Tim Cronk Boston Marathon Report 2012
49 years old , 124lbs, vdot 50.5 , 4th open marathon , 2nd Boston marathon , 3 IM's , 1.5 years EN member
6 weeks ago 20 mile race yielded 7:22 pace pretty . Initial goal based on vdot and that race was a 3:15 dream before the heat forecast. After we knew it was gonna be hot I reduced it to 3:25 by adding 20 seconds per mile as yet again best case dream scenario. During the race that changed to 3:30 to requal BQ. Then it was reduced to DO NOT WALK. I managed the last one at least. Below are some comparison numbers last year to this year.
2011 3:24:40
1st half 1:37:56
2nd half 1:46:44
2012 3:36:06
1st half 1:42:07
2nd half 1:53:57
So 11:46 slower than last year. But the big story here is the improvement in placement.
overall went from 6140 to 3890 an improvement of 2250
AG went from 745 to 423 for 322 slots
Gender place 5240 to 3248 for 1992 slots
I started out slower than last year and the second coral in the second wave helped with that. It was more crowded but slowed me down a little. By the 3rd mile my HR was 168 where it stayed give or take 3 beats for the entire marathon. I only looked at HR a couple times and ran completely by RPE. The average HR for entire 26.2 was 168 and my LTHR is 172-175. So effort via HR was pretty steady. Pace the same as last year dropped off as time went on , it got hotter, hillier, and the quads oh the quads were the same story as last year even though I thought I had avoided the quad story. I carried a flask with 5 powerbar gels in it and 2 extra salt tabs mixed in. Sipped a little every 3 miles . Drank one large mouthful of water or gatorade at least every mile. Ran with a desoto long sleeve shirt and poured water on myself every mile starting at mile 2. Towards the end the amount of energy required just to get thru the people walking to the water, soak myselft down, drink , and then weave back thru the walkers was just tremendous and taking its toll. I almost wanted to skip it and save the time but stayed with the cooling plan. Wish I BQ'ed since I am not gonna run another before registration in Sept so I guess I sit out next year. All in all I gotta say I am pretty happy with the results even though I added even a few more minutes to my postive split.
Congrats to everone who raced Boston today!
Thanks Coach P for coming out . This is the 4th race I have seen you on the course. I think this is huge. Thanks again Tim,
Comments
Temp in the 80s compared to 50 F has gotta be worth about 30 sec/mile @ your speed. The winner's time was 9-10 minutes slower than last year's winning (record) time, and he was going 50% faster than you, so I'd say you improved on last year, as shown by your placement. Be proud of what you did, heat impact is real and can't be gotten around.
Now it's time to gear up for Mooseman!
Sometimes we forget it is a race and focus only on the times for PR. Those placement advancements are HUGE. That was an awesome effort and your placing shows it. Congratulations on an a fantastic race!