The BAA Boston Marathon corral assignments have been posted. Yours Truly will be in Wave 1, corral 8.

move back to wave 2, corral 2 and attempt to be the wave 2 winner..

Same wave and corral, but I hope to pass many runners. Goal 2:59:59. 1:23 half.

so you plan to run 9 or 10 min faster than your BQ from corral 8? good luck with that

you'd probably be better off moving back to corral 2 of wave 2 (can't move to corral 1)

23-timer wrote:

so you plan to run 9 or 10 min faster than your BQ from corral 8? good luck with that

That can definitely be done. It can actually be helpful to be forced to go out a bit slow. You still won’t negative split the race believe me.

Negativesplitter wrote:

23-timer wrote:

so you plan to run 9 or 10 min faster than your BQ from corral 8? good luck with that

That can definitely be done. It can actually be helpful to be forced to go out a bit slow. You still won’t negative split the race believe me.

possible? sure ... but not very likely... i'd give that plan a less than 10% chance of success

going out slow and hitting 1:23 for the half? no way you're going to hit 6:20's in the first couple of miles. so that would mean hammering between 5k (where there will finally be room to run) and the half... which would lead to crashing in the hills or coming down the cemetery hill

IMO it takes way too much wasted energy getting around folks to plan on a 1:23 half from corral 8

I meant that my goal is 2:59 with a 1:23 half PB. The plan is to even split.

The rule of thumb for the Boston course is to plan to lose 2 minutes over the second half of the race. Would be very tough to run even splits the entire race.

bogey55 wrote:

I meant that my goal is 2:59 with a 1:23 half PB. The plan is to even split.

as they said in Oz, that's a horse of a different color

IMO the best approach to the course is to plan on a very small positive split.

with the overall-downhill of the first 16+ miles, you should plan on being ahead of pace just a bit at 16 and then giving back a little bit of time between 16 and 21 (4 of those miles are net uphill but 19 should be back at goal pace.)

for many Boston folks, you really don't know what kind of day you're having until you hit the hills or around 30k.. and sometimes until you finish the hills

it may still be a challenge to be under 1:30 at the half from corral 8... a much more achievable challenge than 1:23, but still will require some patience and control. and not wasting effort weaving and going around people

FWIW for my best time on the course, i ran at goal pace for the first 16, goal pace + 10/15 seconds through the hills and then goal pace -10/15 for the last 5 (35k to 40k was the fastest split of the day) ended up with a 7-second positive split

Thanks for the advice. First timer in Boston obviously. So would the better approach be 1:29, 1:31, or 1:30, give a little back over the Newton hills, then pick it up for the last 5 miles?

I qualified at a very hot Houston at 3:10 pace for 21 miles, then shaved off a little over a minute over the last 5 miles. At the time, on a better weather day, I was in low 3 hour shape. I wasn't taking any chances as I only needed 3:10 to ensure me a spot.

Can one comfortably run 6:05-6:10 for the first 4 miles from wave 1 corral 2? I've read that most people go out too fast, so I assume it'll be fine.

Also how's the congestion at the aid stations for the first half at a 2:45 pace? I plan on drinking a lot of Gatorade...

Go 1:28:30-1:29 first half. That will work fine (assuming decent weather which we have not had for the last three years).

biogen wrote:

Can one comfortably run 6:05-6:10 for the first 4 miles from wave 1 corral 2? I've read that most people go out too fast, so I assume it'll be fine.

Also how's the congestion at the aid stations for the first half at a 2:45 pace? I plan on drinking a lot of Gatorade...

Probably not for the first mile, but by mile 2 or 3 it should be thinned out enough so that 6:05-6:10 isn't a problem. You'd do well to make your way to the front of corral 2 though. If your first mile split is 6:20-6:30, don't immediately start wasting energy trying to pass people ... you'll have plenty of miles to make up a few lost seconds, and the relatively easy start will work to your benefit late in the race anyway.

At 2:45 pace, most people skip the first aid station anyway. So you shouldn't have a problem with it, and especially not the rest of the stations in the first half. Boston has huge aid stations and they're organized better than any other race I've run. They're consistently laid out as well, i.e. you'll get to the one on the right side of the road first, and it will always be Gatorade 1st, then water 2nd. Then a few yards down the course, they'll have the same thing on the left side of the road. So there's never any need to fight your way to the other side of the road as you come up on one ... just stay on whatever side you are on and use that one. They stagger them slightly so that they don't squeeze the width of the course the way they would if they were directly across the road from each other.

some times they are just a few yards apart...a few places the one on the opposite side of the road may be 100 yards or more down the road.

it is always annoying to have someone come all the way across the road to get to a fluid station... had several near misses and one bad collision over the years

Similar to biogen's question: I'm a first time Bostoner, and ran 2:58 to put me in Corral 4. I'm looking to run around 2:45, but realize that's about 30sec/mile faster than the BQ pace for me and the folks I'll be with at the start. Factoring in the crowding as well, I'm a bit worried that I'll have trouble running anything near 6:20-30 pace for the first few miles.

Should I just suck it up and assume I'll have to run 6:50-7min pace for the first 2-3 miles and try to make up the time later, or is it reasonable to expect folks in Corral 4 to start faster than their seed paces and spread out fast enough to be able to run 6:20-30 pace pretty quickly?

Thanks!

bogey55 wrote:

Thanks for the advice. First timer in Boston obviously. So would the better approach be 1:29, 1:31, or 1:30, give a little back over the Newton hills, then pick it up for the last 5 miles?

I qualified at a very hot Houston at 3:10 pace for 21 miles, then shaved off a little over a minute over the last 5 miles. At the time, on a better weather day, I was in low 3 hour shape. I wasn't taking any chances as I only needed 3:10 to ensure me a spot.

i'd say 1:29... you can gain some more time in the next 3 miles... 16 has a big downhill

sounds like you have the fitness, just run a smart race and you should be fine (as another post said, assuming good weather)

if you're strong coming off the hills, you can pass thousands in the last 5 miles

W1C4'er wrote:

Similar to biogen's question: I'm a first time Bostoner, and ran 2:58 to put me in Corral 4. I'm looking to run around 2:45, but realize that's about 30sec/mile faster than the BQ pace for me and the folks I'll be with at the start. Factoring in the crowding as well, I'm a bit worried that I'll have trouble running anything near 6:20-30 pace for the first few miles.

Should I just suck it up and assume I'll have to run 6:50-7min pace for the first 2-3 miles and try to make up the time later, or is it reasonable to expect folks in Corral 4 to start faster than their seed paces and spread out fast enough to be able to run 6:20-30 pace pretty quickly?

Thanks!

FWIW i ran a 2:52 from the back of corral 3... and that was with the old wider corral system when there would almost always be a bottleneck/traffic jam just past the start where the road narrows

i think you will probably have to start out at least a bit slower than your goal pace, but it will clear up by 5k at the latest. but i also think you should be able to get under 6:50 without much trouble (maybe just a bit of bobbing and weaving)

it will help if you can get to the corral early and get up front (800 to 900 fewer folks to get around)

a lot of folks always start too fast in Hopkinton... that first 2/3 mile is the steepest hill on the course!

Thanks dude this is super useful

Biogen,

In 2016 I qualified with a 2:57 and was in Corral 4, and felt I was in 2:42-2:45 shape. That was a hot year and I would not have run 2:45 regardless but I made one GIANT mistake that really hurt my race. I was so focused on getting out at pace through the crowds that I was very tense, running right on peoples heels, moving laterally to work up through gaps, running up the shoulder and dodging mailboxes. Running on edge like that made me so tense, that it exacerbated the quad damage of the first three miles. Those first downhill miles can do a number on your quads when you run fast and relaxed. But when you run tight trying to dodge people they will absolutely ruin you. A year later in corral 1, and in much better shape, I just told myself to stay as relaxed as possible the first three miles. I gave some high 5s and just stayed loose until mile 3 when I got into my race rhythm. Below are splits from both years, I still faded in 2017 but not like I did in 2016.

2016

mile 1 - 6:25

mile 2 - 6:13

mile 3 - 6:05

10k - 38:50

Half - 1:22:30

mile 26 - 7:40

Finish - 2:54:30 (1:32:00 second half)

2017

mile 1 - 6:16

mile 2 - 6:04

mile 3 - 6:00

10k - 37:21

Half - 1:18:24

mile 26 - 6:30

Finish - 2:39:32 (1:21:08 second half)

I would plan on going out slower than my 2016 splits out of corral 4, because that took an incredible amount of effort and I would try to stay a lot more relaxed. If that strategy doesnt work for a specific goal time, then you chose the wrong race to chase a goal time.

I should have addressed that to W1C4er, sorry. Biogen could probably extrapolate between the two, to figure out what is reasonable and releaxed out of Corral 2.