Sean's Running Blog

The idea this morning was to do a tempo run. That was until I woke up and it was 13 degrees outside. So I just went for an 8-mile run and called it good.

Again too icy to run in the dark in Snoqualmie. Looks like more of the same tomorrow before "warm" temps in the 40s and rain melt the leftover snow and ice once and for all.

So I went into work super early and ran along the Seattle waterfront. Still chilly but at least the footing was secure.

Early 11 miles along the Seattle waterfront.

Had to scramble to find a track not snowed over. Was unsuccessful so wound up doing the workout on the RR Days course where I have miles marked.

3x2M in 10:45 on 2:00 rest. Killed it. 10:12, 10:19, 10:28. Intentionally slowed it down on the last one. Everything felt good.  

A somewhat icy morning for a run...enough so that I had to watch almost every step.

Truly one of the windiest mornings I have even run in. Sustained winds of 25-30mph with gusts in the 40s made the wind chill 10-15 degrees. Snow is on the way.

 Tonight's workout was at the Issaquah HS Track so I could pick up my boys from Scouts afterward.

The workout was 3x 400 (69) +400 (69) +800 (2:23) with 1:30 rest after the 400s and 3:00 after the 800.

Hit 68 then 71 (oops) then 2:18. Great first rep. The second rep was was 68, 69, 2:20

The third rep omits the final 800m...not sure why. But the final 400s were 69, 68.

Solids workout on a cold but beautiful evening.

The cool down turned out to be more like a meltdown. I guess I was really dehydrated so i had to stop a couple of times during the cool down to rest. Weird.

It sucks when you are only a couple laps in to a long interval workout that you realize that today isn't the day. It also sucks when you get to the track only to realize you only brought your training flats on forgot your racing shoes. Bummer.

The workout was 2x1.75 miles at 5:00 pace...so 8:45. Four minutes rest between reps.

I cranked out the first mile in 4:59 but knew that the end was nigh. I did the first rep in 8:48. I'll take it. I seriously considered bailing on the second rep but somehow during the 4:00 rest jog I talked myself into at least giving the second one a try.

So I did. At the mile mark (5:12) I called quits. I just didn't have it today so I decided to cut my losses and finish out my longest run since the Indy Marathon. 19 miles.

6 miles in the morning to shake off the cobwebs of the day off Sunday. Dempsey Indoor workout tonight.

7x1000m in the Dempsey Indoor. It was really toasty in there tonight. I looked at the times Tom had down for me and was a bit leery. between 2:55 (4:40 pace) and 2:58, ideally alternating between the two. That seemed really fast. I did have two people to run with though which was nice.

2:55, 2:58, 2:56. 2:59, 3:01, 3:00, 2:57.

About midway through I stopped trying to alternate and just went pretty much as hard as I could. Had to make two trips to the bathroom during the 2:00 rest intervals. That was a bummer but managed to "git 'er done" in time to start the next rep. More of an annoyance than anything else.

I was pretty gassed by the midway point. The last few were all about being mentally tough. This is where having peers to run with helps. No body wants to quit early. So I hung in there and turned in a really solid final rep.

Good workout overall. Still several pounds heavy which doesn't help.17 miles for the day.

12 chilly miles. Was a bit underdressed. But it was peaceful.

Track workout this morning under mostly sunny skies.

8x800 alternating between 2:20 and 2:24 with just 90 seconds rest.

2:20, 2:24, 2:20, 2:25, 2:22, 2:25. 2:24, 2:23.

The last few were all about mental toughness. I was a couple seconds slow on each and I really wanted to quit at 6 but kept powering through. I was very pleased with the 2:23 final rep especially since it took a :33 on final 200 meters to get it.

Slow and short shakeout run this morning ahead of tonight's Dempsey workout.

Dempsey Workout. 4x1M alternating between 4:48 and 4:51 on 2:00 rest. Yikes.

Hit the first in 4:48. Felt good. Hit the second in 4:51. Nice. Third was was in 4:52. OK. A bit off. More importantly, I felt a tweak in the glute on the final lap so I opted to bail on the fourth mile. Not much to gain and a lot to lose by pushing it. It was also a good exercise in not letting the male ego get the best of me. I good part of me wanted to "save face in front of the guys" but I resisted.

Another wet day in paradise

Finally a dry run

My final 11 miles in Seattle for 10+ days. Off to Hawaii.

My first run in Hawaii!

We are staying the first half in Ko'Olina on the SW side of Oahu before heading over to the east side in Kailua.

14.5 gorgeous early morning miles. It was 71 degrees when I walked out the door at 7am. It was 36 degrees and raining in Snoqualmie at that same time. Bummer for them. :-)

The Ko'Olina resort area is a nice place to run. I found a 5-mile loop that I could do that ran along the shoreline. It is just beautiful here.

Our second full day in Ko'Olina and we are loving it. That is until today's first real encounter with the heat and humidity of paradise. 

This was my first "destination" run. The family activity for the day was to go to the Dole Pineapple Plantation and then head up to Waimea Park and hike up to some cool falls. So I thought it would be cool to meet the family at the Dole plantation which was 21+ miles away.

So I was smart. I left early...about 7am (just prior to sunrise) and carried with me two 17oz water bottles. Even better, i took money with me to buy more along the way if i needed it. Ummm....I did.

The workout portion was a fartlek of 2:00 hard and 1:00 jog...10 times. After a five mile warmup, which included drinking all of my first water bottle, I dug in to the workout. All was well for the first 6 but I couldn't cool off. 7 and 8 were a death march, but for whatever reason, 9 and 10 were fine. After the repeats, I stopped at the gas station and got a 32 ounce bottle of water. Yes...that is a lot to carry around, but I needed every drop. To try and cool my head off, i dumped several ounces of water onto my head. That was helpful for about 5-10 minutes. And then i would repeat until i ran out. So I drank about half of it anf pour the other half over my head.

By mile 18, I was really hoping to see my wife drive up along side me and rescue me. No chance. The next four miles just felt awful, but I was surprised to see that my pace for the last four miles was 6:45 or so. It felt like 8:45. So all in all, it was a good run. It was of course stunningly gorgeous.

The worst part may have been that my feet were sopping wet just from sweat. That squeeky squishy sound got to be annoying with every foot step.

Another lousy day in paradise. :-)  

Longest mileage week in three months.

Another destination run today. Our family decided to make Monday a Pearl Harbor day. So I took off from our place in Ko'Olina early and ran to Pearl Harbor. My observation of Hawaii (whether accurate or not) is that you either have money here or you don't. There doesn't seem to be a lot of in between, at least in the context of neighborhoods. Much of my run today was through neighborhoods you would not feel comfortable running in at night. That said, it was quite enjoyable. It was cool running from the house to Pearl Harbor. It made for a stinky rest of the day, but it's warm enough here that I would have been sweating anyway.

Last run in Ko'Olina. We have loved this place and it is very condusive to running...especially if your running in the 3-5 mile range. So that meant running a few laps and getting creative to keep it fun but all in all, a great opportunity to run along the waterfront.

Challenging but solid hill workout today. 10x1:00 hills with 2:00 rest. Pretty easy to find suitable hills here in Kailua...or anywhere in Oahu for that matter.

What can I say...another lovely morning run in paradise.

14 lovely miles through Kailua. Got to see the sunrise.

Final run in Hawaii. I had considered jumping in unattached in a 5000m race at the UH twilight track meet this evening but I would struggle. I have loved my time here running all over but the heat/humidity combination just crushes me at race pace speeds.

My workout today was further evidence of that. I had a 4M tempo run at 5:10-5:15 pace followed by a 10:00 minute jog and then 10 x :30 hills on 90 seconds rest.

I hit 5:14, 5:08, 5:10, 5:14 on the tempo run. So I hit my times, but going much faster would have been pretty hard. I sweat like crazy but the humidity doesn't evaporate the sweat which is what cools you off. So I never get cool. Oh well. It will be plenty cool back in Seattle next week.

The hill portion was fine as was the long cool down. The heat doesn't seem to affect my stamina as much as it does the ability to maintain fast speeds for long periods of time. A marathon over here would be absolute murder.

Longest mileage week in three months.

Seattle is not Hawaii. Arrived early this morning at 5:45 PST exhausted. Got the kids off to school and then crashed until noon. Still pretty tired but went out in the cool rain and ran anyway. I miss Hawaii.

A chilly but beautiful sunny run from home down to Snoqualmie and back again. Even delivered my son's forgotten lunch to his school.

Today was easily one of my worst, most embarassingly disastrous workouts ever. Maybe the absolute worst. Certainly the worst in recent memory.

It was supposed to be a 1x1000m at 2:52 with :90 rest, then 2x800 at 2:18 with :90 rest, followed by 2x 600m at 1:38 with 70 seconds rest finishing with 4x400m at :65 with :60 rest.

I missed all of them...badly. Really badly.

2:55 for the first 1000m. The worst part is I was already DONE!

2:24 and 2:28 for the 800s. Not quite sure how I kept going after laying such a turd.

1:47 and 1:46 for the 600s. Good thing I didn't have a gun.

:68 and :68 for the 400s. Scary that the closest I came to hitting my times came on the shortest distance. I skipped the final two 400s. I was too upset not to mention tired. Ugh.

I don't even know what to think of this workout. To be honest, retirement sounds pretty good right now.

A.M. 7

P.M. 7.25

What better way to spend your 38th birthday than doing a long tempo cutdown run. Yippee!!! After the embarassing disaster that was Wednesday's workout I didn't want to wait until Saturday to redeem myself.

The workout was a 10M tempo with the first 6M at 5:36, the next two at 5:16 and the final two at 5:08. I did them all on the track to help me stay mentally focused.

First 6=5:33, 5:33, 5:33, 5:33, 5:30, 5:33, 5:35

Next 2=5:16, 5:16

Last 2=5:07, 5:07

A really solid workout especially after laying such an egg two days ago. The thing I was most pleased with was the pacing. After the first mile, I only looked at my watch every half mile rather than every quarter.

I LOVE my new ST 5 Racers.

This morning I awoke at 5:30 after a really poor night of sleep camping with my son at his Klondike Derby at Ensign Ranch just west of Cle Elum. To be fair, I was in a heated cabin but the "beds" were plywood bunks and I "graciously" gave my sleeping pad to my son. So it was me, my sleeping bag and a very solid piece of wood.

THe run was a bit spooky since it was dark and basically wilderness. The last 6 miles I did on the John Wayne Centennial Trail which goes from Snoqualmie all the way to at least Montana and maybe farther. Not a fan of running on gravel but it was a good way to kill some mileage.

Chilly, but I was prepared.

14 uneventful V-Day Miles.

Made the trip to Seattle to run in the Dempsey Indoor. I did see Uli Steidl for the first time in several months. Good to see him. He was doing a different workout but we got to cool down together. My workout was a repeat of one I did at Dempsey three weeks prior...Ks...six of them. But this time on 90 seconds rest rather than 2:00.

Goal time was 2:57.

2:55, 2:58, 2:59, 3:00, 3:01, 3:01.

Here were my times for the same workout three weeks prior when I did 7 repeats on 2:00 rest:

2:55, 2:58, 2:56. 2:59, 3:01, 3:00, 2:57.

The other advantage three weeks ago was that I was running with a pack of guys.Nothing gets you running faster than being chased by a bunch of your running peers.

So I was pretty happy with the workout.

Today was one of those explorer runs. There actually are place on Snoqualmie Ridge that I haven't run...like the Children's Detention Center for example. Turns our they didn't let me past the gate. I guess that's a good thing.

Ran up to the highest point of the Ridge where they are just now starting to build some homes. A beautiful 360 degree view. I could see for at least 100 mile in all directions.

Little bit of rain. Little bit of rain. Snow tonight.

Challenging day today so the run was a great getaway.

A stunningly gorgeous winter day. Blue skies and temps in the mid 40s. I even broke out the sunglasses.

Opted to do my workout today rather than make it part of my long run tomorrow.

3x1.5M @5:08-5:10 mile pace or 7:45 on 3:00 rest.

Felt really good the whole time and probably could have done another one or two of these without too much trouble.

Hit 7:38 (5:03); 7:40 (5:05) and 7:34 (5:03).

Felt great to nail a workout. I got a bit chilled and light headed on my run home so I stopped to get some water and stretch. Seemed to do the trick.

A beautiful and wonderful 21 mile run from NBES to Rattlesnake Lake and then back to my house. The gravel trail up to Rattlesnake Lake is uphill...nothing crazy...but a gentle up hill for 7 miles. Things felt great so I looked at my watch and I was running 6:10s....way faster than my normal 6:45-7:00 pace for easy runs. Things just felt good. Coming back down the pace was about the same albeit easier.

Longest mileage in a really long time.

Ran from home down the Preston/Issaquah trail to Issaquah where I met the fam. Nice, fairly quiet run.

With an inch of snow on the ground and chilly temps, I opted to drive down to the Dempsey Indoor at UW and do the workout there. Glad I did. It's race week so I am backing off the mileage a bit and wanted to do the first-half workout today instead of tomorrow to maximize for recovery.

Workout was 3x2000m on just 2:00 rest. Target time was 6:15-6:17 which is 5:02-5:04 pace.

Ended up killing the workout without really intending to. crossed each mile mark int the 4:54-4:56 range and finished 6:06 (4:54), 6:09 (4:56), 6:08 (4:56). I could have easily done another repeat and maybe two at that pace. I haven't felt this good during a workout in a while. Hopefully it carries over to Saturday's 15M race.

Brought two of my kids with me. I had my 10-year old son do a broken mile. He was much improved over last year.

LOts of snow. I ran all trails this morning and it was very challenging and slow. More of a workout then I expected.

Today didn't go quite as planned but the weather didn't help. Mid-20s at the start and upper 20s at the finish. It didn't feel too bad once we got started but it certainly wasn't optimal.

This was my first race in nearly four month...and it showed. I led the entire way through 10 miles. Mistake #1. We had a pack of five guys that entire stretch and I didn't let anyone else do the work. Poor decision on my part.

We were 21:29 through 4 miles so running along at a 5:22 pace. I was hoping for more like 5:15s, but with the weather 5:20s were fine. We picked up the pace a bit on the flat stretch finishing the first 7 milesin 37:25 (5:20) putting us back on pace overall. At the 7.5M turnaround point we were 40:10. So we were well off my course record pace of 1:18:40 but I don't think any of us expected this to be a banner race. At Mile 9, the lead pace car cut us off and we had to make a very sharp and dangerous zig zag to avoid an accident. This turned out to be pretty unfortunate. At that moment, I could feel the lactic acid fill my legs and I was never really the same. To be fair, the inevitable was coming anyway...that just seemed to be the trigger. At Mile 10 we were still a pack of five which was awesome. I have never run in a pack that size for this long. We crossed in 53:16 (5:19) so we had picked up the pace a bit. I was still leading the pack but starting to feel tired. I was really poorly prepared. I forgot my GU at home which I had planned taking at Mile 5 or so. And by Mile 10, I was feeling a major shortage of energy. So I ceded the lead to try and catch a draft and before I knew it, the group had gapped me. The good news is that I was running slower...they just picked up the pace. The bad news is I couldn't follow. SO I spent the last 5 miles basically by myself plodding along and totally out of gas. The worst remaining mile was 12. It's an uphill mile and I had a miserable 5:43. The rest were in the 5:30 range.

This was a mediocre performance but a good chance to race and check in on where I am.

Two-mile warmup then a 10M progressive tempo run all on the track before track practice. First 9 miles in 5:40s then the last one in 5:13. Felt good after the first three miles. First threee were rough. Just felt like poo but everything got better after that.

12 miles this morning in Bellevue/Eastgate. Ran 3M with the track team this afternoon plus 6 hill repeats.

Finally a beautiful day to run. Tried to make it up to Rattlesnake Lake but there was too much snow along the upper part of the trail so I turned around early making for a shorter run than planned.

Happened to be in Seattle for some other stuff so I went over to the Dempsey Indoor to do my mile repeats workout. The target was 5:02. SHould have been pretty easy considering two weeks earlier I had done 3x2k repeats in 4:54s.

Well...not so easy. First one was in 5:00. Next one 5:02. Already having thoughts of quitting. I was really tired. Third one was in 5:05. The only reason I even did the fourth was to not be a quitter. Finished that on in 5:08.

Running is pretty hard right now. I'm going through a spell of boredom. Don't know if its the weather or the season or what. But I'm having trouble getting too excited about running. Even Boston isn't really sounding all that exciting right now. Oh well.

An absolute soaker of a run. Foruntately it wasn't too cold but with more rain predicted for the next several days, I'm getting pretty sick of it. Where's July when you need it.

Good workout today. 3x2M @ slightly faster than marathon pace. Goal was 10:45 or so. it 10:40, 10:37, 10:35. Everything felt good.

21 absolutely drenching miles. Today was one of those I really, really didn't want to run. But with Boston looming...now is no time to take a break.

I got lucky...kind of. I missed an absolute deluge of rain, but I did have to deal with some pretty stiff winds.

The workout was 2x2M @ 10:10 on 3:00 rest. To be honest, this shouldn't be that hard, but with such a stinker of a workout at the Dempsey last week, and with the windy day we had today, I was dubious.

First rep was in 10:04. Nicely done. It was easily sub five if you factor out the wind.

Second rep was 10:10. The final mile was exhausting as the wind seemed to be a huge factor. But I stayed tough and battled through to a target finish.

A.M. 12 rain free miles. A miracle.

PM -- Ran six more with my track kids this afternoon.

A gorgeous run...finally. Sunny skies and not too cold.

Managed to beat the rain today but not the wind. Workout was 10M easy followed by 5M at marathon pace followed by 7M easy. I'm convinced that this is one of the hardest things to do. I hit all five miles at pace but whenever i do these, it seems like it's harder to run the middle miles at pace than it is to run all of them at that pace.

Good first track meet for my team. Brings back some great memories from high school.

Ran 14 miles after the meet up in Arlington. Beautiful day and run.

A lovely spring morning for a run

Another pretty nice day and with a race looming on Saturday, I wanted to get my mid-week workout done. It was a pacing prep for the 1/2 marthon on Saturday: 4M at half marathon pace which is theoretically 5:15. Hit every single mile at either 5:13 of 5:!4. So I paced well but have my doubts that I can keep that up for the whole run on Saturday,

10 miles through fall city

Kind of weird only running 10 miles but trying to take one final down week in preparation for the 20k on Saturday. Then another hard week before beginning to two-week Boston taper.

Easy six with my track team

Well..today was my final tune up ahead of Boston. This will be a short report as I am super busy.

Didn't really have any good reason to think today was going to be a good race. THe workouts just haven't felt very good and in general I haven't performed all that well.

The weather was showery and low 40s. So a touch chilly but no wind. In other words, great conditions.

As I suspected I had absolutely NO ONE to run with. Won by something like five minutes. But winning was of no importance. It was all about time.

The first 3.5 miles are a net uphill with a few steady climbs. Miles 5-8 are pancake flat. Then Mile 9 has a short but significant uphill stretch. The last three miles are mostly a gentle downhill.

The goal going in was to run 5:15s.

Mile 1 - 5:12

Mile 2 - 5:14

Mile 3 - 5:27 -- Hardest of the first three miles. Kind of expected this one to be slow but mentally prepared for it to be in my favor on the way back.

Mile 4 - 5:08 -- Short but steep downhill stretch. Expected this one to be fast. Basically right on 5:15 pace.

Miles 5 and 6 - 5:16s -- pancake flat. Battling some mental fatigue at this point. Really wishing I had someone to run with. But hanging on.

Mile 7 - 5:17 -- Still steady although wanted to see this be a 5:15.

Mile 8 - 5:22 -- Not sure what happened here except I am a bit bored out of my mind. Hard to focus.

Mile 9 - 5:26 -- This was going to be the slowest mile because it included the steep uphill mile.

Mile 10 - 5:15 -- Very happy. The hill mile didn't throw me over the edge. Back to running on pace.

Mile 11 - 5:09 -- Thrilled. Using the downhill to my advantage. Still have something left in the tank and feeling pretty good about a shot at sub 1:05 which would be a course record and course PR.

Mile 12 - 5:09 --Feeling great at this point but knowing I have to really let it out to go sub 65.  

Final .42 -- 1:41 -- Was able to really hammer out the last 300 meters or so. It's a track finish which I think helps. With 100m to go I could see the official clock and knew sub-65 was possible.

Final time was 1:04:57 (5:13 pace). Huge success today and it has me much more excited about Boston than I have been lately.

Easy 14 today. Everything feels good post race.Last big mileage week.

Was up in Everett for a meeting so decided to do my final long, long run up there. 22 miles of bliss. I did 15 miles at easy pace (6:30-6:45) and then five miles at marathon pace (5:30) although there were a couple sub 5:20s. Oops.

A soaking and chilly long run this morning. Everything from here on out is shorter than today.

4M @ 5:20

12-15 minute jog

6x1:00 hills on 2:30 rest

I do love living in Seattle but sluggish crawl from winter to spring is almost unbearable. Rained during the whole workout today with temps in the low 40s and the wind chill in the mid 30s. April what? Ugh.

But the workout must go on. Four left including today's which was a 7+1 meaning 7 miles at marathon pace and then 1 at something faster. The wrinkle I threw into this one was I did it on rolling hills to simulate as much as possible the Boston course. I have to say I was pretty happy with how things went especially since this was my third workout in five days. Every mile was between 5:23 and 5:27 with the final one being in 5:16. If I fee half that good at Heartbreak Hill, I will be ecstatic.

13 easy. Missed the rain but got pounded by hail for about 5 minutes. Kinda hurt.

Day off tomorrow. ALready hating the taper.

2nd of four final workouts ahead of Boston.

6M @ marathon pace followed by 2M at something faster.

First six miles were all between 5:23 and 5:30. Last two were 5:13 and 5:18. Did all of them on the rolling hill section of the business park. Good Boston practice.

Weird running only 11 on a Saturday...although it's "my Thursday" in terms of Boston. Two nice weather running days in a row. Must be summer.

First forecasts for the marathon are out: Sunny with morning lows in the 40s topping out in the mid 50s in the afternoon. That would be absolutely perfect. But, these early forecasts mean almost nothing. But one can dream.

Next to last workout before Boston. 5+1. All five were in the 5:25-5:30 range and I did them on the rolling hills of the business park. Last mile was in 5:08.

It was pretty windy today so I felt good considering.

Weather forecast remains partly sunny and low 40s to start and low 50s for a high. No forecast on wind but things are shaping up to be perfect weather wise.

10 easy

Final workout before Boston. 4+1. Hit all four in the 5:25-5:30 fairly comfortably then ran the last on in 5:08. The hay is no in the barn.

Easy six before flying out to Boston later this afternoon.

For my last run prior to the race, I returned to the Newton Hills where everything fell apart five years ago. Ran from Mile 18 ust past BC and then back. Through in a few strides for good measure. I feel as ready as one can be.

There is just nothing like Boston. Nothing.

Before I get into my report, let me just congratulate Paul Peterson for an amazing, amazing run of 2:17. Not only did he OTQ, but he finished 17th overall and 3rd among Americans. Stunning. I am so proud and happy for him. He deserves it.

Now for my report...

What a day. A lot is being made of the tailwind. When the course record gets crushed like it did today, then it’s certainly understandable. There is no question the tailwind helped with times today just like headwinds slow them. It's simple math and physics. But there was one thing about a tailwind that is a definite negative: your body can't cool as well when the wind is not in your face or not in a crosswind component. We have all run with tailwinds before and generally, you feel a lot warmer because the evaporation is less. Such was the case today. The temperature at Mile 24 was 52 degrees in the shade according to a bank on Beacon St. I’m sure it was closer to 60 running out on the black pavement which made it feel warmer and more uncomfortable than if the wind were in my face or to my side. Not a complaint at all. Just a reality. So is my sunburn.

The good news is that I hydrated today like I have never hydrated before. I would rate today as a satisfactory hydration day, a vast improvement over every other marathon I have ever run. I took water every water station through 21 and then every other from there on out. I took a GU at 10k and 20k. Planned on one at 30k but heading into the hills I didn’t want to mess anything up. By the time I got to the top (Mile 21) my stomach was cramping a bit so I passed on the GU because taking GU means drinking more water than I felt my stomach could handle at the time.

The crowds were great. I don't know if it's possible to run a slow mile through Wellesley. The roar of those young ladies can be heard for a half mile before and after and it's simply deafening during the quarter-mile stretch or so where they line the streets. Probably my favorite part of the course. There was shade through that stretch too which helped.

Things were pretty chilly at the athlete’s village but I managed to get in a massage mostly so I could spend almost an hour inside the warm gym. Good move. One more trip to the bathroom to change into my clothes and take care of business and then it was time to begin the walk/jog down to the start line. The biggest bummer about not being in the elite group with Paul was not getting to do any strides or meaningful warmups since we were packed like sardines for about 15-20 minutes before the gun. Fortunately, it had warmed up enough that it wasn’t a huge deal.

As usual, the race started right on time. We were set back about 30 feet from the elite guys which translated into about six seconds lag.

I had a plan. In fact, I had a pace bracelet I had made with goal times for each mile varying by difficulty of each mile. Basically, my plan was to put a little time in the bank for the first four downhill miles but nothing to crazy. 5:20s was the goal. For whatever reason, that didn’t go so well. But I didn’t panic and everything felt nice and relaxed. What it did mean though is that 2:26 was going to be very difficult to reach without the buffer I had planned for heading into Newton.

Miles 5-16 were “budgeted” at 5:30-5:35. On average, I came out of this right on pace. So I was actually on pace for a sub 2:26 heading into Newton, but knew I would give back some time in the hills. I had budgeted two 5:45s and a 6:00 mile through the three hilliest miles. Missed by only a few seconds so I was really happy as I crested  the final hill, I was only 23 seconds off my pace which was totally fine. I had planned on having enough left to run 5:30s for the final 5 miles which would have put me just under 2:26. I felt like the din of Boylston would be enough to get me there.

Just one problem. I couldn’t get my legs to work. They were mush. I wasn’t tired. But my legs had little to no strength left. The pounding your quads take running downhill is brutal enough, but when you are already sore and tight, it’s almost unbearable.

Mile 22 hurt. 5:44. Mile 23 also hurt. 5:44. Right about this time a teammate of mine, Josh Ricardi, pulled up alongside. I hadn’t seen him since the starting gun. Uh oh. He looked really good. Bordering on fresh. I don’t know how I looked, but I know how I felt. It wasn’t a total collapse like Indy, and most of the other final 10ks of my marathons, but I felt like I had no additional speed to give.

I passed him back fairly quickly mostly to test his will. Tested. By Mile 24 he had passed me back and was now opening up a lead which grew pretty quickly to about 30 yards. Insurmountable I thought. But Josh did something interesting that caught me off guard. He took Gatorade at Mile 25. Maybe it’s personal preference, but I don’t take anything ever that late in a race. In my mind, it’s too late to do any good and only increases the chances of something bad happening like cramps or a slight choke that causes you to gasp for air and throw you out of a rhythm.

From that point on I reeled him in and with one-mile to go, I passed him. Hopefully, for good. What I didn’t know until the end was that a second teammate of mine was also right on my heels. But what I did know is that one guy ahead of me was really struggling. He had passed me at about Mile 22 or so as we headed into the downhills. Right at the 26M mark as you turn onto Boylston, he got lazy around the turn and I catapulted around the turn and passed right by him. It was the mental bump I needed to power through the seemingly endless .2 miles to the finish line. It seemed like a full mile. The crowd was deafening. Or maybe I was completely delirious. I think both were true based on my trouble at the finish line.

With about 100m to go, I did what I don’t like to do. I looked back to see what had happened to Josh and the other dude I passed. I had gapped them hard. As they announced my name as I crossed the finish line, I was really stoked. It’s always cool to hear your name called. The guy ahead of me had finished at least 20 seconds ahead and the guys behind me were far enough back that I was the only name to call at that moment. It was awesome.

Then I stopped. And oh was I thankful for the three volunteers who kept me moving and from falling over. I just wanted to lay on the ground and go to sleep. Terrible thing to do but it’s all I wanted. It was a weird two or three minutes because I felt almost detached from my body. I had given every last ounce that I had today and that was good enough for me. I didn’t get the 2:26 I wanted but the 2:26 wasn’t realistic as it turns out.

I truly believe I have a 2:22-2:23 left in this rickety old body. I just haven’t been committed enough to the core strengthening exercises that I need to do to avoid the inability I had on the final miles to take advantage of the downhill.  It’s the little things that make all the difference at this point. I do all the big things…mileage and workouts. But if I really want a legitimate shot at another awesome time, then I have to put in the work. I’m fast enough. Just not strong enough. I guess I will find out how committed I am.

I have a lot to be happy about. I hydrated really well which allowed me to hang in there as the heat index rose. I ran really even splits on a course that isn’t very even. I beat my previous Boston PR by 36 minutes. Granted, the first time was only my second marathon and I had no idea what I was doing, but I largely conquered today what conquered me in 2006.

The tentative plan is to return to Indy for the marathon in November. I’m sad that Paul won’t be there given his OT race in Houston two months later, but I have some unfinished business there and it’s an ideal course to put my speed and new-found strength (I hope) to the test.

I hope to be back in Boston in 2013 when I will be 40 and have the chance to run as a Masters.  

Here are my mile splits. Managed to get all of them.  I also posted the timing mat splits showing how each 5k and 10k went. I am really happy with how the 10k segments went. The third 10k was nice even though it included almost a mile worth of hills. The final 10k wasn’t a disaster at all. It was just sub-par and I have learned a lot.