Boston Marathon

Race: Boston Marathon
Time/Position: 3:15:16 (4783 from 23000)
The oldest marathon in the world by a considerable margin, and the only one that requires a qualifying time. It has always been the US marathon that most interested me, so I thought I would use last year's sub-3 run at London to get a place last September. I had no intention of racing today, but wanted to use it as a final (rather extravagant) long brisk run before going flat-out for a sub 2.50 PB in Manchester at the end of this month. As a result, I could enjoy myself the day before, walking around Boston and soaking up the ambience despite continuing jet lag. It's a unique and historic point-to-point course through a series of lovely New England towns, with a fantastic atmosphere which started the moment I got off the train from New York on Sunday (I particularly liked the fact that the race was so closely linked with local Massachusetts identity). A one-hour bus journey takes all the runners from Boston to the start at Hopkinton, where we all relaxed in the early morning sunshine. The race itself was fantastically enjoyable - freed from any pressure to go for a time, I just jogged gently along the classic course and soaked it up as a 'tourist': the only problem was that my qualifying time put me near the front in Wave 1, so I had to concentrate on not holding up the other runners. From Hopkinton it goes very gently downhill through Ashland and Framingham to the famous 'scream tunnel' of college girls in Wellesley, which you can hear almost a mile away. I went through half in 1:33 or so, which was a tad quicker than I'd intended. The crowds built throughout, and all the towns were delightful typical New England settlements. After Newton, a series of hills build up to the infamous 'Heartbreak Hill' at the 20 mile point. If I'd been going for a time, this would have been extremely unpleasant. As it was, it just made for a bit of variety with superb crowd support. My Welsh flags got lots of attention from the crowd, and the support got even better as we entered Brookline and saw Central Boston getting closer. Then it was through the suburbs, past the Red Sox stadium at Fenway Park - with a match in progress, as is traditional on Patriot's Day - then down Beacon Street to the finish on Boylston. It all reminded me a bit of when I did London in 2010, again consciously taking it easy before going for a later PB: marathons are so much more fun when you're not eyeballs out! I carried on jogging through the finish and back to the hostel on Stuart Street, and was enjoying a reuben and some craft ale in the wonderful Jakob Wirth bar next door when I heard the dreadful news about the explosions.