Well, I am a bit more sore on day 2! But it will be a day we all remember and certainly something to draw a few lessons from. Races sometimes all start to blend together once they're in the rearview mirror, but we'll all remember Boston 2012.

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Portside Athletics Blog

x100

trashed quads and 30' slower than anticipated finish time

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"if you chose it, it's not really pain"

I think downhill running is the most underemphasized skill in running. I train on downhills regularly and annihilate people on them in races. I will often hold back significantly on the uphills, lose ground but then pass them back and then some on the downhills. No braking!

As for preventing soreness after Boston, however, I'm not so sure....I was pretty damn sore after last year's race!

Similar story, except I was over an hour over my heat-adjusted target time.

To make it short: Opened the first three miles at my adjusted target time, HR was sky high. Decided to back off the throttle a touch, bring things in line. Cool, so we'll go for 4 hour pace. Felt great through 16. And then it happened, on the 128 bridge:

Ambulance 1 on the left, woman with oxygen bag, etc.
Guy #2, swooning on the road, and then down.
Ambulance 2 coming down with sirens ablaze.

At that point, mentally I couldn't get it back in gear. Just said to myself, "Get to the line. Ignore everything else. Just get yourself to the line."

Next couple miles I took every ice cube and sponge I could get my hands on. Asked a spectator for a can of Coke at the base of Heartbreak. Delicious.

Made it to BC, started to feel good. Mile 21 aid station had no water on the right side of the road (they were trying to re-distribute the remaining water they had in the remaining cups.) Coming down the hill to make the right onto Chestnut Hill Ave had a couple BCers cut in to try and run with a friend. Had to stop short with all pressure on my left foot/calf. Immediately seized up, hard. Spent the better part of the next 1.5 miles trying to get it out, while also fighting off the spins I was starting to get. Knew it was going to get ugly quick. At Coolidge Corner it locked up for good, as in foot glued to the ground locked up. Spent the next 20 minutes at that med station getting the blood flow back, getting the knot out. Naturally, I could run the last couple miles without fail. "Just get to the line."

Incredibly proud and amazingly disappointed. But I can only control that which I could control, which was me getting from Hopkinton to Boston on April 16th, 2012 as fast as I could. Looking at a lot of times, and it looks like a LOT of people added 45-50 minutes on the back half, so I don't feel as bad saying that I was in that crowd, too.

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Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter

My shins are on fire. This is also my 3rd Boston and 12th marathon over all (plus number of triathlons), and I don't recall being this sore before. It's kinda making me feel sick (may be the sunburn compounds the inflammation?). I feel like I have a flu or something.
I thought I would run in 3:12-3:15 range, and ended up crossing the line at 3:51..If it was not for the ice and the spinklers, I would have folded.
The funny thing is - I though I was good in the heat. Went to FL for spring break and run a good 100 mile week in plus temperatures.. But man or man, this was tough.

Well done man! A few buddies of mine are a sub-3 hour finishers and they had a 4 hour race!!

That was hot...barely scraped in under 4 hours after A LOT of walking in the back half. So almost an hour slower than PB.

The people of Boston and surrounds were awesome. The water, ice, oranges, hoses, and even someone handing out brownies?! Plus the HHH handing out shots of beer. Remind me to get out and cheer my local marathon, it really helped.

No excuses for my sub-par performance. I was ashamed crawling along the last miles at a pace that I ran in flaming Kona up pay 'n' save hill!

But then I read your war stories and it makes me feel a little better to hear what you went through. I guess I should also be happy that I didn't end up in the hospital unlike after the last marathon I finished. And that was topping out at 70F...

As usual, I've learned a lot more from this races than any good race I had. Hope everyone else did, too. Sorry for those who deferred. Bad choice.

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We all blame you, you were the one who 10 days out said, "Time to start freaking out about the weather" :-)

How true it turned out to be.

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Portside Athletics Blog

Hehe.

Anyway, I was happy it was that hot. If the weather is not perfect, I prefer brutal.

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And then it happened, on the 128 bridge:

I think the 128 bridge is the absolute hardest part of the course. Flying down from Wellesley, and you know the Newton hills are still ahead. That overpass is totally exposed, not many people there, and feels like it goes on forever. Heartbreak Hill is anticlimactic as it's not terribly long, the support is amazing and it's mostly downhill from there. The 128 bridge and the first of the three Newton hills, which seems to climb forever, is the most mentally and physically taxing part of the course to me.

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Similar results here.

This was my fourth marathon with my prior ones being Boston '10 and '11 as well as NYC '11. Despite being in my best shape of all of them (by far) and planning on completing the race in 3:40 I ended up with a 4:22.

At some point I am going to do a more thorough race report but put simply I was not adequately trained for the temperatures or the downhills. Pretty much all winter I was training in 30-45 degree temperatures until the 2 mile tune-up I did Sunday. I made every precaution I possibly could with regards to hydration prior to and during the race but it was not sufficient. I ran by HR and PE however a quick glance at the watch at Wellesley showed that my goal time was not going to be in the cards. That combined with my quads already being trashed meant that from that point on I was just running from aid station to aid station.

With my main goal shifted to just finishing I walked through all of the aid stations taking in a water/gatorade mixture and kept up as good of a pace as I could. I am not sure what my exact pace was but I do know that my last 1/3 was my fastest so my pacing was actually pretty good for the first 2/3. One issue I kept having was my HR jumping wildly in the first 1/2 of the race which is something I have not experienced in training. It would go from Z2 way up into Z5 very quickly and I would have to slow down to a crawl to get it back down again. I attribute this to the heat as it was unusual for me--I can normally hold it to within 2-3 beats of where I want it for a long time.

The people along the course were even more outstanding this year. I took every opportunity to grab ice and pack my hat with it and ran into every hose when possible. The kindness of those folks really cannot be overstated. More than I would like to admit I was kept from walking by entire crowds shouting my name. Seeing my family on Boylston St. was just the icing on the cake.

After finishing, I was not feeling well at all. Once the adrenaline wore off (and it went quickly) I realized that I was not doing well but felt well enough to make it back to my hotel. Multiple medics asked if I was doing alright since I was a bit dizzy and stumbling a bit. Eventually I ran into someone from my charity who offered to take me back to the Marriott where they had food, a medical staff and free massages. Since it was in the direction of my hotel (Mandarin) I figured it was a good place to be in case my condition worsened, plus I have never turned down a free massage!

It took what felt like an hour to get there and it felt like I was there for an hour although I probably wasn't. During the walk over I began to get a bad headache in the back of my head which sucked and I was even having trouble thinking straight. Once I arrived at the Marriott they gave me apple juice, water, and soup which brought me back to life a bit. I have no idea how long I was there but after the massage I made my way back to the hotel very slowly, met my family briefly, took some photos and promptly went up to my room and slept for about 12 hours. I couldn't really stomach any food aside from a few cookies at that point and I felt like garbage. I would equate it to the worst hangover I have ever had.

Tuesday morning I felt much much better, had a huge breakfast, and even snagged a 26.2 beer at Cigar Masters before I left for RI at noon. The rest of the day was spent doing absolutely nothing aside from stopping in at work for about an hour later in the afternoon. Some interesting tidbits were that my weight before and after the race was within a pound but over the course of the night after I lost 7 pounds. I do not know how accurate the hotel scale is so take that as you will. Overall, I learned a lot and it was an incredible experience. Sorry for the rambling, it was cathartic to put it down in words as my head was not right for the last third of the race all the way through until after. My memory of it is blurred still and I probably had some level of heat stroke. No regrets though.

QFT!! But I will take hot over cold/windy/raining any day. It sounds like a lot of people really came up big even in the hot conditions. Anyone have only sunburn on their right side? That point to point part killed me for the sunburn. I'm uneven. ;)

My legs/quads were just not ready for the downhill. The only good thing that happened for me during the race was I didn't tweak my hamstrings with the downhills. Now perhaps, me limiting my stride length to protect the hamstrings caused extra quad suffering.

As for learning something, I'm definitely going to approach my IM marathon and training this summer differently. That's the tough thing with marathons, it's usually a painful learning experience.

Here, here!



Oh, wrong picture. Please disregard. I'm sorry.

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Yep. I have a very attractive design of a singlet on my right shoulder along with a line across my forehead from my hat.

I got a little sunburned...that spf wore off from sweat before the start methinks.

My "race" was similar to a lot of the ones here. My hottest runs have been at 57 degrees this year (How did Uli Steidl get 15th OA, being from Seattle?!?)

I switched from a 3:00 goal to just enjoy the "experience". So I slowed about 25-30 secs from my goal pace, and that was working pretty well. I found myself behind a nice set of female legs running a good tempo, and figured that would motivate me to stay slow

And it's not the slightest bit creepy, either. sheesh.

That didn't last long, but I was hitting splits nicely and comfortably. The chills started at mile 8, but I attributed that to passing the Hoyt's, even though they lasted 3 miles. I started seeking shady portions, grabbing water from the shadier tables, and gathering ice when I could. Anytime my temp dropped, my speed just went back up to 7:20's for the same effort. Heat up along the exposed, stifling areas and it slowed right back down.

The only effortless section was the Wellesley mile, which was fun.

Luckily, there seemed to be a ton more spectators with ice and water the last several miles between official aid stations, so I kept hydrated and cool, and my last 8k was similar to my first, pacewise. I slowed the last mile to soak it in, and even videotaped the finish for a few seconds. I did get motivated to actually race the last bit when a Crossfit endurance singlet came by that said "More weights, less miles" though ;)

But there was carnage, a guy did the leg-buckle and lie down in the street at mile 22, and when I stopped to help, a volunteer was already catching him, phone in hand saying "Just go, I called 911". And a guy at that last bridge you go under around mile 25 or so (sooo close to the finish).

So yeah, broke 3:30, beat my bib number, and enjoyed the day. Bostonians are great!

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Nobody's constipated on race morning

I think his PR is 2:16ish.

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My story is the pretty much like everyone else's. Backed off some but not enough. Ran 2:56:30 last year. Was aiming for 2:55 this year (set 13.1 PR in February). Went out aiming for 2:59:59. Went through halfway at 1:29:xx. Kept hoping that I'd regain my mojo after Heartbreak, but it didn't come back. Even a big handful of ice down my pants couldn't bring me back to life (a trick I learned at Eagleman in 08, when temperatures were reported to be 100+).

I ended up at 3:09 (good to read that ST'ers mountainman and snyderman were right there with me). In 2011, my 2:56 put my ~1000th; in 2012, my 3:09 put me 930th. My time was ~7% off last year's time; the winning time was ~8% off last year's winning time. My training buddies fared about the same. It was a day to remember.

The guys at the Science of Sport blog have two great write-ups about Boston. Money quote:

It's really simple - when it is hot, you will run slower.
We know that this happens because our body is smart enough to anticipate the future physiological consequences of our "actions", and so when it is 27 degrees and we run at 2:58/km, we generate heat but fail to lose it, and the body is able to work out that this is not going to produce an optimal result. Why not? Because once our body temperature hits about 40 degrees celsius, we stop. Our brain, once that hot, doesn't recruit as much muscle, and the pace would be significantly reduced as a result.

The whole write-up is worth reading.

I really thought that being a seasoned ironman and trail runner would make it easier on me (I'm used to running in the heat of the day, good at pacing, etc.), but even after backing off, the intensity of 6:50 miles was just greater than any stress I put on my body during an ironman or trail run.

same story here. I've run sub-3 before, "raced" IM Lewy in scortching heat, and finished in brutal conditions at Eagleman a couple of times. I knew that it was not going to be anywhere close to a PR day, but was hoping to survive, have a good training run, and come in between 3:10-3:20. I backed off initially and ran a really conservative the first 16-18, but the wheels fell off after heartbreak. My body has never revolted against me like that. The stomach cramps were like nothing i've ever experienced. A quarter mile from the finish, just before the turn onto Boylston, I still couldn't jog. Came in a fraction under 3:40, my slowest by far. This was by far the hardest race I've ever done. The muscle soreness and burns have made work particularly challenging the past couple of days.
Am I glad I did it? of course. I thought about defering for a hot second, but came to my senses. You get what you get on race day, and its how we all deal with it that makes it so memorable. I'll never forget trying to get to the line Monday. Congrats to all those who were out there and gave it their all Monday.

I can't agree with you more. I hate this section. Thankfully I was so focused on my pacing and how I was feeling I didn't notice I was on the bridge till I was already halfway up it. :)

I'll add my story to the growing chorus. I was able t hold my goal pace for the first 10 or so mile and then it started to become very apparent that it was not in the cards this day. Kept backing the pace down to what felt manageable. Stopped sweating and got goosebumps a few times, salt pills and water/gatoraid kept bringing me back. Had to walk the aid stations the last 10 miles, but the crowds were amazing. Whle I'm no marathon veteran, I've never seen a more supportive, loud crowd before. The ice, and water were so helpful. I'd go thank them all one by one if they'd be willing to line back up on the course. I've also decided that those icee pops that people were handing out are the greatest thing ever. They should be given out at every hot race. Missed my goal by 21 minutes but after reading this sounds like I would have hit it and then some. Congrats to all the finishers out there. While I didn't hit the number I wanted, I don have my "I ran Boston in 2012" story. Cheers, see you next year for snow, or locusts, or whatever happens next.

Definitely a tough year at Boston this year. Training runs and races leading up to the race had me aiming for 2:59:59 until I saw the temps and decided to enjoy the experience and worry about speed at my next marathon in June. Training was decent leading up to the race and had me confident in my ability to at worst run sub 3:10 with the heat. Pre-race routine was consistent with other races (other than my 11 month old screaming for no reason at 2 am).

Decided to go out very conservatively at a 7:15 pace and wanted to hold that through the hills to make sure I would have a strong finish and enjoy the crowds at BU and into the city. Kept that pace through 10k and suddenly the wheels came off. Ended up puking all stomach contents just after the 10k split and could not hydrate or fuel effectively following that point to let my body catch up. I knew it was going to be a very long day at that point, just didn't realize how long. Went through the half at 1:45 and could not keep even an 8:30 m/m pace for >.5 miles without having to slow down even further to a walk to catch my breath. HR was extremely sluggish and would not respond. That coupled with the goosebumps and inability to sweat my only concern at that point was getting through the race without medical assistance. Finished in 4:15 walking pretty much the entire second half and hope to never endure that pain/misery again.

Never experienced anything like that and not convinced it was entirely heat related as it seemed far too early for the heat to have played a factor at the pace I was running. I guess I'm glad I finished, but still a little shocked at what occurred out there on Monday. Great job for those of you who were able to hold it together in tough conditions.

Beyond asymmetrical sunburn, the Science of Sport blog speculates that the direct sunlight made a huge difference. They write:

Recently, when I was putting myself through my little barefoot Kilimanjaro experiment, it became clear that direct sunlight exerts an effect on temperature and thermal comfort that is far greater than we acknowledge. The only reason I was able to summit Kilimanjaro barefoot in air temperatures below freezing point was because the African sun did a magic job heating the ground up. At one point, at 4,700m altitude, the air temperature was -3 degrees celsius, and the ground was 20 degrees celsius!

Now the opposite implication was true for Boston today. Temperatures in the shade were reported at around 82F, but in the sunlight, which is most of the race, they would have been 10 to 15 degrees higher. The result is an effective temperature closer to 95F, and that's the difference between today in Boston and Beijing 2008. There, Sammy Wanjiru apparently defied physiology and physics to run 2:06:32 in the heat and humidity (I say 'apparently' because that kind of performance does not defy anything - you can model it as entirely possible given his mass and the pace). But it was, I believe, cloudy, and I think that's a crucial difference, especially in a city surrounded by buildings.

So Boston 2012 provided all the elements of a war of attrition, and 2:12 and 2:31 winning times for men who run under 2:06 and women who run 2:22 is evidence of it. It doesn't make for the same kind of awe as we had one year ago, but perhaps it's a much needed reminder of just how remarkable a 2:05 marathon is, now that it seems so "common-place"!

I know I would scurry across the road for the slightest sliver of shade. The other factor was the mild tail wind. It often felt like we were running through still air, with no sweat evaporating at all. The occasional breeze was so refreshing that it made me think that a slight head wind would have made a huge difference.

Indeed. And SoS is spot on as usual, in particular about the US specific part.

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Well, reading all of the posts in this thread has got me feeling a lot better about being 22 minutes off of my goal time. I was so mad at myself on Monday. Now I feel like maybe my performance was what I was capable of given the conditions. If I had been slightly more conservative on the first half, the second might not have been so painful, but it was only my third marathon and I learned a lot. Like someone else said, I learned a lot more from this crash-and-burn than I did from my two previous, fairly successful, marathons.

I am walking around like an 80 year old today (and not Lew Hollander 80 year old : ) ). Damn the stairs in my house!

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.

All this sunburn talk......here's mine!




Sorry, I don't know how to make this any smaller! As you can see, the right side was worse. I also wore a headband to keep sweat out of my eyes.....so as you would guess I have a white forehead and super red face......damn you Wisconsin!