Am I living in the twilight zone? The Boston Marathon weather was terrible!

it wasnt that bad.

The two times I ran Boston, I always took that late start time into consideration and did my long runs in the late morning/early afternoon. At my first race, my wave started at 12:30 ET, so in my build up, I did my long runs starting at 11:30 am CT. I wanted to acclimate to the possible warmer temps, eating/fueling, and even just running at that time of day. I’m glad I did, because I think it really did help.

It was only 5 degrees cooler than the Trials where all people talked about was the weather

This new super shoe flock of runners is soft. I ran 2011 (PR year) and 2019, both of which have been mentioned on here as “warm years.” I’ve also run in 2 of what Runner’s World describes as the top 5 worst weather Boston Marathons (2012, 2018). Yesterday was damn near perfect.

I was at both. As a spectator in Orlando and a participant in Boston. It definitely felt warmer in Orlando, but neither race was in ideal conditions. Both required a slight adjustment in pace, unless you were heat acclimated and in peak fitness.

Floridian here, and I even felt like the conditions affected me. I don't think the temp itself was the issue, but rather a combination of no cloud cover/shade and little wind. Also, Florida had a cooler than average winter and I run at 5am when it's dark out, so most of my runs for this training cycle were in 40s-50s weather with no sun exposure. Given this, I wasn't well-acclimated to the conditions on Monday. From my experience, 60 degree weather can go either way. If it's rainy or windy, then it feels cold. But if it's sunny and/or humid, then it usually feels warm. In any case, I struggled on Monday. Within the first 5K my heart rate was already 10bpm higher than it normally is at MP. Wheels started falling off shortly after 14 and it was a slog to the finish after that. I also remember my mouth feeling dry at the start line. I figured 2:30 was a reasonable goal for me since I ran 2:32 at Boston 2022. The weather didn't seem bad on paper so I decided not to adjust my goal going into it. Split 74-high/80-high for a 2:35, which is the biggest positive split I have done and the first of my four marathons where I ran considerably slower than what I was in shape for.

ahahhahahhaha...you mentioned runners world.... what a joke...2018 was perfect conditions compared to this past Monday.... coulda pr'd in my sleep 2018...so soft

I know you're kidding but 2018 was rough. I just read that 5% of the 2024 finishers were actually completing the 2018 race.

I know you're kidding but 2024 heat was no joke. sad you don't realize that :)