Race Report: 2026 Boston Marathon

My previous post was a race report for the Newport Rhode Races Marathon.  This post picks up where that one left off.

Saturday, April 18

After driving from Newport and returning my rental car, I walked across the street to the Hilton Park Plaza Hotel, where I stayed for the next three nights in Boston.

On marathon weekend, it’s tough to find a room at any of the hotels that are close to the finish line.  I was able to get a room at this hotel by booking through a travel company called Fit 4 Adventure.  I learned about them from a friend in the Boston Squeakers group.  They always have a large block of rooms at this hotel.

Hilton has a loyalty program called HHonors.  Because I booked through a third party, my reservation didn’t include my HHonors number.   When I gave my number to the guy at the front desk, he saw that I have Diamond status with Hilton, and he immediately gave me two water bottles and asked if I wanted a chocolate chip cookie.  He was then apologetic that there weren’t any larger rooms available.  The room I booked was the smallest type of room.  He wanted to upgrade me to something larger, but nothing was available.

The important thing to me was getting into a room right away.  I had driven from Newport in the same clothes I wore for my marathon that morning.  After two hours driving in sweaty running clothes, I was eager to take a shower and change into clean clothes.

When I was ready to venture out, I stopped by the Fit 4 Adventure desk to check in with them.  Besides hotel rooms, their package included several options, such as a pre-race pasta dinner, city tours, bus transportation to the start of the marathon, or post-race massages.  I didn’t book any of those things, but they gave me one of their T-shirts.

Boston Marathon weekend is always a social occasion.  On Saturday afternoon, I always go to a meet-up of Boston Squeakers.  We met for a couple hours at Time Out Market, which is near Fenway Park.  Going there, the trains were crowded, because most of the people on the trains were on their way to a Red Sox game.  After our meet-up, a few of us went to dinner together.

Sunday, April 19

I know a few good breakfast spots in Boston, but it was drizzly, so I ate breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant.

Sunday was the last day I could pick up my race packet.  As usual, the expo was held at the Hynes Convention Center.  Lines can be long, so I made a point of getting there when they opened for the day.  There was a long line to get into the building, but the line moved fast.

Once inside, there were different routes through the building depending on which wave you were in, or if you were just there to attend the expo.  It was a lot of walking, but the packet pickup process was efficient.

I didn’t spend a lot of time at the expo, but I made a point of stopping by the Marathon Tours & Travel booth.  I learned about a couple of new tours that are in the works for next year.

When I left the expo, it was starting to rain again.  I went back to the hotel and did a strength training workout.  There’s large fitness center under the hotel, and hotel guests can use it.

The finish line is always a popular place for people to meet and take pictures.  Marathon Maniacs always has a group photo in front of the finish line at noon on Sunday.  When I left the hotel to go to the finish line, I was pleased to see that the rain had stopped.

After that group photo, I was talking with friends until it was time for another group photo with the Boston Squeakers.

It was starting to rain again, so I found a nearby place where I could get a bowl of clam chowder.

The other group I always meet with on Sunday is the 50sub4 Marathon Club.  They also meet at Time Out Market.  I saw several familiar faces there, and I also met a few new ones.

For dinner, I went to Night Shift Brewing at Lovejoy Wharf.  They have Detroit-style pizza.  This has become my favorite pizza place in Boston.

All day I had been finding walking around town to be uncomfortable.  My feet were sore, and my Achilles tendons were tight.  I tried to stay off my feet, often taking the “T” instead of walking, even if it was only for one stop.  In spite of that, I still put in about 11,000 steps on Sunday.

Monday, April 20

Monday was race day.  For the last several years, I’ve been getting to the start in Hopkinton on a motorcoach chartered by Marathon Maniacs.  The bus loads right outside the Hilton Park Plaza, which is why it was so convenient to stay there.

The race has several waves, with start times ranging from 10:00 to 11:21 AM.  I was in one of the later waves, but we all needed to be ready to leave Boston at the same time.  The buses started loading at 6:15, and they left at 6:45.

It was a chilly day.  When I boarded the bus, the temperature was in the 30s.  My wave didn’t start until 11:01, and by then the temperature would climb into the 40s.  I don’t think it ever got up to 50.  It was also quite windy.  In conditions like these, I wear tights.  This was a day to wear the cheetah outfit.

The bus ride to Hopkinton took about an hour.  After we got there, I had about two hours before I needed to leave to walk to the start.  That’s a long wait, but we were able to stay on the bus in relative comfort.

Most people get to Hopkinton on school buses that pick them up at Boston Common and drop them off at the Athletes’ Village at Hopkinton High School.  They wait outside, rain or shine, until it’s time to walk to the start corrals.  There are hundreds of port-o-potties in the Athletes’ Village, but with tens of thousands of runners, the lines get long.

Club buses like ours park about a quarter mile away at Edward J. Hopkins Elementary School.  We had a few dozen port-o-potties, but there were far fewer runners at the elementary school, so the lines were short.  There was also a bathroom on the bus.

For the last several years, the race has been divided into four waves of roughly equal size.  This year, there were more waves, with fewer runners in each wave.  There were six waves, not counting the earlier starts for elite athletes and athletes with disabilities.

I was assigned to wave five, which was the last wave of time qualifiers.  The sixth wave included runners who got into the race through some other method, such as a tour group, a sponsor, or a charity.

At the appropriate time, those of us in wave five left the elementary school to walk to the Athletes’ Village at the high school.  From there, we had to walk about a mile to get to the start corrals.

In the past, everyone followed the same route to get from the Athletes’ Village to the start corral.  This year, they had two different routes, depending on which corral you were in.  Runners in corrals 1-4 of each wave took the new route along Church Street.  Runners in corrals 5-8 took the traditional route along Grove Street.  I assume they did this so we could get to the appropriate start corral quicker and with less congestion.

Each route went past a parking lot with additional port-o-potties, so we could make a last-minute bathroom stop on our way to the corrals.  I was in the corral three, so I was taking a different route this year.

My friend Jolene, who was on the same bus, was also in corral three, so we walking to the start corrals together.

After my race on Saturday, I felt like a train wreck.  I wasn’t even going to try to run at a fast pace in Boston.  Instead of starting the race with a time goal, I planned to go at a slow pace and stop to take pictures.

The start is sharply downhill.  I didn’t try to race it, but the downhill start made it easy to get started.  I wasn’t going as fast as the runners around me, so I was getting passed by most of the other runners.

Right at the one-kilometer mark, the road briefly turns uphill.  I was tempted to walk this hill, but I didn’t want to be the only one walking.  I ran it, but I slowed down significantly.  Even still, it was tiring.  Everyone was passing me on this hill.

Mile two was similar.  It’s mostly downhill, but there’s a brief uphill section.  Again, I took the uphill section slowly, but it still felt tiring.

My pace for the first two miles was faster than 10 minutes, but only because they were downhill.  Starting with mile three, my pace was between 10 and 11 minutes.

My cheetah outfit made me easy to spot.  A few friends who started farther back greeted me as they went by.  First, it was Kristen, then Erin, and then Jeff.  I also got shoutouts from random strangers.  A few people told me I had the best outfit.

The next several miles had a gentle downhill trend, but they were closer to being level.  I did my best to run a pace that wouldn’t tire me out, although I was tired anyway.  I felt like this race was just a continuation of the race I ran on Saturday.  I had no energy at all.

The weather was fickle.  It was mostly cloudy, with a strong wind that was mostly at our backs.  Occasionally, the sun would come out, and I would briefly feel warm.  At other times, there would be a strong wind gust, and I would get cold.  A few times, I felt raindrops.  Fortunately, there was never any persistent rain.  Cool weather with a tailwind is something people dream of at this race.  It’s the first time since 2011 that it’s happened.

I never noticed this before, but every one of the early miles has a brief uphill section, even though the overall trend is downhill.  I found myself getting tired on every small rise, even though I wasn’t trying to maintain my pace.

In mile six, my pace slowed to 11 minutes.  I had expected my overall time to be slower than it was on Saturday.  Now I knew for sure.

In mile eight, I finally decided to walk an uphill section.  There’s a guy who always watches the race dressed as Santa Claus.  Since I was walking already, I took my phone out to take a picture of him.

To use my phone, I had to take off one of my gloves.  In the short time my glove was off, my fingers started to turn white.  Because of that, I didn’t take as many pictures as I had planned to take.

The runners in my wave all had race bibs with green backgrounds.  By now, I started to notice that I was surrounded by runners with orange race bibs.  Those were runners from the last wave.  They started about 20 minutes later, but the faster runners from that wave had caught up to me by now.

I was drinking at every aid station.  Starting with mile two, they had aid stations every mile.  It was a cool enough day that I didn’t need to be drinking that much.  After nine miles, I made a bathroom stop.  After that, I cut back to only drinking every other mile.

In mile 12, I needed to take another walking break on a short hill.  Then, in the next mile, I reached Wellesley College.  I chose to walk all the way through the Wellesley “scream tunnel” so I could take pictures of the signs.

That mile took more than 12 minutes, but it included a long walking break.  Then I ran the rest of the way to downtown Wellesley.

I reached the halfway point in 2:26:20.  That was already 20 minutes slower than my last race, and I knew I would only get slower in the second half.  For the past three years, I managed to run negative splits on this course, but that’s hard to do.  The first half is much easier than the second half.  This year I was struggling, so I knew I’d slow down on the tougher sections.

In mile 14, I brought my pace back down under 12 minutes.  As I started mile 14, I noticed a change in my gait.  I was still running, but it was more of a shuffle.  It felt like it was somewhere between running and walking.

Sure enough, mile 15 was slower.  That mile was slightly downhill, and I didn’t take any walking breaks, yet it was slower than 12 minutes.

Halfway through mile 16, I reached a half mile section that’s sharply downhill.  That enabled me to bring my pace back down, but only temporarily.

At the end of that mile, I crossed the Charles River and entered Newton.  This is where the race gets tough.  There are four noticeable hills in Newton.  In the past, I’ve taken pride in being able to run strong on these hills.  This time, I needed to take walking breaks.

The first hill is the most gradual, but it’s long.  I didn’t think I could run the whole thing, but it’s too long for me to walk all the way.  There’s an aid station right at the beginning of this hill.  I slowed to a walk while drinking a cup of Gatorade.  Since I was already walking, I walked a bit farther.  Then I forced myself to run.

I could only run so far before I needed another walking break.  I paced myself up the hill by running until I needed to walk and then walking just long enough to recover.  I ended up taking five short walking breaks on that hill.

After reaching the top of that hill, I was able to run until the next one.  The next hill is at 17.5 miles.  It starts right where we make a right turn in front of a fire station.  This hill isn’t as long, but it’s steeper.

The hill started out gradual, so I ran until the grade got more tiring.  Then I walked the rest of the hill.  It was longer than I remembered.  Perhaps it just seems longer when you’re walking it, because it takes so much longer.

Because I walked so much on the hills, miles 17 and 18 both took more than 13 minutes.  Mile 19 was mostly downhill, and I was able to bring my pace back down, although it was still slower than 11 minutes.

The next mile had another hill, but it’s the easiest of the four hills in Newton.  I had hoped to run it, but I still needed to take a walking break.

When I reached the 20-mile mark, I was almost to the beginning of Heartbreak Hill.  On this hill, I needed to take multiple walking breaks again.

After heartbreak hill, there’s a short downhill section, followed by one last uptick in the road.  I had to walk that too.

I was almost to the 21-mile mark.  Now, I was at the beginning of a long downhill section that took me past Boston College.  As long as it was downhill, I could force myself to run.  The next time the road leveled off, I had to start taking walking breaks.  Not counting the “scream tunnel,” this was the first time I had to walk on a section that wasn’t uphill.

I ran the downhill sections, and I did a run/walk mix on the flat sections.  I was past all the major hills, but I was out of gas.

Between 22 and 23 miles, I made the left turn at Cleveland Circle.  There are multiple sets of train tracks in the street, so I always have to watch my footing carefully there.

After that turn, I focused on intermediate goals.  The first one was reaching the banner where we leave Boston to enter Brookline.  Next, I focused on getting to the 23-mile mark.

I did a time check at 23 miles.  This is where I realized for the first time that I would be slower this year than I was in 2016.  That was hard to take.  In 2016, I didn’t run at all in January and February, because of injuries.  When I started training, it was only six weeks before the Boston Marathon, and I was totally out of shape.  I managed that year to finish in about 5:08.  This year was going to be slower, even though I’m in much better shape.

The last few miles were agonizingly slow.  I was now needing to employ the same run/walk pacing on flat sections that I used previously on long hills.  I took frequent walking breaks, but I tried to keep them short, usually walking just 16 quick steps before forcing myself to run again.

At 24 miles, I made another bathroom stop.  By now, the sun had come out, and I was getting warm.  While I was stopped, I took my gloves off.

It was about this same time that I got my first glimpse of the iconic Citgo sign.  Then it disappeared behind the trees.

I was back in Boston now.  In the distance, I could see a small hill.  I recognized it as the place where we come up to a bridge over the freeway.  The 40K sign is right at that bridge.  The 25-mile sign is just a bit farther.

I had to walk up to the bridge, but then I forced myself to run again.  At the 25-mile aid station, I saw my friend Mary, who was volunteering there.  She had read my previous race report, so she understood why I was struggling.  She gave me a hug and told me to finish strong.

Just past that, I reached the one mile to go sign.  Ahead of me, I could see a bridge painted with the words, “Boston Strong.”  I forced myself to run to that bridge.  From there, it’s one kilometer to go.

As I ran under that bridge, I could see the next one.  I knew from past experience I would go down a ramp to go under that bridge.  On the other side, I would need to go up a ramp.  I forced myself to run until the road turned uphill after the bridge.  Then I had to walk until the road leveled off again.

There were two more turns.  As I made the right turn onto Hereford, I knew it would be the last hill.  We only run two short blocks on Hereford, but it’s slightly uphill.  I forced myself to run the first half of it.  Then I needed to walk the second half.

When I made the left turn onto Boylston, I knew I would run the rest of the way.  I could see the finish line in the distance, but it was three and a half blocks away.  I had to run a block and a half just to get to the “26” sign.  Then I just had two blocks to go.

I ran the rest of the way, finishing in 5:16:42.  It was my slowest Boston Marathon by about eight minutes.

As soon as I stopped running, I got cold.  As I continued moving through the finish area, I put on my gloves again.

There were volunteers with water bottles, but I didn’t take one.  I was only a few blocks from my hotel, and I had plenty of water there.  I kept moving until I reached what I really wanted, which was my finisher medal.  This is the most coveted finisher medal a runner can get, with the possible exception of a six-star medal.

Another volunteer was handing out bottles of Gatorade.  I passed on that and kept walking to get to the volunteers with heat sheets.

In the next block, I reached the post-race food.  Most of the food was in pre-assembled bags.  Other volunteers were handing out bananas, but I didn’t need any more food.  The bag already had more than I could eat.  I was disappointed to see that the food bag also had a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade.  After a race where I was usually cold and drank plenty of fluids, I didn’t need that much more liquid.

It was one more block to the end of the finish area, and then another block to get to my hotel.  Before going up to my room, I stopped at the hotel bar.  I had noticed earlier that they had the Samuel Adams 26.2 Brew.  I could think of no more appropriate post-race beverage.

While I was paying for my beer, I set my food bag on the floor.  When I got to my room, I realized I had accidentally left my food bag it at the bar.  I wanted something to eat, but my hands were turning white now.  Before doing anything else, I needed to take a hot shower.  It took a long time for the color to return to my hands.

After getting dressed, I went back down to the bar to retrieve my food bag.  It was still right where I left it.  By the time I got back to my room again it was already 5:30 PM.  I wanted to get some dinner before it got too much later.  Eating some of my snacks now would just spoil my appetite for dinner, so I saved them for later.

I wanted to go to Night Shift Brewing for dinner, but I needed to take the “T.”  That was easier said than done.  The trains get crowded after the marathon.

I needed a green line train that would go at least as far as North Station.  The first train to come into the station would’ve gone there, but the train was so full that it didn’t even stop.  The next train was only going as far as Government Center.  The one after that was going far enough, but it was also packed.  I managed to squeeze on, but with so many trains backed up, it took a long time just to get to the next station.  I needed to go four more stations after that.  Then I had to walk a few blocks in the cold wind.

When I got to Night Shift Brewing, the place was packed.  That caught me off guard.  When I was there on Sunday, the place was practically empty.  It would have taken an hour to get a table.  Around the bar, it was standing room only.  I got exceptionally lucky, and I was able to get the seat of someone who was just leaving.  That was a relief, because I was tired, it was cold outside, and it was getting late to find someplace else.

I slept poorly the previous three nights, but Monday night I crashed hard.

Tuesday, April 20

I flew home on Tuesday.  My flight wasn’t until 11:55, so I was able to take my time getting ready to leave.  My breakfast consisted mostly of post-race snack foods, but I ate real food when I got to the airport.

I had time Sunday morning to catch up on the Facebook posts of several friends who also did the race.  Because of the cool weather and the tailwind, most of them ran fast times.  These were the best conditions I’ve ever seen at this race, but I wasn’t able to take advantage of it.  This is probably the last time I’ll run another marathon on the same weekend as the Boston Marathon. 

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  5:16:42

Average Pace:  12:05 per mile

First Half:  2:26:20

Second Half:  2:50:22

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  11

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  583

World Marathon Majors:  30 (15 Boston, 7 Chicago, 4 NYC, 2 Berlin, London, Tokyo)

Race Report: Newport Rhode Races Marathon

For the past few years, I’ve been flying to Boston on the Friday before the Boston Marathon, so I could run the Boston 5K race on Saturday.  This year, I decided to do something different.  Instead of running the Boston 5K race, I ran the Newport Rhode Races Marathon in Newport, RI.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done another marathon on the Saturday before the Boston Marathon.  In 2012 and 2013, I ran the Gansett Marathon in Narragansett, RI on the Saturday before Boston.  On both occasions, I was able to recover quickly and have a good race on Monday.

Ideally, I would have flown to Providence, but there weren’t any direct flights from Minneapolis.  Instead, I flew to Boston and drove from there.  The drive from Boston to Newport took about an hour and 45 minutes.

I arrived in Newport around 1:30.  I stopped at the Newport YMCA to pick up my race packet.  Then I went to my hotel to check in.

I had originally booked a room at Newport Beach Hotel & Suites.  That’s the closest hotel to where the race starts and finishes.  Two weeks ago, I got an email from the owner indicating they had damage from a burst pipe, and he had moved my reservation to Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina, which he also owns.  This hotel was about two miles away.  As it turns out, the Newport Harbor Hotel & Marina is actually a nicer hotel.  It’s just not as well-located for the race.

I arrived at the hotel around 2 PM.  The advertised check-in time is 4:00, but they had a room available when I arrived.  Getting into a room right away gave me plenty of time to do a workout before dinner.

While I wasn’t as close to where the race starts and finishes, I had a room with a view of the harbor, and there were plenty of nearby restaurants.

Unless you’re staying at a hotel near Easton’s Beach, there isn’t anywhere you can park that’s within a mile of the race venue.  They have remote parking lots where you can park and take a bus to the race.  I was worried about getting on the road quickly after the race, so I asked if I could still park my car at the Newport Beach Hotel & Suites (the closer hotel).  When I was done with my workout, I drove over there to get a parking permit for my car, so I could park there in the morning.

I was originally planning to have dinner at an Italian restaurant that was a few blocks from my hotel.  I was about to leave when I heard thunder.  I checked my weather app and saw that heavy rain would continue for at least an hour.  I didn’t want to walk to dinner in a downpour, so I had dinner at the restaurant attached to the hotel.  It turned out to be pretty good.

I had to get up extra early, so I could pack up and check out before driving to the race.  Then I drove over to Newport Beach Hotel & Suites.  From there, it was a relatively short walk to the start/finish area.

The temperature was in the low 50s.  There was enough wind that I was comfortable running in tights.  I wasn’t checking a gear bag, so I really needed them to keep from getting too cold before and after the race.

My goal was to finish as close to four hours as I could.  That was a somewhat soft goal.  The real goal was to get to Boston by 2:00 PM, because that’s when I needed to return my rental car.  If I finished in four hours, I would easily have enough time for the drive.  If I took longer, it might be tight.

The race started and finished at Easton Beach, which is at the south end of Aquidneck Island.  The first half of the race was a big loop that took us around a peninsula to the west of where we started.  The second half of the race was mostly out-and-back to the east of where we started.

They had pace groups, so I lined up with the 4:00 group.  The 4:00 pacer was a handsome man in his 20s, and everyone wanted to take pictures with him before the race.  It seemed like a lot of people knew him, so I’m guessing he’s an influencer.  He told us he’d be taking videos during the race.

The streets we started on weren’t wide enough for so many runners, so the start was congested.  It took a couple minutes to get up to our target pace.

As we left the beach and got into town, we had to climb a hill.  Our pacer told us to lean in to it, and then he charged up the hill.  I knew I couldn’t match his acceleration on the hill, so I went at a pace I could manage.  I fell behind the group on the hill, but I eventually caught up when we were going downhill.

The 4:00 group was so large that it filled the width of the street and stretched back for half a block.  It was impossible for everyone to stay close to the pacer.  I usually ran at the back of the group, where it was least crowded.

Toward the end of mile two, on a long downhill section, I found some room on the side of the road, and I accidentally got in front of the group.  That gave me more room to run, but I had to be careful not to get too far ahead.

That only happened once.  On the next hill, I fell behind the group again.  After that, it was taking longer to catch up after each hill.

I was surprised how hilly this race was.  I’ve been to Newport before, but it was a different race, and it was more than 20 years ago.  I didn’t have any idea what this course would be like.

Each time I fell behind the group on the hill, I wondered if I would catch up again.  After four or five miles, I questioned whether I should.  The pace was getting to be tiring, and I didn’t need to finish in 4:00.  A 4:05 or 4:10 finish would be just fine.

We were about halfway through mile seven when I finally fell behind the group for good.  That was unfortunate timing.  We were coming around a point to a section where we would be right on the coast for the next few miles.

One of the wildcards in a coastal race is the wind.  I hadn’t noticed the wind much until now, but we were turning into it, and it could feel the wind resistance.  If I was still with a large group, the runners in front of me would block most of the wind.  After falling behind, I had to fight the wind by myself.

It wasn’t an unusually strong wind, but it was enough to make my hands cold.  As my hands gradually got colder, that discomfort made me less willing to work hard to keep up my pace.

At some point, I heard someone behind me asking if that was the 4:00 group ahead of us.  I said it was.  Then I noticed that this was the leader of another pace group.  There was a half marathon that started 15 minutes after the marathon.  This was the 1:40 pace group for the half marathon.

My first mile running by myself wasn’t that much slower.  With the group, I was averaging about 9:10 per mile.  On my own, I slowed to 9:32.  It didn’t stop there, however.  Each mile after that was slower than the previous one.  Mile eight took 9:50. Then in mile nine, I slowed to 10:10.  The next mile took 10:20.  Then, finally, my pace stabilized.

I was passed by another half marathon pace group.  This was the 1:50 group.  I wondered if the 2:00 group would pass me too, but I realized I would finish the first half before they caught up to me.

I wasn’t going to be as close to a four-hour finish as I wanted.  Then I reminded myself that the rental car company has a 30-minute grace period.  I said I would return the car by 2:00 PM, but there wouldn’t be any extra charge as long as I returned it by 2:30.  With that in mind, I revised my goal to 4:30.

My pace stabilized in mile 12.  Then we came back through downtown Newport and turned onto the street where we started.  We ran down the same hill we had gone up in the first mile.  I could see Easton’s Beach ahead of me.

Coming back to the beach, we were on a thin strip of land with water on both sides.  This is where we were most exposed to the wind.  Runners doing the half marathon turned and ran into the parking lot to finish.  Those of us doing the marathon kept going straight to begin the second half.

I ran the first half in roughly 2:06, but I knew the second half would be much slower.  I was already running out of gas.

To begin the second half, I ran past the hotel where my car was parked, and I entered Middletown.  Easton’s Beach was the lowest point on the course.  Now, I was climbing away from it.

Mile 14 was mostly uphill.  It was gradual, but it was my slowest mile so far.  That mile took me roughly 11 minutes.  If I ran that pace the rest of the way, I would still finish in 4:30, so I wasn’t too worried.

Mile 15 was also mostly uphill, but then there was a sharp downhill.  I knew I would have to run back up that hill later in the race.  I wasn’t looking forward to that.

For several miles, I had wanted to make a bathroom stop.  Most of the aid stations had port-o-potties, but there were always runners waiting in line.

During mile 16, I ran by an aid station in front of a large parking lot.  This was one of the remote parking areas for the race, and there were several port-o-potties there.  They were facing the parking lot, and to get to them, I would need to detour around the barriers that separated the road from the parking lot.  I decided to wait for the next opportunity.

The second half of the race was sort of a “Y” configuration.  There was an out-and-back branch to the southeast and a longer out-and-back section that headed to the northeast.  I was now on the shorter out-and-back.

I was almost to the 16-mile mark when I saw the 4:00 pace group coming back on the other side of the street.  They were at least a mile ahead of me by now, but I wouldn’t have to go much further before reaching the turnaround point.  That made me realize the next set of port-o-potties would be the same ones that I just skipped.

Coming back, I decided to detour through the parking lot to finally make a bathroom stop.  Because of the time I lost there, I was no longer on pace to break 4:30.

The first out-and-back section was fairly flat.  When I turned to start the longer out-and-back section, I quickly discovered that it was hilly.  I was almost to the 18-mile mark when I encountered a hill that was steep enough that I needed to walk part of it.

When I’m running an unfamiliar course, I sometimes think about where I would be if I was at the same mile marker on a more familiar course.  At 18 miles, I thought about where the 18-mile mark is on the Boston Marathon course.  It’s in the middle of the Newton Hills.  There’s an aid station there, and my friend Eliot has volunteered at that aid station the last two years.  Eliot was also doing this race.  So far, I had not seen him.

As I continued, I noticed that I was running uphill a lot more than I was running downhill.  Mile 19 had another tough hill.  This one wasn’t steep, but it was long.  I was just cresting the hill when I saw a pace group coming back.  It was the 3:45 group.  That gave me a good idea how much farther I would need to run before reaching the turnaround.

Several minutes later, I heard a familiar voice calling my name from the other side of the street.  It was Eliot, who was already on his way back.  He was a few minutes ahead of the 4:00 pace group.

Later, when I saw the 4:00 group coming back, I guessed that I was within a mile of the turnaround.

When I eventually reached the turn myself, I told myself it would have to be easier coming back.  Going out, there was an uphill trend.  Coming back, it would have to be net downhill.  I was getting pretty discouraged about my pace.  In the uphill miles, I was as slow as 12 minutes.

At 21 miles, I did a time check.  My time so far was 3:39 and change.  At the pace I was going, I expected the last 5.2 miles to take about an hour.  I was going to be hard-pressed to get to Boston on time.

The second half of this out-and-back had a downhill trend, but it wasn’t all downhill.  On one particularly long uphill segment, I had to take two walking breaks.

When I eventually reached the junction of the “Y,” I was almost to the 24-mile mark.   When I got there, I did another time check.  I was going to be slower than 4:40.

I still had to go up the steep hill that I had run down earlier.  I walked the whole thing.  When I reached the top of that hill, I knew I would have a gentle downhill trend the rest of the way.

At 25, I did my last time check.  With a slightly downhill finish, I might break 4:40.  It was going to be close.

As I reached the familiar turn, near where my car was parked, there were cheering spectators lining both sides of the street.  From there, it was flat the rest of the way.

When I left the road to turn into the parking lot, I remembered seeing where the finish line was.  I couldn’t see it yet.  There were still two more turns, where we ran around the corner of a building.

I finished in 4:40:08.  That was disappointing, but I needed to focus on getting back to my car quickly.  I got my finisher medal and made my way quickly through the food tent.

I couldn’t afford to linger too long in the finish area. I only ate food that I could finish quickly.  I made a quick bathroom stop.  Then I hurried back to my car, so I could get on the road as quickly as possible.

Having my car parked so close proved to be a mixed blessing.  It only took me five minutes to walk to my car, but it took longer than that to get out of the parking lot.  Roads were blocked in both directions.  On top of that, I couldn’t use my phone for driving directions, because I couldn’t get a cellular connection.  Between runners and spectators, there were too many people in the area using their phones.  I had to drive a distance away and pull over before I could use my phone.

The drive back to Boston took about two hours, plus the time it took to stop at a gas station to fill my tank.  I had no chance of returning my car by 2:00, but I got there within the 30-minute grace period.

Instead of returning my rental car at the airport, I returned it to a location in the Back Bay.  Dollar has a rental car office that’s across the street from my hotel in Boston.  Returning the car there was a huge time savings.

This is the fifth straight race where I struggled badly in the second half.  In the previous four, heat and dehydration played a role.  In some of those, I was also going at an ambitious pace.  This race had cool weather, and I started at a pace that would normally have been manageable.  The only explanation for my struggles is that these races have taken too much out of me, and I need more time to recover.  I only have one day off before the Boston Marathon, so I expect to be slow.

Stay tuned for my race report for the Boston Marathon.

Race statistics:

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:40:08

Average Pace:  10:41 per mile

First Half:  2:06:01

Second Half:  2:34:07

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  10

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  582

I Moved Up On the Minnesota List

In 2015, I ran my 300th marathon or ultra.  That made me eligible for inclusion in the World Megamarathon Rankings.

The megamarathon list is maintained by a running club in Japan.  It’s a ranking of every runner in the world who has completed at least 300 marathons or ultramarathons.  There’s a corresponding list that ranks runners from North America.

I was first included on these lists at the end of 2015.  At the time, I ranked 463rd in the world and 103rd in North America.  Among runners from Minnesota, I ranked seventh.

Most of the runners on the North American list are from the United States.  There are 50 states, and there were about 100 runners ahead of me, so that’s an average of about two per state.  You’d think there would only be one or two runners from Minnesota who were ahead of me, yet there were six.  That wouldn’t be surprising if I was from a large population state, like California or Texas.  Minnesota isn’t a large population state.  It’s about average.  It was amazing how many runners from Minnesota had run more than 300 marathons.

In the years since then, my position on the worldwide and North American lists has fluctuated, but I’ve usually moved up.  I wasn’t too worried about my position on these two lists, but I really wanted to move up among Minnesota runners.

At the end of 2025, I ranked 345th on the worldwide list and 50th on the North American list.  Among Minnesota runners, I had moved up to fourth.  The three runners ahead of me were Frank Bartocci, Tom Perri, and Peter Butler.

Two weeks ago, I ran my 580th lifetime marathon at the Mt. Charleston Marathon.  That moved me into a tie with Peter Butler for third place.  This past weekend, I ran my 581st marathon at the Albuquerque Marathon.  That moved me ahead of Peter into third place by myself.

Now that I’m in third place, I’m not likely to move any higher.  I’m no threat to catch up to either Frank or Tom in the foreseeable future.  Frank has run more than 1,000 marathons.  That’s a pretty high bar.  As for Tom, he’s run about 770 marathons, and in recent years, he’s been running them more frequently than I have.

It’s more likely that I’ll drop back to fourth place again.  I run a lot of marathons, but there are a few runners in Minnesota who race more often than I do.  I can think of at least one Minnesota runner who could catch up to me in just a few years at the rate he’s going. 

Race Report: Albuquerque Marathon

On April 11, I ran the inaugural Albuquerque Marathon.  The Albuquerque Half Marathon has been around for more than 20 years, but this was the first year they added a marathon option.

I had three reasons for running this race.  First, New Mexico is one of the states where I’m trying to get a second Boston qualifier.  There are limited opportunities in New Mexico, and this was the only one I could fit into my schedule this year.

We had hoped this trip to Albuquerque would give us an opportunity to visit Deb’s brother, who lives a couple hours away from there.  Finally, this trip gave us a chance to make a side trip to Santa Fe.  Neither of us had ever been there before.

Wednesday, April 8

Direct flights from Minneapolis to Albuquerque are seasonal.  In April, we have to make connections at one of the Delta hubs.  The hub that would make the most sense is Salt Lake City, but we couldn’t find flights through Salt Lake City that fit our schedule.  Our other options were Atlanta or Las Angeles.  Either way, it’s a long travel day.  We opted for the Atlanta route.

We arrived in Albuquerque in the late afternoon, and checked into a hotel near the airport.  I had just enough time to do a workout before dinner.

This hotel has an evening reception with appetizers on Wednesdays.  For Deb, that was all the food she needed for dinner.  I needed something more substantial, so I walked to a restaurant that was just down the block from our hotel.  We were up pretty early that morning, so we didn’t leave the hotel after dinner.

Thursday, April 9

Thursday was the day we were planning to visit Deb’s brother, Jim, and his wife, Kath.  Unfortunately, they both came down with a respiratory infection that’s been going around in the community where they live.  It wasn’t a good time for them to have visitors, and we didn’t want to risk catching what they had.

Instead, we drove to Santa Fe for the day.  The drive from Albuquerque to Santa Fe normally takes about an hour.  Because of road construction, the drive took almost two hours.

When we got to Santa Fe, we started our sightseeing on the Old Santa Fe Trail.  After a quick stop at the visitor center, we walked over to San Miguel Chapel, which is the oldest church in the United States.

Next, we visited the oldest house in the United States, which is now a museum with a gift shop.

Deb visited some nearby shops, while I visited Loretto Chapel, which is famous for this spiral staircase.

We browsed through a few more shops in that area before moving our car closer to the Santa Fe Plaza.

Around the plaza, there were numerous local artists selling their crafts.  We browsed for a while and then stopped for lunch at a café next to the plaza.

After lunch, we only had about an hour before we needed to move our car.  Deb started exploring more of the shops, while I visited The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi.

When we were done in that area, we drove to the railyard arts district.  Deb’s knee was starting to bother her, so we weren’t there very long before driving back to Albuquerque.

We had dinner at 66 Diner, which is a burger and malt shop on Route 66.  We discovered this place on our first trip to Albuquerque, back in 2008.

Friday, April 10

Something I ate on Thursday disagreed with me.  Halfway through the night, I woke up with an unsettled stomach.  For the rest of the night, I made frequent trips to the bathroom, and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  By the time I got up, everything I ate or drank on Thursday had gone through me.

When I got up, I felt weak, partly from lack of sleep, but mostly because I was dehydrated, and I didn’t have any food in my system.  I needed to rehydrate, but I had to do it gradually.  We didn’t leave the hotel until it was time to go to packet pickup.

Packet pickup started at 11:00 AM at a running store in Albuquerque.  I got there right at 11:00, so we could have the rest of the day to do more sightseeing.  By now, my digestive system seemed stable.

Since we had already been to Santa Fe, we were able to spend Friday afternoon driving the “Turquoise Trail” as far as Madrid.  We stopped at a few shops along the way, but we spent most of our time in Madrid, where there are numerous small craft shops and art galleries.  We didn’t buy anything in Santa Fe on Thursday, but we bought a few things on Friday.

It got hot in the afternoon, and when we got back, Deb wasn’t feeling well.  She stayed in for the rest of the day, so I was on my own for dinner.  I again walked to the restaurant that’s just down the block from our hotel.

When I left the hotel, the sky was as white as milk.  When I noticed how windy it was, I realized I was experiencing my first dust storm.  I’m really glad that didn’t happen while we were on the road.

I went to bed shortly after dinner, and I slept well all night.  I really needed that.

Saturday, April 11

Saturday was race day.  I woke up feeling much better than I did the day before.  The race didn’t start until 7:30, so I didn’t have to rush to get going.

The race started and finished near a church in the Rio Grande valley.  We were able to park at the church.

I arrived at the church about an hour early.  They were still setting up the finish area.  About 25 minutes before the race, I left my phone and warm-ups in the car and got in the bathroom line.  While I was waiting, I saw several hot air balloons.  I wanted to take a picture, but I no longer had my phone with me.

The temperature was in the mid-50s.  I expected it to get into the mid-60s by the time I finished, but I didn’t think that would be a big deal, since the humidity was low.  My last three races were all hot, but I was optimistic that this one would have favorable weather.  One thing I didn’t consider was the sun.  I was expecting it to be cloudy, but it was a sunny morning.

The elevation was about 5,000 feet above sea level.  Atmospheric pressure at this elevation is only about 83% of what it is at sea level.  That means I was taking in less oxygen with each breath.  My past experience is that my marathon time would be five to ten minutes slower at this elevation.  On a hilly course, it would slow me down even more.  Fortunately, this was a relatively flat course.

I’ve run a qualifying time at this elevation before, but I was in much better shape then.  None of my recent races have inspired much confidence.  To qualify, I was going to need a good race.

Deb and I had already been in Albuquerque for three days, but that’s not enough time to adapt to the higher elevation.  Everything I’ve read on the subject suggests that our timing was worst case.  Until your body adapts sufficiently, you feel slightly more tired each day.  Indeed, I felt fine on Wednesday and Thursday, but on Friday I was already finding that I got tired more easily.

Since arriving in Albuquerque, I hadn’t done any other running.  I knew the elevation would affect me, but I went into the race well-rested.

The qualifying standard for my age group is 4:05.  That’s an average pace of 9:21 per mile.  Often, I’ll aim for a time under four hours.  Just finishing in 4:05 was going to be difficult enough, so I didn’t try for anything faster.

There were 182 runners in the marathon.  The half marathon didn’t start until later.  With such a small field, there weren’t any pace groups.  I was on my own to set the right pace.

The elevation made it harder for me to know if I was starting at the right pace.  It didn’t feel like I was going fast, but I was breathing much harder than usual.  Was I starting too fast, or was that just the elevation?  When I finished my first mile, I saw that it was probably both.  I ran the first mile in 8:45.  Normally, that would be just fine, but at this elevation, it was too fast.

In the next mile, I throttled back my effort and let a few runners go by me.  After crossing a Bridge over the Rio Grande, we went down a ramp and turned onto a paved path in the river valley.  We went under the bridge and came up a small ramp on the other side.  It wasn’t a big hill, but it was enough to get me out of breath.

Even after the hill, I was still out of breath for a couple minutes.  I eased up some more and several other runners went by me.

My pace for mile two was 9:09.  That was better, but it was still faster than my target pace.  I eased up a little more, and more runners went by me.  In mile three, I hit my target pace.  Now, I just had to hold it.

We didn’t reach an aid station until early in the fourth mile.  After that, they were spaced about two miles apart.  That made it difficult to drink enough to stay hydrated.  The air was really dry, and the cups at the aid stations were small.  At many of them, I was drinking both water and Gatorade.

We were running south through the Rio Grande valley.  The trail we were on was fairly flat.  Over the next few miles, I tried to find runners I could follow who would keep me on the right pace.  Some miles were too fast and some were too slow, but on average, I was on the right pace for my goal.  It was distressing, however, how hard I was breathing at this pace.  I didn’t know for sure if my effort was unsustainable or if feeling short of breath was just going to be normal at this elevation.

In the middle of mile eight, we reached the southernmost point on the course.  We turned around and started heading north on a road that was parallel to the path we were on earlier.

I immediately found the pace to be more tiring.  It’s possible we were going slightly uphill here.  I started to fall behind the runners who had been right in front of me previously.  When I got my split for mile eight, it was a couple seconds too slow, but my effort felt unsustainable.

Then I noticed that we had a headwind.  I didn’t notice any wind when we were running in the other direction.  It wasn’t a strong wind, but the same pace now took a little more effort.  I tried hard to keep up the same pace, but mile nine was a few seconds slower than mile eight.

By now it was obvious to me that I couldn’t sustain this effort for another 17 miles.  I was almost at my aerobic limit.  On top of that, I was no longer going fast enough.  I realized at this point that I had to give up on a Boston qualifier.  It just wasn’t realistic.  I was upset with myself for giving up so early.  In retrospect, I should have given up on it much earlier.  I didn’t realize it yet, but I had run too close to my limit for too long, and it had already broken me.

In mile ten, I eased up.  I tried to find a pace that would be sustainable, but even after slowing down, I still found that the pace had me breathing hard.

I came to a confusing turn.  I saw that the runner ahead of me had turned left.  When I got there, I didn’t see where they went.  I was momentarily confused, but there were course marshals who were shouting at me.  I needed to keep turning left and go down a ramp before turning again to go under a bridge.  I hesitated for a few seconds, but then I saw where they were directing me.

After running under the bridge, I had to come up a small hill.  Then I paused to drink at an aid station.  Each of those things slowed me down.

Mile 10 took me 10 minutes, but the pace still wasn’t sustainable.  I kept slowing down.  I wasn’t keeping up with any of the runners around me.  A few more runners passed me in each mile.  My pace for mile 11 was 10:10.  In mile 12, it slowed to 10:24.  Mile 13 took 10:38.

At halfway, I was almost five minutes slower than my goal, but the worst was yet to come.

My pace stabilized in mile 14, but I started to feel the need to make a bathroom stop.  I remembered seeing on the course map that there were bathrooms along the route, but I couldn’t remember where they were.  I had to slow down a little more until I could make a stop.

In mile 15, I reached another confusing turn.  Again, there were course marshals who saw my hesitation and immediately pointed me in the right direction.  I turned onto a paved path and ran down a hill to reach a street that went under the bridge we had just crossed.  The runner in front of me made a U-turn onto the street.  I was about to follow him, but a volunteer told me I had to go straight here.  It took me a while to realize that the runner in front of me was in the 10K race.  Their course overlapped with ours.  I would eventually make that same U-turn, but not until much later in the race.

Just past the 15-mile mark, we turned onto a dirt trail.  Then I spotted a port-o-potty that was a short distance away from the trail.  It wasn’t put there for the race, but it was close enough to the trail that I took the opportunity to stop.

Ultrarunners have a saying.  “Beware the chair.”  As soon as I sat down, I realized how tempting it would be to pause long enough to catch my breath.  I had been out of breath since early in the race.  Even after slowing down, I was still breathing hard.

I resisted the temptation.  I finished as quickly as I could, and I made my way back to the trail.  Then I saw another runner making the same detour.

I was on the dirt trail for about a mile.  It was hard-packed, and it was fairly flat until just before we got back onto paved streets.  Then I had to go up a small hill.

My pace now was about a minute slower than it had been before my bathroom stop.  I was coming unglued.  I knew my time would be slow, but I needed to keep moving.  I just wanted to finish.

Surprisingly, there weren't as many runners passing me.  I was starting to pass a few runners who were taking walking breaks.

I was somewhere around 17 miles when another runner commented as she passed me that she was getting hot.  By now, it was about 60 degrees.  That wouldn’t normally feel that hot, but it was sunny, and much of the course was exposed to the sun.  At higher elevations, you really feel the difference between sun and shade.  It occurred to me that my shirt felt sweaty, in spite of the dry air.

At 18 miles, I finally succumbed to the temptation to take a walking break.  I had seen several other runners walking already.  I walked for a few minutes, but then another runner saw my Comrades Marathon shirt and encouraged me to start running.

Her name was Vanessa, and she wanted to know more about the Comrades Marathon.  We ran together for about a mile, and I told her why I like Comrades so much.

We reached a small hill leading up to a bridge, and I told Vanessa I needed to walk the hill.  She went ahead and said I would probably see her later.  I was skeptical that I would catch up again, but it turns out she was right.

As I started walking up the bridge, I met up with the same runner who had previously commented about being hot.  Her name was Kariann.  She was having foot cramps, so she also had to walk up the hill.

When I got to the top of the hill, I told Kariann I was going to run the downhill side.  She needed to keep walking, so I assumed I wouldn’t see her again.  I was wrong.

Now, we were on the shoulder of a busy street.  There was a line of orange traffic cones between us and the traffic lanes.

As I kept running along the street, I could see Vanessa a couple blocks ahead of me.  She was still running.  I occasionally needed a short walking break, so I kept falling farther behind.

On my left, I saw a pink adobe building with a sign indicating it was a farm-to-table restaurant.  Deb likes farm-to-table restaurants, so I tried to remember the name, in case Deb might wasn’t to go there for dinner.  In the next block, I saw an antique store, which is something else Deb likes.

As I kept running down this street, I noticed that Vanessa was turning her head to look back.  I saw her do this twice.  I wondered if she was looking to see if I was going to catch up to her.

My attention was somewhat unfocused, but the next time I looked forward, I saw that Vanessa had turned around and was now running toward me.  When she got closer, she said we had missed a turn.

I turned around and followed her back, looking to see where we had missed a turn.  What should have been obvious is that there were no longer any traffic cones between us and the traffic.

By this point in the race, it was a struggle to force myself to keep running.  It was even harder to force myself to run when it wasn’t even part of the course.  I was already broken physically.  Now, I was broken mentally as well.

As we continued to backtrack, we met another runner who had also missed the turn.  Eventually we saw it.  There was an intersection where the traffic cones went around a corner.  It was a sharper than 90-degree turn, which might explain how we didn’t notice it.

It’s worth noting that there wasn’t a course marshal at this turn.  All of the other turns had course marshals.  Before the race, the race director told us several times to follow the signs and follow the cones.

Did I miss the turn because it was such a sharp corner?  Did I miss it because I saw Vanessa going straight?  Did I miss it because I had “marathon brain.”  All I know for sure is that wouldn’t have realized I was off course if I didn’t see Vanessa coming back.  If I had been the first person to miss this turn, I hate to think how far off course I would have gone.

I was almost to the 20-mile sign, when my watch read 21 miles.  My missed turn caused me to run an extra mile.

I was back on course now, but I still had more than six miles to go.  My running had degenerated into a slow shuffle, and I kept taking walking breaks.

As I reached an aid station at 21 miles, I was intending to drink a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade.  I got out of breath as I tried to drink the water.  I finished that cup, but I wasn’t able to drink Gatorade as well.  This was more than just the elevation.  It was a symptom of heat stress.  It wasn’t even that hot yet.  It was probably only 65 degrees, but the sun was intense, and I was dehydrated.

To keep from just walking the rest of the way, I came up with a way to use the traffic cones to pace myself.  I forced myself to run for the next three traffic cones.  Then I would walk for one traffic cone.  I kept this up for the next three miles.

I eventually came to the same spot where a 10K runner had made a U-turn earlier.  Now, it was my turn to make the same U-turn.  I was almost to the 24-mile sign, and I saw Kariann a short distance ahead of me.  She was mostly walking.  I forced myself to run until I caught up to her.

She was still having foot cramps when she tried to run, so she was limited to mostly walking.  At this point, having someone to run with was more important than trying to go faster.  I ran with Kariann for the next two miles, although we were mostly walking.  Along the way, I learned that she also missed the same turn, but she didn’t go as far off course before seeing runners coming back.

With about a mile and a half to go, we crossed a bridge over the Rio Grande.  I recognized this as the same bridge we had crossed early in the race.  We were retracing the first mile of the race, but after passing the spot where we started, we would need to go another half mile to reach the finish line, which was closer to the church.

Early in the race, I remembered seeing an aid station that wasn’t set up yet.  We turned a corner and I saw it again.  There was nobody there.

I desperately needed to drink.  I saw two large dispensers and bags with paper cups.  I grabbed a cup and tried to fill it.  Both dispensers were empty.  I had to tough it out to the finish line.

When we reached the “26” sign, I told Kariann I was going to try to run the rest of the way.  She needed to keep walking.  I ran most of it, but there was one small hill that I needed to walk as I was coming into the church parking lot.

I’ve made reference to various hills where I needed to walk or slow down.  I can’t emphasize enough that this is a flat course.  I wouldn’t normally call these hills, but between the elevation and my struggles with the conditions, I had to slow down on anything that was even slightly uphill.

I finished the race in 5:13:40.  That was well over an hour slower than my original goal.  By the time I finished, it was 70 degrees, and the sun was still intense.  It’s worth noting, however, that I expected to be on the course this long.

I have to question whether qualifying for Boston twice in every state is still a realistic goal.  New Mexico is a problem.  I can think of only two other races where it’s even feasible, but neither is going to be easy for me.  Also, the other two are tough to fit into my schedule.

Finish line food included pizza and ice pops.  The RD said there was also ice cream, but I didn’t see where that was.  They had a variety of other snack foods, but I mostly needed water.  I didn’t see any bottled water, but they had cups and two large dispensers.  I drank one cup of water as I walked to my car.  I should have drank more.

When I got back to the hotel, I drank two bottles of water that I had in the fridge.  I was a wreck, so I didn’t leave the hotel again until it was time for dinner.

Sunday, April 12

We flew home on Sunday.  We were able to get a routing through Salt Lake City, so getting home didn’t take as long.  Our first flight wasn’t until noon, so we didn’t need to be in a rush to get going.

Neither of us felt like doing more sightseeing.  My Achilles tendons were so tight I could barely walk.  I usually find my strength training exercises to be a good recovery workout, but this was the exception.  A few exercises were difficult, and calf raises were almost impossible.  I also found my exercises to be more tiring than usual.

It wasn’t until Sunday that I looked up the official results.  Despite everything that went wrong, I placed second in the 60-69 age group.  Apparently, it was a tough day for everyone.

The time limit for the race was advertised as six hours, but I saw finish times as high as 6:25.  Even with the extra time, there were only 142 finishers out of 182 registered runners. 

Race statistics:

Official Distance:  26.2 miles

Distance I Actually Ran:  27.2 miles

Time:  5:13:40

Average Pace:  11:32 per mile

Place in Age Group:  second

Marathons/Ultras in 2026:  9

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  581