Beyond Boston

This year's Boston Marathon on April 16 2012 was one for the record books. On April 15 2012 I blogged about hot weather running. I was worried about the heat and used the blog as a sounding board for my fears.

My fears about heat were met with serious challenges. Until April 15, 2012 I had been training in 50 to 70 degree temperatures. On April 16 the temperature went over 80 degrees. What a surprise. I spent the first half of the race pushing hard to hit the half way mark. My theory was, the sooner I'm done, the less time I will spend in the heat.

This theory played out well. At the half way mark my time was about 1:45. On a cooler day, that start would have set me up for a 3:30 finish. Sweet! Alas, the heat got the best of me and the run-walk-crawl-wish-for-a-ride second half took 30 minutes longer than the first half.

This was not my slowest marathon - that was Hartford in 2005 (4:25). Breaking the 4 hour mark in 80 degree heat was enough for me.

Looking back over the dozen marathons I've now run, Boston continues to be my favorite. I'm cooling down on marathons though and considering hanging up my distance running shoes for a while.

Now the question is what lies beyond Boston?