Everything went swimmingly, except I did stop for a bit over a minute to take a leak at mile 3. I paced cautiously and caught the 4:00 pace group just before the 7-mile mark, and chatted amiably with pace leader Norm until 21 miles.
Realizing I felt pretty good, I threw it down over the last five miles and finished in 3:51:42. While I am quite content with that, I will point out that at age 62, my Boston Qualifier mark is 3:50.
It was a super positive initial marathon experience, and I've signed up for another, the upcoming Napa Valley Marathon on March 1. And yes indeed, I will gun for a BQ this time! I'm well on my way to readiness, having just completed a six-week stretch where I averaged just over 51 miles per week.
I'm chilling on the volume until I run the Brazen NYE half marathon on Dec 28, followed by a few days off. From there, I'll be sure to book a goodly number of 3 hour runs leading up to the Napa Valley Race (without actually worrying about overall volume, it's the key long runs that will power me in Napa Valley!).
We'll see how it goes, my basic attitude is Boston or Bust! I went to high school near Boston, and grew up watching the classic race. In 1975, my senior year of high school, I tracked the race with my running buddy Tim -- (he was a 9:27 high school 2-miler!). We followed the route in my dad's '74 Plymouth Valliant, stopping at Framingham and Wellesley College before watching "Boston Billy" Rodgers set an American Record of 2:09:55. I'll never forget that roar for him at the Prudential Center on Boylston!
I've always wanted to run Boston at least once, here's hoping I'll make the cut.
No comments:
Post a Comment