. The additional 15-20 degrees in temperature, coupled with a light rain (as opposed to downpours) were game changers. I didn't feel like I was affected at all by the conditions in Chicago. All of this is to say that I think people are getting spooked a bit by how historically (and at times comically) bad the conditions were at last year's race. This year won't be 100% ideal, but from the looks of it, it will be a lot closer to 2018 Chicago than to last year's race. Also, speaking as a local, the Boston weather person I trust most is David Epstein, @growingwisdom on twitter.

OK so these are no all lesson learned because some were already known.

1. Wear what you would have worn during a long run in same conditions. Although some from southern CA may have never experienced such conditions, most of us had to run in those conditions or worse multiple times over the winter. (Does Galen Rupp really wear a mask at 30 degrees for a regular workout?) If you always opted to stay indoors during those conditions then stop doing that so you can learn what to wear.

2. If you have a friend some place along the course then have him/her provide a change of gloves/hat.

3. Wear two bags over each foot while walking to the start. Last year one wasn't enough.

4. Run faster so you can get inside sooner.

5. Whatever you are wearing to sit in athlete's village, add at least one more layer.

2018 Boston Runner wrote:

Thank you darkwave for the blog post.

I too suffer from Raynauds. I can't recall for sure but it is likely that I wore vinyl exam gloves under my regular running gloves when I ran Boston in 2018. Sweat will pool inside the vinyl gloves but as long as I am generating heat the sweat will not cool off and thus will not cause my hands to get cold.

This is the solution to the running in the rain. The only time my hands get wet in these is when the water drips from my sleeves into them. But if you cinch them down well enough, it minimizes this.

I was surprised nobody of note wore tights. I wouldn't go out for a long run in those conditions in shorts. Are they just not worth it?

More shameless self promotion, but here are some thoughts on what I did for Boston 2018. Also, you can follow the forecast all weekend at the site!

https://runweather.com/2019/04/11/how-i-dressed-for-a-pr-at-the-2018-boston-marathon/

In summary, "My money tree out back allows me to use or ditch about $1,000 worth of gear during a 3-hour race." Sure, yeah, that's the world we all live in.

RunWeather wrote:

More shameless self promotion, but here are some thoughts on what I did for Boston 2018. Also, you can follow the forecast all weekend at the site!

https://runweather.com/2019/04/11/how-i-dressed-for-a-pr-at-the-2018-boston-marathon/