So I did the Boston Marathon on Sunday, no not that one, the one in Lincs. It was to get my qualifier for Comrades.
Preparation had not been great. Last September I had a procedure to repair a torn meniscus in my right knee. So walk / running training only started in February and 9 miles was the maximum I could get up to. Unfortunately my left knee then started to flare up and I have now had that diagnosed as a meniscal tear too 
. So I knew this was going to be messy going in.
You need a sub 5 to get qualification so I made a plan for 4:49 just so that I had some wiggle room. The plan was to walk / run every mile including the first. As a consequence after two mins I was stone cold last out of a field of over 1000 runners!!!. But eventually I did start to overtake people as when I was running I was doing about 9mins miles. Half way was reached in 2:27 which was the plan and all felt good.
The course is extremely flat and, what I hadn’t realised, is right next to the sea. So from 13-18 miles you are running directly into a very strong wind. So to keep the progressive miles going more running was required. There are loads of water stations and the support from the volunteers is immense. This helped and from 20 miles onwards I was able to increase the pace each mile to bring me down towards 4:49. I had carried Maurten drinks (2x500ml bottles) as an experiment and by 21 miles ditched the last bottle. I’m a big fan of their drinks and gels, which I also used (I had four).
By the time I got to the last mile I treated myself to just a tenth of a mile of walking and then it was a run for home. I always forget how long it still is after you have passed the 26mile mark. Its one of these races where you can’t see the finish until you are right on it so that last 0.2 seemed an eternity. Anyway I finished in 4:47:30 (officially 4:47:18). Tbh I was battered and felt quite sick once I stopped but I had my qualification!!!
The race itself is superbly organised in all respects. If you want a PB course in the UK then this would be it. I would say that we were unlucky with the wind. We did the race with two friends who did it last year and they said the wind last year was nothing like this
My knee was very sore yesterday but better today. So now I wait for the injection and hope that it allows me to train otherwise I may need to rethink Comrades 
hope you get the knees sorted!
