Thought I’d follow up to share how my run went…
As I alluded to before, I didn’t quite go ‘all in’ however still put a decent effort into getting a number of quality runs in leading up to the ‘race day’. Due to high heat/humidity I did most of my long runs indoors ranging from 1:30-2:00hrs. I got so comfortable running on the tread that I sort of enjoyed it. It was really nice having hydration and nutrition all within reach without having to stop or break or loop back for it.
I had just about decided to complete the virtual run on the tread but then found a few local running groups organize a supported run; a 9 mile loop lake with 5 aid stations. I figured this would make for a much more interesting run so I opted to partake.
The day was like most others in training, hot and humid. The main issue for me however was that my watch/footpod really screwed my pacing. My goal was to run a 6:50ish, which my watch displayed, but was actually quite off. In hindsight I should have known things were not right; HR was much higher than normally and effort was definitely harder than expected.
I’m experienced enough that I should have picked up on this as I noticed my HR within the first 2-3 miles. And even then I thought ‘man, this is feeling pretty hard… even in the heat’… Against better judgement I pushed, and pushed, until I cracked at mile 19 (which actually ended up being mile 20), and walked for a few minutes to recover.
In the end I jogged the last 10k and walked the aid stations. Once I crossed the ‘finish line’ my watch read 25.5 miles which was exactly 1 mile short of the planned route. I auto-corrected the distance and it updated to 26.5 miles… My splits then showed I was running 6:20-6:30 per mile until cracking. I chalk this up to using my Stryd with NEXT%. I think the angled lacing system really screwed the distance calculations.
My finish time was 3:05:11 so not quite the 3hr I was going for but solid for a effort no less. And I will proudly wear my Boston gear.
