Next Saturday I will be at the Marathon Expo, then the Red Sox game with Jane, and our great friends Alan and Beth, who are our hosts in Hopkinton for the weekend, as they have very generously been since my first Boston in 2005 . After a long seemingly endless winter of bad weather, it is hard to believe how quickly the last few weeks have flown by. We are just about here.
Here is an update on my long runs and how I felt about them.
Saturday March 7, I ran 15.5 miles by myself in 2:35:20. I was happy enough with being able to sustain the pace of my recovery run.
March 14, I ran with Boston Bound friends Charene and Susan, whom I first met at a marathon training program run through our local hospital. The program lasted a few years and I made a lot of great friends through it, but eventually the funding vanished. It is so much easier to train with other people.
March 14, I ran with Boston Bound friends Charene and Susan, whom I first met at a marathon training program run through our local hospital. The program lasted a few years and I made a lot of great friends through it, but eventually the funding vanished. It is so much easier to train with other people.
Our run was from my house on a course which is much more hillier and more difficult than the marathon course. I did the first 10 miles in 1:33, 13 miles in under 2:02, but then the hills really got to me and my quads started to really hurt and I finished my 20 miles in 3:20, not exactly a negative split. My last couple of miles were over a 14 minute pace. That hurt as much as my quads. What was nice was that two friends commented on Facebook about seeing me near the end of my run, and thinking I looked fine.
March 15 I ran out of Waltham with my DFMC teammates and had a pretty good run of 15 miles in 2:25. Mile 14 was still being done at a 9:45 pace and my quad felt a little better. I did stop and take pictures of Paul Pierce's house and the Celtics practice facility at the gym we ran from. Jane and I stayed both Friday and Saturday nights in Waltham, and my blog worlds collided as we had a great time with Stephanie and Maria from our Around the World Trip.
My last 20 miler was on March 28, on the course. We ran the first 10-11 miles backwards on the course from Heartbreak Hill to Natick, then turned around so that miles 10-20 of our run were miles 10-20 of the marathon course. There must have been over a thousand people running on the course with us. I had one goal, and that was to try and run a negative split, or at least an even one. This means that the second half of a run should be at least as fast if not faster than the first half. If its not then you probably went out too fast and are too tired to keep your pace. This is especially true in Boston with the hills from mile 15-21. It is a siren call to try and bank time, thinking it is ok to speed up at the start so you can accomodate a slower pace at the end. If you go a minute a mile faster than you can handle for the first 13 miles, you won't slow down by just a minute a mile for the second half, you might slow down by 4 or 5 minutes a mile. This rule I have honored by breaching it, no matter how much I know the rule. Those Sirens were pretty gorgeous and had great voices you know.
So I went into this training run determined to run more intelligently, and have to thank Judith, another Dana-Farber runner who ran a negative split by 6 minutes in last year's Boston, mind boggling to me, for her encouragement and advice. I ran my first ever even split over such a long run. Here are my splits.
1. 9:40, 2. 9:03, 3. 9:21, 4. 9:29 5. 9:43 6. 10:08 7. 9:27 8. 9:37 9. 9:39 10. 9:49 (Total at mile 10 was 1:36) 11. 9:41 12. 9:02 13. 9:04 14. 9:28 15. 9:25 16. 9:10 17. 10:06 18. 10:01 19. 9:33 20. 10:10 (total at 20 was 3:11:41) 21. 10:48 I ran a total of 22 and a quarter miles, although I accidently turned my watch off so I don't have a split time for the last mile. I was pretty excited, and now am more determined than ever to run a smart Boston, and despite the downhill first half, to try for an even split.
So here I am. Unlike Chicago in 2006, I do not know that I can run this marathon in under 4 hours. But I don't know that I can't, either. So, I am going to try and run a really smart race and enjoy myself and think of the cause that I am running for.
April 4 I was in Sarasota, Florida, one of the prettiest places I know to run. I ran the marathon there last year. We belong to a gym down there and I while my mileage was in taper mode, I worked out like crazy. Between the heat and the week of hard exercise, I am not unhappy with the fact it took me 2:13 to run 13 miles. When I told DFMC coach Jack Fultz that I was headed for Florida, he quickly replied, "So I guess you are done with your hill training." So I am posting a few pictures of Sarasota, to show you how gorgeous it is down there and to show Jack the bridge I ran over 4 times. You have to take the hills where you find them.
April 4 I was in Sarasota, Florida, one of the prettiest places I know to run. I ran the marathon there last year. We belong to a gym down there and I while my mileage was in taper mode, I worked out like crazy. Between the heat and the week of hard exercise, I am not unhappy with the fact it took me 2:13 to run 13 miles. When I told DFMC coach Jack Fultz that I was headed for Florida, he quickly replied, "So I guess you are done with your hill training." So I am posting a few pictures of Sarasota, to show you how gorgeous it is down there and to show Jack the bridge I ran over 4 times. You have to take the hills where you find them.
So now there is but 10 days to Marathon Day. If you want me to carry the names of your loved ones who have suffered with cancer during the marathon, you should email me at nmbesquire@gmail.com by Thursday April 16th, and you can make a donation to support my run and cancer research here. 100% of all donations go directly to cancer research, no part of it goes to overhead.
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