Boston Marathon

marathon2022

Best of luck today guys, enjoy every minute

Lazare

Looking forward to the reports, hope you all had a good day.

sk8board

A truly amazing weekend, I wouldn’t swap it for anything - Boston loves this race and the runners and it shows everywhere!

unfortunately the forecast changed a lot overnight. The wind died to a trickle and the start line temp was announced as 63F/18c and it felt every bit of it. With a tiny tailwind it made the RealFeel even hotter. By all accounts too hot for anyone who hasn’t ‘winter’ trained in a hot climate, and with 25,500 finishers of the 30,000 bibs it strikes me as a lot of dnf’s?

I got to halfway on plan, but knew what was going to play out since the very first km; dug in for the next 10k through the Newton hills, down the other side, and then ran/walked the final 5k and enjoyed it. It was total zombieland and plenty folks in a bad way/collapsing on the 600m to the finish line.

Literally everyone I was tracking had a similar experience in some way or other, and the medical tents were busy.

but to come back to the start, it’s the best overall race experience I’ve ever had, by a country mile.

pgmcpq

My fifth Boston ( I DNFed 2018 so 5 1/2 🤨 and I know Boston weather is … difficult). Love this race. No city embraces the race like Boston and everyone here knows the score.

Still a tough day. Heat was tough. It felt much warmer in Hopkinton than in Boston. After a year of medical adventures I was in wave 3 for the first time. The 25 minutes later start and the slower pace of my corral mates left me more than a minute down after the first two miles even allowing for a planned easy start.

Got down to planned pace by mile 4, but I knew the heat was going to take a toll eventually. I was torn between running the tangents or heading for the occasional shade. By mile 10 I was adjusting the goal from a shot at 3:10 to closer to 3:20 with an eye on wave 2 next year. The first three hills were ok but I knew HR was too high. Lost almost a minute on Heartbreak and while I recovered on the downhill I was optimistic. I held it together to get past my cheering section at the 24 mile marker but the wheels finally came off shortly after. HR was ok but the legs were shot. Post the race I realized that I was cramping but did not identify this as a problem at the time. Would a cramp tablet have saved me ? Very hard to make good improv decisions after mile 20 !

No one I know (14 friends/clubmates) hit their goals - missing by 7 minutes to more than an hour 😳).

Still a safe BQ ( I’m old) so as I told someone I’ll keep doing Boston until I get it right.

Hello to the two women from Drogheda I talked to the way to the start line, if by any chance they read this !

Berlin is next. Hope for better weather.

marathon2022

Those reports have me itching for another crack at it, fair play lads.

sk8board

just looking through the results for Irish citizens and a 20min positive split is about the order of the day for us, plenty lads with a HM split times and then dnf.

https://www.baa.org/races/boston-marathon/results/search-results

It’s like training in the Irish winter and then racing the next day on the hottest Irish summers morning (18c at 10am).
in retrospect it was never going to happen.

The weather here on Sat/Sun was quite cold, we were coming back to the hotel Sat evening and it was freezing; teeth clattering from the wind. And this was 36hrs later 😂

Nothing you can do.

PaulieC

I don't even want to see mine but 20 minutes sounds about right

event

Sounds a bit like Cork last year. As in weather caught loads of people out and there was carnage on the day.

Well done to ye all :)

partyguinness

Jaysus lads. Fantastic weekend.

Article online says that nearly 9% of runners ended up getting medical attention due to heat. The forecasters got it wrong - it was closer to 25 degrees with no shelter.

I was holding my pace nice and steady and super disciplined from the get go but realised at the 10 mile mark that my legs were dead. It was sapping the life out them without being able to do much about it. Maintaining my normal MP would have been no problem at any other flat major but those inclines and declines just took it out of me and then throw in the intense sun on the back. When I saw runners in the red wave ahead of me slowing down/walking/on the ground, it just became a survival exercise. Not a day for heroics. It was like being chucked into a washing machine for 3 hours.

A good 20 mins off a PR 17 mins positive split.

I want to go back. I'd almost go back just to watch. Going to target another BQ end of summer to beat the cut off.

partyguinness

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122024791#Comment_122024791

I ran Berlin in 2021 which was probably hotter BUT there was plenty of shade with the buildings and made no difference. Plus you are coming off a summer training block.

sk8board

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122038047#Comment_122038047

it was exactly the same for me with Berlin. Huge PB in the heat coming off summer training incl 2 weeks in Spain where I kept up the training.

This was just different, and you knew it at the start line. Lesson learned!

God it was some weekend though 😂

sk8board

Some pretty huge numbers, in particular a near 4% dnf rate (1-1.5% is normal), and over 11% of all runners needing a medical tent (2974/26596).

Also, to put that ‘1,686 finish line medical tent encounters’ into some perspective, that’s one every 9 seconds for 4.5hrs 😳, and that’s only the people they brought to a tent, not all the folks stumbling at the finish area, got back on their feet and moved along

We escaped relatively unscathed I think, and still had a great weekend

pgmcpq

Talking to a few guys and reading post race comments it’s clear that the guys from the southern hemisphere seemed to have fewer problems. I live in the US near Philadelphia were we’ve had a cold and wet spring. No doubt being better acclimated would have helped.

That being said, I don’t remember running well in anything above 60. I also was running from wave 3.

I was shooting for ~3:10 came in 3:23 after. I have 14 friends on my tracker - all from the same area so have had the same weather, All missed their goals by 6 minutes to maybe 40. All reported cramping as the issue.

marathon2022

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122044752#Comment_122044752

The course is the main factor. Boston is fvcking hard, even the downhill isn't downhill. It's undulating and when the newton hills kick in at 16 miles most people are already running on smashed quads. I spoke to loads of people last year when it was cold wet and windy headon all the way, weather was also a factor but it's the course that beats most.