Training Log Archive: Ari-o

Event: 119th Boston Marathon
 

I will now declare myself the first person EVER to run, bike and rollerski the Boston Marathon, all within BQ time.

Boston!

I drew probably the worst weather for Boston in eight years, but you go to run in the weather you have, not the weather you wish you had.

Took the T to the common, rode out, found Evan from NP under a tent as it was lightly raining. Stayed there for a while, took a jog in my ridiculous thrift shop clothes (sweater, crazy orange jacket, light blue golf pants—CSU colors!) and then walked the mile or so to the start. While lining up for the start I did the pro thing of, having cut a hole in my pants, peeing in to an empty water bottle and throwing it away. Hooray! Saved me a trip to the loo during the race.

My plan was basically: 6:30 to 6:45 until the hills, then 6:50 to 7:00, which would put me in at 2:57. Goal was sub-3. The weather was fine through Framingham, started raining in Natick, and got windier as we went on. The crowds are amazing, like Main Street in the Birkie except half the race is on Main Street. Lots of cheering for NP and CSU, saw my folks and Alex in Newton. Lots of high fives at Wellesley and BC (didn't get a kiss at Swellsley—next time) and the rest of the way in. Not as many people as if it had been nice weather, but the ones there were loud. Keeps you warm.

Anyway, I ran my splits for the first 20 miles. The issue was not so much the uphills in Newton—I kept close to splits for them—but the cold, and the wind, with a straight on 20G30 headwind. I tried to tuck in behind people but all the marathoners are wicked skinny. I was able to get out of a temporary pain room at mile 19 by running up the hill out of Walnut, and to muster sub-7s down from BC, but then I was really hurting. 7:20, 7:17, 7:08 from Cleveland Circle to Kenmore. I thought that would keep me under 3, but apparently my math was off and/or the race was a couple tenths longer. I tried to muster a kick out of Kendall and sort of did, but came in 7 seconds over the 3 hour mark.

Then we all trundled down Boylston getting food and heat blankets that sort of worked to help the shivering do something, and at one point a gust of wind damn near blew us over. I'm taking those 8 seconds as a handicap based on weather. Give me a tailwind on a nice day and that's a 2:55, easy. A bank thermometer in Coolidge read 44˚, and I believe it. It is basically a typical pack day up at Lakes of the Clouds. Except 26 miles.

Long wait for bags, then I liberated my backpack from the plastic (total #protip: stuff a backpack in your gear bag a la the Birkie) and stumbled to Boylston, where I put on dry things and began to feel human again. People on the T were excited to see marathoners, and I sat next to an NP fan on the Red Line. Then waited for the 47 which never came (some stupid race had it all detoured and messed up) and walked home. And started drinking.

Finished 2600th or so overall, which means that I totally ran ahead of my number (4315). Need to do some statistical analysis, but it seems that everyone ran slower than normal. To the computer machine.

Next year … I have to be at a wedding the weekend before Boston. In San Francisco. so I might not run it. But marathons are kind of fun, and I will probably want to keep that Boston qualifier time. So I'll use it as an excuse to go run somewhere else, I guess. Which is pretty good, considering I can't feel my legs. Or maybe that's the beer talking. Which reminds me, I need another.

C • Nice run, Ari! 1

C • San Francisco 4

Event: 2015 Billygoat Run
 

So, getting ready. A shame we couldn't run today, since it's so nice. But tomorrow will be the same, without sun, and keeping the headwinds. Jury is out as to when the rain will start tomorrow; hopefully not until most/all of the race is through. And hopefully the headwinds aren't too, too bad. The one nice part is that with so many people around it should break up the wind somewhat and maybe it won't be as much of an issue. There might be some sense in trying to go out fast (downhill) to try to get behind faster people to have them break the wind. It's also going to be ESE and we're running ENE until mile 17.5, so that might chop it up a little bit? We'll see. Although the worst of it, going downhill from BC, is in to the wind, where it shouldn't matter as much. If the wind is the worst of my problem at that point, that's probably okay.

I'm thinking I am going to try to hold 6:45s once I settle in to a pace, 7:00 on climbs, and 6:30s on downhills if I'm feeling them. That should be 2:57, which given the conditions, I'll be happy with. That's what I ran in to the wind a few weeks ago at the ES20, and quite a bit slower than the half a few weeks before. Hopefully that all pays off. We'll know tomorrow.

C • Good luck! 2

Taper continues.

Taper off day, but I did see Katia and Giovanni running in Central and chased them down by Hubway to say hi.

Run to the thrift shop to buy warm clothes to wear on the bus to the start. And to get that taper run in.

Went to NP but did not run stairs. Went to the track and did a 400 800 800 800 400. Ran the 800s around 93 seconds per lap, so pretty slow (since my 3k time is 90 seconds) with the last one at 90, and then an 85 second 400, just to let the legs air out.

Now my leg is sore, or something weird in my quad. Might be from too much sitting at a desk. Standing desk time!

Biking across Boston and back. A couple of sprints.

I was going to bike to a meeting earlier but a) I had too much work to do to go and b) I realized that 20 miles on a road bike might not do good things this week.

Next week is SOB week:

Strength
Orienteering
Bike/Beer