Boston Qualified But… – My Marathon Story
The Lead Up
It’s been a while since I have done a marathon update. Some pretty momentous things have happened so it’s time to fill you in!
The last marathon I reported on was the Oakland Marathon in March of 2018. I finished that marathon in 4:03:41. My goal was to finish in 4:05 because I wanted to test to see if I could finish below the Boston Marathon qualifying time of 4:10 for the 2020 race (when I would be 65 years old). I also mentioned that the Oakland race course was mismeasured by 1/2 a mile. The actual distance was 26.7 miles, no 26.2. As a result my 4:03 would have been closer to 3:58 if it had been accurately measured. That more accurate (but unofficial) time of 3:58 made me start thinking about trying to qualify not for the 2020 Boston Marathon, but for the 2019 one. The reason there is a difference is because I would still be in the 60-64 year old category if I ran in 2019. That means my time would have to be well below the 3:55 qualifying time for 60-64. It would have to close to 3:51, not 4:05. That’s a big difference to make up!
Oakland was an early spring marathon and that meant I still had time to race again before the heat of summer came around and the races stopped until the fall. I started looking into races that I could run in April in the hopes of breaking that 3:51 time. I settled on the Illinois Marathon in Champagne-Urbana on April 28th. It was a drivable distance from Tulsa, had a reputation for being flat and fast and the temperatures would be better than those in the Oklahoma races in the same time frame. So I signed up and ran the race. However, I was not able to make the time I wanted. I finished in 3:58:12, about the same time I would have finished Oakland if it had actually been 26.2 miles. I was happy to officially break 4 hours but was disappointed in myself because my race strategy was terrible.
- Mistake #1 – Choosing the Pace Group
- My plan was to run with the 3:55 pacer but when I talked to the 3:50 pacer at the expo she convinced me I needed to run with her if I was going to make my time. So I started out with that pace group. What that meant was I used up too much energy going too fast too early.
- Mistake #2 – Water Intake
- I made another mistake before I even left the starting gate. I didn’t go to the bathroom one last time. What that really meant was I drank too much water too soon before the start of the race. As a result I had to stop to pee at about mile 6. It took way too long and I lost the pace group as a result. I continued on at the proper pace but didn’t have any support from then on.
- Mistake #3 – Fueling
- My strategy was to take my gels (Huma brand) every 5 miles, which I did. It seemed to be plenty sufficient. I drank at most water stops as well. However, when mile 22 came around I just had to slow down. I eventually took a walk break in each of miles 23-25. I was worn out and the head wind of 20+ mph didn’t help.
- Mistake #4 – Timing
- The Illinois Marathon was just 5 weeks after Oakland. What that meant was it was too close to retrain. In other words I pretty much had to just maintain as best I could between the two races. I had to take it easy the first week or two after Oakland and that meant I only had a week to get back my race mojo back before having to taper again for the next race. Which meant I didn’t really improve anything in that amount of time. As a result I was able to perform about the same, not better.
Next Chance/Last Chance
The season was done at that point and I knew any more attempts to qualify for Boston would have to take place in the fall. However, registration for Boston opens and closes in a very short window of time in early September. If I was going to qualify it would have to be no later than the weekend of Sept. 8th/9th. I started scoping out races that weekend and found there were many in the northern tier states that were specifically advertised at Boston qualifiers. I settled on one in Erie, Pennsylvania. It had everything I wanted in a race. It was geared towards qualifying in that it was flat, fast and small. 44% of participants had qualified in 2017, making it one of the top 4-5 races in the country for that purpose. It was a 13.1 mile tear drop shaped course that you did twice. Some of the other possible races were loops that you had to do 6-8 times. I had no interest in that.
Erie Marathon also was on a peninsula off-shore from the city of Erie, PA. It was a protected area with huge and plentiful trees, a nature preserve, beaches and no city streets or sharp turns. I made my choice and started to train.
I trained harder than ever. I ran more miles (averaging well over 40 miles per week, a lot for me) and I did more specific types of training runs (speed work, tempo runs, progression runs, recovery runs, etc.). I also lost a bit of weight (about 5 lbs), ate better, and continued my cross training regimen to focus even more on flexibility and strength.
The Strategy
The race might be set to be perfect in every way but if I don’t have a solid race strategy it wasn’t going to matter. The strategy was based on overcoming the four major mistakes I had made in Illinois.
- Fix #1 – Choosing the Pace Group
- This time my strategy was to go with the 3:55 pacer for 10 miles then slowly move forward from there, increasing my pace gradually having saved energy in the first 10 miles. There is a bad strategy people sometimes fall into called ‘putting minutes in the bank’. You go out fast and each mile that passes you start to add up the seconds and minutes you have available at the other end. The truth though is, if you go out too fast and save minutes, you will end up spending 1.5x those minutes in your slow down at the tail end of the race. In other words you can’t sustain that pace and it will come back to bite you. This time I didn’t do that, I went out slower than I knew I need to go and it paid off.
- Fix #2 – Water Intake
- I ate my breakfast earlier than in Illinois and I stopped drinking water 1 3/4 hours before the race. That way my bladder was completely empty and the majority of the digestion I needed to do was done when the time came to get in the corral with the pacer. However, I was plenty hydrated and fueled because I had been very deliberate about doing so not just for the day before but for the entire week before. I was ready to go.
- Fix #3 – Fueling
- I decided to take my gel every 4 hours instead of every 5. I did this primarily to make sure my fuel store was always full but there was fantastic unintended consequence to this strategy. As I started to fuel every 4 miles I noticed the time and distance was passing quicker than when I did it every 5 miles. This was apparent to me when twice during the race I had to count the gels in my pockets to make sure I wasn’t taking a gel twice at the mile marker instead of once. In other words, 4 miles went by so fast it seemed like I had just taken the gel. It helped considerably at the half way point because by that time I had started to break the race into 4 mile segments. I took my gel at mile 12 and before I knew it I was taking it again at mile 16. I had pretty much skipped worrying about hitting 13.1 and was just focused on coming up to 16. And 16? Well that is a LOT farther in a marathon than 13.1! Next thing I know I am at mile 20 and so on. I also took hydration and energy drinks at almost every water stop (there were a lot of stops!).
- Fix #4 – Timing
- The Erie Marathon was not an add-on afterthought to another race. It was my sole focus for 20 weeks of training. I could feel myself getting stronger and peaking at the right time in this training cycle instead of just holding on for 5 weeks until the next race. The determination was complete and my confidence was high.
Out Of My Control
As with any outdoor activity you can prepare all you want but if the weather gods don’t go along with your plans it can still be a rough outing. Because it was an early fall marathon (technically still in summer) I was worried about the temperatures. For many weeks before hand it was looking to be about 65º to start and about 75º at the end with pretty high humidity. Not optimal at all. If the sun was shining as well it could be trouble. However, with just about 4 days to go the forecast took a turn for the better, sort of. The temperatures were going down but the rain chances were increasing. It looked like we just start in the high 50s but with high winds and rain starting about halfway through. Not optimal but I had run in rain in a marathon before and had actually liked it. The question was how much rain, how much humidity, how much wind, how much cloud cover. On the day before the race it had become obvious the weather would be perfect IF the rain held off (or was light). The starting temp was forecast to be 57º and the finishing temp 4 hours later was expected to be 60º. 4 degrees increase over 4 hours? That is unheard of but very welcomed. The rain was still expected but not until a bit later in the day and we might miss it completely. And in the end, the rain held off and the wind was dramatically dampened by how forested the route was.
Ready, Set, Go
And just like that we were off. I implemented my strategy exactly as I had planned. 10 miles in I started to inch forward beyond the 3:55 pacer. I could see another pace group way up ahead and set my sights on it. In the meanwhile I kept watching runners ahead of me and made a game of picking them off one by one. I was patient and deliberate, sometimes taking as many as 10-15 miles to pass someone I could see ahead of me. By the time I finished I had passed what I estimate to be at least 100 people and had only had one person pass me. I eventually caught up with the next pace group (3:50) at about mile 24 and decided to keep my pace instead of fall back in line with them. I passed them and never looked back. It was a good thing I did since my final time was 3:50:25 and I was well ahead of that group by then.
Elation
People have said to me since then, ‘Man, you must have felt so great crossing that finish line’ and of course I did. But it wasn’t just the finish line. It was pretty much right after the 1/2 way point that I felt like I had this race. It sounds cocky and too early to say that to yourself but it really was how I felt. However, I know a lot can happen in 13 miles so I wasn’t doing any celebrating. I just felt confident in my plan is all. But when my 16 came around I felt even more confident. When 20 came around I had no doubt. So it wasn’t just the finish line where I felt elated. It was at least the last 10 miles of the race.
And, most selfishly, I accomplished my goal. I qualified for the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:50:25. That is 4:35 below the qualifying time of 3:55 for my age group. But, here is the kicker. They don’t accept everyone who qualifies. They start accepting the fastest people in the age group first and keep accepting until they have reached their limit for that group. Most years it’s about 2-3 minutes below the qualifying time. My time is a minute below the highest time they’ve ever had as a cut-off so it should be enough for me to be accepted. We shall see!
Gratitude and Pride
Because I am a running coach and training program coordinator, I have a lot of people watching me do my races. They are rooting me on, hoping the best for me, encouraging me and helping me in so many ways. As I was going through those final miles I kept thinking about how I wanted to make them proud. I wanted to make them happy. Not just for me, but to be part of a community that allows this to happen for me and for so many others. Even more important I wanted to make my wife Linda feel like I had done my best for her as well. She works hard and is the primary bread-winner in the house. I get to do this amazing sport in large part because of her and I want her to feel it’s been worth it. I want her to be proud of me. I want me daughters to be proud of me as well of course. But more than that I want them to see what they could be capable of when they are my age.
Next Steps
And now that is done. I’ve shown off my medal and my t-shirt. I’ve geeked out about all the statistics and told plenty of stories about some of the finer details of the race experience. I talked to my runners about the experience, emphasizing that having big goals is ok. But once you have them you put them on the back shelf and focus on smaller goals that are along the way, that are reachable but still a challenge. You build towards the big goal by reaching all the in between goals. And most importantly, each goal is actually a milestone, not a finish line. That way you are ever progressing, ever-moving forward.
My next race is the New York Marathon on November 4th. I am just starting to formulate my plan for that. It will be a different plan, made just for that day, that race and the conditions I come across. I will let you know how that goes. After that it’s a few weeks getting my runners to their goal races and then taking it easy over the holidays. Training for Boston will start about the last week of December. Wish my luck!
See you running,
Marty
Post-Script
I did not get into the Boston Marathon. What I thought was a safe time 4:36 below the qualifying standard turned out not to be the case. The cut off was 4:52. I missed out by 16 seconds. The worst aspect of this is that I know I could have easily run 16 seconds faster in that race. I could have done that in the last mile, that is how good I felt. But I didn’t. 20/20 hindsight is always so clear, right? Don’t worry, I’ve already had my pity party (bought and ate a Nestle’s Crunch bar) and am already working on the plan to qualify for the 2020 race.
Not only did I miss it by 16 seconds but they also have lowered the qualifying standard in each age group by 5 minutes. The good news is I ‘age up’ for 2020. That means I will be in a new age group, 65-69, since I will be 65 on the date of the 2020 Boston Marathon (that is how they judge your age group, not when you run your qualifying race but when you run their race. This year I needed to run under 3:55 by a substantial amount. But next year I will have to run under 4:00 hours. There is no guarantee of course but I have beat that time twice now, and by almost 10 minutes at Erie, so we shall see.
