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| The finish on Boylston St and Copley Square |
Today is Patriot's Day which can mean only one glorious thing
- Folks are lining up on the streets of Hopkinton
Mass. for the 116th running
of the Boston Marathon. And the world is good.
The weathermen are cautioning runners for unusually warm
temperatures. Folks will just have to run within themselves, adjust their
efforts, and nail it down. It's a marathon after all, not some piffy soccer game.
Not a lot of top Americans running today on account that
they all competed in the Olympic Trails Marathon in January. The men's
defending champion and record holder Geoffrey Mutai is in the field. The man's
racing skills are not human. In the women's field Santa Fe's Caroline Rotich lines up again
after a 4th place finish in last year's race. Best of luck to her.
A few Santa Fe
area runners have done the qualifying work and will be running down to Boylston St. today.
One of my training buddies James Nunez will be out there for a second Boston, the indomitable Maryann Kos is there, as will Rose
Giannotta for her first run along the storied course. Other Santa Fe qualifiers include Amanda Cola, Kelly Cyr, Andy Winnegar, and Katrin Silva of Las Vegas. Athletes can be tracked during the race at the BAA website here. If I'm missing someone please add them in the comments below. Wave starts begin at 10am ET.
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| Last year's women's elite field mid-race. The lone runner 50m back is Michigan's Desi Davila. An unknown before the race, she stormed back to take the lead a few hundred meters from the finish on Boylston St. before submitting to a late surge from the eventual winner. She's now an Olympian with a spot locked up for London Games. |
UPDATE: Un-seasonal heat controlled the field this year, causing many of the elites to drop after 25km including defending champ Geoffrey Mutai and Santa Fe's Caroline Rotich. The race was won with a savvy performance from former Univ. of Louisville runner Wesley Korir in 2hr 12min. In favorable weather last year's winning time was 9min faster, nearly 2 miles of distance at the pace the elites maintain. He bided his time stalking the leaders and was fortunate to time his drive home when the front runners all broke from the heat. Kenya's Sharon Cherop faded on Boylston St last year but learned from her mistakes to capture this year's crown after holding off a surge on the same spot, winning in 2hr 31min.
The field of Santa Fe runners made the best of it but athlete tracking showed a monumental struggle with pacing after 15km. For the third straight year Albuquerque's Mark Scherbarth posted the fastest time of all New Mexico amateurs with a 3:03:20, almost 20min slower than 2011. Santa Fe results include Maryann Kos, 3:52:27; Kelly Cyr, 4:02:13; James Nunez, 4:02:21; Max Mujynya, 4:25:21; and Rose Giannotta, 4:49:19.
Yep,Boston was hot but it was still special. The one thing I discovered is that the downhill during the first 8 miles of the race doesn't really seem all that downhill because there are some rollers and flats but you recognize the toll you have taken on your legs once you hit the Newton hills. I really wanted to run up Heartbreak but it wasn't happening.
ReplyDeleteThe creeping fatigue of the downhill profile is something that all Boston veterans look back on. The Newton Hills expose the damage and introduce doubt at a very fragile point in the race. Boston's race layout is a seductive trap. It's very comforting to know that 116 years of runners have blasted out of Hopkinton in exactly the same manner only to face the same trauma of exhaustion navigating those hills and silent calculations of how they'll leg it in the rest of the way to Copley Square.
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