(I wrote this blog post in English so that it can be read by English speaking runners that have previous experience from running Boston Marathon. Please give me your best advice.)
The Marathon of the year is coming closer. I imagine that we are thousands of runners around the world who look forward to the 115:e Boston Marathon on the 18th of April. And even if many of us think we know a litle about this classic race I hope that the reality is even better. Can it be a little like this, ”you dont know Boston Marathon if you have run it”?
I write this blog post in English because I hope that Stefan (who have written some posts on Boston Marathon before on my blog) have some English speaking friends who can help me with my big question below.
How should I run Boston Marathon?
Boston Marathon have a course where we start 26,2 miles away from Boston and finish at Bolston Street in downtown Boston. The overall course is descending a couple of meters, but I dont think that mean so much. But there are two other things that have to be taken into account.
The first thing is that the first miles are downhill and some say that I have to control my speed in the beginning, so that I don’t run too fast and get tired because of the ”easy” running, but also to spare my muscles in my thighs. What are your views on this? Do I havet o take it really easy or should I try to go little faster than my average to save up some time?
The second question is how I should handle the hills around mile 19-20. There are a couple of hills at this stage of the course and the last of them, ”Heartbreak Hill”, is famous and we run them at a critical stage in the race. How should I handle these hills? How significant (and painful!) are they? Maybe they are not very significant at all – maybe Heartbreak Hills is just used for marketing of the race so that we have something to talk about?
I really appreciate all suggestion and ideas about how I should run my Boston Marathon on the 18th of April. If you want to follow me in some way, I have bib number 1576!
The question to you is ”Have you done some faster down hill running? If you have you can go a little faster as long as the pace feels comfortable running down hill! For the heart break hill run strong and steady try to maintain effort not push. You can makeup a little lost time on the downhills and flats after that!
Reno: Thanks for your answer. No, I haven’t done any faster down hill running. But I think and hope that my way of running is light and easy and I think I can handle the downhill. About the Heartbreak Hill I think the same, that even if I loose some time up the hills, the most important is to maintain the effort and have some power left for the rest of the race and maybe be able to finish well.
I agree with Reno, but also try to keep your target pace. Many runner tends to fly the first miles of Boston. Remian calm and cool and stick with your plan….
As for Heart Break, my team will be there and cheer for you :) Look for the SWE flags.
Stefan: Maybe I try to go 5-10 seconds faster than target pace in the down hill in the beginning. But to find a pace and the right feeling will be the most important. In Berlin in September, I began real slow in bad weather but after a couple of miles I was up and running in good pace and just went on. :-)
Spring inte fortare än 33 på första milen, när jag sprang i Boston (på 90-talet) så hade jag följande ung passertider.
10Km – 33:38
20Km – 1:07:58
30Km – 1:41:05
40Km – 2:16:01
42,2 Km – 2:24:12
Lycka till!