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I pass and stay ahead of the heavier Guy in Dark Blue Shirt until Mile 6 or so, and then he inches ahead and eventually leaves me in the dust. At around Mile 8, there\u2019s young Stephanie, chatting about her upcoming 100-mile race, with a phalanx of 4 other runners chatting about marathons whom I somehow had passed, and two of them are my age groupers. And that Phalanx of Five jumped ahead (or I fell behind) like the fast bunch of runners at the starting line who take off and seize the distance and are gone before you turn the corner. (The eventual winner was 31-year old Milan Duka of Stamford, who managed to finish in 1:25:03, a blistering pace of 5:29 min\/mile!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In choosing not to race after the faster folks (Tim, young muscular guy, plans to do the Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon as a last training run before Boston and recedes to the distance\u2026), mostly I\u2019m alone, trying to manage an RPE of 4-6 (middle level of exertion) for Mile 1-6; for miles 6-13 (OMG that is feeling like a lot of miles\u2026) an RPE of 6-7; Miles 13-15, RPE of 7-8; and the last .5 miles, RPE 8-10 (though Coach Steve doubted I would have enough juice left to get any faster). The wise ol\u2019 Coach predicts I\u2019ll finish this in 2:09, at a speed of 8:21 min\/mile, and that gives me the incentive to go faster than that, because I\u2019ve beaten most of his predictions. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I try to stick to the plan, ignoring the watch except to see if it\u2019s time for nutrition (forcing myself to take gels at 0:45, 1:00 hour, and 1:30, each time struggling to get back to a comfortable groove after eating), checking in that I am still under control as I mount those \u201cinnumerable hills\u201d, and at the end of the day turns out my heart rate was phenomenally steady (avg. 143 bpm), and I\u2019m taking in the scenery and trying to keep my eyes and thoughts on the horizon, and those folks from the Phalanx of Five chattering away about 90% of racing is \u201cmental\u201d, well, they\u2019re just WRONG, because even if my mental game is relatively positive, the physical part of me is getting worn out by Mile 9 (\u201c3\/5ths done! 60%!\u201d No, that\u2019s not a very encouraging thought).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Mile 10, LOTS of people are passing me, including an older (my age?) short woman who clearly is a marathoner, and the Tall Woman with the Pony Tail trots by (another marathoner), and the heavier Guy with the Blue Shirt is trudging along but trudging faster than I can, and when two young chatty woman catch up and pass me like I\u2019m standing still, I have to admit, it felt like the NYC Marathon: when the runners who are chatty or in Statue of Liberty costumes pass you, you know things aren\u2019t going well.\u00a0\u00a0Ultimately, I couldn\u2019t get much past RPE 7 \u2014 working hard enough not to be able to talk (yes, I know, hard to imagine!), but simply not enough juice to get any faster.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m doing the best I can, and I\u2019m running with really solid runners, and I\u2019m only dissatisfied that I\u2019m not DONE yet. At around Mile 13, a young woman in black with a long pony tail walked the beginning of each hill \u2014 stops to take phone call! \u2014 and ultimately passed and beat me to the Finish Line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time I get to the dirt path lined with orange cones that leads back to the Silvermine Elementary School, I\u2019m alone again and thinking, well, I\u2019ll finally get my warm, dry clothes\u2026 and it\u2019s DONE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But here\u2019s the amazing thing: I did well! My pace was 8:22 min\/mile \u2014 only 1 second slower than what Coach Steve had predicted. Finished in 2:09:53 (and Steve had predicted 2:09:46. There\u2019s no doubt: the man can crunch his data). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what\u2019s truly mind blowing, having been surrounded then left in the dust of the Phalanx of Five: I came in 4\/13 for my age group, and 52\/110 OA! What happened to the five to seven other guys in the 60-69 men\u2019s bracket who beat me in the 5, 10 and 15k races? Turns out, two of them didn\u2019t race today; another beat me by only 11 seconds; and another \u2026 came in only 8 seconds after me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n It just goes to show you, you never know who\u2019s going to show up on race day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Including yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201c2 states.\u00a0\u00a04 towns. Innumerable hills.\u201d That\u2019s how the directors of the Buildup to Boston (now in its 47th year!) promote this fourth, final race of the series (5k, 10k, 15k, 25k spread over January to March).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2025-race-reports"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/racereportblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/IMG_0523-1024x907.jpeg\")
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