The Road to Boston

For many marathon runners the road to Boston takes a southern path through Washington, Atlantic City or Philadelphia.. While New York is the unquestioned king of the Fall marathon circuit, many runners,hoping to qualify for Boston, opt for other marathons. While I definitely want to run New York someday, I want to do it more for the experience. I want to enjoy the full race without worrying about my time. New York seems like a very hard marathon to run your best. I admire Dean Schaeffer and Charlie Schneekloth for proving me wrong.

For now,my choice is Philadelphia. For me, it has all the ingredients. It is the Sunday before Thanksgiving, which means there is a strong likelihood of cold, raw weather which I prefer for long distances. Its placement, so late in the calendar gives me the happy choice of delaying long runs until the cooler months of September and October and skipping August altogether. Also, I can compete in many of my favorite races early in the season without impeding training.

I also like the fact that is one of the smaller marathons, which gives me a clear start. I must say that although Marine Corps is large, its start was uncluttered. I have heard they changed the course in Atlantic City, making it very fast. That is a race I want to run in the future.

Breaking 3:20 is strictly a long shot for me. Running 7:35 a mile for a marathon is probably too much to ask, but I am going to approach things with a positive attitude. The hardest part is the high expectations. When I ran 3:32 at Shore, my mind was not on the early splits at all. I still don’t know what I hit 10 in. The only reason I remember my 13.1 mile time was because of my thrill in at least finishing some distance of note. I had very good recall of my 15 and 20 mile splits, because that’s where things went wrong at my previous marathon.

At Philly, I must not be obsessed with fast early splits, because once you don’t hit your goal times, you don’t want to be playing catch-up. I want to enjoy the marathon and if I can get to 20 miles in 2:29, I like my chances. The most important miles are 21-24. If I can run them and not shuffle it will be a tremendous boost.

Even so, the “prize” for not qualifying for Boston would a return trip to the 1998 McMarathon. And that’s not a bad consolation prize at all.