Ten days to go!
I feel unprepared for Boston. I am planning to get t-shirts and a visor printed with Snapathon branding but I still have not seen the shirt material. It is scheduled to arrive on Monday. I have no idea what I will use for nutrition. I really don’t want ot carry a waist-band with a pouch, but I may not have a choice. The shirt has no pockets and the shorts will not have enough pockets. Apparently the race has only 1 gel station at mile 17 (they call it the Clif Shot Energy Zone). Maybe I will carry enough Gatorade Gels to carry me through mile 17 and then pick up a couple of gel packs for the final 10 miles. At this point, I have no idea. I feel unprepared for Boston.
I have started looking closely at the Boston Marathon route. I know it is downhill for the first four miles before going through some gentle undulating hills for the next seven miles. It as at the half-way point that the fun begins as the route traverses through the “scream tunnel” in Wellesley. That’s where hundreds of co-eds cheer you on. Apparently they want to kiss nasty, sweaty runners. I guess I will understand it once I am in it!
At mile 15 there appears to be a downhill followed immediately by the first of 4 uphills as you enter Newton. The goal is to arrive at mile 16 as fresh as possible to conquer the hills. If you get to mile 21 and still have legs left, it is a downhill to flat course to the finish. I am so excited and nervous that I can barely contain myself!
My ankle is all better. I ran intervals on the treadmill and it didn’t feel hard at all. In 45 minutes, I ran 5.8 miles for a 7:47 average per mile. I picked the easy treadmill as usual!
This weekend, I will start the mile-by-mile course analysis and start with my race and nutrition plan. My coach (Bill Wilson) has already sent me the race strategy.