Boston Marathon

Not that one.

After crashing out in spectacular fashion at the Loch Ness Marathon last year, I signed up for the Boston (Lincolnshire) Marathon intending to try and meet my four-hour goal.

Going into February or so, I was well on track. I was ahead of my plan, running consistently and running good distances, feeling positive.

Then, as spring started to blossom, I just kind of… fell off. We had visitors and then I got sick and we had a couple of busy weekends, and then before I knew it the race was two weeks out and it was too late to try and catch up.

The run went about as well as it could have. I ran the first 18ish miles at a remarkably even pace—probably some of the best long-distance running I’ve done. Then things just started to slip. I slowed down; that pain came back in my shoulder. I struggled through miles 19-25, and then sort of rallied just at the end.

Didn’t even feel particularly bad afterwards: Sam and I drove up to Lincoln to do a bit of sightseeing and then I drove us home.

In retrospect I think I just didn’t do enough long running in training. I’m encouraged, however, by quite how relaxed it all felt; how unbroken I felt at the end. After Loch Ness I felt like a bit of a failure; but now I feel like I’m making progress.

Very slow progress.