Reflections

It's finally here!  I will be running in the 117th Boston Marathon tomorrow, April 15, 2013.  I have been looking forward to this day for months.  I have been following my training plan, running upwards of 85 miles a week.  This includes countless workouts, doubles and long runs.  The work has been done.  I have spent the last week or so tapering.  I did my last workout on Wednesday and completed a 5 mile tempo in 28:52 (5:46 pace).  Before the Philadelphia Marathon I did a 5 mile tempo in 30:04 on the Tuesday before the race.  The result: a 2:54 marathon.  I am clearly in much better shape heading into Boston and this is something I really need to stress to myself.  Before races, I tend to psyche myself out and have a good amount of nervous energy.  I wonder about where I will finish and how fast I will get there.  I look at my training and question if there is anything I could have done differently.  In my taper week, I have dropped my mileage and have had a few days of running 6-8 miles right around 7:00 pace.  I have done my best to stay calm and relaxed over the past few days.  I have made sure to get my sleep over the past week too.  There is nothing left to do.  Tomorrow I will find myself on the start line in Hopkinton with a 26.2 mile journey ahead of me.  You can learn a lot about yourself throughout the course of a marathon.  You find out what kind of person you are.  The marathon challenges you to be tough.  All I can ask is that I respond well to race pace tomorrow and do my best.  I want to feel strong during the race and have specific targets I will look to hit.  My goal is to take the race out conservatively, running about 6:15 pace (or even a few seconds slower) through 10k.  Then, I will really look to drop down into marathon pace and try my best to hold it until the Newton Hills.  I hope to be in the 6:00-6:10 range from the 10k point up to mile 17.5.  At this point the race really has begun (the hill at mile 16- the 128 overpass is really the first big climb).  I will run by effort through the hills until I crest Heartbreak.  At this point, I hope to have some energy left to use for the remaining 5 miles.  The Graveyard mile (21-22) is a fast, downhill mile.  From 22 on, the course drops a little more and the crowds pick up until the finish in Boston.  I cannot even express what it will mean to take the famous right onto Hereford and then left onto Boylston.  I have been training for this moment.  I have put everything into training for Boston 2013.  I am ready.  The emotions will certainly be high on race day.  Tomorrow is an opportunity to live up to the motto of Team David: Never Going Back.  I am going to leave everything out on the course tomorrow and want nothing more than to run a great race.  I cannot help but to think back at where I was a few years ago.  Back in high school, I was not one of the top runners on the cross country team.  I was not even close.  I never broke 20:00 in the 5k in high school.  I certainly was not in the kind of shape I am in today.  I have worked very hard to get to this point.  It started with one half marathon, which I ran in 1:45 (8:00 pace).  My last marathon averaged 6:38/mile and this was just a year and a half later.  My philosophy to running is simple: get out the door and run.  I try to get the most out of myself in each day of training with the hope that I will keep improving.  I want to encourage others to do the same.  You can accomplish so much through running.  Every race and every finish line give motivation for the next one.  I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been with me and has supported me since I have started running marathons.  It may seem crazy at times but I find peace through running.  I see tomorrow as another chance to chase my dreams from Hopkinton to Boston.  Tomorrow I will take the stage in Boston and put everything out there.

Never Going Back,
David