OT: Boston Marathon

[vav]

Watched portions of the race including 1st place for both women and men. Nasty conditions. No one really close to their PRs I guess. Wonder if the cold rain affects African runners that much.

[benb]

Yah it's NASTY out there.

I guess I also found it interesting they way they are basically all running in as close to underwear/speedos as possible in this weather even though they cover up their upper body.

[abr5]

My brother in law is one of the Hancock Invited runners (so top 25 elite). Only 11 of those 25 finished, most dropping out after mile 20 with mild hypothermia (including the BIL). I was at the finish line for the top finishers along and it was really surprising to see the finish order- some real outsiders came in top 10.

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[wc1934]

Watched portions of the race including 1st place for both women and men. Nasty conditions. No one really close to their PRs I guess. Wonder if the cold rain affects African runners that much.

Really nasty out there - The elite finished in 2 hours and change/2:39 and suffered - the wheelchair winner couldnt even do an interview - went right to the medical tent. The average run of the mill runner is still on the course.
Years ago I remember Bill Rodgers saying that he could not imagine how people run for 4 hours.

[NHAero]

Very similar weather to the year I ran it - 1970, high 30Fs, rain and sleet - ugh! But Englishman Ron Hill set a course record at 2:10:30. I survived at 3:28:30 :)

[MattTuck]

Just from a sporting perspective, I enjoy when conditions aren't perfect.

Sport, especially endurance sport, sees so much specialization in physique and training. There is a lot of incentive to run the body fat down to borderline unhealthy levels. A curveball like bad weather can really impact some athletes that are at the edge, when all things equal, they'd have no problem in better weather. I don't mind if the more stout/gritty racers occasionally get their chance at victory.

[wc1934]

Just from a sporting perspective, I enjoy when conditions aren't perfect.

Sport, especially endurance sport, sees so much specialization in physique and training. There is a lot of incentive to run the body fat down to borderline unhealthy levels. A curveball like bad weather can really impact some athletes that are at the edge, when all things equal, they'd have no problem in better weather. I don't mind if the more stout/gritty racers occasionally get their chance at victory.
One of the TV commentators stated that the the extremely lean athletes had lean muscle mass and very little fat and therefore no "insulation" and were having a problem keeping warm.

[ptourkin]

Really nasty out there - The elite finished in 2 hours and change/2:39 and suffered - the wheelchair winner couldnt even do an interview - went right to the medical tent. The average run of the mill runner is still on the course.
Years ago I remember Bill Rodgers saying that he could not imagine how people run for 4 hours.

Great efforts today but anyone who does ultras is giggling at that quote.

[Clean39T]

I stopped following running a year or more ago as I got deeper and deeper back into cycling - but that is just so awesome for Desiree on so many levels. Did Molly Huddle hold on to fourth too? An amazing finish for her as well...

To translate to cycling terms, her win is somewhat akin to if Taylor Phinney had won Roubaix this year.

@ptourkin - I hear you - I've done one 40mi trail ultra, and it was a helluva lot of fun - but also something that took me over a month to recover from...

[abr5]

I stopped following running a year or more ago as I got deeper and deeper back into cycling - but that is just so awesome for Desiree on so many levels. Did Molly Huddle hold on to fourth too? An amazing finish for her as well...

To translate to cycling terms, her win is somewhat akin to if Taylor Phinney had won Roubaix this year.

@ptourkin - I hear you - I've done one 40mi trail ultra, and it was a helluva lot of fun - but also something that took me over a month to recover from...Molly Huddle was pretty far back, she was basically walking at the finish. Tough day for her (and almost everyone)

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[Clean39T]

Molly Huddle was pretty far back, she was basically walking at the finish. Tough day for her (and almost everyone)

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The race feed was showing her in fourth place when Des was at like mile 25 - time to head over to the fetid swamp at LetsRun.com and see what the scoop is...

[abr5]

The race feed was showing her in fourth place when Des was at like mile 25 - time to head over to the fetid swamp at LetsRun.com and see what the scoop is...She ended up in 15th or 16th. My brother in law (Ritchie) was around 14th at mile 20 when he dropped out. The guy he was running with (Pennel) ended up 4th after the rest of the elite field dropped out too. A lot of the favorites ended up at the same first aid station right before Boston College. They apparently got sent to a "warm up center" where there was no medical aid and had to wait for blankets and medical staff. Took them something like 2.5 hours to get back on the medical bus.

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[kppolich]

Had 5 friends there today. Conditions were crap, still some impressive times. I was there the past 3/4 years and the weather is hit or miss. Hotter than hell last year, nice in 2015, and the same rain in 2016. Still one of the coolest sporting things I've done. Super powerful as well with spectators lining the entire route. That just doesn't happen anywhere else.

[merlinmurph]

We live in Hopkinton where the race starts. We've hosted a running club for the last two years so they have a place to hang out and chill before the start. They really love being able to hang and we love having them. The weather was downright awful, about as bad as it could be - below 40 and rain, sometimes hard. Absolutely miserable. The weather was definitely a concern for the runners, and some were more than concerned, but overall their mood was upbeat and fantastic. Definitely a tough day for them.

Congrats to Desi, she just pulled away from everybody.

[wc1934]

USA women dominate!!!!
7 of the top 8 women were from the USA

2nd - S. Sellers really outstanding as she is a relative unknown.
4th - R.Hyland
5th - Jessica Chichester
6th - Nicole Dimercurio
7th S.Flanagan, from Marblehead, MA (and a top pick - last years winner of the NYC)
8th - Kimi Reed

Molly Huddle from Rhode Island struggled - I thought she had a great chance of being on the podium but just wasnt her day.

[Peter P.]

I've always wondered whether on raw, rainy days such as today's Boston Marathon, that the best strategy would be to dress for warmth rather than stripped. In such cold weather you're burning extra calories per mile just to stay warm, so bonking is a greater risk. Also, I'd consider ingesting extra calories during the race to compensate for the higher burn rate.

Warmth and calories.

[Bruce K]

They actually allowed runners access to warming shelters with blankets and cocoa and then they could continue.

For an amateur whose only goal was finishing this was huge for hundreds of folks. Those you saw finishing wrapped in space blankets were some who stopped.

BK

[holliscx]

Many of the elites dropped out as the winning times were quite slow by their standards even with the weather

[wc1934]

Despite the crappy weather/conditions, more than 95% of the runners finished.
Anecodes:
Molly Huddle finished 13th — and then needed an emergency root canal.
Rachel Hyland finished 9th and was back to work teaching on Tuesday.

[abr5]

Despite the crappy weather/conditions, more than 95% of the runners finished.
Anecodes:
Molly Huddle finished 13th — and then needed an emergency root canal.
Rachel Hyland finished 9th and was back to work teaching on Tuesday.

Molly was 16th and Rachel was 4th, not sure where your results came from...

The craziest is that supposedly Jessica Chichester isn't eligible for the $15k she earned since she wasn't an elite starter.

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[wc1934]

Molly was 16th and Rachel was 4th, not sure where your results came from...

The craziest is that supposedly Jessica Chichester isn't eligible for the $15k she earned since she wasn't an elite starter.

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yup - old fingers typing -old eyes not seeing - this is what i posted earlier in the thread

USA women dominate!!!!
7 of the top 8 women were from the USA

2nd - S. Sellers really outstanding as she is a relative unknown.
4th - R.Hyland
5th - Jessica Chichester
6th - Nicole Dimercurio
7th S.Flanagan, from Marblehead, MA (and a top pick - last years winner of the NYC)
8th - Kimi Reed

Molly Huddle from Rhode Island struggled - I thought she had a great chance of being on the podium but just wasnt her day.

[yashcha]

Also, first Japanese winner in over 30 years. I remember my dad taking me to watch the race in 1987 when Seko won.

What a badass: "The humble bureaucrat, who has no coach and no sponsor and trains on his free time, has been hailed across Japan for the shock triumph."

[fiamme red]

New York Times: The Nurse Who Took a Very Different Route to 2nd Place in the Boston Marathon (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/sports/boston-marathon.html)

[Bruce K]

And then there was the last finisher.

A woman who is a recent cancer survivor was advised by the medical staff at an aid station to go home due to hypothermia. When she asked to continue, they and her husband insisted, so she did.

After an hour or so at home she made her husband take her back to the aid station so she could finish. He agreed on the condition that he would run with her to monitor her health and well being.

She finished at 12:10 AM to the cheers of cleanup workers and police details. Fortunately there was a TV crew still around who caught wind of the story and documented the finish of her one and only marathon run.

BK

[jwalther]

Marathon winner. Bourbon drinker. My kind of woman.

http://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article209013744.html

[charliedid]

New York Times: The Nurse Who Took a Very Different Route to 2nd Place in the Boston Marathon (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/17/sports/boston-marathon.html)

Read that this AM

Great story

[rlanger]

And then there was the last finisher.

A woman who is a recent cancer survivor was advised by the medical staff at an aid station to go home due to hypothermia. When she asked to continue, they and her husband insisted, so she did.

After an hour or so at home she made her husband take her back to the aid station so she could finish. He agreed on the condition that he would run with her to monitor her health and well being.

She finished at 12:10 AM to the cheers of cleanup workers and police details. Fortunately there was a TV crew still around who caught wind of the story and documented the finish of her one and only marathon run.

BK

Great story!

I've been fortunate enough to have run Boston twice, and on both occasions had pretty good conditions (2011, 2013). Living in Japan now and Kawauchi's win has been pretty epic here.