Why did people run Boston 2018 in such weather?

Mellow Runner wrote:

The reason the average time was faster was because so many elites and sub-elites blew up from not dressing properly with their lower body fat. They also couldn't draft the whole way like mid packers or the chip winners in the women's race. There's a reason Desi's jacket was one of the breakout stars of Boston 2018.

This is poorly written. The elites DNF'd so their would be terrible times don't contribute to the average. The average time is affected more by the slower runners, because there are more of them. For the most part they dressed properly with their heavy jackets, etc...

Warmth wrote:

Crazy people. A MP effort would generate a lot of heat though as long as you never let up the effort and had fuel in the tank and kept feeding, kelt circulation in the hands and had fat and muscle.

Feeding was one of the issues - I bonked, because I couldn't take my gels. Had plenty with me, pinned to my shorts, but my shorts+gels were essentially glued to my hips because I was soaked, and my hands (despite my wearing latex gloves under Scotchgarded mitten/gloves with handwarmers) weren't working at all.

Says the jogger who wears his 5km finishers medal to a restaurant after the race.

darkwave wrote:

Feeding was one of the issues - I bonked, because I couldn't take my gels. Had plenty with me, pinned to my shorts, but my shorts+gels were essentially glued to my hips because I was soaked, and my hands (despite my wearing latex gloves under Scotchgarded mitten/gloves with handwarmers) weren't working at all.

Was no one available at an aid station to assist you? Sounds like you stubbornly decided to not bother eating rather than lose a minute to a stop. We’ve all likely been there for some reason or other but hopefully lesson learned.

The problem with a truly soaking rain is that it will either a. eventually make it through even the most waterproof glove or b. find a way past any truly waterproof barrier presented to it, such as through the open cuffs of your gloves. You simply can’t dress the same way for even an hour plus of steady rain as you will need to dress for multiple hours of a soaking rain.

HOBBYJOGGER OLYMPICS baby!!!!

The perfect glove would be .5mm surfing gloves.

Joe Jackson wrote:

Was no one available at an aid station to assist you? Sounds like you stubbornly decided to not bother eating rather than lose a minute to a stop. We’ve all likely been there for some reason or other but hopefully lesson learned. .

My thinking was that if I had stopped, I wouldn't be able to start again. I'm serious.

Feel free to argue with that, but also remember that when one gets hypothermic, as I was, one's judgment starts to go. It's one think to make a decision from a warm dry room, or even at mile 20 of a marathon in reasonable weather; it's a completely different situation when everything, including mind and body, starts shutting down.

As for your point about dressing for hours of a soaking rain, I agree, but I haven't yet figured out a solution for hands. If you have a better solution than latex gloves under another pair of glove/mittens, I'm certainly open to it.

I thought it was pretty obvious. I mean, for me running an ideal weather marathon would be my worst nightmare. Just think about it: no excuses. Everyone would immediately see what I can really do, and that is not much. But bad or, better, extremely horrible weather is a completely different story. No one looks at your absolute time, since you got the mother of all excuses. And everyone notices how high you finished in relative terms. Like Yuki for example. So, again, quite obviously I'm always hoping for the worst possible weather, cold, hot, windy, rain, snow, does not matter

neoprene FTW wrote:

The perfect glove would be .5mm surfing gloves.

Yes! I had midweight neoprene-like gloves that I had brought as throwaways. They were clutch! Once they were saturated and I generated enough body heat, they were money!

Mr. Kawauchi was great that day.

Even if he never comes close to winning another WMM he is in my personal distance running Hall of Fame.

That was able to do it was beyond amazing.

For gloves, I used a Breathable Water Repellant Dual Latex Grip Gloves meant for industrial uses or gardening. I think i found them on one of my training runs. They worked perfectly.

I knew frozen hands were going to be a problem so i lined up some teammates up with latex gloves they could wear over their regular gloves and they all let me know that the latex outer is what saved them.

But like another poster said, in the last third of the race, the motivation to go fumbling for gels was just gone, and unless something was handed to me, it wasn't going to happen.

Seriously? Why would you NOT run? Of course there was suffering. That's a big part of racing, maybe the biggest. It wasn't fun? I've never had fun in a race in my life. Racing is about meeting challenges and doing as well as you can to overcome those challenges. My most extreme Boston went the other way. It was the 1976 race where the temperature was in the 90s. It never occurred to me not to run. Of course I knew I was unlikely to set a PB or anything. But I raced to finish as highly as I could. And yes, there was plenty of suffering. The fun came after the race.

I was gonna nite on this and break it down in detail but I don’t have the time to rip this troll.

I put on some extra clothes and ran it, and was rewarded with a great sense of accomplishment and a top-20 finish in M55-59. I was pointing toward 3:02 to 3:05 in my training, but ended up running 3:09:42 and was happy with that. I'm 59 and not a very good runner, doubt that I could break 19:00 for 5k. This was a big personal accomplishment for me. I'm glad I showed up and gave it my all.

Because i signed for it, reserved a hotel room and had an air ticket? Honestly, a few months later i did a marathon in 90 degree weather (with high humidity) that was harder. Don't get me wrong, if it wasn't Boston and if i hadn't invested so much, i probably would have bailed, but it's just weather, it ain't gonna kill you.

Gggggg wrote:

nah.. wrote:

Where are you from? People train in much worse through entire winters.

Apart from the suffering aspect, the combination of freezing temperatures, very strong wind and rain makes a running session totally useless. People who train or race in such conditions are stupid

Oh, you're right. This was completely useless and stupid. Sorry for suggesting otherwise.

Banana Bread wrote:

+1

People be crazy. I wouldn't run. Then again I have brains. I wouldn't harm myself like that. I'd run another marathon the week after maybe. There comes a point when it is just wreckless. It is like running(or hobbling) a marathon with a broken leg.

What harm do you do to yourself running in slightly cold weather?

I never considered not running. The only time I considered not running was in the heat in 2012.

Why did I run?

The conditions are normally not as bad as predicted and as others have said, once you are at the start it is the best way to get to the finish (assuming getting to the finish) is the easiest way to get back to your hotel/family/friends.

It didn't seem that bad at the start.

I've trained in much worse. BTW. If you live in the northern US or Canada yo have to train in bad conditions or you will be totally unprepared come race day.

2017 and 2016 were deceptively hot. 2015 was rain. My 2015 and 2018 times were faster than 2017 and 2016.

What surprised me is that many elite runners didn't seem to know how to dress. Does Rupp really dress like that when he does a training run in similar conditions?

I wanted my streak to continue so that I only need to meet the standard and not worry about the registration cut-off.

If you were trying to prevent a little discomfort then you would never race.

And

'In case you didn't notice, many people take these events (marathon, ironman, ultra's, mud run's etc) so serious that you would think they are part of St. Peter's entrance requirement. Personally, I don't think he will check such things.

Spot the common mindset here:-

Gggggg wrote:

In such weather you would get a Lousy time compare to your true ability, so it all comes to the purpose of telling other people “I finished Boston 2018”, which is pretty pathetic.

So running just to tell other people you got a pr isn't pathetic?

Pretzel Man wrote:

If I was planning a long training run and stepped out the door to that, cold, wind, and down pouring rain I would have postponed it or hoped on the treadmill.

You would rather run on a treadmill because it's cold and wet outside?

darkwave wrote:

It's frustrating to invest in a full training cycle just to waste on those conditions.

Why would the effort be "wasted" in those conditions?