Jorge Carvajal
Short story:
My half splits told almost everything: 1st half 1:38:15; 2nd half: 1:51:34. A huge, horrible 13 min positive split. I bonked hard between miles 15 and 21, which include the Newton hills. On the positive side, I sort of salvaged the race after mile 21 where I was able to pick up the pace through the finish and still got a Boston Qualifier (BQ) and a course PR.
Long story:
After my 3:20:17 PR in Philly Nov 07 at age 46 I had lots of doubts whether to run Boston or not. I finally decided to go for it. While my peak week for Philly was 50 miles, for Boston 08 I topped 71.5. My tempo runs were about a 6:50 pace, so I decided that I might have a shot for a 3:10 at Boston.
I was assigned to corral 8. The race plan, based on this spreadsheet http://www.box.net/shared/75o3rqgty9 accounted for the downhills and uphills and called for a 7:41 for mile 1, a 7:29 for mile 2 and then a variety of paces that ranged between 7:29 in mile 21 (Heartbreak Hill) until 6:58 in mile 16. The first half was supposed to be at 1:34:40 and then the second half was supposed to end with a 40 second positive split.
Although I was planning to run a 5-8 min warm up before the race, I finally decided that the walk from the village to the starting line would help for some warm up and then I continued to move while I was in the corral waiting for the start. I wore Race Ready shorts, singlet and a baseball cap. Despite the crowds, I managed to run 7:40 for the first mile without weaving and mile 2 went at 7:30 as planned. By that time I was all sweating as the temperature was in the lower 50s.
For the following 11 miles I tried to run comfortably with a controlled effort. Although last year in Boston I gave a lot of high fives to the girls in Wellesley College this year I decided to stay in the middle of the road and save some energy. That was until I saw a sign “I dare you a kiss”. All of a sudden I headed to that girl, kissed her on her cheek and she did the same while saying a big “MUA”. It was a lot of fun.
The half ended being about 3:30 behind target, with an average pace of 7:30. I was feeling strong and I thought I could still save 1 minute or 2 in the last 5 miles of the race for a 3:13 finish or so.
However, at mile 15, I started to feel really tired and a little dizzy. I think I hydrated enough though. For the next 6 miles, even though the uphills were coming, all went downhill for me. People started to pass me by hundreds. The hill after mile 16 really hurt me. By the third hill I was thinking of walking but I refused. The hills seemed endless. My slowest mile was 21 (Heartbreak) with a 9:00.
By that time I had, of course, said good bye to my original goal and even to a PR. Therefore, I started focusing on a 3:30 BQ. The cool breeze that I started feeling in mile 21 and 3 glucose tables did the trick. I dug dip inside, regained strength and started to see sub 8:00 miles. Another source of inspiration was the dedication of mile 22 to somebody who has leukemia, and 23 to 26 to each of my four kids. When my watch read 3:29:30 I sprinted and got home with a 3:29:49, a BQ and a 13 minutes course record.
Was I in 3:10 shape? I don’t know. I think the warm weather was a big factor for me. I have read reports that account for a 68 F towards the middle of the course! If I was to run Boston again with the same training would I go for a 3:10? Yes!
Would I like to run Boston again? Yes! I love that race. I just need to figure out how to beat the course…
Jorge Carvajal, 47, is a member of runLawrence.