Week 15 - The Boston Marathon Race Report
[Quick Summary]
2:56:01 (PB)
Garmin Stats
Official Splits
There’s a lot that can be said about the 117th Boston Marathon but I shall try to focus on a race report. Thank you though for all the kind messages after the incident. I was about 2-3 blocks away when the bombings happened and was thankfully safe that day.
[Week 15 training summary]
Monday: ~6miles easy
Tuesday: ~6.5miles easy
Wednesday: ~6.5miles (inc. [1600m, 1200m, 800m, 400m] @ 10km pace )
Thursday: ~6miles easy
Friday: ~4miles easy jog with my youngest sister in Toronto
Saturday: 25mins (inc. 2minutes @ 5:00/mi pace)
Sunday: 20mins easy jog around Harvard university
[Pre-Race]
Ever since I started running, it was always a dream of mine to qualify and run the Boston Marathon. After running a qualifying time of 3:02:31 in Tokyo 2012, I immediately jumped at the chance to register. Happy to get accepted into the race, I also had my sights on breaking the elusive 3hr barrier. So, starting on Jan 1st of this year, training began with a conventional marathon training approach utilizing elements from legendary coaches such as Philip Maffetone, Pete Pfitzinger and Jack Daniels combined with unconventional changes to my diet (kudos to Harrisson for his input) which resulted in my best marathon buildup ever. I averaged about 75miles (121km) a week, peaked at 105miles (169km) and having achieved a few PBs along the way (5km: 18:17, 10km: 37:50, HM: 1:23:58), legs free of any major injuries, I felt I was in the best running shape I’ve ever been.
After spending a few days in Toronto, I flew up to Boston a day before the race. From the moment I walked into the expo and picked up my number, the atmosphere was amazing! Here’s a brief photo recap:
I’m happy to have made it to Boston.
Desiree Davila and Josh Cox providing some tips on how to run the course.
Ultramarathon runner Dean Karnases giving a humorous talk.
Getting a glimpse of 4x Boston Marathon Winner Bill Rodgers.
Writing down my target time.
Eating my last big meal at 2pm.
Preparing my race gear.
It all starts here after taking the school bus at 6am to Hopkinton.
Hanging out with Bob and Brent. T-3 hours before the race starts.
[Race]
Start - Mile 6
With a bib number of 4029, I was in wave 1, corral 5 along with hundreds of other runners with roughly the same qualifying time. It took about two minutes after the gun went off at 10am before I crossed the start line. The first 6 miles/10km are mostly downhill and if there’s one tip I got from everyone that gave me advice, it was to take it easy in the first 10km. I went by feel and what felt like a very easy run ended up being 6:48/mi, 6:31, 6:34, 6:29, 6:39, 6:30 pace which was faster than marathon pace. I wisely resisted the urge to break into a sub-40 10km run and ended up with a 10km split time of 41:11.
Mile 6 - Mile 17
The next 11 miles were mostly flat with a few rollers and one significant downhill before the infamous Newton hills. The weather was excellent (hardly any wind, 10-15 degrees celsius) so I was able to run a little bit faster than my marathon pace. I was comfortable with this pace and was trying to maintain a steady effort. I hit the half-way mark at 1:26:50 which was only 10 seconds ahead of my 1:27-1:28 target. There were plenty of fast runners around me gunning for sub 3 so I was able to follow various people during this time. It was around this time that I caught up with Brett. After a few motivational words from him, I set off on my own pace. It turned out he was a few seconds behind me until mile 21. The Wellesley Girls at mile 14 were fun to see but after speeding up too much, I made sure to settle back into a steady pace.
Mile 17 - Mile 21
The infamous Newton hills are a series of four hills from the 28km to the 34km point. While not too difficult, it comes at a time when many people start hitting the “wall” or fading. I saw a few people that had gone out too fast and were walking up the hills. My goal going into the hills were to minimize the amount of time lost. According to my Garmin, miles 17-20 were 6:46, 6:44, 6:44, 6:43 which I was supper happy about. However, although I increased the intensity on the famous Heartbreak hill, I ended up running my slowest mile of the race with a 6:57/mi. But once I reached the top, I was ecstatic the hardest part of the race was finished.
Mile 21 - Finish
My 30km split was 2:03:59 and I got to 35km at 2:25:12. At the top of Heartbreak, I was doing the math in my head. Unless I got injured/cramped, sub-3 is in the bag. If I progressed into a 6:30-6:35 pace and finished with a strong sprint, I might be able to go sub 2:55. After all, the last 5.2miles into Boston is mostly downhill. I hit 6:37 on mile 22 but shortly after, my legs just didnt have it anymore. Though it was mostly down, there were still a few tiny uphills. So much for the sub 2:55. After seeing a glimpse of the Citgo sign which looked like it was really far away, the last 4 miles seemed to take forever in my mind: 6:46, 6:54, 6:51, 6:51. There were also a few brief moments where it felt like my feet were on the edge of cramping. Luckily, relaxing it for a few seconds mitigated the situation. Anyways, hung on and finished with a 2:56:01 (On my Garmin I had a 2:55:56..)
[Post-Race]
Soaked up the exciting atmosphere at the finish line with other sub3 marathoners before slowly walking back to grab my clothes from the bag drop. Went on a bit of an eating spree grabbing whatever foods/drinks they were handing out along the way. Hung around the area a bit longer before wandering into a shopping mall about 2-3 blocks away. I was eating lunch and my mind was quite out of it when the bombs went off so I didn’t hear anything. I didnt even noticed anything was unusual until I walked out of the mall and saw a squadron of police cars driving downtown. A short time later, I finally found out what was going on. With nothing else to do, I spend the rest of that afternoon gathering information and slowly walking back to Cambridge where I was staying. That evening, even though the city seemed to be on lockdown, I had a pleasant dinner with Bob, Anna, Brett and a few Japanese runners.
Post-race dinner
Now that I’ve done Boston, I don’t think I’ll ever find another marathon experience that has the same mystique and awe. It’s tragic what transpired at 2:50pm that day but I have no doubt that it will come back bigger and better than ever. Boston Marathon 2014?? (I guess I already qualified..=P)
