To be honest, I didn’t think it was in the cards this year. The marathon training plan I used last year was 16 weeks and totaled 562 miles over that period. It included an 18, 2 20’s, and a 22 mile run. With the BayState marathon being only 5 weeks after the Pumkinman half-ironman race, I just couldn’t get near that volume. I logged 1 18 and 1 20 mile run, with only a total of 350 miles in the 16 weeks prior to the race. A crazy work travel schedule and busy times at home with Finn meant that the weeks leading up to the race didn’t include the sleep and healthy eating habits that everyone should shoot for – never mind someone getting ready to try to qualify for the Boston marathon with a sub 3:10:59 effort.
That being said, I knew I was physically capable of qualifying, I would just need to endure more pain that I was used to. I did my best to beat it into my head - if I could suffer it would happen.
Race morning was pretty stress free. The 8:00 start meant a 5 AM wakeup (sleeping in compared to most of the tri’s I do and most flights I wake up to catch) for some coffee and carbs. Finn was rooting for me, so he was nice enough to go right back to sleep after his 1 AM midnight snack and diaper change. At 6, I was picked up by Tim and Paul. One more quick stop to pickup Will and we made our way to beautiful Lowell, MA. There wasn’t a lot of time to think about this race. We battled traffic to get a parking spot and the next thing we knew it was 10 minutes from the start.
Paul and I lined up towards the front, maybe 5 or 6 rows back. One of the cooler things I’ve experienced in a race happened about 30 seconds from the start. They tried to play the National Anthem, but announced that due to technical difficulties they couldn’t play it. All of a sudden the entire group of runners and spectators starting singing it. Made me proud to be an American and to be surrounded by such great people.
Below are my splits from the race. We started out a bit fast but settled in after a few miles, ticking off 7’s fairly comfortably. Paul and I basically pulled a pack of 15 or so runners for the first 13 miles. At first I didn’t realize we had a pack with us, but it was funny to hear spectators cheering for the pack. The half marathon mark was about 5 or 6 minutes faster than I’ve ever run a standalone half marathon. After 13, we made a conscience effort to slow down a bit and try to run 7:15’s. Fatigue set in around 17-18, but I kept telling myself that this was nothing but a mental game at that point.
At mile 23, I really started to hurt badly. I knew I had time in the bank so I decided to try to run a couple 7:30’s and pick it back up for the last mile. I’ve run enough races to know that when you slow down that late in the race, there is no picking it back up. My last mile was a 7:52 but I knew all I had to do was cross the finish line and I was there. The funny thing about that “slow” 7:52 is that it was fast than my average pace last year…
I came across the line in 3:08:56 – 2 minutes under the qualifying time. Average pace was 7:13 per mile and I finished in 160th place out of 1564 finishers. My time was over a 20 minute PR from a year ago.
I’ve already signed up for the Boston Marathon – April 18th, 2011. I’m psyched for my first (better not be my last) Boston. With Ironman Lake Placid being the focus for next year, I won’t “race” Boston. I’m going to view it as a long training day. I’ll run with a camera, enjoy the experience, take in the crowds.
Split | Time |
1 | 0:06:57 |
2 | 0:06:53 |
3 | 0:07:04 |
4 | 0:07:06 |
5 | 0:06:58 |
6 | 0:07:06 |
7 | 0:07:01 |
8 | 0:06:59 |
9 | 0:07:01 |
10 | 0:06:59 |
11 | 0:06:58 |
12 | 0:06:58 |
13 | 0:07:02 |
14 | 0:07:11 |
15 | 0:07:12 |
16 | 0:07:14 |
17 | 0:07:11 |
18 | 0:07:12 |
19 | 0:07:19 |
20 | 0:07:10 |
21 | 0:07:13 |
22 | 0:07:11 |
23 | 0:07:17 |
24 | 0:07:32 |
25 | 0:07:36 |
26 | 0:07:52 |
27 | 0:02:32 |
Total: | 3:08:58 |
Here's a link to my Garmin file on the race: 2010 BayState Marathon
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