During the race

Crossing the finish - I look a little scared

Recap is a little late so I’ll keep the details to a minimum.  Going into the race, I wasn’t feeling great.  I was coming off a bad week of running where I felt extremely tired.  I tried to take a few days off so I would be rested.  My goal was to just get under 1:30 and ideally set a PR which would be anything under 1:29:30.  That was actually the first half of Boston so I was pretty sure this would be my true half PR.

I ran into an old running partner at the start, Micah, and we ended up running the first half of the race together.  We tried to run about 6:40s or so and it seemed to be working.  The miles went by quickly and I was surprised how fast the 5 mile mark came.  We hit the turnaround at about 43:20 so my goal of a PR looked pretty good.

I grabbed a gel from my pocket and quickly got a side cramp.  I don’t know if the two were related or not.  I tried to run it off, but I know my pace dropped a bit.  Micah ran ahead but I kept him in site for the most part.  I put on my headphones and did my best to keep up the quick pace.  It really helped that most of the 2nd half seemed to be downhill.  I passed a couple of people and just tried to keep running strong.  The uphill after turning off of Shepherd Road was tough but I was just glad to finish.  My official time was 1:26:37, not bad when I’ve hardly done any real training.

Results