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.

15 comments:

duchossois said...

Great post! You are going to PR by minutes, not seconds. I am really stoked for Boston now. Let's run this thing!

ninjamarathonman said...

Give 'em hell up the hills, give 'em hell down the hills!

Anonymous said...

awesome, liz - good luck... but more importantly... have fun. and i'm counting down the days until my beer too... :)

runamanda said...

Hey,
Good Luck, You'll do great, Run fast, Run strong and remember you can do this and to "Catch a dream and RUN with it." Don't worry about that one calculator at 3:25 one of mine predicted me at 3:07 while I was 3:06 during my 50k which I am in much better shape now. So it was just something to laugh at and I believe the same one had me running about a 26 second 200m and you remember my foot speed that wouldn't happen with a rocket on my back.

Well anyway kick some butt if they have track and I'm not working I'll try to track you during you race so you'll have an extra fan sitting at home in Ohio rooting you on!!!!! Here is hoping to a 3:13-3:16!!!! Best of Luck!!!

Mike said...

Best of luck to you and everyone running!!! Stay safe and leave it all out on the course, you'll rock it!

JenC said...

Have fun and rock it!

Brian said...

kick some beantown butt

Elizabeth said...

Good Luck and have fun

Old School Runner said...

Good luck in Boston!

Anonymous said...

Good luck in Boston! Do you know Sarah of Runing into the Sun? She ran the Martian as well.

Love2Run said...

Have a great race! Say hi as you zoom by me will ya? I'll be the guy in the weird Canada shorts, hat and flag in your corral ;-)

Thomas said...

Good luck tomorrow! And don't let Mike in his Canada shorts freak you out.

Kate said...

Have an amazing race Liz!

Kim said...

im tracking you!!! awesome job so far elizabeth! sorry i wasnt able to touch base with you before you left, i was in VA for the long weekend! keep up the great work speedy!

Unknown said...

oh holy wow, e!

congrats on 3:16!!!!