115th Boston Marathon - Registration CLOSED

The Boston Marathon registration closed in 8 hours

From baa.org:

BOSTON, Mass. – Registration for the 115th Boston Marathon began at 9:00 a.m. (EST) today, and closed at 5:03 p.m. (EST) The Boston Marathon -- the world's oldest and most prestigious annual marathon -- will take place on Monday, April 18, 2011, Patriots' Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 115 years, this is the fastest period of time in which the field size limit has been reached.

The number of entrants for next year’s race remains as it has been in recent years. In 2010, the race had 26,790 entrants and 22,721 finishers. For the 2010 Boston Marathon, registration filled in just over two months.

Qualifying times are based upon your age on the date of the Boston Marathon - April 18, 2011.

This begs the question - do the qualifying times need to be changed?

Marathon Goals

I have been planning out my goals. If you have been reading the blog for any length of time you will already be familiar with my goal setting process here and here.

So my long term goals are to run a sub-3 hour marathon at the 2011 Mardi Gras Marathon. I ran this race earlier this year (my first stand alone marathon) in 3:08:44. Cutting 8 minutes and 44 seconds of my marathon PR will be difficult. That means dropping 20 seconds per mile off of my pace. If you have been running for a while then you realize that this will not be a walk in the park. For these paces to work out that means I need to run a 1:25:20 half marathon (about 4 minutes faster than my PR and an 18:28 minute 5k (40 seconds faster than my PR).

So, how do I plan on achieving this goal?

There is a lot of work to be done – that is why I am starting now. First, over the course of the next couple of months I am going to build my running mileage up to 45 – 50 miles a week. Most of these miles will be at 20 – 25 percent slower than marathon race pace. I will run a half marathon at the end of October to gauge my conditioning. Then I am going to slack off for a couple of weeks. I have already bought my ticket and I will be spending November in Sydney, Australia visiting my sister and her family. I will still be running a lot but I will also be relaxing and vacationing.

Once I return that is when the real volume and work begins. I would like to build up to 70 miles per week over the next couple of months and test myself regularly with increasingly longer races. I will probably run the Baton Rouge Beach Half Marathon (first of December), the Ole Man River Half Marathon (December 19), the Steam Whistle 12K (Jan 1), the First Light Half Marathon (January 9), the Annual Larry Fuselier State Championship Race 25K (mid January) and the "The Wall" Louisiana Long Distance Championship Race 30K (end of January). I ran all of these races last year and they helped me with racing – both with strategy and pacing. It seems like a lot of racing, and it is, but I have found that races are the best way for me to put together a solid HARD distance run. Every one of these races was a solid effort and led to a PR. I hope to duplicate those results.

Oh yeah, and then there is Boston six weeks after the Mardi Gras Marathon (I am already qualified).

Mardi gras Marathon - By the number revisted

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1735863/Mardi_Gras_Marathon

2010 Mardi gras Marathon - Boston Qualified!

First marathon down and a Boston Qualifier (3:08:44). Full race report to follow.

Before and after.

A very gratifing hurt but hurt none the less.

Thursday night was another all night session at work (the last for a few months). Worked all day Thursday and rode the bike home at around 4:30 PM. Drove back to work at 8PM and ran some errands with Kyle.

Kyle ended up buying a bathtub full of tuna at discount retailer - something line 60 pouches of plain tuna in water. As a side note he would have to have all of this fishy food in his carry-on bag for his flight home on Saturday.

Got back to work at about 9:30 PM and did not wrap up and finish until 5AM. I drove home just in time to grab the first cup of coffee. I was able to get about 2 1/2 hours of sleep that morning. Friday was also going to be a demanding night at work. I arrived at work at around 1PM and did not leave until after 11PM. To decompress we went to a local tavern to have a drink - I only had a Diet Coke. Got home just before 1AM.

Slept like a rock until 6AM. I had agreed to do a 'Coastal Clean up' in Gulf Port about 60 miles away. I'm just glad that I did not have to drive. Made it to Gulf Port and picked up trash for about 2 hours and then I had to go and lie down in the car. I was exhausted, my stomach hurt and just did not feel well. So much for exercise and working the plan for Friday and Saturday.

I was also damn sore from the weight traingin work out from Thursday. The chest was aching, the shoulders were damaged. A very gratifing hurt but hurt none the less.

Got back on the horse on Sunday with a brisk (55 degree) run to Epley and Back. This run is just over 12 miles. Started out with a comfortable pace (Heart rate in the 140's) of about 8 minute miles. I ran this for the first 6 something miles and picked the pace up just a little as I turned to home. Ran the next 4 miles at 7:30 - 7:40 minutes per mile (150's). On the home stretch I again pushed the pace a little with close to 7:00 minute miles (160's). I ran past the house to get a full 13 miles - I stopped just short at 12.9x miles. I finished the run at 1:39:41 for an average pace of 7:44/mile. I do not believe that I will be able to finish the Gulf Coast 1/2 Marathon at my goal pace.

Just for clarification, I always pick my goals in a fashion. I pick the Gold Medal - this is out of reach, it will take a miracle to achieve this goal, it will not happen but it is the ultimate goal. The Silver Medal is achievable but everything will have to go as planned, no mistakes, just hard work and perseverance. And the Bronze Medal - Train hard and smart and this one is possible, but not a given, it will require work.

My Gold medal goal for this 1/2 marathon (which I have not taken as serious as I should have and only have 5 weeks left) is a 7:00/mile pace and finishing at or below 1:31. I guess I also have a super goal of finishing just below 1:30. I am going to use the results of this 1/2 marathon to plan the paces and workouts for a full marathon early next year. A Boston qualifing time is a dream in a full marathon but once again that is a gold medal goal.

The Silver medal is the low 1:30's. Finishing at 1:35 or less. This is going to be damn hard. I am really going to have determine my max pace for 13.1 miles and execute to achieve this goal - I can do this one.

The Bronze medal is 1:40 or less. Not a given but I think that I can do this one with a hard but not killer effort. I have never run a foot race of anywhere near this distance but I do have confidence.

I am trying to catch the excitement for this race. The water is hot but not yet boiling. Waiting for the steam.

Out of town running

The weather in Atlanta has been very mild. I went down to the 'fitness' center at the hotel on Sunday. a treadmill, exercise bikes (recumbent and upright), and a universal machine. Not wonderful but better than nothing. I started on the treadmill but I just could not get into the run. I played with several of the programs but nothing got me excited. I hit the weight machine instead. I spent about 20 minutes listening to a podcast and just going through the motions.

I was tired from the drive and just called it a day. Monday was taxing and I did not even attempt to go downstairs to the fitness room and the concrete jungle was not calling. I checked Google maps to see if there was any kind of park near by and there was nothing. I certainly was not going to drive anywhere - there seems to be a gas shortage here. None of the stations are getting much gas. It has been on the news every night. There really is not much gas.

This morning I dragged myself out of bed to try to go for a run. I hit the outside at about 6:00 AM. I headed towards the training facility where I have been having class. I ran up a small hill and there was just sidewalks. Nothing was very becoming for a run.

I came upon a giant intersection that I really did not want to wait for a 'walk sign.' I was just about to turn around when I saw another runner coming towards me. He was running a pretty fast pace. I asked him where there was to run around this area. Without even slowing he said to follow him.

Greg was on mile 10 of 16 and still maintaining an 8 minute pace. He is trying to qualify for Boston in December. Although the running environment did not get any better the company made for a good run. Having someone to run with that was familiar with area was comforting. Greg works for Cox and one of their buildings is just across the street from my hotel. We are going to meet for another run at 5:30 tomorrow.