#rev3tri

Final Quiz before the Boston Marathon

Last weekend I raced the Eastern States 20 Mile for the first time. This is another race I've heard about for years and the timing just never worked out but I made it a priority to include in my prep for Boston. It's a really cool concept; you start in Maine, run through New Hampshire and finish in Massachusetts. Three states in one race! Going into the race I was feeling pretty tired, I've been hitting it pretty hard in training since the Martha's Vineyard 20. I didn't taper for this race (ran 20 the weekend before) but did do the usual pre-race program starting 2-3 days out. I also did a run-through of race-day breakfast, morning snacks and such to be sure the stomach will be all good on Marathon Monday.

The logistics for this race are tricky, you go to a high school in between the start and finish. From there you take a bus to the starting area and after finishing you take another bus back to the high school. I was up pretty early for this one and picked up my friend Kass on the way. The weather was wild; rain, snow, sleet and wind on the way there. It was a fun ride up, I ate some Pop-Tarts (strawberry!) on the way and felt pretty good once we got checked in.

At the start line I ran into an old friend from Scarborough High School who is prepping for her first Boston Marathon (Good luck Alison!) and my friend Jon who told me to "just go for it today, you've got plenty of time to recover for Boston". At the start the tailwind was pretty pronounced and the downhill nature of the first mile or two lead to me going out way too fast. Instead of getting down about this I viewed it as a opportunity. This was a chance to push through fatigue and soreness in a long race, a good simulation for attacking the second half of the Boston course.

The course for this race is awesome, you start in this little funky New England town, cross into New Hampshire on a bridge and then get onto Route 1A for the rest of the race. You move along at times right next to the ocean and then inland through beautiful residential areas and then back along the water. During the race there were snow flurries off and on which was pretty cool. At the half-way point water station I threw out my headband and gloves as despite the chilly temps and wind I was getting warm. Late in the race you run through these New England beachfront commercial areas; arcades, carousels and walk-up food joints.

Coming into the final bridge I tried for one last hard push but the cummulative fatigue was making it tough to keep my stride, I do think the taper for Boston is going to help with this as I won't have two weeks of hard work still lingering. After the bridge you cross into Massachusetts and almost immediately turn left towards and beach and cross the finish line. Right after finishing I saw my friend Dave and sort of debriefed the race with him. I was a little frustrated at how the last couple miles went, but then again I went out really hard and had to deal with the fatigue, so again good practice for Boston.

After getting some warmer clothes on I waited at the finish line for Kass to finish and then we grabbed a bus back to the high school for some pizza and coke. I hung out with Jon and some of the GBTC guys for a bit before realizing what time it was. I had to pick someone up at the airport, get Kass to her place and then make it to my son's playoff hockey game! What a day!!!

Boston...We have some unfinished business, I'm coming for you!

Passed my first test on the road to Boston!

I raced the MV20 last weekend as part of my prep for the Boston Marathon. I've wanted to do this race for a number of years, but the timing just hasn't always worked out, but this year I'm all in for Boston and registered early for this and for the Eastern States 20 Miler at the end of March. Going into this race I was feeling good, my long runs the past 4 weeks were up to 20 miles and I was getting either speedwork or tempo runs in each week as well as some sweet-spot work on the bike. My goal was to hold a sub-3 hour marathon pace for the 20 miles and if I crashed I wanted to at least stay under 7 minutes per mile for the duration.

The race starts at 11am and there is a ferry ride to get over to the island for the start so the usual breakfast routine is thrown off a little. I had my normal weekday breakfast and then packed some pre-race pop-tarts to have on the boat riding over. My wife gave me a ride to the terminal in Wood's Hole and we picked up our friend Mike who was running his 1st 20 miler ever (he's prepping for the Newport Marathon in April). The ride over was uneventful, I got my pop-tarts in and got mentally focused on the race

After landing on the island we made our way over the the check-in table, got our number bibs and swag before heading back to the Steamship Authority terminal to stay warm before the start. I met up with my friend Kass and we talked about a few different things. I decided to skip a warm-up and treat the 1st mile of the race as my warm-up. Early in the race I ran in a group with some guys from the Somerville Road Runners before getting spit out the back of the group.

Early on my heart-rate monitor was unreliable, probably due to the combination of colder temps and static electricity from the tech shirt I was wearing. It also could have been the "cadence lock" issue that has been described for the 920xt at times, but anyways it was reading a steady 195 until 4 miles in so it's a good thing I can pace accurately off of perceived exertion and am not limited to being a slave to the monitor. The run along the water and over the "Jaws" bridge was great, it reminded me of the walk we did from Edgartown to Oak Bluffs a couple years ago for my son's birthday and how we jumped off the bridge with the GoPro.

At the half-way point there is an exchange zone for the relay racers. As is typical during these types of races there is a little mental challenge to hold the effort level you want to race at and not get caught up in the excitement of fresh runners coming on course and going faster. I did well with this and held the steady effort as the race moved into the State Forest and worked its way back to Oak Bluffs.

Around mile 17 I started to catch some people who were blowing up after going out too hard. By mile 19 I had caught two of the Somerville guys I ran with early in the race but let get away from me. When we made the turn off County Road to Tradewinds Road to come into the finish at the elementary school I felt an exhilarating rush when I realized how well I ran! I came across the line in 2 hours and 15 minutes holding a 6:46 per mile pace for 20 miles with basically no taper going into the race. A great indicator that if I keep the training up, stay healthy and catch good conditions in Boston, going under 3 hours is a very real possibility.

The Cape Cod Athletic Club had the most participants in the race so we won the "Island Runner Cup" this year!

Click here to see on Strava

2018 Race Schedule and Results

2/17 - Martha's Vineyard 20 Miler - 2:15:37 - 10th OA, 3rd M40-44

3/25 - Eastern States 20 Miler - 2:17:02 - 27th OA, 8th M40-49

4/18 - Boston Marathon - 3:18:20 - 4,939th OA, 757th M40-44

5/16 - Liam MaGuire's Almost 5 Miler - 30:16 - 22nd OA, 5th M40-49

5/26 - MWR Coast Guard Duathlon - 56:07 - 1st OA, fastest bike split

6/3 - Rev3 Quassy (Half) - 5:02:13 - 33rd OA, 9th M40-44

7/8 - Rev3 St. Andrews (Half) - 4:43:28 - 3rd OA, 2nd M40-49

7/15 - Falmouth Sprint Triathlon - 49:05 - 4th OA

8/19 - Falmouth Road Race - 44:28 - 171st OA, 13th M40-44

8/26 - Ironman 70.3 Maine - 4:36:14 - 71st OA, 6th M40-44

9/29 - Ironman Maryland - 10:08:15 - 67th OA, 17th M40-44

10/13 - Gut Check Sprint Triathlon

11/4 - Falmouth In The Fall Road Race - 44:38 - 5th OA, 2nd M40-44

11/22 - Chase The Turkey Trail Run - 30-42 - 12th OA, 1st M40-44

2017 Schedule/Results

2016 Schedule/Results

2015 Schedule/Results

2014 Schedule/Results

2013 Season Recap

2012 Season Recap