Boston vs Your Qualifier

My qualifier

Denver Marathon 3:14:13

Boston - 3:09:32.

A lot has to do the altitude factor. It was my first Boston and I wasn't really impressed. The crowds were great but the rest was Meh. I have no idea why this race is so revered.

16 minutes slower.

I've been avoiding eye contact with everyone at work so they won't try to stop and talk to me about it.

DenverMan wrote:

My qualifier

Denver Marathon 3:14:13

Boston - 3:09:32.

A lot has to do the altitude factor. It was my first Boston and I wasn't really impressed. The crowds were great but the rest was Meh. I have no idea why this race is so revered.

You are a total homo dude. Don't you understand it's freakin' BOSTON BABY...home of the RED Sux, Bruins and loud-mouth sports fans. No wonder you crapped out.

How could you have run Denver in '07 and not be absolutely floored by everything in Boston??

I qualified in Denver too (first marathon) and running Boston was better than I ever could have imagined (and I have watched it for 4 years!). As much as I love Denver, the 2007 marathon was the pits: 33 degree weather, rain, no crowds, people honking at intersections not for support but because they saw the whole race as an inconvenience.

Boston: crowds several people deep the whole way, great support all over the city race weekend, great course, incredible organization by BAA, what's not to love?

Oh, and Boston was 15 minutes quicker for me.

boston '08 was new PR and 11min faster than qualifier (which was NYC 06 and i blew up there) and 5min faster than old PR

qualifier was 2:52:49 and ran 2:51:03

DenverMan wrote:

My qualifier

Denver Marathon 3:14:13

Boston - 3:09:32.

A lot has to do the altitude factor. It was my first Boston and I wasn't really impressed. The crowds were great but the rest was Meh. I have no idea why this race is so revered.

show me a race where 2346 runners finished ahead of you with that time and i will be impressed. the quality of the elites runners might not be like some other races, but the quality of the pack is probably better than any other race. this makes it more fun, in my opinion. i found it so much fun to have so many runners around me, when in other races i wouldn't.

Ran a 5:17, a 4 minute PR!!

I love Boston..the course, the fans, the Monday marathon!

DenverMan wrote:

A lot has to do the altitude factor. It was my first Boston and I wasn't really impressed. The crowds were great but the rest was Meh. I have no idea why this race is so revered.

This topic comes up pretty frequently here. The main reason that Boston is so revered is the history. You are running on the same course hosted great race battles by Clarence Demar, Johnny Kelley, Abebe Bikila, Alberto Salazar, Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Toshihiko Seko, Johnny Miles, Rob DeCastella, Joan Benoit, etc. All those great battles happened there and you are running the same streets.

Some people don't care about that. It's cool. There is nothing wrong with you if you don't like it, regardless of what people here might tell you. Sometimes you have heard so much about it that you come in expecting a choir of angels or something. In the end, it's still just 26.2 miles of road.

At least the crowds are great. I've never seen such consistently hyped crowds at any other marathon I've ever run. One thing I can always count on at Boston is that when I stop to walk (and I always blow up so that's a certainty too) the crowd will start cheering louder and louder until I start running again. And once I do, they go nuts with the cheering. I have never encountered that anywhere else.

DenverMan wrote:

My qualifier

Denver Marathon 3:14:13

Boston - 3:09:32.

A lot has to do the altitude factor. It was my first Boston and I wasn't really impressed. The crowds were great but the rest was Meh. I have no idea why this race is so revered.

Obviously you are entitled to your opinion, but I don't get it. This was my 21st marathon, and first Boston. I was completely blown away by the race. It lived up to everything I thought it would. I can't wait to go back next year.

get ova it wrote:

How could you have run Denver in '07 and not be absolutely floored by everything in Boston??

I qualified in Denver too (first marathon) and running Boston was better than I ever could have imagined (and I have watched it for 4 years!). As much as I love Denver, the 2007 marathon was the pits: 33 degree weather, rain, no crowds, people honking at intersections not for support but because they saw the whole race as an inconvenience.

Boston: crowds several people deep the whole way, great support all over the city race weekend, great course, incredible organization by BAA, what's not to love?

Oh, and Boston was 15 minutes quicker for me.

I actually qualified in '06 and the weather was great that day. (I did run the half in 07. I had a great race too). However, I'm not simply talking weather.

Let me put it this way. I understand why Boston may be mythical to some but I certainly didn't feel it.

I say again that crowds were great but I also heard a ton of runners b*tching to the volunteers. Another negative.

I was 7 minutes slower.

Weird thing: it was 'perfect' running weather, but I felt overheated the whole time, and sick to my stomach even now like it was a hot race. It was the warmest run Id done after a long cold winter. To me it felt like it was in the high 80s. I was really surprised to hear that it was only high 50s.

Boston was 7 minutes faster than my qualifier... but 11 minutes slower than my PR. It hurt a lot.

I did the death march from 21-finish. Those first 10 miles seemed all downhill!

17 seconds faster

3:05:35 Qualifier

3:05:17 Boston

2008 Boston Marathon = 3:00:30

Boston Q Time = 3:02:34 (2007 Boston Marathon)

Differential = -2:04

I was targeting sub-3:00 this year (I'm almost 50 y/o). Went through halfway in 1:29:01 and just fell short over the last couple miles. Don't know what the air temp was, but with the bright sunshine and constant runners all around, it "felt" hot. I have a nasty sunburn too.

In hindsight, if I'd gone through halfway a minute faster and not taken so long to down some GU and water up Heartbreak, I think I would've broken 3:00. Oh well.

My fourth Boston. My first was twenty years ago (1988) where I ran 2:49.

Congrats to all that persevered out there!

Tim

-7 minutes...it was my 2nd marathon

I go through the same seconds guesses. I had 4 stops (first mile pit stop, shoe needed adjustment, the gu station and to say hi to my family). In all, I am sure I wouldn't have reached my goal of sub 3:15 but I do know the heat got to me once I got on the hills. Finished just under 3:22 after a 3:23 last year. I think the gu is a really good addition though. I felt a bit more energy by the top of the hills due to the replenishment. Now we have to stop second guessing and decide goals for the rest of the yr. Good luck.

Joe, stop walking!

Qualifier= 2:53:16 (Midnight Sun Run in Anchorage, AK)

Boston= 2:44:01 PR

Boston was my 3rd marathon. I trained in Anchorage, AK. in the snow & treadmill and it wasn't that bad.

Boston was awesome, besides the fact that I ran what I wanted to run. The crowds were amazing. It was 100 times better than I ever imagined. I can't believe the crowds or volunteers could've been better anywhere else. Awesome race.