Bound For Boston Marathon Reviews

  Not What It Seems

By Micah about 2022

Review

A couple of things about this course/race that will sway me from running it again in the future.

1) Organization - Below Par. There were, I believe, 4 different waves all working off of 1 clock. The course is a 1 mile loop. You must count your own laps. If you don't have a watch you could very easily lose count of your laps. Waves were never announced. You just had to show up at your selected time and somebody told you to "go." There was only one clock that all waves were working off of so if you past the clocking towers with a group a people you're not going to know what your split was. As for the clock it only displayed the first 2 numbers of your split....which means a 6:45 miles appeared as 6:4 on the clock. That 3rd missing digit is huge when there is a 9 second possibility of a difference.

2) Course Description. The course, yes, overall is flatter than most. However, it's NOT flat. Actually, none of it is flat. It's either a slight uphill or a slight downhill. And when I say "slight" I don't say it lightly. Over 26.2 the "slightness" becomes apparent. The slight uphill turns into a fairly significant uphill. Especially when you're racing for a qualifying time. The course is open which means spectators will be anywhere and everywhere. I had people walking down the middle of the course while I was trying to run several times. I had a lady walk in front of me when I tried to grab water and I missed it because of her. The people handing out water paid very little attention. Twice I tried to grab water from a man supposed to be handing out water who was instead more interested in what he was watching on his phone.

Race Tips

There were no pacers. If you choose to run this race you'll have to pace yourself or find a group to fall in with. I chose the 6:30 wave which I believe was the last of the 4 waves. Water stations were not set up until this wave. So, if you choose an earlier wave you better bring your own hydration.

I got lucky with the weather. It was overcast and sprinkled a little bit here and there to keep it cool. The humidity was real though. Well above 90%.