Boston Bound

Yep I am all packed and ready to fly to Boston. Leaving tomorrow night and coming back bright and early Tuesday morning (that will be a rough flight and work day!).

Taper madness has settled, all the real workouts are done. This is the first marathon training program I have gone through where I didn't have some sort of injury or soreness during the training which makes me feel like I probably did something right. Could have done without the 2 weeks of sinus infection, but I ended up averaging around 59 miles per week during the weeks leading up to taper and I got in a lot of strong long runs. Tempos and Track left something to be desired, but they were consistent and I am sure they were beneficial.

Played with all the nifty pace predictors this week to affirm my goals. As a pacer I have seen way too many runners fail to achieve their goals because the goal they set for themselves was a bit too lofty in the first place. I really wanted to set myself a realistic goal for this race as I do not want to be let down again like I was at Richmond. I don't feel like I am in quite of good as shape as I was before Richmond, but I am anticipating much better conditions in Boston (Looks like high 40s and light rain so far, perfect!) and I am planning to utilize a better pacing plan this time around. The predictors have me anywhere from 3:08 to 3:18 (discounting the few crazies on either end, 3:04 and 3:25 WTF?) .

I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about racing Monday. I think my training and predictor races (Youngstown, Malachi, Martian 10K) have me in shape for a 3:13 to 3:16 effort. My plan is to try and take it out conservative for once. Sand bag for at least the first half, and I would love to actually run aggressively the last 4 miles after I clear the Newton hills (I have always struggled to maintain pace after 22 at Boston). I have a good feeling about the 3:13 goal which is 7:23 pace. As long as I don't peter out on the hills I am really hoping for the 3:13 and since I did a good long run at 7:25, I think this is very attainable. But if conditions are bad or it just isn't my day I hope to at least avenge Richmond and come in sub 3:20. No 4 second PR please. I would like at least a few minutes for all this hard work I have done!

Bib number is 9385 so I should be starting around 10:09 AM on Monday. The Boston website should have athlete tracking on race day. I am also racing as part of the Vertical Runner team so if you are bored feel free to track my other teammates too! http://www.bostonmarathon.org/

Even more than racing I am looking forward to a fun weekend with running friends. Very excited for Solar to do her first Boston and can't wait to listen to all the smack talk and resulting SERC PRs after the race. We've got at least 3 additional guys going who are first timers from SERC this year which is awesome.

And I am counting the seconds until I get that post race dessert and drinks! I've had two beers in the last 12 weeks and cut out desserts two weeks ago. I am so ready for a nice glass of wine, a margarita or two, and maybe even some fun girlie shots! And if I can find a huge helping of tiramisu I am certainly not going to turn that down either! After all that bring on the dance floor! I am so ready to party!

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend. And thank you so much for all the well wishes! I really am blessed with so many wonderful friends and family supporting all my craziness year after year and race after race.