Blogging on Boston, First the Bad News.......

On April 16th I’m going to run in my second Boston Marathon. As most of you know my first trip there was somewhat less than I had hoped for. I had run a sub-3 hour qualifying time and my expectations were no less for my trip to the most famous marathon in the world. As I found out (the hard way) Boston is a much different marathon than most. Returning to Boston this year my goal of a a sub-3 hour marathon will remain the same. Hopefully I will preform better than 3:34 disaster of last year. Here is a brief description of hurdles in my path and the strikes I have going against me.

At Boston runners are assigned bib numbers based on their qualifying time. The faster the qualifying time, the lower the bib number. Last year my qualifier was a 2:58, my bib was #2244. That means 2,243 people submitted qualifying times faster than I did. I would guess that somewhere close to 2,400 runners sent in qualifying times under three hours. Checking the Boston Marathon official results from last year, I found that fewer than 1,200 runners finished with a time faster than 3 hours. Simply put, roughly half of the people who ran their qualifiers in less than three hours were unable to duplicate the same feat in Boston.

The main reason for the slow times at Boston is the topography of the marathon. The first half of the marathon is either downhill or flat. This encourages runners to go faster than they should. Encouraging this fast pace are the thousands of spectators cheering the runners from town to town. For the first 16 miles of the race there is not a single rise in elevation and split times are fast. Then you arrive in Newton, Massachusetts. Newton presents a series of four hills from mile 16.5 to mile 21.5. Those that have been tempted to push the pace over the easy first half of the marathon are punished severely in Newton.

The hills present two problems. First, they come in rapid succession. None of the hills by itself would pose a problem for a dedicated runner. The cumulative effect however is crushing to the runner's spirits and body. The second reason for the slow times is that the hills begin in the later portion of the race. Newton's hills begin at a point in the race when glycogen stores are beginning to run out. This experience is commonly referred to as “hitting the wall.” Glycogen (Carbs) is the primary fuel of the muscles. Once it is gone the body looks to other fuels, usually fat, to keep it going. Even on a flat course this is painful and results in the runner significantly slowing his or her pace. In Boston your glycogen reserves run just as you are reaching Newton’s hills. Good times.

In all honesty, the deck is stacked against me running a sub-3 hour marathon. Last year a younger me and roughly a thousand people who were faster than me failed to achieve the time goal that I set for myself. Despite my miserable race last year my goal will remain unchanged this year. Why do I think I can do it this year? I’ll tell you later. Have a Happy Easter!