The starting point for me is my race in Boston in 2006 where I was trying to get under 3:00 hours. Click on the image below to see the details.
2006 Goal versus Actual Results
The plan wasn’t too far off. Going into it I assumed the race would mean whatever shape I was in for a flat course + 2ish minutes and that’s what the paces targets were set on. Until the hills try and stick around marathon goal pace (for a flat course) even though it is downhill. Then loose some time in the hills and try and get back to slower than MGP in the finish.
The biggest problem was the first mile which was a minute slow, that was nearly impossible for me to make up. I was also a little slower in the hills than planned and then the motivation wasn’t there since sub 3 seemed out of reach. I haven’t decided on my plan for 2009 yet, it’ll come in early April but I am starting to form a general idea on how to run the race … not the specific paces yet. I do want this to be a negative split race from an effort standpoint, I’m not sure if that means a negative split based on pace yet but we’ll see.
Austin Metronome 