2015 Boston Marathon - Matt Aaronson - 3:00:03, CRAP!!
It was my first time running the Boston Marathon. I got a 3:00:03 despite poor training and terrible weather conditions, but the race was really a blast. I ran 1:26:05 through the half so it's obvious I got brutalized at the end. An amazing race experience and all things considered, and now I have to come back for my 4 seconds!! Garmin file: https://connect.garmin.com/activity/752381825
Due to some training setbacks I was tempted to DNS, but at the end of the day I felt that:
- The Boston Marathon is a rite of passage for a runner
- I was fortunate to qualify in my first-ever marathon
- I felt I could run it without significant injury risk
- I heard the experience is unbelievable (true!)
My goal was to run sub-3 hours which I believed to be possible without too much stretch. I knew my speed was okay but the big question would be endurance past mile 20 or so. my overall training mileage was quite low and my only long runs were 16/18/18 miles 5, 4 and 3 weeks out from the race. I finished the 18-milers strong but certainly not nearly as strong as before Chicago 2014. As it turned out, my concern about endurance was justified…
My original strategy per Coach P's advice was going to be to run conservatively until the Newton Hills then see what I had…essentially course recon for the next time when I show up ready to run a PR. I then decided to fundamentally change that strategy based on the following logic:
- My endurance was of concern, so I doubted that running conservatively would help me later on…essentially, I figured I'd be screwed at the end no matter what (too bad no way to know this for sure…)
- The beginning was downhill, so I thought I could bank a little time
- I seem to be able to run 7:30 pace no matter what, so enough banked time and the half and I should be ok…right?????
- I was seeded in wave 1 / corral 2 based on a 2:53, so I knew everyone around me in the narrow Hopkinton streets would be running FAST
So my thought was to bank time until mile 4 then "slow it down to a reasonable level" and try to run 6:45's or so.
The weather was mid-40s and rainy with a moderate headwind until we got past Newton and the direct headwind was 15 gusting 30 with driving rain. So conditions were TOUGH. The male elite winner was 2:09:17 and only 2 guys broke 2:10. Last year 3 guys broke 2:09 and 5 broke 2:10. In the women's race there were 2 people at 1:24:5x while last year the whole top 10 broke 2:25 with 3 people 2:20:xx or better. So it was slow out there today.
The result speaks for itself. I ran 3:00:03. Four bloody seconds short of the sub-3. So much for "every marathon I ever ran was sub-3", haha!! The splits tell the real story. I was 1:26:05 at the half so the second half was just under 8 minutes slower than the first…a full 9%. Some of that was due to the course and conditions but a good amount was endurance training for sure. The HR chart tells the tale of muscles that just couldn't work harder…my body could have provided the bpm and oxygen, but the muscles couldn't work hard enough to use it. Predictably there was form deterioration in concert with the rest of the speed decline. The legs just wouldn't go any faster.
The race unfolded as follows:
Warmup. None. The race logistics precluded it.
Mile 1. So many people it was insane…shoulder-to-shoulder. But people were chill and happy to be running…great atmosphere. Impossible to go fast. First mile pace 6:41 downhill
Miles 2-4. 6:27 / 6:23 / 6:21. This was consistent with the strategy although about 10 sec faster per mile than I expected. It felt slow. HR was a bit too high creeping into the mid 170s and not always low 170s but I felt this was ok and partly driven by terrain.
Miles 5-13. Too fast. I didn't "slow it up" as planned to 6:45's. The course was still way more downhill than I expected. Paces 6:38 / 6:28 / 6:28 / 6:35 / 6:34 / 6:36 / 6:42 / 6:31 / 6:38. I crossed the 10k in 40:30 (6:30 avg) and the half in 1:26:05 (6:34 avg). In retrospect running 10 sec/mi ahead of pace here probably sowed the seeds for later problems. On the one hand it was "only 10 sec" but on the other hand 10 sec can be a physiological difference-maker, it was 10 sec into a pretty decent headwind. On the other hand it was downhill other than miles 9.5-11 ish, and I was feeling really good right through the half. I was in a "groove" and feeling even better and stronger than those miles in Chicago 2014.
Miles 14-16. Still in the groove and mentally breaking up the rest of the race into "Newton hills 16-21" and "Downhill to finish". I felt good but by mile 15 the "groove" was gone. But no pain…feeling like "work but not really hard work". There were 2 warning signs, however, only one of which I picked up on. Before mile 16 when you go sharply downhill my pace didn't go up and my quads started feeling tired from the accumulation of all the downhill running. Now, looking at the data, I can also see that my HR in those miles began a steady decline from the low/mid 170's to the low 160's where it would be for most of the rest of the race. Paces 6:44 / 6:52 / 6:43.
Miles 17-21 (Newton hills). Tough stuff. Paces 7:09 / 7:10 / 7:06 / 7:13 / 7:34 ("Heartbreak Hill"). Two major problems here. First, my legs were really tired and the hills weren't helping. OF WAY MORE CONCERN…my quads were totally trashed by now and I couldn't go fast on the back-sides of any of the hills. Interestingly few people passed me going up the hills, but a LOT of people passed me going DOWN. Since my "plan" was to stride it out on the downhills and go fast, this was a major problem. I also was aware of how low my HR was getting…"spiking" to mid-160s on the uphills. Yikes! That said, I had so much banked time I figured I could run this pace to the end and get sub-3. Although I was now worried about maintaining that pace since my legs were really fried.
Miles 22 to the end. Disappointing performance. Paces 7:03 / 7:12 / 7:09 on massive downhills. Then 7:25 and 7:20 for the last 2 miles flat but into what was now a monster headwind.…I had nothing in the legs at that point. Starting about mile 21 my calves started twitching – this happened to me in Chicago both times but not until, mile 24/25. So I was a bit worried about disaster striking in the form of a muscle cramp. My legs were basically numb and on autopilot and not taking orders. I flew past a few dudes walking and massaging their legs and was just hoping that wouldn't be me. At mile 22 I thought I could run 7:30's and make sub-3 but at mile 25 I realized my calculation was wrong and I'd be REALLY CLOSE. But I couldn't go faster. Before the final turn onto Boyleston Street there is a brutal little uphill…did I lose 4 seconds there? My "sprint to the finish" was all-out…TrainingPeaks says my last 0.25 miles was 7:11 pace!! (although NGP of 6:13, not that the chip time cares about that!!). HR at the very end was 167, compared with 170 in Chicago 2014 and 179 in Chicago 2013. So it was dead legs, period. In retrospect there was one move I should have made, which was a "one mile to go" I should have hit the lap button to reset my lap pace…who knows…maybe it would have caused me to chase the 7:20 I needed instead of mailing in the 7:25 I ran. Easy to say now!!
A few other observations about this race
- If you qualify, you should do it. It is like no other. Despite cold and rain and the TV commentators saying it was the thinnest crowd in years, it was by far the highest-energy, best-feeling race I've ever been a part of. Unreal crowds THE WHOLE WAY.
- I scoffed at people talking about the downhills being really hard. But let me say…they were brutal. It was a quad-trashing pure and simple. I'm interested to see how my quads are tomorrow. I'm guessing brutalized. I think what happens is that the massive downhills in the first half start working over the quads but it's not detectable. So then when you hit the back-sides of the Newton Hills they don't actually do any trashing but rather just put the finishing touches on something that's actually been happening for quite a while. Utterly brutal.
- The Newton hills weren't as bad as everyone made them out to be, as the first three were short and sweet. But Heartbreak was brutal for me. Not the steepest, but the longest for sure. It was ugly at that point.
- I paid ~$50 for a "club bus", in my case it was organized by the Chicago Area Runner's Association (CARA). Other clubs had busses and there's probably one accessible to most people. This was a lifesaver!! We got to Hopkinton by 7am then parked and were allowed to stay on the heated bus for 2 hours until our corrals started getting loaded. The buses wait in a special lot that has porta-potties (of course your luxury coach has a bathroom too) and a field where you can warm up (if you want to freeze your ass off an hour before the race). If you take the free school busses you get dropped off into the cold and you can't bring any gear. With the club bus we left a gear bag on the bus and I picked it up from the CARA hotel right near the finish line. Awesome!
- My nutrition was simple: Day before was a light breakfast, large pasta lunch, then a light sushi dinner at around 8pm after I arrived in Boston. Why sushi? Why not? I had some simple tuna and yellowtail rolls and a bowl of plain white rice. Seemed like a lot of carbs with the rice and rice is my carb of choice pre-race. No fiber all day. Since the race didn't start until 10am but we needed to be on the bus at 6am, I had a Clif bar at 6am and another Clif bar at 8am. For the race itself I had a Gu gel packet pre-start and at miles 5, 10 and 16. All gels were Roctane Cherry Lime other than the last one which was Chocolate Outrage.
- If you read about my RnR half marathon in March you'll know I raced that about 7 lb over my usual race weight and was ~145 lb. I have tightened up on my eating and was pleased to be closer to normal 5 weeks later for this race (and that included a vacation at Disney where my brother manages a steak restaurant!!). Basically on April 10 and 11 I weighed in at 142.1 and 141.5, and April 18 and 19 I was 137.0 and 139.2. I'm sure I was more like 141 by the time all the carbs and water were in my on race morning, but it was pretty good.
- My taper was heavy…the week before race week I planned on 43 miles but only managed 29 due to vacation and crazy work travel (with 24 of those miles on Fri/Sat/Sun). Then race week I traveled extensively and got in 3 runs for 17 miles…6 miles in Wichita KS (Tuesday), 6 miles in Central Park NYC (Wednesday) and 5 miles along the Charles in Boston on Friday. No "shakeout" 2-miler on Sunday.
- Finally, my logistics for this race were pretty interesting. I have the excellent fortune of a highly supportive family but by the same token I travel a ton for work so don't like to miss weekends at home. And since this race is on a Monday, that presented a unique opportunity…so I flew into Boston on Friday, got to the expo at 1pm an hour before it opened, picked up my packet right at 2pm and then flew home to arrive literally before dinner. I spent the weekend at home and flew out of Chicago at 4pm on Sunday to arrive in Boston a bit before 8pm. Logan is a pretty easy airport to get in and out of and close to the city, so this was all possible. Most Boston hotels have minimums for race weekend but my sister lives in Boston with an apartment a short walk to the end of the finish chute. So it was not exactly a "kick feet up and relax" pre-race, but it was really time-efficient.
Due to some training setbacks I was tempted to DNS, but at the end of the day I felt that:
- The Boston Marathon is a rite of passage for a runner
- I was fortunate to qualify in my first-ever marathon
- I felt I could run it without significant injury risk
- I heard the experience is unbelievable (true!)
My goal was to run sub-3 hours which I believed to be possible without too much stretch. I knew my speed was okay but the big question would be endurance past mile 20 or so. my overall training mileage was quite low and my only long runs were 16/18/18 miles 5, 4 and 3 weeks out from the race. I finished the 18-milers strong but certainly not nearly as strong as before Chicago 2014. As it turned out, my concern about endurance was justified…
My original strategy per Coach P's advice was going to be to run conservatively until the Newton Hills then see what I had…essentially course recon for the next time when I show up ready to run a PR. I then decided to fundamentally change that strategy based on the following logic:
- My endurance was of concern, so I doubted that running conservatively would help me later on…essentially, I figured I'd be screwed at the end no matter what (too bad no way to know this for sure…)
- The beginning was downhill, so I thought I could bank a little time
- I seem to be able to run 7:30 pace no matter what, so enough banked time and the half and I should be ok…right?????
- I was seeded in wave 1 / corral 2 based on a 2:53, so I knew everyone around me in the narrow Hopkinton streets would be running FAST
So my thought was to bank time until mile 4 then "slow it down to a reasonable level" and try to run 6:45's or so.
The weather was mid-40s and rainy with a moderate headwind until we got past Newton and the direct headwind was 15 gusting 30 with driving rain. So conditions were TOUGH. The male elite winner was 2:09:17 and only 2 guys broke 2:10. Last year 3 guys broke 2:09 and 5 broke 2:10. In the women's race there were 2 people at 1:24:5x while last year the whole top 10 broke 2:25 with 3 people 2:20:xx or better. So it was slow out there today.
The result speaks for itself. I ran 3:00:03. Four bloody seconds short of the sub-3. So much for "every marathon I ever ran was sub-3", haha!! The splits tell the real story. I was 1:26:05 at the half so the second half was just under 8 minutes slower than the first…a full 9%. Some of that was due to the course and conditions but a good amount was endurance training for sure. The HR chart tells the tale of muscles that just couldn't work harder…my body could have provided the bpm and oxygen, but the muscles couldn't work hard enough to use it. Predictably there was form deterioration in concert with the rest of the speed decline. The legs just wouldn't go any faster.
The race unfolded as follows:
Warmup. None. The race logistics precluded it.
Mile 1. So many people it was insane…shoulder-to-shoulder. But people were chill and happy to be running…great atmosphere. Impossible to go fast. First mile pace 6:41 downhill
Miles 2-4. 6:27 / 6:23 / 6:21. This was consistent with the strategy although about 10 sec faster per mile than I expected. It felt slow. HR was a bit too high creeping into the mid 170s and not always low 170s but I felt this was ok and partly driven by terrain.
Miles 5-13. Too fast. I didn't "slow it up" as planned to 6:45's. The course was still way more downhill than I expected. Paces 6:38 / 6:28 / 6:28 / 6:35 / 6:34 / 6:36 / 6:42 / 6:31 / 6:38. I crossed the 10k in 40:30 (6:30 avg) and the half in 1:26:05 (6:34 avg). In retrospect running 10 sec/mi ahead of pace here probably sowed the seeds for later problems. On the one hand it was "only 10 sec" but on the other hand 10 sec can be a physiological difference-maker, it was 10 sec into a pretty decent headwind. On the other hand it was downhill other than miles 9.5-11 ish, and I was feeling really good right through the half. I was in a "groove" and feeling even better and stronger than those miles in Chicago 2014.
Miles 14-16. Still in the groove and mentally breaking up the rest of the race into "Newton hills 16-21" and "Downhill to finish". I felt good but by mile 15 the "groove" was gone. But no pain…feeling like "work but not really hard work". There were 2 warning signs, however, only one of which I picked up on. Before mile 16 when you go sharply downhill my pace didn't go up and my quads started feeling tired from the accumulation of all the downhill running. Now, looking at the data, I can also see that my HR in those miles began a steady decline from the low/mid 170's to the low 160's where it would be for most of the rest of the race. Paces 6:44 / 6:52 / 6:43.
Miles 17-21 (Newton hills). Tough stuff. Paces 7:09 / 7:10 / 7:06 / 7:13 / 7:34 ("Heartbreak Hill"). Two major problems here. First, my legs were really tired and the hills weren't helping. OF WAY MORE CONCERN…my quads were totally trashed by now and I couldn't go fast on the back-sides of any of the hills. Interestingly few people passed me going up the hills, but a LOT of people passed me going DOWN. Since my "plan" was to stride it out on the downhills and go fast, this was a major problem. I also was aware of how low my HR was getting…"spiking" to mid-160s on the uphills. Yikes! That said, I had so much banked time I figured I could run this pace to the end and get sub-3. Although I was now worried about maintaining that pace since my legs were really fried.
Miles 22 to the end. Disappointing performance. Paces 7:03 / 7:12 / 7:09 on massive downhills. Then 7:25 and 7:20 for the last 2 miles flat but into what was now a monster headwind.…I had nothing in the legs at that point. Starting about mile 21 my calves started twitching – this happened to me in Chicago both times but not until, mile 24/25. So I was a bit worried about disaster striking in the form of a muscle cramp. My legs were basically numb and on autopilot and not taking orders. I flew past a few dudes walking and massaging their legs and was just hoping that wouldn't be me. At mile 22 I thought I could run 7:30's and make sub-3 but at mile 25 I realized my calculation was wrong and I'd be REALLY CLOSE. But I couldn't go faster. Before the final turn onto Boyleston Street there is a brutal little uphill…did I lose 4 seconds there? My "sprint to the finish" was all-out…TrainingPeaks says my last 0.25 miles was 7:11 pace!! (although NGP of 6:13, not that the chip time cares about that!!). HR at the very end was 167, compared with 170 in Chicago 2014 and 179 in Chicago 2013. So it was dead legs, period. In retrospect there was one move I should have made, which was a "one mile to go" I should have hit the lap button to reset my lap pace…who knows…maybe it would have caused me to chase the 7:20 I needed instead of mailing in the 7:25 I ran. Easy to say now!!
A few other observations about this race
- If you qualify, you should do it. It is like no other. Despite cold and rain and the TV commentators saying it was the thinnest crowd in years, it was by far the highest-energy, best-feeling race I've ever been a part of. Unreal crowds THE WHOLE WAY.
- I scoffed at people talking about the downhills being really hard. But let me say…they were brutal. It was a quad-trashing pure and simple. I'm interested to see how my quads are tomorrow. I'm guessing brutalized. I think what happens is that the massive downhills in the first half start working over the quads but it's not detectable. So then when you hit the back-sides of the Newton Hills they don't actually do any trashing but rather just put the finishing touches on something that's actually been happening for quite a while. Utterly brutal.
- The Newton hills weren't as bad as everyone made them out to be, as the first three were short and sweet. But Heartbreak was brutal for me. Not the steepest, but the longest for sure. It was ugly at that point.
- I paid ~$50 for a "club bus", in my case it was organized by the Chicago Area Runner's Association (CARA). Other clubs had busses and there's probably one accessible to most people. This was a lifesaver!! We got to Hopkinton by 7am then parked and were allowed to stay on the heated bus for 2 hours until our corrals started getting loaded. The buses wait in a special lot that has porta-potties (of course your luxury coach has a bathroom too) and a field where you can warm up (if you want to freeze your ass off an hour before the race). If you take the free school busses you get dropped off into the cold and you can't bring any gear. With the club bus we left a gear bag on the bus and I picked it up from the CARA hotel right near the finish line. Awesome!
- My nutrition was simple: Day before was a light breakfast, large pasta lunch, then a light sushi dinner at around 8pm after I arrived in Boston. Why sushi? Why not? I had some simple tuna and yellowtail rolls and a bowl of plain white rice. Seemed like a lot of carbs with the rice and rice is my carb of choice pre-race. No fiber all day. Since the race didn't start until 10am but we needed to be on the bus at 6am, I had a Clif bar at 6am and another Clif bar at 8am. For the race itself I had a Gu gel packet pre-start and at miles 5, 10 and 16. All gels were Roctane Cherry Lime other than the last one which was Chocolate Outrage.
- If you read about my RnR half marathon in March you'll know I raced that about 7 lb over my usual race weight and was ~145 lb. I have tightened up on my eating and was pleased to be closer to normal 5 weeks later for this race (and that included a vacation at Disney where my brother manages a steak restaurant!!). Basically on April 10 and 11 I weighed in at 142.1 and 141.5, and April 18 and 19 I was 137.0 and 139.2. I'm sure I was more like 141 by the time all the carbs and water were in my on race morning, but it was pretty good.
- My taper was heavy…the week before race week I planned on 43 miles but only managed 29 due to vacation and crazy work travel (with 24 of those miles on Fri/Sat/Sun). Then race week I traveled extensively and got in 3 runs for 17 miles…6 miles in Wichita KS (Tuesday), 6 miles in Central Park NYC (Wednesday) and 5 miles along the Charles in Boston on Friday. No "shakeout" 2-miler on Sunday.
- Finally, my logistics for this race were pretty interesting. I have the excellent fortune of a highly supportive family but by the same token I travel a ton for work so don't like to miss weekends at home. And since this race is on a Monday, that presented a unique opportunity…so I flew into Boston on Friday, got to the expo at 1pm an hour before it opened, picked up my packet right at 2pm and then flew home to arrive literally before dinner. I spent the weekend at home and flew out of Chicago at 4pm on Sunday to arrive in Boston a bit before 8pm. Logan is a pretty easy airport to get in and out of and close to the city, so this was all possible. Most Boston hotels have minimums for race weekend but my sister lives in Boston with an apartment a short walk to the end of the finish chute. So it was not exactly a "kick feet up and relax" pre-race, but it was really time-efficient.
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Comments
You've got me itching to run Boston- I regret not doing while I had the qualifying time. I'm not in that running shape anymore!
I know your second home is a jumbo jet, but maybe all that air travel played a role in the hit on your endurance, to say nothing of a drizzle table headwind?
But then again, I have never shown up to Boston as fit as planned.
The weather wasn't that bad all day, I thought (or not as bad as most are reporting), but those last 6 must have SUCKED b/c of the headwind. The fact you were even close there is huge. Seriously. Major props!!!
That $50 bus was totally money well spent too!!
Good write up. Great race man! Screw those four seconds (easy for me to say, yes), but big picture on that day, with your prep, in those conditions, heck under any circumstances for that matter, 3:00:03 is freaking awesome and you should be satisfied and proud!! It's actually a bonus, now you have something to obsess about until next year like a good triathlete.
Congrats Man!!
Update on the Quads ?
Do you think this cost you anything for IMWI ? At your level and timeframe to IMWI I'm guessing NOT !
Reading your pacing and quad pain was vivid reminder of my first Boston in 2011 when I did the same thing.... only at a slower pace. It is so easy to under estimate the toll of the 6 downhill miles from the start but that shit is real.......
On paper the course seems to be a fast course but in reality it is a very tough nut to crack. On top of that, conditions were very poor for a stellar run as you pointed out with the pro times.
Glad you were able to get there and really enjoy the whole event. Congrats on a great job holding it together.
I waited to reply to see how the recovery went and ensure that there weren't any injuries lurking beneath the soreness. So far so good. That said, my legs were ravaged by the race. Despite tons of Advil, on Monday night I was so sore that I slept really badly. That night and all day on Tuesday I could barely start walking after being seated for a period of time. Getting in or out of a chair required a table to and a lot of arm strength. My walking gait was a joke and even a single step up or down was literally impossible. Same on Tuesday night and Wednesday. This was WAY WORSE soreness than after the Chicago Marathon. However, by dinnertime on Wednesday I felt like I had turned a corner...amazingly this was "on schedule" compared with Chicago when I felt the same way on the Tuesday afterwards. Then today I was MUCH better. There is still enough tightness in my hamstrings and calves as I type this that I wouldn't want to go for a run to test them, but it's getting close and if I didn't have a bunch of work and family travel tomorrow I'd probably do 4 miles. I did do a short workout today...1500yd in the pool for my first swim since last year. I AM A TRIATHLETE AGAIN!!!
@ Tim - honestly unless there is an injury lurking then I can't see how this impacts me at all for WI. Sure, maybe if I biked more and didn't "punch a 3 week hole into my season" then I would be more bike-fit at this point. But I plan to do a crapton of biking for the next ~20 weeks until IMWI and that feels like a LOT of time to cement my bike fitness. If I was doing an early season half-iron in June that would be a very different story. I keep reminding myself that I did zero biking for 17 weeks Jun-Oct 2013 then got injured and did zero WORKOUTS Jan-Mar 2014 and still managed to pull off a 4:31 half-iron in early June of that year. By August I was able to bike a 2:12 half-iron. So a lot of time. But not a lot of margin for error to allow training to be inconsistent or derailed. So I need to hope for no injuries, and hope that my work schedule won't screw me...
@ Mark - I suspect a BQ attempt for you wouldn't be much of a problem given your speed. You should totally do it. Just pick a flat course about 8 weeks after your last tri of the year and you'll nail a massive result. After last year when I did a much more compressed 7-week training approach for Chicago but did it on top of really solid triathlon fitness I realized that P was right about the benefit of going into the core last 8 weeks of marathon training without the accumulated fatigue of a massive and long run training program.