Boston Marathon Course Tips

This great article from Runner's World takes you through the marathon course and breaks out the course and mileage with excellent insider tips for running and managing the race.

I am going to focus on a few things:

• Starting conservatively: This is kind of done for you the first few miles due to the crowds, but it is important to watch your feet and not trip, and not to get carried away with the initial energy and downhills of the course.
• Fueling and drinking as needed: This should follow patterns during training, with any adjustments made for weather as needed.
• Getting to mile 15 in relaxed form
• Hitting the hills one at a time: The downhill after mile 15 is steep, and starts the counter going for the real hills of the race- the initial climb through 'Hell's Alley' over Route 128, the first hill at the turn onto Comm Ave, one more short one, then Heartbreak... Each hill gives you a good space to regroup in between, and recover heartrate and turnover on the downs.
• Pulling it out on Beacon Street: This is the place to pull out your guts and put them on the road- whatever fortitude you've got mentally, this will be the place to draw on it. Saving some strength for the bridge to Kenmore Square and the uphill right on Hereford.

Still facing the ankle injury and not sure what will happen! This week is a full stop on training to allow things to recover- I had great recovery on pacing and time on Saturday, which was enough to convince me that I will be able to run on Monday, as long as things don't degrade on the course. Next posts should be about race day tracking. Have a good week focusing, everyone!