Just how tough is the Boston Marathon? from Marathon Man Gary Allen File 6

Just how tough is the Boston Marathon and how many times are runners told to resist the urge to start too fast....a very common mistake at the Boston Marathon.

OK don’t take my word for it, statistics don’t lie, Dave McGillivray the race director shared the following, “Of the 26,658 finishers, onl 705 ran the 2nd half faster than the first half for a measly 2.64%.”

This of course means 97.36% of the entire field were slowed by the tough terrain of the second 13.1 miles. I personally believe it was less about the Newton hills and more about imprudent pacing.

You see, Boston’s early downhills are almost impossible to resist. Speaking from experience, I have run the Boston Marathon 24 times and I think I might have run negative splits just twice. Yes, I started too fast.

Is this a common phenomenon at the Boston Marathon? Check out these statistics from an experienced marathoner and a good friend Stephen Peckiconis, “it doesn't vary much.” His split stats show just 749 / 2.81% ran negative splits in 2016 and only 812 / 3.07% in 2017.

So if you want to have success at Boston, run conservatively early or you’ll join the vast majority who slow or struggle in the second half every single year.

Marathon Man Gary Allen is a regular writer for My Best Runs

posted Monday May 13th
by Gary Allen
Marathon Man