My current personal best is 3:12:23 at Chicago in 2022, so my next goal is a sub 3:10.
Coming off a 3:20 at New York City Marathon (Nov 2023) and a 3:48 at California International Marathon (CIM, December 2023), I thought to myself “3rd time lucky combined with Boston magic “ would get me my goal time of sub 3:10. Following off of last years training, I made a lot of changes this training block, and these included:
- More quality long runs (more distance at MP - Marathon Pace)
- Focusing on easy runs easy (consistently at 6:00-7:00min/km)
- Regular strength training 2x a week, usually Wednesday and Saturday or Sunday
- Changing fueling strategy: running with a handheld and gels every 6km (combined with my handheld, it meant I was averaging ~60-75g carbs per hour). Reasons for deciding to go with a handheld were:
- Avoid early crowding of aid stations
- Have better control over what I consuming (I did Maurten 160 and 1 LMNT)
- Following a specific carbo load strategy (3 days at ~360g) one of my friends followed this at CIM and had a great race, so I decided to follow this strategy too.
Race goals
My goals for the Boston Marathon:
A goal: Sub 3:10 (felt within reach)
B goal: Sub 3:13 (qualifier for London Marathon)
very very optimistic goal: Sub 3:07 (qualifier for Osaka women’s marathon)
Even though Boston is a difficult course, given how my training went, I felt that sub 3:10 was possible.
Race Day
Like many others - It wasn’t the day that I had hoped for.
I had planned to meet up with a few friends from my running group to catch the bus to Hopkinton, but wasn’t sure if we’d successfully meet or not, as I presumed it would be busy with many people. However luckily we were able to meet and as my friends had run Boston before, I was able to get some last minute advice fromn the way to Hopkinton. These last minute tips included a reiteration of not only Heart Break hill, but what was also on the way, as well as the porta-potties to go to in the village. By the time we had arrived to athletes village, it was 09:15 and it was already quite hot, which worried us as to what it might feel like while running, we already felt that our throways weren’t necessary anymore.
I knew that one of friends from my running group (who was starting in the same wave as me, but a different group), was also going for sub 3:10, was being paced by another friend (they recently ran 2:40 at CIM, so they were very capable of running 3:10), and I had the option of running with them too. But I had preferred to “run my own race”, as Boston is a continuously rolling course, and I know that people have different tempos for going up/ down hills, and I didn’t want this to interfere with my rhythm or theirs. I also know that there are a lot of people on the course, and I didn’t want the added pressure/ mental load of trying to stick to a particular person the whole time.
My mentality going into the race was to “keep on believing” and to also not overthink the race (which is what happened at NYC, especially since running “THE Boston Marathon” has been one of my goals since I started running in ~2017, after originally qualifying in 2019, pandemic has meant that I haven’t been able to run until this year). I tried to think of race morning to be more like one of the longer training runs that I had been doing.
My strategy for the race was to run as relaxed as possible until the top of heartbreak, averaging around MP, and then have enough to go for a full send in the last ~10km.
The walk from the athletes village to the start corral was actually quite nice, because I felt like it gave us space, compared to other world majors where you might be stuck in the packed start corral for a long time. I probably got into my start corral about 10-15min before the start.
The beginning of the race was quite packed, but not too bad. I wasn’t too worried about the start, since I knew that I’d be seeded well, as well as the fact that it was a downhill start. I let the first 5km roll by, crossing the first 5km in 22:24 (22:30 is the 5km split for a 3:10 marathon), I was pretty happy with it, and thought to myself “good, let’s keep on clipping away at this pace”. It must have been quite humid and hot already, as the course has minimal sun cover/ shade, and this is what probably affected people the most.
During the first 5-10km, I noticed I had drunk from my handheld more than I had during my training runs, as it was emptier than I thought. I attributed this to the heat of the day, and took it as a good sign that I was hydrating well. I let kilometers 5-10 roll by, I had a few splits where I was high 4:30s (around 4:37 or so), but made sure that I wasn’t bothered by this, as I was on some of the early hills, and I figured that I was still trying to find my rhythm. However, I did notice that my quads were starting to feel a bit heavy, heavier than I would have liked at this point in the race, and started to have thoughts about whether my 3:10 goal would be possible. I continued to “believe”, and tried hard to not throw in the towel yet. On the downhill and flat sections, I was able to get back up to my goal pace (~4:30) and thought to myself “good good” again.
Through 11-15km, despite me trying to pick up the pace in a relaxed way - I noticed my pace was hanging around 4:35-4:40min/km. It was at this point in the race, where I knew that I had run just one too many splits off pace, and given the heat I was feeling - I knew that I didn’t have it in me to pull off any sort of “marathon magic”, especially with the hills to come. I knew that today wouldn’t be the day for sub 3:10. My goal was then to just try to run as consistently as possible - not letting my splits slide too much, and to soak in the Boston Marathon, after all I was finally “here” after a 5 year journey.
With more rolling, I crossed halfway in 98:20, I quickly shifted my focus onto running a sub 3:20 to beat my NYC time and run a slightly positive split. By this time, I had also finished the water in my handheld, so decided to “toss it”, in the hopes that it would give me a “fresh kick”. Although I was using a handheld, I was also grabbing water from the water stations to splash my head/ neck and back with water to cool myself down. I also found someone handing out cups of ice along the way, so I grabbed one and put it down the back of my singlet as well.
By this time, between (20-25km) I was running around 5:00 min/km and as the heat built up, and with the approaching of the Newton hills, my goal then became to go for a 3:30 finish - and to go for a BQ at Boston. I let the Newton hills pass by, and I wasn’t really bothered by them, after all my focus was now on enjoying the race! Although I did think about how I would be running/suffering the hills, had I been running my target pace. Given my slow-down in this section, I was expecting that my friends who were running 3:10 to have passed me. However, while I was in the section between the third and heartbreak hill, my friend that was pacing had caught up to me, and he had told me that they had lost my other friend, I also got an update that one of our other friends had finished in 2:34 ! I tried to stick with my firned up the hill, but ultimately 2/3 of the way up, I let hithemm go ahead. As I climbed up the hill, I could see their back, and tried to keep it in my sight as I kept going.
I let the part after the top of heartbreak to ~38km be a blur. And before I knew it, I was passing by Kenmore and Fenway Park, and the iconic Citgo sign. By this time, I had stopped looking at each split on my watch. I had heard someone yell “saraaaaa”, but wasn’t sure if it was directed at me or not, since “sara” was a common name. I later learned this to be one of my friends who unfortunately needed to DNS due to an injury! The roaring screams of going by the citgo sign, was probably on par with the NYC marathon, where you get off the Queensborough bridge, and turn onto 5th avenue. It was unreal. As much as I had wanted to enjoy this section more, I also knew what was ahead, the tunnel and the “right on hereford, left on boylston”, and I was focused on getting to there.
At New York, and CIM, I had remembered the last stretch to be a struggle, I had “given up” and been disappointed in how I had performed. However, running in Boston, my mentality completely shifted, I was no longer thinking about my time, but ran thinking about my journey to Boston, and how happy the Sara from 5-7 years ago would be about finally running “the boston marathon”. As I took the “right on hereford, left on boylston”, I took my sunglasses off and put them on my hat, and just ran with a smile the entire way. I can tell you with 1000% confidence that I soaked in everything there, and enjoyed every bit of it.
I remember feeling really disappointed with my 3:20 finish at New York, but this time at Boston I was so happy with my 3:26 finish.
