The Boston Athletic Association gifted me a lead-in to this week’s blog when they imposed a new rule for downhill marathons starting with the 2027 qualifying window.
These have always been a small and weird corner of the qualifier pool, so I don’t expect the impact on qualifying times to be large, but it does feel more “fair” to know there is some sort of standard for Boston-eligible courses. If the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games have a limit on net downhill for qualifying times, surely it makes sense for the “People’s Olympics” to do the same (and for that limit to be much less stringent, at 1,500 feet).
I’ll be very curious to see what local runner and data cruncher Brian Rock has to say about this. Brian has made a name for himself online predicting the Boston cutoff time the last several years. He, and others like him, have made it much easier for me personally to prepare for the emotions of the September application window; I knew my 2:53:45 had a shot in 2024, but not a good one, and I know my 2:52:48 this year is in no way fit to travel. I expect Rock will look into the impact of downhill races on the cutoff time, and I will take anything he has to say on that pretty seriously.
In the meantime, I’m just trying to get through another week of training toward a five-mile race later this month. Here’s how I’m doing:
Sunday: 8 miles easy at the beach. I ended up stuck at the drawbridge leaving Belmar and made some conversation with a few runners, who I wound up yapping with for the next two miles.
Running is absolutely great for this. It’s similar to the experience I have skiing—people are in a good mood because they’re doing something they enjoy, and you’re doing the same thing, so you’re also in a good mood and you have something in common right away. And running is way cheaper than skiing!
Monday: 3 miles easy.
Tuesday: 7 miles easy with strides. I have been adding distance to my Tuesday and Thursday runs to bulk up my weekly totals. So far so good.
Wednesday: Hill repeats. I added two more repeats to my usual set this week and slowed them down to simulate how I’ll run the hills at the Sunset Classic later this month. The slightly slower pace made a huge difference in how I felt, and I was still able to send the last rep as fast as any I’ve done in a shorter set. I’m really enjoying seeing the effect that hills and strides have had on my running these past few months. It’s starting to raise my expectations for Sunset.
Thursday: 7 miles easy. I was sorer than usual from the hills the day before and the extra mileage this week.
Friday: 4 miles easy with strides. Still sore.
Saturday: 3 x 1 mile at tempo pace (6:01, 5:59, 5:55) with 1 minute rest. This went really well thanks to the weather, which has taken a turn for the cooler lately. The fact that I’m hitting these times while stretching out my mileage has me thinking seriously about a personal best at the Sunset Classic.
In 2023, I came off my first sub-3 marathon in April to set a ten-second personal best over the five-mile Sunset Classic course that June. I finally ran the hilly course correctly (read: conservatively), and I had a lot left over the final miles. I felt great.
My workouts in 2023 didn’t indicate that I was in any special kind of shape, but I put it together on race day for a really pleasant surprise. My workouts this summer have me several steps ahead of where I was two years ago, even having to rebuild after my son was born, so I am now trying to decide what my goals should be. I have two times in mind:
- 30:56 (personal best for this course)
- 30:23 (best five-mile performance since college, set in 2018)
The big question underlying this exercise is how much endurance I still have after running mostly low mileage since December. I ran 30:56 off the strength of a marathon block, with middling workouts on the track. I ran 30:23 on a flatter course, in cooler (read: freezing cold) conditions, seven years ago, off less mileage and more speed. How does 2025 compare to either of those?
I’ve decided, at the very least, that I want to give myself the best chance possible of finding out. I’ll be dialing back the mileage just a bit until the race; the past two weeks at 40-plus have been encouraging, but tiring. I’m going to sharpen up, full send at Sunset, and regroup for some bigger mileage this summer.
theDNF 
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