Boston Marathon Filled - Now What?

Having absolutely loved the unique experience of qualifying for then running the Boston Marathon in 2009 and 2010 (I'm hoping to run it again in 2012) I watched with interest on Monday as the BAA opened registration for the 2011 race. While I anticipated that the race would sell-out far sooner than last year, I did not expect it to fill-up in eight hours!

The BAA's Executive Director Guy Morse had the following to say afterward, and I am glad to hear that the BAA will seriously consider changes for the 2012 registration process:


While it is increasingly common for major metropolitan marathons to be filled on their initial registration day, leading race organizers such as New York's and Houston's to move towards a lottery system, I hope that the BAA does not follow this path. Three key elements significantly differentiate the Boston Marathon:

• Boston's long-time history of the marathon - the 2011 race will represent its 115th - is truly a national treasure;
• Boston's unique and beautiful course provides an awe-inspiring experience from its small town Hopkinton start to its dramatic Boston finish, frequently along narrow and scenic two-lane country roads lined by hundreds of thousands of exuberant, enthusiastic and noisy New Englanders;
• Boston is uniquely positioned as the only world-class marathon whose tough qualification standards define those runners who are the most dedicated and strongest.

As well summarized by Dr. Dave in his blog post, should the BAA in response to the rapid sell-out of the 2011 race:

• Have lots of people qualify but only a fraction who get to run - or fewer qualifiers that everyone can run?
• Implement a hybrid qualifying time and lottery, or would that diminish the cachet of the race?
• Increase the field, and what does this do to the quality of the Boston experience?

Pending the BAA's eventual decision regarding almost certain changes for the 2012 race I hope that the running community coalesces upon a consensus to assist the BAA in its ongoing deliberations. In that regard, though risking being excluded I feel that in lieu of adopting a hybrid qualification and lottery system that the BAA should instead strengthen its unique athletic tradition by uniformly tightening qualification standards - though using a more rational basis such as outlined in this Running World article.

To fully address the Boston Marathon's supply-demand imbalance the bib supply should also be reviewed. In doing so the BAA must first acknowledge that it has encouraged the continued growth of bandits on the Boston course (of which over 6,000 are now estimated) via not enforcing a prohibition against runners who have not registered.

While I concede that the narrow country roads east of Hopkinton are not conducive to a substantially increased number of runners, through a rigorously enforced exclusion of bandits the BAA could easily add an additional 6,000 runners to the course. In addition, 15,000 runners could be safely added through excluding bandits and by adding a third ~15,000 runner wave (with each wave separated by 45 versus the current 30-minutes to minimize congestion).

I reject many runners suggestion to substantially reduce the 20% allocation of running bibs currently provided to non-qualifying athletes (i.e. sponsored/charity individuals). The losers of such a move would be needy clients of the many worthy charities throughout New England, and the loss of good-will to the BAA by the many communities, agencies and corporations which directly or indirectly support the Boston Marathon.

The future of the Boston Marathon is at stake in the BAA's ongoing deliberations. While simply adding a lottery system to restrict entrants to those runners who have achieved the current qualification times would be the easiest to implement, doing so would fundamentally transform the Boston Marathon to merely another running event versus the race which defines the world's strongest runners - as it consistently has for 114 years.

Boston Marathon Race Report

Earlier today I had the pleasure of running the 114th Boston Marathon. It was a great experience!

Having run Boston last year, and being disappointed by my inadequate preparation I incorporated significantly more hills and mileage into the preceding four months of training. My improved strength was clearly evident on Newton's hills, as I avoided last year's walk on the steepest section of Hearbreak Hill.  Additionally, in climbing hills I followed the advice by an experienced Boston-area coach who spoke at the Expo on Sunday.  He recommended that while climbing you should relax your abs, swing vigorously your arms, shorten your stride, and gaze a maximum of 15-feet ahead (i.e. however tempting, don't look-up to the top of the hill - since seeing the full height of the challenge can cause even a strongest runner to begin walking!)

The weather was a bit of a disappointment, though it was far better than it could have been! The temperature was between 52 to 56°F, with relatively clear skies and initially cross winds from the north, which unfortunately became more of a headwind as the race progressed.

I was very happy with the results as I amazingly managed to exactly tie my prior 3:19:37 personal record that I'd recently just set February in Austin! Having never tied a P.R., it was on the one hand frustrating (since even the slightest added effort along the 26.2 mile course would have given me an improvement to my personal record), but, on the other hand I was content since had I run even one second slower I would have been upset.  So, all in all I'm thankful for having done as well as I had, despite Boston's tough course, and particularly in overcoming my nagging right Achilles problem.

On reflection some things worked well while others did not. In the many areas that went well I credit my:

• Improved training , specifically the added mileage with good hills-specific training through generally following the excellent Kenyan Way training program and coaching by Sean Wade;
• Running on my Newton shoes, which I'm convinced help owing primarily to their light weight, their minimal heel, and the 'spring' action of the forefoot lug;
• Increasing my consumption of Gu's Roctane Vanilla/Orange to one packet every three vs. four miles, without bearing any adverse stomach-related side-effects. I'm convinced that the highly glycemic mixed sugars, combined with caffeine and amino acids, pay dividends in mitigating glycogen losses from the active muscles while enhancing my concentration and motivation.

Conversely, I had two distinct improvement opportunities:

• Though I generated a mymarathonpace.com pacing band beforehand, having every intent to use it, during the race I unfortunately reverted to running the course 'by feel' rather than with discipline. I inappropriately ran excessively hard during the first half marathon of the largely downhill course owing to my being overly ambitious in imagining a 4-minute P.R. potential. The adverse result of this fast downhill running was predictably felt in my quads which wouldn't permit me to step-up the pace on the excellent downhill segments running into Boston.
• Similar to my recent Houston Marathon experience I was excessively dehydrated upon completing the Boston course. This was despite drinking four or five ounces of Gatorade every two miles. Had I drunk double this amount it would have more closely matched my high sweat rate, and would have strengthened me in the late miles.

As was the case last year, the Boston Marathon spectators were hugely appreciated owing to their being unbelievably supportive and LOUD! While particularly true in the larger towns and cities along the course, and especially so at Wellesley College, I never felt unsupported along the entire course. The volunteers - of which there were literally tens of thousands - did an absolutely first-rate job, and bring huge credit to the most prestigious of marathons. I highly recommend the Boston Marathon to all serious runners!

Me crossing the finish line - exactly tying my marathon personal record!




Final results: Overall #4520/22645 (top 20%), Males #3994/13112 (top 30%), Males (50-54) #263/1868 (top 14%)

Boston Marathon Race Report!

The Boston Marathon is the best since...
I rank Boston as the best U.S. marathon (followed by Chicago then Houston) since entrants are required to demonstrate a prior marathon time sufficiently fast to qualify them by their extremely strict requirements. This selectivity - excluding 90% of all marathoners - results in Boston runners being honored by the running community generally, and by race spectators in particular.

The famous "Heartbreak Hill" is merely one of several tough hills found on the Boston course - all inconveniently situated between miles 17 and 21! The course is beautiful, starting in rural Hopkinton, and concluding in downtown Boston - passing extraordinary sights and hundreds of thousands of cheering spectators. It is extremely well organized, and the area truly open their hearts to the runners.

Specific to this run:
I had an absolutely fantastic first Boston marathon experience! After being dropped off by my friend in Hopkinton I was fortunate through his wife to be provided a "VIP" pass which allowed me access to the Hopkinton middle school and most importantly their indoor restrooms - a huge treat versus the alternative of long queues for the outdoor Port-A-Potties!

Other than the head-wind the weather turned out to be very good, as the temperature was in the low to mid 40's and the skies were clear. The only problem was the strong and consistent head-wind of 10 to 15 miles per hour.

While my personal results were a bit disappointing, with less wind and better hill training I'm sure I'll have a better outcome next year. My overall time was 3:50:30 (8:47 pace), worse than I'd hoped via my recent P.R. at 3:32:17 (8:06 pace). Encouragingly, my half marathon time was 1:46:30 (8:07 pace), and my strength was very good. Nevertheless, I'd squandered energy averting and fighting the wind, and with on-set of the hills in Newton my second half deteriorated severely to 2:04:00 (9:28 pace). However, considering my prior Achilles tendonitis that prevented my training adequately on hills, and especially after adjusting for the head-winds* I'm generally satisfied.

Amongst the high points of the Boston Marathon experience were:

• My wife and daughter leaving me recorded motivational messages on my e-mail the evening before the race. I copied these - unlistened to - on my iPod, where they played just just I needed them the most - at the start of the race and while struggling with Heartbreak Hill!;
• The UNBELIEVABLE support and cheering along the course;
• The incredible management of the Boston Marathon by its officials and volunteers. Especially nice was starting with others who ran at my pace, which prevented the normally frenetic running around other slower runners;
• Enjoying dinner Saturday night with several fellow Houston running friends, and seeing most of them Notes:

1. *On page 282 of the linked reference a recent study demonstes that a 10 MPH head-wind requires a 5.5% increase in energy utilization. As energy expenditure is linear with running velocity (reference Table 8-6 on page 281), but is ultimately limited by the runner's physical condition, any runner facing a 10 MPH head-wind must slow by 5.5%. Thus, my 3:50 result equates roughly to ~3:38 on a still-wind adjusted basis.

Great Boston Marathon Interactive Maps!

Check out the following link posted by the Boston Globe's site: http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/course/map/ - It's a great interactive map to help you visualize the Boston course. Along the same lines, you can download from http://www.tagzania.com/kml/pt/baa-boston-marathon-race/ a "kml" file of the Boston course, which with Google Earth allows you to do a visual look-down from a theoretical airplane's perspective of "flying" above the course. Finally, here's a great link to a collection of odd-ball aspects of the Boston Marathon: http://boston.com/sports/graphics/04_17_09_the_odd_road/

Time to reset my Boston Marathon goals!

I didn't mention this during my Saturday long-run video, but in tapering for the Boston Marathon on 4/20 I'm following the advice of Bernd Heinrich from his great book "Why We Run". Bernd writes that in the week preceeding one's marathon run you should - as much as possible - run at your marathon pace. By doing so you'll feel very comfortable running at that speed.

I recognize that this statement may be seen as completely contrary to my stated position on Saturday's video that "whatever time I run Boston I'll be happy with"... but that was Saturday! Subsequent to that video I completed that 16-mile long-run, the following day I had a great 10-miler on the same hilly trails at better than my goal Boston marathon pace, and today I had an excellent tempo run.

What's most encouraging is my newfound recognition that I'm 99% recovered from my former Achilles injury. I credit my usage of the elliptical over the last two months - a great non-impact cardio exercise which maintains cardiovascular fitness while the Achilles is allowed to recover at its own pace. I believe that stretching exercises have also helped, as has the use of the Strassburg Sock.

As a result I'm now in the midst of setting much more ambitious Boston Marathon goals. Specifically, my new goals are:

1. Finishing healthy, having had a great time;
   
2. Re-qualifying for Boston - at Boston! (3:35:59 or better);
3. Setting a personal record (3:32:17 or better);
4. Qualifying for the New York Marathon (3:30 or better).

Bottom line, though, is while my cardiovascular conditioning is excellent, that doesn't necessarily speak to the adequacy of my endurance over 26.2 miles, and my ability to survive the hills beginning at Newton Lower Falls - especially since I've only recently emerged from my Achilles-induced funk I've omitted 90% of the key pre-Boston hill work. Consequently, while I've set my Boston goals ambitiously, I'm going to play it by ear, see how it goes, and will adjust accordingly! Wish me luck!