Reading Boston Race Reports and the Weather Report

I've been reading several race reports of runners who ran Boston on Monday. Very inspirational. Right now I'm 58 minutes from running a qualifying time, so I have to get my Boston fix vicariously. Everyone whose blog I've read had a triumphant race. Some set a PR, some battled injury, some battled the conditions, but everyone won. Some of the blogs had me crying and some had me laughing and I enjoyed every single one. Which brings me to my Boston plan. Awhile ago I read about a study that found that runners, no matter what age they start running, will continue to improve for about 10 years. With that in mind, I only have to improve my time by about 3 minutes a year for the next 10 years. The BQ time for 60 year old women is 4:30, so that is my 10 year goal. (How many runners have a 10 year goal?)

Now on to the weather. Last week when I was checking the weather for my 50K, they were calling for temps in the low 40s for the start, and in the 50s for the finish, with lots of rain. I liked the temperatures, but was a little dismayed at the rain in the forecast. The latest reports are calling for no rain (yay!), but high temperatures in the low 80s (boo!). Good thing I don't have any goal times in mind, because this will be a slow hot one. I'm glad I bought S-caps several weeks ago and used them while running a couple of times. I also bought a hand-held water bottle that I will be carrying with me, as well as wearing a fuel belt with sports drink in it. My plans will be flexible, and I'll be ready to start taking my walk breaks earlier than my original plan. Today I ran my taper run during the hottest part of the day, and I'll do that the next two days in an attempt to semi-acclimatize myself.

I'm not at all as nervous as I was before my first marathon. I'm guessing the biggest reason for this is that unlike the marathon, I don't have a time goal. I only want to cover 50K and have fun doing it.