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The Backseat Driver Podcast
Boston Marathon Recap
Enjoy this Boston Marathon Recap as Rich and I breakdown our race experience.
What's up guys. Welcome to this week's special edition of the backseat driver. We're going to be doing a Boston marathon recap with Rich and I. Um, Chris is not able to join us because well, he is too busy right now. So we just decided to do this episode so we could nerd out, dive into the details a little bit of how the marathon went and, uh, talk about Rich's awesome performance. So without any further ado, Rich, how are you doing today?
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I'm doing well sitting outside on a beautiful evening here in Salt Lake.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Enjoying the, as I like to call it, the freedom season.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:exactly.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:No, no required training.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yes.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah. Rich and his, uh, off time. Just when he's, when you're in the off season, you go chase easy to get crowns and salt Lake. It looks like,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:uh, yeah, Julie, my partner definitely inspired me for that one for the last night and a nice little, just about three mile segment up at around Red Butte and it was fun to a little uphill, a little technical downhill, nice place to open up. So that was enjoyable. I was definitely feeling it though. When I went for a run yesterday after work, everything got hurt from running hard again, downhill within a week of Boston.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah, that was, that was a bold play for sure. Meanwhile, I've been like doing yoga and doing 30 minutes on the bike and, uh, kick him a soccer ball a little bit. But. Um, Oh, I gotta give a little shout out. I know no one, we don't have a YouTube channel, but this is pretty awesome. This Jersey I have on. Okay. So this, I want to get your thoughts on this for again, to our, our recap. So this is a Raleigh radiance
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:So this is a women's ultimate Frisbee league,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Oh, nice.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Frisbee league.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:So, what this is from though, it's really cool. It's a player sponsorship program. So like on the back is. One of our,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:it, Oh, some numbers.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:basically on the back is, uh, basically the person I sponsored, who's a family friend and she plays on the team. So you, you pay like a certain amount of money and I don't know what all the money goes to, but you get this Jersey basically. It's like a thank you. It's like a replica Jersey. And I was like, how sick would that be? This seems like something Finn would talk about on single track, but
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I was going to say it's, um,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:sick would it be
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:this kind of sounds like Patreon for athletes.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:right, exactly, yes, exactly, exactly. That's
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:So you're saying, honestly, I could see this working with trail runners, right? It's like, we're in, in running space. Yeah. You're like, Hey, this guy, like you find some kind of like, As Finn would say, random baller, right. Who doesn't have a sponsorship. You're like, I think this guy is good. Or this woman is good. Uh, let me throw some money at them. And if they get some crowd support, they've got funding to go out to wherever shamany or where they need to, to go run.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:And like, there could be, or even honestly, I mean, none of them make that much except for like Killian and Jim and Adam. Right. So it's like it really, anyone, and they, there could be like something like, this is cool. I like, I like getting something to, right. So everyone could have like a specialized singlet that you get if you support someone on that team or. And then some of the money goes to them and then, and then you get something cool. And then it's kind of like betting too, right? You're more invested anytime you have money, like invested in someone. So anyway, I thought that was a cool little program. They call it the player sponsorship program. And I was like, that's a pretty sweet idea. And I think I agree with you. Trail running seems like the space where it'd be perfect to do something like that.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah, absolutely. No, that's really cool.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:So anyway, that's my shout out of the day. But let's dive into it. So we had kind of talked twice leading up to Boston and we both were feeling good. I think I was probably feeling more confident. Um, but I think both of us had decent blocks. And so I'll let you kind of start off a couple of days leading up to Boston flying and getting their shakeout. Basically talk about those three days leading up to the night before the race. Let's do that to start off.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Sure. Yeah. Uh, so I guess looking back on that, you know, a couple of weeks of taper, which feel great, you know, I felt like I was getting like more sore, just like, also just getting antsy. It's that time where it's like, you run less and somehow your legs just don't feel like they're recovering. I, that's what I always feel like I was experiencing. So week of, I very much was just like, I just need to get to Boston and like, Get to the start line. Um, cause I just wanted to start running and I knew I'd feel better once the race actually begun. So, um, I worked that week, so I had full clinic schedule, um, like Thursday and Friday, um, which meant I was like packing up, you know, Friday night, kind of late, which was fine. It's like, it's kind of nice with a marathon where it's like, all right. All I did was like, make sure I have my shoes and, you know, I'm ready to go. You know what I'm wearing on the race and everything else. I'm like, I'll figure it out. And if I need to buy something or it doesn't matter, you know,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:exactly.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:so, uh, and they're like, there's nutrition on the course too. It's not even like you really need very little for this. So, um, but yeah, I, I chose to fly out Saturday race being Monday, which is basically what we did for CIM too. And, um, definitely. What I'd recommend if anyone is, you know, flying to a race, um, or really long car rides, if you're traveling, like if you have the opportunity to get out there so that you arrive two days before, right? So I had a flight like that left here 10 a. m. in Salt Lake, landed just before five o'clock Eastern time in Boston and then made our way to the hotel on Saturday. And you just realize how it's like, for me, traveling East means I miss the meal. Right. I eat breakfast. I got on the plane, had a little bit of a snack. And then all of a sudden it's like six o'clock when I land there. So you're like, just completely miss lunch. It's like, you try to drink some water, but you're very dehydrated when you fly in, you're like, man, I am glad I'm not racing tomorrow morning. Cause then you have, you know, you have, uh, Time to sell in, but yeah, I smooth commute out. I'm glad that I chose not to do a red eye back East, which I often do. And I'm flying like back home to New Jersey and said, Oh my God, I know that'll trash me. So, um, but yeah, otherwise. I feel like the couple days before was definitely doing lots of carbo loading for like the week before pretty much in clinic. I was just trying to always be eating things when I came back to my desk. I'm just having, uh, snacks and even, uh, like electrolyte, um, drinks to try to stay hydrated on. But overall, I think the few days leading up. went uneventfully, which was nice.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah. Yeah. I asked that question cause mine was not uneventful. So I thought it'd be helpful to talk about, I feel like. I ran the bridge run the Saturday before, and that was a huge PR for me. It was like a nice little hard 30 minute effort. I was feeling super confident. Basically all of my, my 5k, 10k and half that I'd run over the last six months, all pointed to like two 33, two 34 fitness, that's how I felt and my tempos. So I was feeling like that was still going to be the time on a flat course. Obviously we'll talk about that a little bit later, but Thursday, I don't know what happened to Wednesday night into Thursday morning, I woke up at like 3am had like stomach pain. GI distress and then it wasn't bad. I didn't throw up or anything. Had some GI issues Thursday. Friday, like I didn't really have issues. I just wasn't really hungry, but I was still like trying to force myself to eat. But just when I went to run like easy shakeouts on Friday and Saturday, it just felt so terrible. Like, Like you were saying though, it's really hard to differentiate when you're tapering, you just feel terrible in general. Like everything feels harder than it should. So I was like, Oh, this is probably just normal taper. And, um, so I feel like going into it, I had a fear. Like I told Shelby on the plane, I was like, something just doesn't feel right. I'm like, I can't pinpoint it. And I don't really have any obvious symptoms other than just kind of malabsorption. It felt like. And, uh, so that was kind of me leading in. We had uneventful Saturday. Sunday went for a little, like, 10 minute shakeout, 20 minute shakeout with some strides. I don't know, felt fine. If there wasn't anything like obvious, I felt off. I would say as we were trying to carb load on Sunday, it definitely felt like I had to force it a little bit more than I usually do. Usually I feel pretty hungry and, um, I felt like my stomach was not emptying as fast as it normally does, but yeah, I would say uneventful. I slept good Sunday night leading into the race. Rich did not. We were sharing a bed. Oh my gosh, dude, guys, it was. That was the second time we've shared a bed, like, leading up to a marathon. The first time, I don't remember him rolling around
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:No, I slept fine. You see, I am, I think. Oh, God. Matt is not making this up. It was awful. I was tossing and turning every five minutes. I like, laid awake in bed for hours until falling asleep. And I'm someone who usually like, hits the pillow, is asleep, sleeps straight through the night. I don't know what it was. Like, both nights, Leading up to the race at the hotel. I like woke up sweating like drenched in sweat before uh, and then race morning And like the race in boston doesn't start till 10 in the morning, right? You still have to get up to like get on the buses and we can go through that in a second But it's like we didn't have to be up till what we say like 5 45 6 or that and a little after four I like Tossed and turned myself again to the point where like I was just awake and at that point just got on my phone and did what you're really supposed to do, which is start like scrolling Strava and just like reviewing all the runs I had done to try to build my confidence. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:my gosh, yeah. We had to pee like five times each before we could fall asleep on Sunday night. Uh, but yeah, so we get to race morning and I, two things happen that definitely, I wish Chris was here for this part. He would be like, this is horrible for mindset, but two, two things happen. Two things happened that I think kind of were omens of what was about to happen to me. One, I looked at the weather and it went from basically a high of 65 to a high of like 72 overnight in like 12 hours. And the other thing that happened is I felt like I had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom at like the same as you. It was like 4 a. m., which is like very Unlike me. So I was like, this does not feel quite right, but I was like, whatever. I'm nervous. You know, race morning. I think I kept, I mean, what are you going to do? We're there. Like I'm going to run the race. It doesn't really matter at that point. So I was just trying to stay calm and be like, this is just normal race, whatever. So we go to the bus. Um, that was good. That was easy.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:A little insight for any of you thinking about running Boston though, just be prepared to be on your feet for a while race morning, like standing in lines to get on the bus for, we probably standing in line for an hour. Or that on our feet. Um, and you're just dressed in your kit, right? That you're basically, we had some throwaway clothes that we were wearing. Not that we really needed them. It was not cold, even in the morning. Uh, Yeah, get on the bus, take it out to Huffington.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah, that was the thing that really sucked is when you looked at the forecast seven or 10 days out, it was predicting like it would be 40 low 40s when we started on the buses and like 50 at race time and like high of 55 or 60. And this, it just kept going up a degree or two every single day, basically the week leading up to the race. So, um, yeah, it was not cold. That's for sure. And so we get there, like Chris said, there's like a couple of staging areas and they're not, I mean, like we just kind of chill, they have fluids for you. I, we had brought, or I had brought my own stuff. To do like my normal pre race routine. So I felt like all that was pretty dialed. They had these urinal things, dude,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:things were a revelation. Those things changed the game for port a potty lines.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I agree. Yeah, as a guy, being able to pee as much as you want without, like, lines is so quick.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:But yeah, no, I feel like the staging era is like, trying to kind of stay out of the sun, not move around too much, but we were there for Like an hour ish before we then like walked walked out of there and start.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah. So, so one thing I do want to talk about that's kind of, I think important is I think we both started to think in our heads or at least start coming up with a plan B it got closer to our time to walk to the,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:um, our corral, because it started to feel pretty warm and it was only like nine o'clock and we're like, okay, this is, this potentially is going to be a problem. And there's not a cloud in the sky. The wind was way less than I think had been predicted. It was pretty stagnant, no clouds, direct sunlight starts at 10 AM. So I think even then, you know, we, at least we're starting to put that in the back of our mind that that might be necessary to adjust the race. Plan a little bit because I will say for me, having never run this course and having run a lot of Hilly courses, similar to this, I don't necessarily know that I had the respect for the course that I would if I went back and ran it again.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah Yeah, yeah
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:I've run some, I've run in Boone, North Carolina for a marathon and Raleigh, which is super hilly and East Canyon, which is just like a straight shoot drop for the six miles to start the race. So in my head, I'm like, I feel pretty confident, but it was, I do think after running that course, that two 34 fitness is probably two 36, two 37. Like I really. I think it's hard to run flat course fitness PR out there, no matter how good you run. I think it's probably a couple minutes slow, even on a good day, and then you throw on the heat. And so I don't know if I gave the course necessarily the respect that deserves to start out with, which could have potentially changed the outcome for me a little bit. Um, so that was one observation I have just even before we got started, just mindset wise, I think, yeah, almost overconfidence maybe in a way.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I was definitely trying to I feel like talking to you through some of the build up definitely the days in I just had this gut feel like I was much more confident with the idea of like running mid, you know, 550s for most of it. But the idea of running 550 on the dot, I was a lot more hesitant to, and maybe it's because I have run it and I know this course is hard and had a feeling like anything with the weather is going to throw that off. I think on a perfect weather day where it was flat, I think running Down by two 33 goal pace or like five 50 per mile pace would have been possible. But with any other variable in there, I was just not as confident that I'd be able to do that. Uh, which we can get into, but like, I think that's where even walking up, that's where we were talking like, okay, let's feel this out and be okay. Adjusting. Um, I also don't like blowing up in marathons, not that anyone does, but I don't, I don't even like signing up for like the chance of blowing up. Drives.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah, I I think that's like honestly and we can go ahead and get started getting into
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Walking down the starting corral is awesome. They have all these sunscreen Like buckets, which was pretty cool. It's just that even walking to the starting line is cool. It's like a point seven mile to the corral from where you stage and There's people already outside their houses tailgating for to walk to the start line. I was like, this is so cool um, and then thing I do want to say that I think was crucial Well, definitely was crucial for you and honestly for me than making it to how far I made it Is that those guys we found in the corral, we found two guys in the crowd that were trying to run originally around two 35.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:yeah,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:we started right next to them and had talked to them in the starting corral. And I think that ended up being a huge factor. So we'll talk about that as well. But, um, yeah, it was a cool experience getting to start so close to the front, like you're right behind the men's elite star, women's elite star, like all that stuff, getting to watch them just like basically walk into the corral right next to you. So it was a cool experience
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:yeah. And it's really fun, like, lining up at a race, right? Where we're in this corral with, hey, uh, sorry, my dog is now coming to find me. Um, but like lining up where you're like, wow, there's, you know, a few hundred guys around us who are all trying to run within a couple minutes of each other in a marathon.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah. Yeah. So, so getting started, like now that's a great segue to the start. So we get started and the first mile is downhill, which is like the most mean mile, like no matter how slow you run, it's just like, it's just straight downhill and just, it doesn't do anything to speed up your time because it's so crowded, just beats up your legs just right off the bat.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:yeah, I feel like it was even more crowded. than I remember. Cause you're like, okay, don't go out too fast. But it's like, we couldn't, like, there wasn't even air to breathe. Your goal was like not to end up on the ground, like tripping over someone else. I think we ran, we ran one of our slowest mile, one of my slowest miles of the day on the steepest downhill mile of the course. But it's just because we couldn't find clean air.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:There's nowhere to go. Yeah, there's nowhere to go. Um, so, and there are a lot of people in front of us to start, which I was surprised by how many people were in front of us on a pretty wide road for like a quarter of a mile. It was
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:but the crowds are crazy just right off the bat, which is so cool. but man, I, I don't know exactly when I turned to you, but it was pretty early on. And I, I knew something, I knew it was not going to be a great day when mile two was 50 feet downhill. And I looked at my watch and I was running like five 50 and I was having to like actually pay attention while I was doing, I was like, this is not, This is not good. It's not right. Like I haven't had, I mean, I've never been in a race in a marathon, especially early on where I'm having to pay any attention to my pace other than not to go too fast, you know, you're usually I'm holding back, it's like holding back, holding back, holding back for the first 16 miles. And then you kind of see where you're at and let it go for me from it. And in some ways that's what made this race unique for me. And. I'm almost more proud is because from the moment we started, I was having to focus on what I was doing to stay with, to stay with you.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:mentally tiring.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah. I, I don't know when it, it was definitely the second or third mile that I quickly realized I was like, Oh, this is not Matt's day. Like Matt is feeling a little off because I could tell you just like, weren't chatting as much. You weren't pushing the pace as we like sat back into the like more like mid five fifties. I was like, okay. I was like, let's see. Um, and I was kind of more than happy to like, let us like settle into what was going to happen that day. Um, and I, I don't exactly remember when it started, but it was probably honestly mild too. Cause what's great about Boston is there are eight stations, but it feels like, I don't know. every 400 meters, either with fans handing stuff out or actual aid stations. And we immediately started dousing ourselves with water. It was 10 in the morning and we're like, we need to start cooling now because it's going to get hot.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah. It was, it was hot. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a unique experience. I've never had to like start thinking that early in a race and just, so, and, and it was weird. I felt like I started to try to break it up into really short chunks. But I definitely kind of saw myself thinking ahead a lot, which probably is one of those areas where I'm like, man, did I, did I let myself think too far ahead where it discouraged me from continuing to, to go for it? So, um, yeah, that was one thing. And, and I think around mile five or six, somewhere in there, we probably ran with 10 K mark. I think we came across that, that group of two guys. And they kind of settled into a similar pace, like high five fifties because of the heat and, uh, we formed a little pack of four and I was, that was awesome. Rich, rich. One of his favorite memories is how every 800 meters to a mile, we'd get a water bottle, pass it around, dump it on our heads, drink some, so that was a cool memory. I will, I will admit that was a cool and very helpful just to have other guys to kind of share the front with.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Right. It was like, it was a right away. We kind of identified some other guys who had like similar goals. And then all of a sudden it was like, we had a team, right. And it became like this, like, All of us were kind of working together. Like we, what's great about these big marathons, right. It's like, no, one's winning, you show up knowing you already lost the race. So at that point, right, the goal is very different where now all of us are kind of like working against the course and against the weather. So anything we could do to help each other out that day. Um, but yeah, looking back at it though, it's like we were on, I was looking the first, like five miles, right. Or let's do this. I was looking at pulled up Strava here, like first 5k, right. 1822, second 5k, 1820, third 5k, 1821. So we honestly ran a perfect exact splits, which meant that we were more running, like, Mid five fifties, where's that exactly five 50 low, but for the first, you know, 15 K first nine miles, which really what the course looks like is drops down for the first few miles and kind of relatively flattens out for the next like 10 K of the race, even with you not feeling great and it being a little hot, I think we did a great job kind of like settling into something that was. It's still like a very honest pace that day.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah, yeah, no, I I basically and it's funny you said like you don't even like thinking about blowing up because I was Basically from the time we started I was like, okay. Well We're gonna do this and we'll make an adjustment for the heat which was like five to seven seconds It ended up being and I was like, I'm just gonna go as far as I can and we'll see what happens and Yeah, we made it through halfway, like 118 I think or something like that, which was not horrible. I definitely was not feeling great. Um,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah, I'd say I I was feeling,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:it. I can't describe to you why I wasn't feeling good. And that's the thing that makes me think that there was some residual from what it was like. It was weird. I actually feel like my sauna training train, like I didn't feel like I was necessarily overheating. It was just like, there was no, there was nothing else. It was like, I was stuck in this one gear. If my effort, like my heart rate was way higher than it should have been. Like everything was just wrong. Like, I don't know. I don't know how else to describe it. Like I looked back at my heart rate, my heart rate went. Usually when I'm in a race, it like eases up the first three to four miles and then kind of settles wherever right at that lactate threshold area. On that second mile going downhill, my heart rate went up to 161. Like that's just, Insane for me like that even even in my half marathon where I was running closer to 540s It was it didn't get to 160 to like the fourth or fifth mile on flat
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:What's it what's interesting on mine. Cause I have my heart rate data up here and I looked at it and I was wearing a heart rate strap. So I, I definitely trust this data. So first one, one 40 has, we're just like chilling downhill. Second mile hit one 63 from then on my heart rate was between one 63, actually between one 60 and one 60. Seven for the entire race other than the mile going over heartbreak hill when I hit 170. For an average heart rate and my last mile as I picked up the pace to finish, which again, I hit 170. So my entire race took place basically between 163 and 166 over and over again,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah, I believe that. Yeah,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:which in the past has been like where I where I sit for a race, you know?
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah, I would say on days i'm feeling good 160, 161 is usually where I end up. So the problem was I hit 161 going downhill and then I was closer to 163 after that. I, I don't know, which still isn't even that high. It just felt too, it felt too hard. Like just, It didn't feel right. So, um, I don't know. Who knows. It's just one of those days. I've run like 10 or 11 marathons, and this is the first one that's happened, so I think it's a pretty good percentage. But some highlights from the first half. The crowds and every, really the whole time, but especially when you went into each little town. Huge yeah, so that was awesome. The
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Going into Framingham, yeah.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah, the scream tunnel was really this is like an awesome experience Where's that rounds half? Yeah, that's an awesome experience man, I Yeah, so we made it through halfway like pretty decent. I mean, yeah, we we made it through halfway a pretty decent pace though I was
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:we were 117, mid.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:where we, Hi. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I, I could not tell how you were feeling either. Honestly, like I, I was like, is he going to blow up too? Or is he just like, is this where he wants to be? So I, I couldn't really read you either. I felt like,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I feel like I was like, stoic. I was just like, waiting to see what was gonna happen. Like, it wasn't not easy, but I felt like I was just waiting. I think I said, I felt like I was just like, you know, showing up at work, like to do my job kind of thing. And I was really just concentrating on, okay, when were you taking this gel next? Okay. When are we, like, when can we douse ourselves with water again? Like, are we staying cool and just very, just kind of mission focused in a way, but it was not like nothing was easy and it wasn't like, Oh, out here having fun.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:One thing I think that probably made a huge difference. Um, also, when do you need to go?
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Uh, what time is it in like 10 minutes, maybe a little less than that, eight minutes.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Okay. Um, one thing that I think made a big difference that I'm definitely going to incorporate from the next block is back to backs. Um,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Dude, I think that was huge for the second half.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Yeah. I,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:So yeah, I
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:doing a lot of vert with big back to backs was probably one of the things that helped you the most. So
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I agree with that. So yeah, I guess talking about like second half. So I forget exactly where I started like gapping you a little bit and we started running our own. I feel like it was close to halfway 16. 15, 16. Okay, that's what I thought. I thought we had made It to maybe
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:It was like 16, basically. Yeah.
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah. Okay. And yeah, so I definitely think having some of that leg strength was helpful and I felt like I was like Moderating my like temperature well, and I was very comfortable in like the high a 550s Which kind of where is where we were at at that point miles 13 14 15 All were 559s, 1655 before we entered the Newton Hills, which is, um, I think, yeah, we hit the hills there kind of on tired legs and it was hot and I felt strong. Like my pace still dropped a little bit cause I was kind of going into damage control cause it just kept getting hotter. But I felt like I could keep up and it was a very weird experience where like I was, I knew I was starting to positive split, but the, like the rest of the race was positive sweating more, right? Like people were just like falling backwards. I was still running up through guys as I was slowing down.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:it was carnage. It was absolute carnage. Like, it was
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Well, once I started, when I started like, go ahead.
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:like I, I dropped back to 7 minute miles, around 16, and it was just like, people everywhere walking, barely jogging, like a couple pros or high level, like sub elites that were just dying. Like it
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:Yeah, I,
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:Uh,
rich_1_04-24-2024_182655:I came up on one of the, um, pro women who she's sub elite from my track club back in New Jersey that had run with, through I've met a couple of the, and like, she was like jogging and this was my like 17 or 18 and tried to say hi to her and she was just like
matt_2_04-24-2024_202655:yeah. So it was, uh, it was rough, but yeah. So I basically, for me, once I got to 16, I knew it wasn't going to be my day. I started to feel really weird. I was like, I think if I push it, there's potential I have. heat related illness or just like illness related illness. So I tried to stay with them and I just kind of faded over mile 16 and 17. And after that, I was like, it's just, it's just not my day. And Like this is a cool experience. So I, I kind of made the decision at that point to try to enjoy the experience. Um, the last like nine miles, which was pretty cool, honestly. So I was not mad at all. And I feel like it's kind of summed up what we talked about with outcome verse. Uh, Oh my gosh, outcome goals, first process goals. Like, yeah, like my process, my process has been good and it's, and it just wasn't my day. I got to enjoy like 10 years of growth as a runner during that last nine miles of like, this is a really cool experience to even be here and realizing how I wasn't going to let the outcome completely define like enjoying that moment. So that was cool. That was a cool moment of growth for me. Um, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I, uh, I love the quote. I can't remember who said this, but they, I think I may have said this to you in the lead up, but having goals that are like, it's a privilege to have goals that are big enough that you can possibly fail. And, uh, I think that's something that I really lean on and think it's so true. Like. We had a goal and we went for it and we adjusted based on things we can't control and then like the weather and you still put together a huge PR and I would say unless you're running that day you don't realize how Impressive your time is. I think everyone that ran that day is like, Oh my gosh, that's so impressive because everyone else, if you look at our Stravas, like literally everyone I was tracking was at least 15 minutes, 30 minutes off what they're trying to run. Like it was just, it was like we said earlier, it was just carnage. I probably was tracking five or six people, all of their Stravas, 10, 20, 30 minutes off what they're trying to run. Yeah, well Yeah, I Yeah, and and that's the thing like I was listening to Peter Bromka on sweat elite and he was saying how you know He was it in the 240s and then he ran mid low 230s and then he was like, alright time to Time to see what we can do. And I think for me in my head, I'm like, I'm in, and I hate when people do this. So I'm kind of doing something that I hate, but I truly believe I'm in like two 34 sub two 34 shape. And so as I look ahead, I'm like, I can run close to two 30 this year on a flat course, good weather. At least that's what I think. So as I look ahead to the fall, I think the summer is going to be fun to run some shorter stuff really fast and hopefully set myself up for a good fall. And. The thing about the marathon is sometimes you got to take a couple of cracks at it to really have the the process get translated into outcomes and you just have to be okay with that. So hopefully we can find the time to get a long form and just go through some random things we learned over the years. So thanks for hopping on, uh, and we will catch you later. Yeah, I did. See you, man. All right, guys. Thanks for tuning in and we will, uh, See you next time. Hope you enjoyed this kind of in depth look at Boston, and we look forward to the next time we get to do this. See you guys later.
