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SPRING MARATHON SEASON

No sooner have Christmas and New Year passed us by, we are looking forward to the spring marathon season.

I for one cannot wait to see the back of these cold, grey and damp winter months. I would be happy if we had some snow here in the UK, I love running in snow but nope, just rain and fog.

This spring I will be running the Manchester Marathon on 5th April and then the Boston Marathon on 20th April. Let me know in the comments if you are running either of these races or what other races you have planned. I am keen to run somewhere different next spring having run Paris, Tokyo, London, Manchester, Liverpool and Boston over the last three years.

I began the marathon training block on the 6th January which will give me 13 weeks up to Manchester and 15 weeks up to Boston, although the 2 weeks between Manchester & Boston will primarily be recovery. Which essentially is Manchester being the last long run then a two-week taper, that’s how marathon training works isn’t it?

I am super excited to be running the Boston Marathon this year after running a BQ in TOKYO MARATHON 2019 7 years ago as a non-runner, I was watching the Boston Marathon on that dark day. I decided there and then that if I ever run a marathon, it would be the Boston Marathon. I didn’t appreciate how big and historic the race was at the time, nor did I understand about qualifying times, BQ’s or marathon majors, but I WOULD RUN BOSTON ONE DAY. That day is 20th April 2020.

As I got into running back in 2016 and ran my first marathon in 2017, I learned about the Abbott World Marathon Majors and set myself the goal of running all 6. I wanted Boston to be my final marathon of the series and earn my 6 star finisher medal in Boston. Both of those dreams will become a reality this April. I will complete the 6 world marathon majors and collect my 6 star medal on Boylston Street.

My goals for the 2020 spring marathons are pretty simple. After running a 3:01.09 in Tokyo last year, I would like to have a crack at beating that PR and have my first attempt at running a sub 3 hour marathon. With coming close on the flat, fast course in Tokyo, I thought that it might be too big of a challenge to run sub 3 in Boston, especially after missing 4 months through injury over the 2019 summer. Instead, I will use the Manchester Marathon as my first attempt at running a sub 3 hour marathon. Manchester is a flat course and fast times can be run there, the new 2020 route looks to have around 85m of elevation gain, similar to that in Tokyo.

If I do well in Manchester and run sub 3, I will run Boston with no pressure and just enjoy the experience. Most likely turning notifications on my watch off and running it to feel. If I fall short on the sub 3 and PR goal in Manchester then I may attempt it again in Boston but that will need a big push through the Newton Hills to set up a sub 3 hour PR.

So stay tuned for my bi-weekly Boston Marathon Training updates over the next 3 months.

I hope you all have a great spring marathon season… let’s go get some!!!

 

 

17 thoughts on “SPRING MARATHON SEASON”

  1. I’m hoping to run Boston on a charity number. I’ve never come close to qualifying.
    If I don’t run it I’m signed up to volunteer on Sunday afternoon at packet pickup and I’m registered for the 5K on Saturday.
    Good luck with the training!
    Andy

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    1. That would be a cool way to run Boston, do they have a lottery draw to award the charity numbers? The pledge amount is quite high isn’t it, but gives great satisfaction that your hard work is going to a good cause. I run London, Tokyo & Berlin for charities m, all were fantastic, rewarding experiences.
      I am also running the Saturday 5k.

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      1. Hi, No lottery for the charity bibs. You have to track them down or know someone.
        It seems that the amount to raise starts at $7500. I hear that many non profits are asking for $10k!
        I thought $7500 was crazy high.
        I’m hoping to get one from work or I’ll run a marathon in NJ the next Saturday.

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      2. I had heard it was up to $10k as well, crazy money and I thought the £2,000 I had to raise for the a spot in the London Marathon was high. A had a charity number in Tokyo last year which came out around £650, it felt like a bargain in comparison to the other marathon majors.

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      5. Wow. I generally don’t like lotteries because it makes it hard to go with a group of friends.
        But, I think my wife would be happy to go. A non qualifier bib in Boston is $375. Then the onerous fundraising. Ugh.

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      6. All the weeks of training and running the marathon but I find the hardest part is doing the fundraising. I feel guilty asking for money even though most people are very generous but there are only so many times you can ask. I did a bike ride in Death Valley in 2016, Berlin Marathon in 2017 & London Marathon in 2018 all for charity, each one was harder than the last getting to that pledge total. For Tokyo 2019 I just paid the full pledge myself to save the hassle of fundraising

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      1. I’m attempting to run a half marathon during each month in 2020. So far I’m run one in the Rockways (Queens), NY in Feb and planning one in March (either DC Half or some random half in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY). On the Marathon side of things, I”m registered for Madrid in Apr (after failing to obtain a spot via lottery for London) and NYC in Nov.

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      2. Nice!! that will be a cool challenge. Prospect Park is quite hilly isn’t it? I should have run the Brooklyn Half last year but had to pull out with injury. I feel your pain with the London lottery, it is virtually impossible to land a spot in that race now, I have failed 5yrs running now and ended up taking a charity bib in 2018. This year will be the first year I don’t run the NYCM, since I started running, I am going back to Chicago in Oct instead.

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      3. Yes, Prospect Park is quite hilly, I think this half does four loops in the park. Since I’m teaching a college bio course on Sundays, scheduling races (now until May) will be a bit difficult because I can only run them on Saturdays and near NYC. I heard London is tough by lottery. I’ll be with those runners in spirt becasue Mardrid’s marathon is on the same day as London’s. Ah man, for NYC becuase it’s going to be the 50th year anniversary. I imagine that the medal will be AMAZING . . . Well, it be better be.

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      4. ah damn yeh, that does make racing difficult and not many Saturday races, especailly HM these days. Madrid will be a great race, should be far better weather than London too. Haha it should be a great medal, I really liked the apple last year, have you seen the medal from the 40th running? it’s not great… they do look a lot better now so I have no doubts the 50th will be awesome.

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