Slow Day at Boston

results may vary wrote:

Most Boston runners every year positive split the course because they don't know how to run it. They get over-excited waiting for the start of this grand race. Then they hammer the opening downhill miles. Then they pay for it later in the hills. And they limp home after Boston College. Then they blame it on the weather.

Check the prior results. 80-90% of Boston runners every year run significant positive splits.

This is 100% true. Every single year without fail I see all of my friends/acquaintances start off right on goal pace or faster and hold that through the first 20-30k only to hit the brakes hard and continue slowing down all the way to the end.

99% false.Any rational runner positive splits Boston. It has everything to do with the massive downhill first half, and very-little to do with weather or not pacing well. If someone maintains the same grade-adjusted pace the entire way--difficult as is--then that marathoner will have a big 'ole positive split.

boston native wrote:

results may vary wrote:

Most Boston runners every year positive split the course because they don't know how to run it. They get over-excited waiting for the start of this grand race. Then they hammer the opening downhill miles. Then they pay for it later in the hills. And they limp home after Boston College. Then they blame it on the weather.

Check the prior results. 80-90% of Boston runners every year run significant positive splits.

This is 100% true. Every single year without fail I see all of my friends/acquaintances start off right on goal pace or faster and hold that through the first 20-30k only to hit the brakes hard and continue slowing down all the way to the end.

I was thinking the same thing about the times, but I don't agree on the temps. 70-62 or lower is not bad weather at all, when the temp drops from start to finish.

Hot Running wrote:

Heat?? It's is the 50's in Boston right now. I have a hard time believing that the top runners (as in, from Ethiopia) had trouble with the "heat".

Often times, it can be quite a bit warmer on most of the course than it is in Boston.

What does the runners being from Ethiopia have to do with whether they have trouble with the heat? Do you think the entire continent of Africa is hot all the time? Over 90% of the top Kenya and Ethiopian marathoners live and train at high altitude where it's cooler.

not sure how the wind was on the course because of the direction, but the wind was 100% noticeable when I was running in the blue hills on my lunch break.

I think we are entering into a post-flagrant doping era. Since the biological passport has been catching top athletes doping, times have started coming back from the brink of absurdity. Boston and NY have been very slow the past couple of races. Berlin was absurd in 2014, but less so in 2015. It is not the end of doping, but something is changing.

At Boston, you often get cooler when you get into the city and get a sea breeze due to the cold water in the harbor interacting with the warm air on land. It is exceptionally cruel to survive the hills only to be buffeted by the wind the last 8 mi.

ah well maybe. Dubai Marathon 2016 (Friday 22th Jan 2016)For full results please click HEREMenNAME COUNTRY TIME1 Tesfaye Abera Dibaba Ethiopia 2:04:242 Lemi Berhanu Hayle Ethiopia 2:04:333 Tsegaye Mekonnen Asefa Ethiopia 2:04:464 Sisay Lemma Kasaye Ethiopia 2:05:165 Mula Wasihun Lakew Ethiopia 2:05:44

Precious Roy wrote:

I think we are entering into a post-flagrant doping era. Since the biological passport has been catching top athletes doping, times have started coming back from the brink of absurdity. Boston and NY have been very slow the past couple of races. Berlin was absurd in 2014, but less so in 2015. It is not the end of doping, but something is changing.

At Boston, you often get cooler when you get into the city and get a sea breeze due to the cold water in the harbor interacting with the warm air on land. It is exceptionally cruel to survive the hills only to be buffeted by the wind the last 8 mi.

It was definitely a hard day. Not impossible to run a decent time if you ran smart and started off slow but I don't personally know anyone who ran a PR or even felt remotely good about their race.

outsiderunner wrote:

From what I heard, it was 68-70 in Hopkinton. Only 2.6 miles of the race is in Boston.

Here's a breakdown of the temps at start, halfway and BOS. More for hobbyjoggerish with the breakdown for each different wave along the course. Basically temps held steady until BOS. Ther temps dropped but wind picked up a lot.

weather girls wrote:

outsiderunner wrote:

From what I heard, it was 68-70 in Hopkinton. Only 2.6 miles of the race is in Boston.

Here's a breakdown of the temps at start, halfway and BOS. More for hobbyjoggerish with the breakdown for each different wave along the course. Basically temps held steady until BOS. Ther temps dropped but wind picked up a lot.

http://www.findmymarathon.com/marathon-news/boston-marathon-weather/

very cool data

so they roasted through the middle miles

they cooled down in Boston proper, but had to face a 17 mph headwind the last few miles.

that is seriously demoralizing.

marathons aren't that great wrote:

I live in the Bay area and have only run CIM (which is a very fast and good weather race) save the obligatory Boston experience.

2:52

2:37

2:40 (Boston)

2:32

2:27

marathon retirement

CIM is a downhill point-to-point course. Your times don't count.

agip wrote:

outsiderunner wrote:

Clueless commentators saying, before the race, that it was a good day to race. A good day for a picnic, but not for a marathon. How could they not know that temperatures in the 60s and 70s are BAD for a marathon? The men's winner runs 2:12 and only one woman to break 2:30. Not a good day for a race.

I think what happened is that the weather forecast changed wildly just before the race started. It was supposed to be in the high 50s to low 60s but in reality it was in the mid 70s or thereabouts. The reporters didn't know the temps had changed for the worse.

Even right now, at 2:30 PM it is 56 degrees in boston. there was clearly some weird temperature phenomenon, a temporary heatspike.

In NYC it is 79 at 2:30. Crazy stuff.

The high in Boston today was 66.

In Hopkinton it hit 70 at noon after the runners left.

Temperature is measured in the shade however.

In my view, if any race is "obligatory" it would be New York, not Boston.

This is true. To run to your potential at Boston a slight positive split is probably the way to go. Weather changes during the race as you get closer to downtown as well as a slight directional shift heading into the Newton Hills (some years these is a big tailwind and other years it makes the headwind feel worse). Last year I went 1:08:45 to 1:10:39 and it was probably the best I could do. Hitting the wall around mile 20 at Boston is usually exaggerated because of Heartbreak Hill. As most marathoners know you can easily lose whole minutes in the final 10km of any 26.2 mile race...it generally just shows more at Boston (or also at NYC for that matter). Temperature really messes with people individually because of the winter/spring environments they train in, their sweat rate, and where they are coming from. Ideally for a fast marathon most people want around 40-45 degrees or cooler I think. You can probably expect to lose about 1-min because of the Newton Hills alone and coming off Heartbreak heading into the final 10km you can make back some time with a nice downhill there but only if you have legs still (most people don't). While "banking time" in the first (very downhill) 8km is usually a bad idea, one could for sure run 5-10sec/mile faster there and take advantage of that a little bit...but your quads have to be trained for the pounding and transition to the ups in Newton. Of course this year runners i know racing there said they felt the heat and headwind.My former teammate Zac Hine (top American at 10th in 2:21) said it was "rough as hell from 17 to the finish." And he's run 2:16 at Boston before. Congrats to all the runners out there today.

nope wrote:

99% false.

Any rational runner positive splits Boston. It has everything to do with the massive downhill first half, and very-little to do with weather or not pacing well. If someone maintains the same grade-adjusted pace the entire way--difficult as is--then that marathoner will have a big 'ole positive split.

boston native wrote:

This is 100% true. Every single year without fail I see all of my friends/acquaintances start off right on goal pace or faster and hold that through the first 20-30k only to hit the brakes hard and continue slowing down all the way to the end.

weather girls wrote:

Here's a breakdown of the temps at start, halfway and BOS. More for hobbyjoggerish with the breakdown for each different wave along the course. Basically temps held steady until BOS. Ther temps dropped but wind picked up a lot.

http://www.findmymarathon.com/marathon-news/boston-marathon-weather/

Helpful stats! Note the LOW humidity. It apparently was even low at the finish for the elites - if you look at the trend on the chart. Humdity kills far more than temps. The headwinds are a factor, but given the across-the-road packs for a good part of the race, it looks like the headwind was not a problem for major parts of the race.

I'd just like to mention that a few years ago many on Letsrun were making fun of triathletes for being excited about Miranda Carfrae's 2:50 run at Kona. It is only 20 min off today's women's race. Kona is much tougher run that today's Boston was and there is that pesky 2.4 mile swim plus the 112 mile bike ride before getting out on the course.

You've been waiting years to post this and finally get a chance on a slow day on an already slow course. Good for you.

Only 20 minutes!

Did anybody find that they were hot but not sweating? I was one of the many who tanked today after feeling great up until a little past half way. Found it really strange that I wasn't sweating, wondering if others had the same issue

I bonked as well. Was on pace but not especially fast through 11 / 12 and the wheels totally came off. Agreed it was a weird combination of heat without a ton of humidity. I'm definitely in PR shape (after a big half marathon pr 4 weeks ago).

It was definitely a tough day out there but unclear what specifically made it so hard.