BostonBound59

Cathy and I flew to Philly on Saturday morning as I wanted another try at Steamtown. Last year I ran a Boston qualifying time in 3:23:55 but I was disappointed with the last half of my race. This year I lucked out on 2 fronts: the weather was unusually cool and I stumbled on a group of 20 somethings at the starting line trying to qualify for Boston---which they had to run in 3:10 or less. I felt I was in shape to run a sub 3:15 although I had felt sluggish all week leading into the race.

My plan was to hang on to this group for dear life until mile 20 and then see what happened. I fortunately was able to hang with them until mile 23.5 and kept them in sight the rest of the way. The 1st half of the course has an elevation drop but I ran the back half faster-go figure-We ran negative splits 1:35/1:32 including miles 20-23 in sub-sevens. Last year I was 1:36/1:48. Finishing time 3:07:52. I think what helped was cutting down the 20+ milers and replacing them with hard 18-19 mile progression runs where we ran steady for 12 then all out the last 6 miles. My Ledge Street X-C team made an awesome card for me before the race which I displayed for them after the race. I was able to persuade the race organizers to donate 36 pairs of green racing glasses to the team...which they will proudly wear Saturday at the Nashua City Championships.

http://www.runhigh.com/2009%20WEB%20RESULTS/R101109AA.html