One City Marathon

This was my first real attempt at qualifying for Boston.  I followed Hal Higdon's 18-week Advanced One marathon training program verbatim with a significant amount of additional bike training.  I felt very strong going into the race but there were two factors I could not control - lack of sleep and poor weather.  Unfortunately I was up all of Friday night and into Saturday dealing with an emergency at work that left me tired and stressed.  I resolved the issue before the race, but it had taken a toll on me mentally.  This was also daylight savings weekend and we lost one hour of sleep on Sunday morning.  The weather turned out to be much colder than I had trained for.  The temperature at the start of the race was below freezing and did not increase much as the race went on.  Regardless of those circumstances, I felt strong and motivated at the start line and ready to put forth my best effort.

I started the race very strong and was ahead of Boston Qualifying pace up to mile 18.  Unfortunately I began experiencing some muscle cramps in my quads and calves that forced me to walk, stop, and stretch.  The condition got worse and I bonked pretty hard.  I went from a 7:07 pace to a 10:00+ pace and ended up finishing in 3:21:33 - missing my BQ time by more than 10 minutes.  While I was disappointed, it's hard to be upset for very long when you still manage to set a 25 minute PR!

This race taught me a very valuable lesson - race how you train.  I always ran with Tailwind Nutrition Endurance Fuel in training but elected to forgo the race belt and water bottles in order to save weight for the race.  It came at a big cost as the water and Gatorade on the course didn't meet my nutritional needs.  I also learned I should be taking salt tablets during endurance events.  This wasn't something I had considered before, but a friend of mine saw me struggling with the muscle cramps and suggested I take salt tablets and magnesium.  This is something I will try in the future.

Overall I'm happy with my performance throughout training and during the majority of the race.  Even though I did not hit my goal, I am confident that a Boston Qualifier is in my near future - maybe even later this year!