My sixth year running the Boston Marathon I tried something different. Because I was in the midst of finishing my PhD at Tufts University, I didn't have time to train, so I decided to run it anyways, but take it easy. The results were good considering I had done no long runs, and especially since my studies caused my daily mileage to drop down to 2 to 3 miles a day. My time was 3 hours and 53 minutes and 13 seconds. That was 4 minutes faster than the previous year, when I had trained for it.
This was the fifth year in a row that I ran the Boston Marathon. I again ran it unofficially (aka as a bandit) and unfortunately things didn't go very well for me. My time was a miserable 3 hours and 57 minutes. My half marathon time was 1:35 which wasn't all that bad, but after about 15 miles my legs just stopped working from all that pounding. I was moving so slowly that walking seemed faster. Otherwise I felt fine. I wasn't dehydrated, or had any physical problems. I just couldn't take the pounding this year. Likely, the 52 miles a week for 5 weeks just wasn't enough to prepare me for the hilly course. Also, many of the shorter miles weren't quality runs. Next year I need to make each run a good one.
As a base, I now run 3.5 miles every day (I do this year round). For the marathon I took a novel approach of a rigid 5 to 6 week training regimen where each week I ran a 20 miler, half marathon and did a significant track workout. I stuck to this schedule until two weeks from the race, at which point I started toning it down.
Below is a look at what a week of training looked like. Next year I will need to double my base mileage as well as double the number of weeks that I stick to the schedule.
This was the fourth year in a row that I ran the Boston Marathon. I again ran it unofficially (aka as a bandit) but things didn't go all too well for me this year. My time was a very slow 3 hours and 47 minutes. I had to pull up and jog in from about 17 miles out as I felt my hamstring getting very tight. This was likely caused by the broken foot I suffered 10 month earlier.
As a base, I ran 3.5 miles every day (I do this year round). This has come down from my previous base of 6 miles every day. Part of this is due to coming off that broken foot over the Summer, but honestly, I've also become somewhat lazy when it comes to running. For the marathon, I decided this year to limit my 20 milers to two and run more 1/2 marathons instead. This should keep me fresh for race day and at the same time up my mileage a bit, considering my daily base is so low now. I also started a week later than on previous years...hmmm, I suppose you can attribute that to laziness as well.
This was the third year in a row that I ran the Boston Marathon. I again ran it unofficially (aka as a bandit) and although I didn't reach my goal of under 3 hours, I did run a personal best. I finished the race in 3 hours 11 minutes and 17 seconds, an improvement of 1 minutes and 17 seconds over my previous fastest time. The first half of the race was the slowest I had ever run it, but I ran the second half surprisingly faster than before (almost 5 minutes faster than my previous best). Temperatures on race day were cool, in the mid 40's (it may have even hit 50 at one point). There was a strong head wind, though I didn't seem to have noticed it.
As a base, I run 6 miles every day (I do this year round). For the marathon I increase my base to 8 miles starting in March, and ran four 20 milers on consecutive Saturdays. I also threw in several 10 mile runs to bring my weekly average up to 70 miles.
My official finish line time was 3:21:13 which placed me 4132nd. Since I started 9 minutes and 56 seconds behind everyone, had I had a fair start, 3:11:17 would have placed me 2555th. There were 17,813 runners and it seemed like over 3,000 bandits. So around 21,000 runners competed. Since I started near the front of the bandit field, I passed over 13,500 runners...yikes... during my 26.2 mile trek. Oh yeah, the overall winner this year was Elijah Lagat of Kenya at 2:09:47.
My 1/2 marathon splits were surprisingly even. I ran 1:32:14 for the first half and 1:39:03 for the second half. I wanted to run 1:20 and 1:40 to break 3 hours, so I accomplished at least half of my goal by running a great second half. Next year I'll concentrate on some speed work to see if I can't knock some time off of the first half. A 1:26 would be good and maybe if I'm in better shape I could run the second half in 1:34. We'll see...
Here are approximate mile splits, with many times extrapolated. Most of the seconds are guesses, though I seem to remember hitting 49's a lot early on (and I thought around 29's later on, though that doesn't seem to jive with the numbers below). Times marked with "*" I'm sure about. When the mile pace seems to be hovering around a single number consistently it's a definite sign of having averaged over a few miles. Also, that 6:38, I definitely remember realizing I had just run that fast. I think it's due to that steep down hill right after the 21 mile marker at Boston College where I was still feeling surprisingly good.
Mile Time Split Pace Notes ---- ---- ----- ---- ----- 1 8:23 8:23 8:23 crowded at start, ran on sides... 2 15:25 7:02 7:42 ...dodging mail boxes 3 22:23 6:58 7:27 legs felt like crap already... 4 29:11 6:48 7:17 ...still stop and go at times 5 35:57 6:46 7:11 comfortable pacing started around here 6 42:49 6:52 7:08 annoyed with crowd as I kept bumping... 10K 44:14 - 7:08 ...into out-reaching spectators plus... 7 49:49 7:00 7:07 ...runners trying to hi-five them 8 56:49 7:00 7:06 kept trying to pick up pace but unable 9 1:03:48 6:59 7:05 legs continued to feel like crap... 10 1:10:46 6:58 7:04 ...but never got any worse 11 1:17:43 6:57 7:03 could hear Wellesley already 12 1:24:39 6:56 7:03 this was awesome...Wellesley rocks 13 1:31:35 6:56 7:02 unable to pick up pace, try as I may 13.1 1:32:14 - 7:02 disappointed...way off pace I wanted 14 1:38:31 6:56 7:02 concentrated on running hard until... 15 1:45:45 7:14 7:03 ...hills, told myself to run 7:00's... 16 1:52:46 7:01 7:02 ...until hills and then bonk 17 2:00:15 (*) 7:29 7:04 first of hills starts at 17 1/2 18 2:07:57 7:42 7:06 second hill starts at 18 1/2... 19 2:15:52 7:55 7:09 ...followed by long gradual down hill 20 2:23:33 7:41 7:10 3 small heart break hills start... 21 2:32:30 (*) 8:57 7:15 ...end at the top where 21 mark is 22 2:39:08 (*) 6:38 7:14 long steep down hill from 21 to 22 23 2:46:35 7:27 7:14 thought this was supposed to be 24... 24 2:54:17 7:42 7:15 ...was big let down until I hit 24 25 3:02:01 7:44 7:16 24 and 25 seem to take forever... 25.2 3:03:34 - 7:17 ...mile to go is near Citgo sign 26 3:09:44 7:43 7:17 too tired to look at my watch here 26.2 3:11:17 - 7:18 I was so happy to be done...PR a bonus
I again ran the Boston Marathon unofficially (aka as a bandit) in 1999. See results below. I ran my very first marathon in 1998 and finished the race in a time of 3 hours 12 minutes and 34 seconds. My half marathon time was 1 hour 28 minutes and 33 seconds. I was about 20 minutes behind the leaders at that time. Temperature was cool, somewhere in the 50's (I don't remember it reaching the 60's). Winner in 1998 was Moses Tanui in 2:07:34.
As a base, I run 6 miles every day (I do this year round). For the marathon I increase my mileage during the weekends to anywhere from 25 miles to almost 40 miles for both days. Usually I try to run a 20 miler on Saturday and about 14 on Sunday. The rest of the week I total about 30 miles with my 6 mile a day average.
Here's what I did in 1999, starting from the middle of February:
Well, I finished the race. My time was 3 hours 17 minutes and 15 seconds. That's 4 minutes and 41 seconds slower than last year. It was much hotter out there this year (high 60's to low 70's) plus with the tail wind you were mostly running in still air, which is supposed to be bad for cooling. My half marathon split was 1 hour 32 minutes and 11 seconds, which was 3 minutes and 38 seconds slower than last year. My training suffered somewhat this year as I only ran four 20 milers compared to eight or nine last year, plus I had a cold for about the last two weeks leading up to the marathon.
I ended up having to spend 2 hours in the medical tent after the race as I was really dehydrated. I needed two IV's to get me back to normal. I felt really miserable for a long time. The heat was just too much, though I never actually noticed the temperature during the race, it felt cool.
Here are some observations from the race. The Heartbreak Hill area starts a little bit before the 18 mile mark. The first hill seems a bit long and is followed by a gradual downhill. The next hill hits you a little after 19 miles (I think) and is about the same. Then after 20 you get the killer hill which goes all the way to the top of the BC hill. That's the one that kills you. Also, I felt my quads after only 5 or so miles so next year I should taper off a week earlier, so no 20 miler the week before the race.
Below are some statistics from the race. Any and all splits that I can remember, etc... (times are in hours:minutes:seconds, with hours left off if it was zero)