What an awesome experience running Boston was. Since I started running, I have had the goal to qualify and run the Boston Marathon. It definitely lived up to expectations. We got in Thursday and stayed with some friends. Went to a Red Sox game and toured the city a little. The race day experience was fantastic. It was fun to run the course with people lining the streets the entire way. I wore a running singlet with Utah on the front and got tons of "Go Utah" or similar cheers throughout. It was amazing how many people were out on the course even in not the best of conditions.
Running wise, it was not my best of performances. I still wanted to run well, but it was more about the experience for me. During the build up for the marathon, things just never seemed to click or feel right for me. I had long runs that I really struggled on. My easy runs seemed harder than they should have felt or had felt in the past. I struggled with runs that I didn't in my build up for St. George. Going into St. George last year, I felt ready and confident. Heading into Boston, not so much. That being said, I still had ok mileage and had some good runs leading up to the race. Not quite sure what to attribute all this to. Looking back, I was probably a little more lackadaisical in my nutrition and sleep. I have also had a couple of nagging injuries (hamstring and achilles) that have been causing me some trouble. But, I don't thing that was all of my issues. Who knows, I just know it never felt quite right for me leading up to the marathon.
Anyways, race day come and I was excited to run. The weather forecast wasn't looking the greatest (rain and headwinds), but at this point it didn't matter. Had to buy some extra gear there because I wasn't fully prepared for the condition, but that was no big deal. Got up to the athletes village just before 9 and pretty much walked straight to the starting line. Got there, used the port-a-potty and took off my warm clothes and got ready to run. Crazy how many people are running and how congested the course is throughout the race. Plan was to start out running 6:50-7:00 pace and see how things went. Didn't know exactly what to expect weather wise.
The weather was good for the 1st 10 miles or so. No real rain and a slight headwind. Hit the 5k in 21:46 (7:00 pace). Feeling ok, but still early in the race. 10k at 43:09 (6:56 pace). Happy with where I was. Got to the half way point in 1:32:04 (7:01 pace). Was starting to slow slightly and that would continue the rest of the race. Rained a little between miles 10 and 13 before easing up a little rainwise until about mile 20 for me. The headwind persisted and picked up throughout the day. Maintained ok pace, still slowly down as the race went on until, about the 30k mark. Then the wheels really started to come off. After mile 20, had steady rain and stronger headwinds. I continued to slow. A couple periods of short walks to trying and help me out, but I was done for running wise. My quads were really feeling it and overall my legs were toast. Still enjoyed the experience the last few miles though. Got to see me family and friends who were there and the crowds were great. Finished up the race in 3:15:43.
Loved running the race and it was a great experience, one I won't forget. I have had consistent improvement in my running over the past few years and this is the first sort of step back. We'll see where it goes from here. Start with a little time off to recover and go from there. Congrats to everyone who ran and reprsented well.
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