2:48:04 5 minute pb
First Half 1:22:32 Second Half 1:25:32.
First of all, it was a privilege to be involved in the fastest ever marathon to date, those guys are just absolutely incredible.
Well I'm very happy with my run, I was hoping to go sub 2:50, top 500 and had my eyes on the 2:48:47, the magical 4 minute pace for us mere mortals and all were achieved. Pretty well everything went to plan, only thing I may have been able to do better on the day is the hydration side but I'm not well known for being good at that.
Craig and i caught the yellow buses down to Hopkington on a cold morning, we arrived and quickly found a place on the grass near the toliets and took turns going and having a bit of a chat as the time passed quickly. Took my tablets, applied cream to the legs and then made our way to drop of our bags and begin the walk down to the start line. We parted ways and wished each other the best of luck.
Being in corral 2 was pretty awesome as I had an uninterrupted view of the elites making their way down the path to the starting line with Ryan Hall high fiving a whole lot of people and generous clapping and shouting out being a part of it.
We started and I was wearing my beanie and gloves as it was still cold at this point, my shins ached for the first 3km downhill but managed to get a reasonable start and noticed after running for about 5km I was feeling warm and sweating a bit so discarded both beanie and gloves. I had a drink at about the 5 mile mark and concentrated on doing around the 3:55 mark as I wanted to get a little time in the bank for later on which I was able to do. The left hammy which is always a bit dodgey was sore around this time but luckily stayed the same for the rest of the race.
Just continued churning out the kms as planned and before I knew it we were at the college with the screaming and kissing girls, I got to see this a bit closer this year as last year I had a wee on the other side of the road and couldn't be bothered crossing the road. Managed to go through the half in a small hm pb and happy that I was on track for what I was after.
The hills of Newton came along and I had another drink and a couple of snakes. The plan was to keep an even effort and make sure that I didn't lose too much of the time banked away which I was able to do. I was passing quite a few people and the odd one was passing me. I did some quick calcs in my head at the 30k mark and figured if I could do 4:06 for the rest of the race, then a high 2:48 would be achieved.
There wasn't so much fanfare at the top of Heatbreak hill but I'd figured we'd reached the top based on the km on the garmin and the fact that we'd started going downhill. I can't remember exactly but I think not long after that some of the Boston Celtics cheerleaders were there- now these should be the kissing girls :).
Had a couple more snakes and drinks- not too successful with the drinks, more ended on my face than in my mouth and then concentrated on keeping the kms fairly even with the odd one going just over the 4:00 mark.
Calves started getting sore around the 36 km mark but I kept telling myself that it wasn't far to go and I was on track and it did the trick as the pace stayed steady and kept passing people and a couple passed me.
Turned the corner and the little uphill bit before turning into Boylston and then made my way to the finish and was very happy to have my name called out, raised the fist and yelled as I passed the line, just a shame I couldn't go 5 seconds faster as I would have had a 2:47.
Got quite a few photos taken after the finish line as I was pretty pumped and happy to be hamming it up for the camera, hopefully at least a couple of these may turn out.
Unfortunately Craig had his quads cramping badly so it didn't go to plan for him but I'm sure his next marathon will be a pearler. It was nice catching up with family and Craig's family for dinner that night.
Congrats to david bryant for doing sub 3 in his first attempt, awesome.
Still a bit sore in the legs and will do some cross training and walking for a few days before starting running probably when we get to LA.
