Course review... (24.75mi)

How to properly train for a marathon I think is one of those things that everyone (at least amongst other runners) has an opinion on. There are about a billion different websites, books, and whatever else out there that offer a lot of really great information and insight into the topic. However, ultimately I think what it all really boils down to is this; while there are in fact some general governing techniques/approaches that apply for most people, exactly what is right for each and every person needs to be specifically determined by them. Everybody's body is different, and what they need to do to make sure they're ready for the big event, is all really a combination of a lot of different things, and one generic formula can't be applied to all.

One specific area that is often brought up in conversation is how far should a runner train up to, distance-wise for their "long run"? As far back as I can remember, my opinion on this has always been the same, at least, as it applies to myself anyway. Most current pre-designed training schedules will take you all the way up to a distance of 20-22 miles, for a long run, typically 3-4 weeks out from the actual date of the race. But I've always thought to myself that if I were to ever be training for a marathon, I would just assume why not at least attempt to run all the way up to 26mi as my "long" training run, in order to really ensure that I was ready. I mean, once I know I can go 22mi, why not work in another long run a few miles longer? I guess a part of it for me is really the fact that I just need to know ahead of time. I don't want to find out what my legs feel like at 24mi for the first time during the actual race. I'd much rather know ahead of time, what it's going to feel like, so that if anything isn't right, I have some time to try to correct it, or at least make adjustments to deal with it. Now don't take that to say that I think its absolutely necessary to run the whole 26miles for sure, but rather just that if I get out to 22mi and find that I am feeling ok and not really in any particular risk of injuring myself, then why not keep going? And if I can successfully go out and run the 26miles before hand, then that just gives me that much more confidence going into race day as well.

And so with all of that in mind, at approximately 8:16am Friday morning (I didn't actually get Good Friday off as a holiday, but I decided to use a vacation day), Fred and myself lined up at the official Boston Marathon start line out in Hopkinton, MA, and with a gusting 25-35mph wind mostly at our backs (thank God!), we set out on our trek back to Boston. The link below shows the exact route we took, courtesy of my Garmin GPS wristwatch:

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/kml/episode.kml?episodePkValues=5217706

So as I somewhat alluded to before, while I wasn't 100% certain whether or not I was going to do the whole course or not, I figured doing this run would absolutely be really beneficial to me in several ways. And now after having actually attempted it, it definitely confirmed for me that it's a really great idea. If I ever run Boston again, I would definitely do this again, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone else training as well. Another topic that's often discussed (specific to the Boston course) is the Newton Hills (Heartbreak hill is the last of them) and the effect that the first 16-17mi of the course all being down hill, has on your legs. The course is essentially all down hill up until the 17mi point, where the Newton hills start. So while I've been doing lots of training on these "hills" over the past few months, I was very anxious to see exactly what they would feel like after having done the 17mi preceding them. Turns out, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. For sure there was definitely a distinct change in muscle usage, and of course it was a little more difficult, but I actually felt ok, and was able to maintain pace pretty much throughout the hills. In fact, Fred and I actually maintained a very consistent pace throughout the entire run. I was pleasantly surprised by that.

Fred never intended to run the whole distance, and so he pulled up at BC to catch the train back downtown. While I was still somewhat in debate after coming through the hills, I had pretty much decided that the benefits of running straight to the finish line downtown didn't outweigh the advantages of just turning just after the 24mi mark, and heading back to my apartment. This would put me at a distance just shy of 25mi, and while I was definitely tired, I had satisfied my curiosity and I knew that if I had to, I could definitely go another 1.5miles.