Sub 2h30 Spring Marathon - The Quest for Amateur Glory is back!

BoulderRunner 379 17:51 35:57

rfmaioral 224 17:09...too hot! 34:25 still too fast!

tyler_lifts_runs 430 18:28 36:24 picking it up

whid 2230 (ouch) 20:38? just chilling apparently

logiceagle 1435 (also ouch) 18:04 35:30

nbskis 601 18:57 37:40

BoulderRunner 379 17:51 35:57, 1:16:10 at half

rfmaioral 224 17:09...too hot! 34:25, 1:13mid at half

tyler_lifts_runs 430 18:28 36:24, 1:16high zt half

logiceagle 1435 (also ouch) 18:04 35:30, 1:14mid at half and moving up

nbskis 601 18:57 37:40, slowed way down by 25k

no time for big update but most guys have fallen off and are no longer on sub 2:30 pace

BoulderRunner 379 1:16:10 at half, 2:34:05

rfmaioral 224 1:13:31 at half, 2:33:31

tyler_lifts_runs 430 1:16high zt half, 2:41:51

logiceagle 1435 1:14mid , 2:31:46

nbskis 601 3:10

Thanks for the updates reed, good to see how everybody was doing.

Overall I'm pretty happy with my race. Started fine out of Corral 2, ran a 6:05 first mile without having to do much weaving. People were out pretty fast across the board. Maybe started hitting some miles that were a bit too quick from 4-10 (pretty much all were 5:30-5:40) but I felt really good at that point. At the half I felt confident knowing I had a little time in the bank. Thought I might have sub 2:30 in me until about 30K or so. Ran the first two Newton Hills okay but knew I had to run 5:45s the rest of the way and wasn't able to up the 3rd (relatively small) hill. Ran Heartbreak fine (looks like that's where I passed you rmaioral) in about 6:05. Hit 5:40 coming down the hill but could only manage 5:55s to 6:05s the rest of the way. Would've needed around 5:35s to get it done at that point.

Final Finish Time: 2:31:46

That's actually a PR by 9:21 (and ran 16:24 faster than Boston last year) so I can't complain about how things turned out. Basically a 3 min positive split which isn't horrible either. Hoping I got top 100 but it seems like it was a somewhat quick day so I'm not banking on it.

Not sure what's next. I do think I have 2:29 after another good training cycle. Might try this fall at the Monumental Marathon in Indianapolis. It's a flat course and also where I grew up, so it would be a good one to try.

Good job to everybody. Would love to hear how it went for all you guys.

reed wrote:

BoulderRunner 379 1:16:10 at half, 2:34:05

rfmaioral 224 1:13:31 at half, 2:33:31

tyler_lifts_runs 430 1:16high zt half, 2:41:51

logiceagle 1435 1:14mid , 2:31:46

nbskis 601 3:10

Also

Runthenight 677 1:15:59 at half, 2:34:46

Hello everyone - congrats logiceagle, very solid race. Thanks reed for following us through the journey.

I have mixed feelings about my race. Obviously when one look at the results thats a massive positive split.

1h13:31 and 1h20:00 for a 2h33:31 finish.

Thats far from optimal, but I don't think I would've gone under 2h30 if I had gone one minute slower for the half.

I believe I could've finished in 2h30/2h31 today. In a flat race with ideal weather and great pacing I believe I would have a 2h28 high or 2h29 on me. But I would not find the perfect weather and the perfect course in Boston anyways, and decided to take the risk of pushing the pace from the beginning.

It was a conscious risk to start out fast. I was feeling great, and the fact that the weather was much better than expected (it was scary and pouring rain early in the morning but in Hopkinton was fine at the start) really pumped me up.

I set a new PR in route for 25 km and was feeling good, but thats also when the hills started, and also when it started to become a bit too warm for a marathon.

Weather was overall pretty decent, but could've been better in terms of temperature. Wind for me was pretty much a non-factor, i honestly did not feel tail or head wind throughout the course. Cross wind here and there. But fine.

The combination of the newton hills + bit too warm temperature + hot pace hit me hard. I think I ran one mile in about 7 minutes going up hearbreak hill.

My 30 km was in 1h45.30 I believe, so I was still ahead of the 2h30 barrier, but at this point I knew it was gone.

The atmosphere is amazing, people are so nice and the way the city embraces the Marathon... I was really moved in the final mile.

I definitely need to work out it out better with my stomach, as my body could handle only one gel today. Also had one of those cliff chomps but thats it for the entire race.

Drank a lot of water and gatorade, felt overhydrated and heavy at some points. There were so many stations - never saw that many!

Hard to judge when to drink as it was getting warmer and warmer but also with so many stations.

Depending on how you look, my race today could be regarded as either brave or stupid.

I'll take the brave side today.

Boston is definitely an unusual race and unusual course and I took the risk of giving up the good to really go for the great.

It did not work it out well, but I am proud of my 2h33 finish.

I believe some of the bib numbers posted could be wrong, as the final times do not make sense with all the workouts been done throughout the thread (some finishing in 3+ hours under kind of even pace...?). Unless unexpected injuries occured...

Thank you everyone for the support along the thread. Looks like nobody made it in Boston despite some good efforts, but the thread lives on and we should see the 2h30 barrier broken soon :)

P.S - the second half of the race is definitely much tougher. I believe the best strategy for a sub 2h30 finish is going out not slower than 74:15. One will lose approximately 1 minute from miles 16 to 20. Plus a natural 30s of positive split in a perfect race. The best way for a 2h29.59 finish in Boston might be 74.15 and 75.44 in my opinion.

@boulderunner and @runtheknight, congrats also for your solid 2h34:xx finishes.

You guys were catching me up fast and would've certainly passed me with 1 or 2 more miles in the race.

I'l still be in Boston this evening and tomorrow, if any finisher of this thread wants to grab a post race beer i would be in.

reed wrote:

BoulderRunner 379 17:51

Runthenight 677 no split

rfmaioral 224 17:09...too hot!

tyler_lifts_runs 430 18:28

whid 2230 (ouch) 20:38?

logiceagle 1435 (also ouch) 18:04 got out well enough from 2nd corral

nbskis 601 18:57

So my bib # was 2320 not 2230... That was my bad. Woops. Not like I did much better in my mind though.

Dehydration/hyponatremia. Nowhere near enough salts. I felt great for a while then slowly started to die. Took up residence in the med tent as soon as I finished. Disappointed supremely that this came down to hydration/nutrition rather than my promising buildup

Beyond disappointed in myself. 2:46:37 with something like a 7min average for the last 4 miles. Hydrated with water and Gatorade constantly throughout the race but it didn't seem to make much of a difference.

I was like 18 flat through 5k (first mile fighting my way through crowds from corral 3 I'm 6:03), 35:50 through 10k, 1:16:56 through half and it's embarrassing from there. Achilles weren't even an issue, luckily.

NYC this fall. Going to take some on/off Achilles time for now and come back to knock out a late summer road race or two to gear up for the new real sub 230 effort this fall. Gonna need to take a day to mull over this race.

so I watched the live stream on NBC sports but those idiots never mention trivial details such as the actual course conditions of this year (they mentioned last year a lot).

sounds like there was some tailwind and some crosswind. it makes sense that Rafael wouldn't have felt a small tailwind, as is usually the case. how were conditions?

reed wrote:

so I watched the live stream on NBC sports but those idiots never mention trivial details such as the actual course conditions of this year (they mentioned last year a lot).

sounds like there was some tailwind and some crosswind. it makes sense that Rafael wouldn't have felt a small tailwind, as is usually the case. how were conditions?

The only rain was when boarding the buses and a bit in the athletes village - it was pretty clear as of walking to the start. high 50s and cloudy for the first 15k or so, then low 60s and sunny for the rest. Actually got kind of hot and my jersey was soaked. Tail wind wasn't noticeable, but it was better than a headwind

@reed I was actually 1027 - I ran well for 20 but didn't have the legs after the hills to pop off a ~34 minute 10k that would have been necessary to hit 2:30. Paced well but ran like 6:05 first mile dodging crowds and didn't get clear roads till at least 5k. The uphills really caught up to me for once, out of character with my mountain running background. At 15 a spectator said I was the first 1000+ bib coming through, not sure if that's completely accurate or not but I had to be close. No one was passing me till I lost it towards the end of the hills. Ankle was feeling like it was going to give out on me, sore hamstring coming in was starting to bug me, so I pulled the plug at 21 and took a bus back in. I'm pleased with the effort and that I went for it, just wasn't my day. Thought the weather was great and complaints among anyone running under 3 hours or so are crazy.

Strava if anyone's interested, probably bumped into a few of you:

https://www.strava.com/activities/2292669214/overview

I'm pretty happy with my result considering what happened over the last couple weeks. I had a bad case of achilles tendonitis a couple days before hitting my first 100 mile week back on Feb 22nd. Since then my mileage was:

Week of:

Feb 25: 11.3 miles

March 4: 46.9 miles

March 11th: 10.1 miles

March 18th: 38.7 miles

March 25th: 17.3 miles

April 8: 19.8 miles

To be honest, up until about 3 weeks ago I didn't think I'd be able to finish this. I didn't feel great when I woke up so I figured I'd just get in there and race and let the miles come. Went out in 6:06 to avoid getting out too hard and just started cruising through. I do feel like those first 5 miles really tore me up those as I felt like I was straining a bit to hold back. I felt pretty good through the half and was going to try to either keep it even or negative split. When I got to 16 things started to come apart. My hamstring was wrecked. I tried to push through the hills and then made a stupid decision not hydrating more or taking gu at 20. At 22 I came to a complete stop. I felt so dehydrated and my hamstring was bugging bad. I drank a couple cups of water and took my last gu and trotted back on. Thankfully I got back on an okay pace. Those last 4 miles were some of the hardest of my life. Happy to have dug deep and got through it. 2:34:46 and top 200 which I'm pretty happy with.

The weather yesterday was deceiving in that it was warm enough that hydrating more was important. The first half had a cool breeze that made me think I could get away with it. The second felt real muggy and dehydration really took its toll.

I want to see what's possible with an injury free build-up/ or at least 6 months of quality running. I don't think I've ever been able to manage that. That stretch from Jan 2 to Feb 21 was the most consistent I've ever been. I'm going to take about a week or two off to nurse some pains that came from yesterday but I do think there's some potential for me in the marathon.

Great fight out there gents. Let's keep going after that barrier.

I just realized that there's pictures of BoulderRunner and I running together! I was in the Tracksmith BQ singlet with Columbus Track Club on the back of it and a paneled hat. Looks like we ran together for a good amount before I had to stop.

Tyler_Lifts_Runs I think we were pretty close together in the first 10 miles. I remember seeing a Power Miler singlet in one of the packs I was by.

Congrats everyone! I feel your pain. When I was at my best I probably attempted a half dozen or so sub 2:30 marathons going through halfway anywhere between 1:13-16 and always coming up short over the last 2–6mi. Keep up the good fight!

Alan

My totally unwarranted and likely incorrect advice is to work on your speed at shorter distances for a while, something I never did.

I actually never ran college track, only XC. The majority of the guys I knew who actually made that breakthrough into sub 2:30 (after a few tries even) had the wheels at one point to blow through a 15:00-15:30 5k.

Again, grain of salt. Keep hammering away at 5:45 pace like you can hit it on a dime every time.

Alan

Runningart2004 wrote:

My totally unwarranted and likely incorrect advice is to work on your speed at shorter distances for a while, something I never did.

I actually never ran college track, only XC. The majority of the guys I knew who actually made that breakthrough into sub 2:30 (after a few tries even) had the wheels at one point to blow through a 15:00-15:30 5k.

Again, grain of salt. Keep hammering away at 5:45 pace like you can hit it on a dime every time.

Alan

That's definitely what I'm thinking right now. I ran 15:04 for 5K in college but don't think I've broken 16 since...

Trying to figure out how to resume training. No running yesterday or today I don't think (quads are still wrecked), but walking around a lot and will probably go for a walk tonight. Will probably go for a short run tomorrow morning if I'm feeling up to it. Just want to spend this week making sure I stay healthy after a really tough race. Want to build on this fitness!!!

We were really close to each other pretty much the whole way out of corral 2. Wish I could've linked up with ya.