Today was the race I have been looking forward to for a long time.... The Boston Marathon
I had the goal of running a 2:22 or so going into the race. My training has been pretty good for the most part and I hit my highest mileage as I hit 97 miles a week a few weeks ago. I have been feeling pretty good and motivated to run well.
I woke up the morning of the race walked down to the hotel lobby and ate my oatmeal as I waited for the van to take me to a drop off point. As I arrived at the drop off point it was crazy. They were checking all of our bags and we all had to have a guy go around our bodies with a medal detector wand. I got on the bus and went to athlete village. At this point I was getting very excited but nervous for the big run. I went to the skechers house that was close to the start, talked to a few other skechers runners and used the restroom. I ended up leaving my clothes with them as they said they could ship them to me as I had not bag drop for my stuff.
I went to the start line and moved my way through the pack and tried to get as close as I could to the from of the A Wave. I saw Bryant Jensen and we talked about how we wanted to go out slow together and then slowly move up. Well from the gun Bryant took off fast so I was like oh crap no running buddy. I guess I am on my own so I did the dumb thing and went out fast as well, the first few miles were downhill. I saw Bryant up until around mile 14, I was hoping he would drop and we could work together but he stayed a good solid distance in front of me the whole run. I felt great the first half of the race it felt super easy and comfortable.
My splits were close but not right on as my watch GPS was a little short some miles.
Spllits 5:07, 5:10, 5:11, 5:12, 5:20, 5:15, 5:14, 5:17, 5:14, 5:28, 5:31, 5:24, 5:24,
5:26, 5:36, 5:24, 5:57, 6:05, 5:53, 6:11, 6:41, 5:54, 6:11, 6:11, 6:21, 6:17, 6:15 pace last little bit.
At the Halfway point I came through way to fast. I should have came through around 1:10 1:11 instead I came through about 1:09:45. The first half is flat and rolling down so it throws off your cadence for sure changing paces. I felt great and was thinking if I can hold this I will kill this course. As I talked to many people going into this race they kept saying how the hills are nothing if you are from Utah. So, I assumed the hills would not be that bad. As I hit around 13 or 14th mile and started to feel the hills my legs turned to jello and it was hard to keep a consistent pace. The rolling hills are hard to stay solid and I did not run hills at the end of long runs, which is what I should have ton to train for this course.I kept looking at my watch and it was dropping more and more and I was thinking of crap this is going to be real bad. Around mile 18 or so I started to cramp, which has never happened in a race. My right quad and right clalf got really tight and I was thinking if I stop I will not get going again. So I slowed the pace and tried to hold on for dear life the rest of the run.
I have learned many lessons from this frustrating and bad run.
1st- Go out slower to save more energy for later in the race. BE PATIENT... I suck at this
2nd- I might start taking salt tablets so I do not cramp, usually I cramp after I finish
3rd- Train hills at the end of a long run so my legs are use to hills when they are tired
4th- Practice on rolling hills as this is what Boston is, hard to keep cadence consistent
5th- I cant base my race off of others, I need to run my race and my race only
Overall it was a good experience even though I did not run as fast as I would have hoped. I am going to keep working hard as I know that I have not reached my peak for the Marathon as of yet.
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