The Cutoffs wrote:
The Cutoffs wrote:
Not quite. Based on Athlinks, 2:44:38 gets you in corral #1. 2:44:39 puts you in corral #2
Here's the matrix:
Corral #1: 2:19:40 to 2:44:38
Corral #2: 2:44:39 to 2:51:12
Corral #3: 2:51:13 to 2:55:04
Corral #4+: Who cares?
Corrected matrix:
Elites
Corral #1-#4: Various levels of Hobby joggers - who cares?
You guys in the faster corrals need to come back to earth, because lots of us 50-somethings are going to kick your butts.
Me: 1/5. I used the same time last year as this year. But the interesting thing is my bib number increased by 772, so it's getting much more competitive. In other words, 772 more runners broke my 2:59:xx time than last year.
So I qualified with a 3:02 which puts me in wave 1 corral 7. My PR is 2:53 and I've had my best training cycle ever and everything indicates I should run in the 2:49.xx . So my question is should I just ride it out in corral 7? I was thinking of dropping back to the front of wave 2 to let things thin out a little bit, but as I understand it I wouldnt be allowed to go to corral 1 of wave 2? I would probably have to be in corral 2 of wave 2. Would this be worth it? am I overthinking it? I just dont want to be bogged down the first few miles by people running 7 min pace when i need to be hitting 6:30's.
I’d say just run in your assigned corral. If you drop back to wave 2 corral 2 like the rules say, now your running with people that’ll be doing 7:30s and when you break free from the pack you’ll have far fewer people to run with at your pace. Besides, now you have to wait 15-20 minutes more before wave 2 starts. Run in your corral and find people to pace with. It’ll be a much more enjoyable experience. Don’t worry about the first 5k. Concentrate on the whole race. Pacing is out the window on the downhill anyway. You’ll be glad when you reach Newton.
YourCorral wrote:
I’d say just run in your assigned corral. If you drop back to wave 2 corral 2 like the rules say, now your running with people that’ll be doing 7:30s and when you break free from the pack you’ll have far fewer people to run with at your pace. Besides, now you have to wait 15-20 minutes more before wave 2 starts. Run in your corral and find people to pace with. It’ll be a much more enjoyable experience. Don’t worry about the first 5k. Concentrate on the whole race. Pacing is out the window on the downhill anyway. You’ll be glad when you reach Newton.
Finally someone sensible
gunning for another smooth sub 3 wrote:
BostonWilliam wrote:
Hahaha! hahahahahaha!
No. It's pretty much the same as any other major marathon that has corrals, actual quite a bit worse even because it is a narrow road and the first couple miles have a lot of downhill.
Combine that with the high number of Johnny Badasses that incorrectly think they are going to set a huge PR and the natural tendency of most people at road races to follow the worst possible pacing strategy.
So, no. Not a smooth start if you are in Corral 4.
I get that the road is smaller. But in NYC for example, the corral assignment is NOT based on a time run in the past. Instead, you can simply state an arbitrary goal pace. My first marathon was 3:30, but I told them I'd run 2:59, and they put me in the appropriate corral corresponding to 2:59 (for the record, I did run pretty much goal time). Hence, I was thinking given that in Boston the corral assignment is based on actual times, it should be the case that a larger fraction of runners is in the "correct" corral. Or do they put charity runners in front as well in Boston? In any case, it doesn't bother me too much, if people are slow around me I'll start a bit slower, good strategy in any case.
It's worse than any other marathon due to the faster field. It never spreads out. The 1,000 people in your corral all run the same time as you +/- 2:00. Shoulder to shoulder the whole way. Ever spectate at Chicago or NYC? You have dense crowds around all the pace groups and then it thins out in between. Boston is like running in the pace group the whole way. There is no between option.
r2k83 wrote:
It's worse than any other marathon due to the faster field. It never spreads out. The 1,000 people in your corral all run the same time as you +/- 2:00. Shoulder to shoulder the whole way. Ever spectate at Chicago or NYC? You have dense crowds around all the pace groups and then it thins out in between. Boston is like running in the pace group the whole way. There is no between option.
nonsense. there is plenty of room to run from 5k on.
in 25 trips, i've never found it to be 'shoulder to shoulder' the whole way... even in 1996 and 2014 with the bigger fields
in '96 with 38,000 it took until 10k to clear out.
YourCorral wrote:
I’d say just run in your assigned corral. If you drop back to wave 2 corral 2 like the rules say, now your running with people that’ll be doing 7:30s and when you break free from the pack you’ll have far fewer people to run with at your pace. Besides, now you have to wait 15-20 minutes more before wave 2 starts. Run in your corral and find people to pace with. It’ll be a much more enjoyable experience. Don’t worry about the first 5k. Concentrate on the whole race. Pacing is out the window on the downhill anyway. You’ll be glad when you reach Newton.
It’ s simple:
If you want to go faster than your “peers”, make sure you’re in front of your corral.
If you want to go out conservatively, start at the back.
r2k83 wrote:
gunning for another smooth sub 3 wrote:
I get that the road is smaller. But in NYC for example, the corral assignment is NOT based on a time run in the past. Instead, you can simply state an arbitrary goal pace. My first marathon was 3:30, but I told them I'd run 2:59, and they put me in the appropriate corral corresponding to 2:59 (for the record, I did run pretty much goal time). Hence, I was thinking given that in Boston the corral assignment is based on actual times, it should be the case that a larger fraction of runners is in the "correct" corral. Or do they put charity runners in front as well in Boston? In any case, it doesn't bother me too much, if people are slow around me I'll start a bit slower, good strategy in any case.
It's worse than any other marathon due to the faster field. It never spreads out. The 1,000 people in your corral all run the same time as you +/- 2:00. Shoulder to shoulder the whole way. Ever spectate at Chicago or NYC? You have dense crowds around all the pace groups and then it thins out in between. Boston is like running in the pace group the whole way. There is no between option.
I’m sure people in the front of the corral will not start at their BQ pace, but at least 10 min faster.
Does anyone know why bibs 101-125 are currently unassigned? Are they technically for men under 2:19 not in the invite field but still in elite start?
Charlesvdw wrote:
It’ s simple:
If you want to go faster than your “peers”, make sure you’re in front of your corral.
If you want to go out conservatively, start at the back.
bing-f'n-O
i always hang at the back of the corral - more room to move until they remove the corral barriers
FWIW - back in 1999 Bill Rodgers started with me at the back of corral 1 - he said he didn't want to start too fast on a very warm day (he would end up dropping out)
gunning for another smooth sub 3 wrote:
BostonWilliam wrote:
Hahaha! hahahahahaha!
No. It's pretty much the same as any other major marathon that has corrals, actual quite a bit worse even because it is a narrow road and the first couple miles have a lot of downhill.
Combine that with the high number of Johnny Badasses that incorrectly think they are going to set a huge PR and the natural tendency of most people at road races to follow the worst possible pacing strategy.
So, no. Not a smooth start if you are in Corral 4.
I get that the road is smaller. But in NYC for example, the corral assignment is NOT based on a time run in the past. Instead, you can simply state an arbitrary goal pace. My first marathon was 3:30, but I told them I'd run 2:59, and they put me in the appropriate corral corresponding to 2:59 (for the record, I did run pretty much goal time). Hence, I was thinking given that in Boston the corral assignment is based on actual times, it should be the case that a larger fraction of runners is in the "correct" corral. Or do they put charity runners in front as well in Boston? In any case, it doesn't bother me too much, if people are slow around me I'll start a bit slower, good strategy in any case.
The charity runners are at the very back. But, the problem you'll have being in Corral 4 is that there are a couple thousand people in front of you on a narrow road, so there isn't much room to move up/run free if you are in better shape than your seed time. On the other hand, there are a couple thousand people behind you are many of them are idiots and will go out way faster than they should, weaving through the crowd with what little room there is to maneuver. Most of the people in your actual corral will also go out too fast. It's bad for about 2 miles then it's not really any big deal. That guy who said it was shoulder to shoulder the whole way either ran a slow time in the middle of the pack or doesn't know what he's talking about. Anyone under 3 hour pace will have plenty of room after a couple miles. But the start does suck.
I was high 3’s last year and am in the 500s this year using the same seed time from October 2017
That said I was hurt through January and February so I will be going out in 6:50 pace from corral 1 and clogging up the course for everyone behind me.
I am in Wave 4 Corral 4 because I got in through work via John Hancock invitation and they did not accept my time because it was not a BQ (3:09 and I needed a 3:05).
:(
Is there any chance of me whatsoever running in the 3 hour range? Should I just walk with all the ladies in skirts and calf sleeves? I've had pretty good training, ran 1:23:54 on a nice hilly Atlanta course on Sunday, so that was fun.
Bump I’m stuck in the charity wave too
I released something into the toilet today!
Question about bibs wrote:
Does anyone know why bibs 101-125 are currently unassigned? Are they technically for men under 2:19 not in the invite field but still in elite start?
Reserved for non hobby joggers.
Brad Majors wrote:
I released something into the toilet today!
Best post in this thread so far.
Every year at this time, thousands of 3 hr-range marathoners act like they've just received their invites to the freakin' Olympic Marathon.
Well, actually they have. It's the goddam Hobby Jogger Olympics! Be sure to buy all the Boston Marathon swag at top dollar at the expo so you can impress your friends back home!
Signed,
Cynical old guy that see a BQ as not even a challenge
agreeable dude wrote:
Brad Majors wrote:
I released something into the toilet today!
Best post in this thread so far.
Every year at this time, thousands of 3 hr-range marathoners act like they've just received their invites to the freakin' Olympic Marathon.
Well, actually they have. It's the goddam Hobby Jogger Olympics! Be sure to buy all the Boston Marathon swag at top dollar at the expo so you can impress your friends back home!
Signed,
Cynical old guy that see a BQ as not even a challenge
You couldn't be more wrong.
The top bib numbers at Boston are like a caste system.
1-10 World class elite
11-100 Country level elite, OTQ
101-300 Sub-elite, former college runners
301-999 Really good hobby jogger
1000-1999 Aspiring really good hobby jogger
2000-2999 "My BQ is 2:55, but I'm in 2:45 shape"
3000-4999 Sub-3
5000-7999 Red bib, baby! I've made it.
8000-15999 Why did I get to the Athletes Village so early?
16000-23999 At least I'm not a charity runner
24000-30000+ I spent $2000 at the expo and I should have spent more.
Boston Bound 2019 wrote:
You couldn't be more wrong.
The top bib numbers at Boston are like a caste system.
1-10 World class elite
11-100 Country level elite, OTQ
101-300 Sub-elite, former college runners
301-999 Really good hobby jogger
1000-1999 Aspiring really good hobby jogger
2000-2999 "My BQ is 2:55, but I'm in 2:45 shape"
3000-4999 Sub-3
5000-7999 Red bib, baby! I've made it.
8000-15999 Why did I get to the Athletes Village so early?
16000-23999 At least I'm not a charity runner
24000-30000+ I spent $2000 at the expo and I should have spent more.
I'm sub-3:00, just barely, 2:59:30, and my bib is 519x ... LOL
RIP: D3 All-American Frank Csorba - who ran 13:56 in March - dead
RENATO can you talk about the preparation of Emile Cairess 2:06
Rest in Peace Adrian Lehmann - 2:11 Swiss marathoner. Dies of heart attack.
I think Letesenbet Gidey might be trying to break 14 this Saturday
Running for Bowerman Track Club used to be cool now its embarrassing