Monday was Patriots' Day in New England and my buddy, Doug "Speedy" Babbitt, participated in the 111th running of the Boston Marathon - completing the course in the blustery, rainy & chilly conditions in 3:19:55 for a 7:38 per mile average.
It looks as if his pace was excellent through the 15K point (or 9.3 miles) at 1 hour, and his halfway split of 1:26 is pretty decent (6:56/mile) considering that he had to dodge and weave through some of the slower of the other 20K runners on the narrow roads until he could hit his stride.
From my personal limited knowledge of the course when I ran in the 100th edition - when the second half of the race comes up and whatever your early effort was and how good you were feeling up to that point is thrown by the wayside like an old fig newton wrapper. The effort now required is harder for the same pace. The body is beginning to protest by the start of the Newton hills at mile 16 (of which the last of the four is called Heartbreak Hill at mile 21). By the time you get to the sight of Fenway Park and the tall buildings of downtown where the finish line awaits; you're just in survival mode. Then turning the final left onto Boylston Street to finally see the finish line banner stretched across the entire road with thousands of screaming people bringing you home and only another 1/2 mile or so is a rewarding feeling indeed.
Considering the conditions - which saw the slowest overall winning time since 1975 - Doug ran wonderfully, especially since spending last week in Phoenix did nothing to prepare him for what would've been similar typical weather conditions back home in Gig Harbor. Hey, if it was easy, anybody could've done it.
Great run Speedy! Now it's time to put the running shoes away and get your butt on the bike.
It looks as if his pace was excellent through the 15K point (or 9.3 miles) at 1 hour, and his halfway split of 1:26 is pretty decent (6:56/mile) considering that he had to dodge and weave through some of the slower of the other 20K runners on the narrow roads until he could hit his stride.
From my personal limited knowledge of the course when I ran in the 100th edition - when the second half of the race comes up and whatever your early effort was and how good you were feeling up to that point is thrown by the wayside like an old fig newton wrapper. The effort now required is harder for the same pace. The body is beginning to protest by the start of the Newton hills at mile 16 (of which the last of the four is called Heartbreak Hill at mile 21). By the time you get to the sight of Fenway Park and the tall buildings of downtown where the finish line awaits; you're just in survival mode. Then turning the final left onto Boylston Street to finally see the finish line banner stretched across the entire road with thousands of screaming people bringing you home and only another 1/2 mile or so is a rewarding feeling indeed.
Considering the conditions - which saw the slowest overall winning time since 1975 - Doug ran wonderfully, especially since spending last week in Phoenix did nothing to prepare him for what would've been similar typical weather conditions back home in Gig Harbor. Hey, if it was easy, anybody could've done it.
Great run Speedy! Now it's time to put the running shoes away and get your butt on the bike.
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