Well the Boston Marathon has come and gone. It was a much more challenging course that I thought. They don't call it "Heartbreak Hill" for nothing. Actually the first of the 4 hills in Newton was just as hard because it was so long, and I think that really sucked the energy out of my legs. The picture above was taken just after the half way point when I was still feeling good. I still have a smile on my face.
I felt great at the start and it was really hard to hold back and stay on goal pace for the first 10k of the race as people just kept flying by me. I started to get a cramp in my left hamstring around mile 7 that was enough to make me shorten my stride a bit. It didn't affect my time until I got to the hills and needed to use the hamstring more and it basically shut down.
The weather was also a factor. It was about 50 degrees at the start which felt great, but by mile 7 or 8 the sun was beating down on us with no cloud cover and it felt like the temperatures were reaching over 70 degrees. I tried to hydrate early and often but it was more of an impact than I anticipated.
I was right on pace at the half marathon mark and even at the 30k mark I was on pace to be close to 3 hours but after that my legs had had enough and the last 5k I had to walk a few times due to the hamstring and feeling a little dizzy at times. I was able to run the last 1.2 miles without stopping but my last 5k was almost 30 minutes.
My 5k splits were 20:43, 21:07, 21:07, 21:19, 21:02, 22:22, 24:06, and 29:56.
Overall times were:
20:43 5k
41:50 10k
1:02:57 15k
1:24:16 20k
1:28:48 half marathon
1:45:18 25k
2:07:40 30k
2:31:46 35k
3:01:42 40k
3:13:56 marathon finish
My overall place was 3052, 2822 male, and 1836 in my age group.
Overall it was an incredible experience and I would love to come back some day to try and better my time. It was my 3rd fastest marathon time ever after Grandma's and Las Vegas. The heat and the hamstring were unfortunate events that I could not predict. My overall pace was 7:26. The Wellesley girls at mile 13 were deafening and the race is the most well run I have been at.
There were some great signs along the course, here are a few:
"Forget politics, this is the important race"
"May the course be with you"
2 comments:
Yay Karl! I told my kids when I heard that you finished. They were impressed...or maybe more surprised that MS. STUTELBERG could have a brother who runs marathons. Congratulations on such a great accomplishment!
We are so proud of you!!! You are awesome!! We are excited to have you home!
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