Boston wave 4 corral 8 start w/2:50 goal

Bump, I am in Wave 4, Corral 4 (I got in through John Hancock through my job) so I am curious to see the feedback too. I am shooting for a goal of 3 hours or as close to under as possible as well.

garrettb wrote:

Bump, I am in Wave 4, Corral 4 (I got in through John Hancock through my job) so I am curious to see the feedback too. I am shooting for a goal of 3 hours or as close to under as possible as well.

I think it won’t be an issue- it will force you to take the first 5 k easy being in the masses. By then running lanes will open up and you will have plenty of time to make up for a slow start. Just don’t weave and expend extra energy but accept it

if you have never run a marathon before, what makes you think you can run a 2:50?

running a time graded half doesn't prepare you for a 2:50.

why 2:50 wrote:

if you have never run a marathon before, what makes you think you can run a 2:50?

running a time graded half doesn't prepare you for a 2:50.

So many hardos on here talk about how they debut at sub 3 and it wasn't that hard and this guy asks a question and of course this is the answer he gets. He's asking about running a good race from the back of the pack in the charity wave with the crowds. If he wants to aim high, let him aim high.

I hope its possible! I qualified with a 3:01 and am shooting for low 2:50's (not as far back as you though, Wave 1 corral 7) and this has been a concern for me as well.

Wave 2 corral 5 with 3:00 hour goal too and wondering the same

2/5 too.

Shooting for 3:15 in perfect conditions (cold, tailwind) or sub 3:30 in bad conditions.

And above all, trying to enjoy the day.

Similar...but not the same...experience at NYC...they start all the charity slobs before the wave 1/corral 1 folks...meaning lots of traffic at the start.

I echo the don't weave around, it just uses energy. Accept that the first couple of miles will be congested and stay relaxed...it'll open up soon enough.

I think it will be very tough. You will have 8 corals of people ahead of you who are very slow. You can't run at a sub-7:00 pace through them. Also if you are running that fast you will catch a bunch of people from wave 3. There will be more space, but you will be going much faster than they will but it will take energy to go around them.

For reference, years ago I started about last at NYC. It took me about 18 miles to get running room. I passed about 25,000 people and ran around 3:30. About month before I had run 3:02 in a much smaller, flat marathon.

I think it is possible. Maybe even more possible than if you were at the back of wave 2.

Here's my untested theory. When the wave starts you can normally move up. If you are not too passive, you might move past 1-2 corrals worth of people. With a little luck, you might start only 3-4 minutes behind the wave leader. The second thing to realize is that your goal pace is about 3 minutes faster then the rest of the wave. You will have to do some weaving but by being patient you won't waste much energy and could pass the bulk of the wave by 1.5 miles. At that point it won't be too difficult to start increasing your pace as the wave will start to thin out. This is especially true if you have passed 6000 runners and under 2000 (strung out over 400 meters) are left to pass.

As you reach the front of the wave between mile 1.5 and 2.5 you will have an open road. The last wave 3 runner had a 15-20 minute head start and at 2 minutes a mile it will take 8 plus miles to catch them. By then, (mile 8-10) they will be strung out enough that you will have no problem passing them. (also by that time the road is wider).

More advice. Skip the first water stop. Stay in the middle of the road or towards the opposite side. Typically the water stop is on the right and about 50 meters later more tables on they left.

The reason I say it might be easier than the back of wave 2 is because the range of time in wave 2 is much closer (maybe 7:15 to 7:50 per mile vs 9:00 to 10 plus). Since the runners in wave 2 are faster it will take you longer to pass them. It will take on;y 1 mile to gain 2-3 minutes on wave 4 but it will take over 3 miles to gain 3 minutes on wave 2. And Wave 2 is more bunched so it could be harder to find room to pass.

Just some random thoughts. It would be nice to hear your thoughts after the race.

I will gladly test this theory for you shooting for 3:05 or so based on my training and 1:23 half a week and a half ago. Wave 4, Corral 4. Time will tell what happens.

Last year Naoki Yamada from Japan ran 2:32:10, the 27th fastest time of the race, with bib number 31218. I think that would have put him in wave 4, corral 8.

Sesamoiditis wrote:

Last year Naoki Yamada from Japan ran 2:32:10, the 27th fastest time of the race, with bib number 31218. I think that would have put him in wave 4, corral 8.

Holy smokes I just looked this up and you're right, he is legitimately Wave 4, Corral 8. That's amazing. I know last year the start got pretty messy with the weather and a friend of mine said they were just letting people go. I am definitely not of that caliber of a runner, but this is definitely encouraging.

I ran 3:12, definitely got bottled up there at the start and maybe didn't run as efficiently as I could have. I think I was a little conservative on the downhills but I enjoyed my first time and look forward to shooting for sub-3 in Chicago.

garrettb wrote:

I ran 3:12, definitely got bottled up there at the start and maybe didn't run as efficiently as I could have. I think I was a little conservative on the downhills but I enjoyed my first time and look forward to shooting for sub-3 in Chicago.

Looking at your splits it looks like you lost about a 2 minutes on the first 5K, 2 minutes on the 7th 5K, 4 minutes on the 8th 5K, 3-4 minutes on the last 2.2K and about 30 seconds on the other 5K's. I would say except for the first 5K, you probably couldn't blame it on the crowded race course. Am I that far off?

Yeah, tell us more details, how did it go? Anyone else want to report back?

This is a cool thread.

Years later, I am in this situation. I do have a previous race of 3:12:40 so not quite as fast as 2:50, but in Wave 4 corral 7. How did this turn out for you?? Hoping you made your goal!! If so, you give me hope.

If you’re into retro video games, at least you get a game of Frogger included in your registration fee.