April 21, 2025
Hopkinton, MA
10AM
I had wanted to do the Boston Marathon for a long time. Definitely one of the fun races in all of running to follow and getting to spectate in 2022 was really nice. As soon as I knew I would run a fall 2023 marathon as my debut, I planned on running Boston 2025. Usually I'll plan goal races about a year out, or shorter for some. Boston 2025 was on the back of my mind for 2 years.
After running 2:32 twice on hilly courses that are probably considered to be slightly harder than Boston, I wanted to maximize my training and go for sub-2:30 at Boston. I felt really confident I could do so - given that L.A. I went out too fast and faded at the end, and San Francisco I had a mediocre training block. Given another year of training, a great block, and a slightly faster course and I was pretty confident I could run under 2:30. I thought a stretch goal might be in the 2:28 range if I was super fit and things went really well. Fast forward to mid-April, and both my training and racing had gone very well. I decided I'd go for a 2:28 and if I faded, hopefully hang on for a 2:29. I planned on going out in 1:13:30 as in my mind if I executed a perfect race, a 1 minute positive split given the newton hills, that would net me a 2:28:00. Then I'd have a 2 minute buffer to break 2:30. Pretty much:
A goal- 2:28
B goal- 2:29
C goal- sub 2:30
I also wanted to get in the top 100, which was around 2:28-2:29 in the last few years. Leading up to Los Angeles in the taper, I felt flat every day (even the day before) and was concerned I wasn't going to race well. I felt fantastic race day and ran a 7 minute PR. Leading up to San Francisco, I felt great although did have some early discomfort in that race. This time around was not the most comfortable taper as I got sick about 2 weeks out which lasted until about 6 days prior. Even post sickness, my legs felt flat and had several days where my breathing felt off, including on my easy pre-race workout. I felt pretty good by the day before but woke up with a strange hip discomfort that was concerning for the race.
The day before we (with Dad and Andrew) went to the expo in Boston to get our bibs before heading to Wrentham to stay the night. It took me a while to fall asleep because the room was so hot (typical) but fortunately once I fell asleep I didn't wake up again until the 5am alarm. We went over to North Attleborough to take the Evolution Road Runners coach bus over to the race rather than the school buses from Boston. I had some stomach discomfort on the bus but was able to use the bathroom on the bus. The biggest benefit of the bus was that there was a separate area for those using a coach bus, and we were able to hang out in this area, stay warm on the bus, and had our own separate port-a-potties which never had a line. The notch bus pulled up next to ours and I talked with Greg and Jordan a little about race strategy, course, etc.
Andrew and I went to find the other UNH alumni at the race which was initially unsuccessful. Around 9am we did find them and were going to head to the start together, but I found they were taking far too long and didn't want to risk having trouble getting to the start, so Andrew and I just headed over. I had 6 gels in my pocket, planning on taking one before the race and noticed that it felt heavy in the shorts and bouncing around annoyingly which was really concerning because I didn't want to deal with that for the first 5 miles before I planned to take my gels. No line at the final port-a-potties now a quarter mile or less from the start but I couldn't poop which made me concerned I'd have to stop during the race. I looked around and there were clearly nowhere to do a stride - either crowded or barrier preventing access to other areas, so unfortunately this would be my first marathon I didn't get strides in before.
I walked up through the corral until the 1st one, now separated from Andrew, and got into maybe the 7th-8th row next to Caleb Harris from Notch. We had to stand there for 20 minutes packed in which was pretty annoying (not super packed like NYC Half, but very difficult to move forward). I noticed most bib numbers around me were higher than mine so I wanted to move up a little. I was able to do so after the pro women started as we could all move forward. Considering the depth of this race, I got a great start line position in only the 4th-5th row back and it only took me 2 seconds to cross the start line (contrasting with Andrew who took 30 seconds to get to the start). My three concerns going into the race (heavy/bouncing gels, possible poop stop, and hip discomfort) fortunately were a non-issue and I never even thought about these things.
The initial downhill was super steep. I went out at what felt like a low, conservative effort letting people blow by me yet was still running about 5:10. I tried to slow/relax further but ended up running the first mile around 5:30. This was about 5 seconds fast per mile - 1:13:30 was a 5:36 pace/17:23 through 5K but I figured it was fine with the early downhill. The first 5K felt pretty comfortable and was mostly uneventful. Lots of people around but never in my way. Alex Healey passed me at 2 Miles which made me think I had gone out too fast as he's about 8-10 mins faster than me at the distance. I think he had just started behind as he was out sight after 5 minutes. I continued to run about 5 seconds faster per mile and hit the 5K in 17:07 (16 seconds ahead of goal). I felt good but two minor discomforts - tightness in lower quad and very mild stomach discomfort/cramping which has happened at all races when taking a gel before the start.
I was hoping to lock into pace or even slow a little but kept finding myself running low 5:30s, just slightly ahead of the goal. I wasn't paying attention to anyone as so many people were around, so there was no true pack running and you had to focus on your own race. So I was surprised to turn left and see Sage Canaday right next me. I ran next to or near him through about10K which was cool, in 34:24, now about 22 seconds ahead of goal but at least I was slowing down slightly. Sage was running slightly faster than I wanted and slowly got away from me. My splits were now about 3 seconds fast per mile. I wanted to chunk the race into town segments, but I forgot about it after seeing the Ashland sign.
I was surprised there the crowd support was really good in the first half, wasn't expecting that. For the first 10K or the water stops were fairly crowded and you'd have to be careful about people weaving in and out to get to the stop. There were consistent water stations just after every mile maker, with gatorade first then water second. They would also be on both sides which was nice if you couldn't get over to one side, or needed a second drink. I found myself mostly going for the gatorade and grabbing water as well if I had finished it. I would almost always spill a little gatorade on my hands, getting them sticky and many times was grabbing water just to wash my hands with. This was the first race I've ever done where there were cups all over the road as I was probably 100-150 spots back, usually I'm closer to the front and there's only a few cups. The course is kind of boring in Framingham, but gets more interesting into Natick running past a lake then through the Natick downtown. I remember feeling mostly good through Natick, although not effortless like LA's first 10 miles. The race was going by pretty quickly, however.
Around 10 mile is where things started to be a little worrying. My legs felt heavy and almost a little wobbly. It didn't take long to get to downtown Wellesley and the half marathon split. Around 12 miles I'd start to have moments where I would feel a little weak, which was definitely concerning as my plan was a gel roughly every 5 miles. Then I'd feel fine and almost forget about it but a lot of uncertainty on how the rest of the race would unfold. Hit the half marathon point in 1:13:04, so 26 seconds ahead of target. I knew not feeling amazing at this point and having gone out too fast that I'd almost certainly run a few minutes positive split or more.
I ran pretty strong and despite the moments of feeling weak or heavy legs, I really had no problem maintaining the pace. Even when I felt like I was slowing, I wasn't. We finally got to Newton and would now have the big downhill into the 4 hills. I felt pretty smooth on the downhill, but the first hill was a big confidence booster as I felt really strong and was passing a lot of people. I was starting to get less worried given I got through the first hill while barely slowing and feeling pretty good. We were now at 17 miles and how I felt now was less concerning with 9 to go instead of 13 or 16. I started to imagine what was possible - if I was this strong on uphills now getting to the late stages of the race, I might be able to even or slight positive split this thing. I might actually run a 2:26 or 2:27.
On Washington street and towards Commonwealth. The sides of streets with lined with spectators now. I only got a few "Go Matthew" shouts but a lot of "Go Notch". Back to not feeling great again - still on pace but another weak moment. Achilles has a tender/uncomfortable spot. I'm starting to get worried about bonking given I've been having weak moments on and off since Mile 12 now. It felt I needed a gel now but I only had two left. I decided to grab and have a Maurten. These caused stomach issues for me in testing but I figured stomach discomfort was better than a massive bonk. I carried the Maurten for a mile and then turned right onto Commonwealth for the long hill stretch.
Hill #2. I ran this twice in training and both times it seemed steep. But I thought it's fairly short and might feel a little hard in the race but shouldn't be too bad. I struggled up this hill, it felt like the complete opposite of the first hill. My entire lower body felt quite strained and my calves and the left achilles particularly so. I got to the top of the hill and knew I might be in big trouble. I took half the maurten which was really hard to get down compared to the GU then my stomach felt a little uncomfortable so I threw away the rest and planned to take another GU in a mile. I had a brief moment a little later where I felt like I had to throw up and was gagging a little but it fortunately went away after 20 seconds. I knew things were late in the race and I was trying to focus on getting through 30K, which I still was on a really solid pace at that time (1:44:09).
The commonwealth stretch just felt long and now the 5Ks were no longer clicking by quickly. For the first time in the race, my pace was starting to drop. I felt weak. My achilles was hurting quite a bit now. I had no idea where I was in relationship to the 3rd hill and heartbreak. I remember the 3rd hill sucked but didn't break me. I went through 20 miles in 1:52:14, which was still on pace for a 2:27 low. Got to heartbreak and it completely broke me. I was still clinging onto hope just before, but felt like I was walking up heartbreak. The tank felt so empty when I got the top. If you're strong here, it's supposed to be a lot easier to the finish with 3 miles of downhill. But the downhill didn't feel like much of a boost. I knew I was done here. I felt atrocious- pretty similar to Los Angeles with 10K to go, perhaps even worse. I knew the last 10K was going to be super ugly and I had no shot of breaking 2:30. In my mind, I was expecting to run 8 minute miles to the finish and come in around 2:40. There were no mental calculation of still trying to run as fast as possible, I was completely broken physically and mentally. I did see Aidan Shea around of the top of Heartbreak, which was a nice boost but then I was back to reality.
It didn't take long to hit Beacon street, which felt agonizingly long. I was really just shuffling at this point and hoping I made it to the finish. Surprisingly was still holding like a 6:20 pace and not 8:30. I was looking around for Cody Symmonds, former UNH teammate, and was surprised he still hadn't passed me (he has a 2:28 PR, and seemed to be in excellent shape). He went by me at about 23.5 miles. One annoying thing on Beacon was having to cross from the right side of the road to the left and vice versa as the police would let people take up half the road when they were waiting to cross. I was getting mopped up here as so many people were passing me, although there was the occasional person fading worse that I would get by.
The suffering mostly ended passing the Citgo sign as I was in the final mile and knew exactly what was coming. Went down Hereford and made the final turn on Bolyston. Around this time, it dawned on me that I might actually still be able to PR. I hadn't tried super hard to gut out the last 5K or anything because 1) the tank felt empty and 2) I thought any decent time had gone out of the window. Suddenly I had a little bit of motivation again. You can see the finish line right away once you turn and I was about 2:30:30. It took a long time to reach the finish line, but surely it won't take 2 minutes to get there? I used whatever I had left to pick it up and increase my chances of a PR, which was successful - a 2:32:16, 16 second PR.
I ended 287th place in likely the deepest Boston ever. Unlike NYC Half, I didn't feel instant disappointment/devastation upon finishing. I certainly wasn't happy but being able to eke out the PR after such a rough blow up saved it from being a crushing moment for me. Unlike LA and SF where I felt so depleted crossing the line that I was nearly crying, I didn't feel quite as dead here. Just walked slowly back to the Sheraton hotel where my stuff was waiting (brutally long walk too). Achilles definitely hurting quite a bit.
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| Finishing (Notch singlet on left) |
Post-race I was wondering if I maybe could run a minute faster or so. I certainly did not have a sub-2:30 in me but the fact I was able to "sprint" down Bolyston indicates I probably had a little more the last 5K. I had mentally given up as it felt like all hope was lost after I wasn't going to break 2:30.
At the end of the day, this was a very disappointing race. Not necessarily bad - I went for it, and I still end up with a PR. But I felt sub-2:30 was absolutely in reach and I wasn't close. I think there are 4 reasons why this didn't go well:
1) Going out too fast. I hit the half in 1:13:04, 26 seconds ahead of my target. Given I totally felt apart in the last 10K, it was clear I had burned my energy going out too hard to the point of no return. I think it's totally plausible the race would gone very differently (better) had I gone out in 1:14 flat.
2) Hammering the first Newton hill. At the time, I thought I was just maintaining pace and feeling strong, but I think this was the final nail in the coffin for me. I felt great here but burned the last of my energy and was struggling not long after. Looking at the strava segment, I ran this first hill relatively really fast/hard compared to others. For example- I was similar pace on the hill to Andrew McCann's 2024 run - where he ran a 2:20, well ahead of my fitness. The first half meant I was going to struggle home regardless but I think pushing meant the blow up came much faster. Had I kept it in control here, that might mean 2 more miles on pace and maybe a 2:31 low instead of 2:32.
3) Overestimated my fitness. Even looking at the mistakes in 1 and 2, I didn't think a 1:13:04 would leave me with nothing over the last 10K. I knew going out 26 seconds fast would make it harder, but the fact I blew up so bad means I likely wasn't quite ready for a 2:28, and my original target of 1:13:30 was too aggressive to begin with. I only went out 26 seconds fast to begin with, but perhaps this was a full minute plus compared to what a smart race would have been for me. I wanted the best result possible in Boston and didn't want to play it safe going for a 2:29:59, and I ended up paying the price for taking that risk.
4) Just not feeling that good. Even given 1-3, things just never felt effortless or super easy the way they did in Los Angeles. I think relative to my fitness, I was only going out slightly harder here than LA (LA first half 1:14:30 including a 15 second port-a-potty stop) so it was surprising I never felt super comfortable and was getting tight as early as 10 and weak as early as 12. I think it would have been hard to have my best day when going through the half was already.
Overall, getting a PR means this was still my fastest marathon - although San Francisco is certainly the stronger run given an extra 400 feet of elevation gain there and just much better pacing/holding on better late. I'm not happy with this overall but two things I was happy was is getting the PR, and just running so strong through 30K. I've never been on 2:27 marathon pace through 20 miles before and perhaps that is a possibility in the future.
Since I PR'd with a 6 minute positive split and probably north of 40 minutes for the final 10K, I think clearly the fitness for a sub-2:30 is there. A 6 minute positive split is such an inefficient way to race a marathon, and I think suggests a 1:14:30-1:15:00 even split is possible.
Glad to get Boston done and 1/6 for World Marathon Majors now. The experience was definitely cool and amazing crowd support but soured by just feeling so bad towards the end. Unfortunately I will have to wait to the fall for the next opportunity.
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| 1 WMM finished |
I can't really give much of analysis of how hard Boston is compared to San Francisco and Los Angeles - since I went out too hard, the Newton hills were going to be brutal for me regardless. I certainly think there is a unique challenge of managing the downhill early on and running those 4 hills late in the race. San Francisco and Los Angeles have more elevation overall, but do not have hills that steep at that stage in the race. I think San Francisco was all downhill or flat after 17-18 miles (so 3-4 before Boston), and Los Angeles had a hillier last 10K but all the gain was very gradual (2% grade max) versus maybe up to 6-7% grade at Boston (at least 5%).
I think what is most disappointing for me if the fact I was so confident the Newton hills wouldn't get to me. I've seen the carnage that happens at Boston - so many people go out too fast and suffer late for it. After running a smart race on a tough San Francisco course and training over a lot of hills, I felt great about my chances of running strong at least past Heartbreak Hill. I studied the course extensively and read the advice of proper pacing here. Yet after all that, I still made the classic rookie Boston mistake of going out too hard and the hills got to me.
It is worth noting, I never practiced 1) controlled downhills, 2) significant downhills early, or 3) significant uphill late. I did the majority of training on the roads around Watchaug Pond, which featured quite a bit more elevation and harder hills than on the Boston course. However, I generally hit the reps pretty hard meaning I was never coasting on downhills but always hammering. This potentially made it harder for me to relax on the early downhill in Boston. Additionally this loop this loop started at the lowest point, meaning I'd always run and uphill before a downhill. Boston has big downhills early in the race and tough hills late, generally I was practicing getting the tougher hills done relatively early in my workout and ending on downhill. This wasn't intentional - the purpose of running this loop was to expose myself to regular tough hills and it's really difficult to find a set up where you'd be starting with significant downhill and ending up with a lot of uphill. My hope was these three items would not be an issue because I'd be so strong/fit on hills that it wouldn't matter that Boston's hills come in an unusual, but clearly stayed controlled on early downhills was an issue for me.
Initially, my confidence was shattered and I felt like I should never run a marathon again. In 3 of my 4 marathons, I've been absolutely miserable the last 10K dragging myself in which losing a lot of time. It's not fun at all. I hate the uncertainty of not knowing how the rest of the race will play out, and when it ends up being a sufferfest, it's hard to look forward to doing it again. But clearly there is a ton of room for improvement in many ways. A lot of things to consider and work on in the fall. I think pacing and fueling are the two biggest. I haven't confirmed a fall marathon but I think I'll probably try a more conservative approach to give myself the best chance at a sub-2:30. I'm naturally a front runner in races and it's hard for me to hold back, but it just seems like this is not going to be the best strategy for me in marathons going forward.
Boston Pros:
1. Unique, historic and challenging course
2. Amazing crowd support
3. Best race medal I've ever gotten
4. Great volunteers and water/gatorade/maurten stations were set up really well (easy to grab cups, and plenty of stations)
5. Easy bathroom access pre race if taking a coach bus
Boston Cons:
1. Too crowded
2. Start was packed, couldn't do strides
3. Race start is pretty late (got very sunburnt and felt warm early on)
4. having to switch sides of the road on Beacon street was annoying
5. Racing on monday sucks
Overall, an iconic race that I'm really glad to be part of and start the world majors. The crowd support was unbelievable. I think it's almost too competitive, I didn't like finishing so far back (I think 30th-50th range would be ideal for me). It's obviously a challenge to get right but I didn't like all the downhill from the start, made it pretty hard to relax (although LA was similar first 5K and it wasn't a problem there).
