_ Take a look at the pictures above of world-class distance runners. We have tall, lanky Kenyans, short, stocky Ethiopians, and just very large American men. Yes, none of them look like Yokozuna or Dwight Howard, but if anything, they should show that there is more than one body type that can excel at running 4:30 miles, over and over again.

That’s not what an article by Max Fisher in the Atlantic is trying to say. In a widely-circulated article (within running circles) trying to unearth why Kenyans swept the Boston Marathon this past weekend, he essentially sums it up as a genetic advantage by the “bird-like” bodies of the Kalenjin ethnic group. Before you bash me for not reading the article, he does make some good caveats about the myth of them running 6 miles to school, uphill both ways every morning, etc. Alex Hutchinson at Runner’s World puts together a decent rebuttal for the evidence presented by Max here, as did the lovely people at letsrun.com but I won’t bore you with all that reading here. What will I do instead? How about pictures? I like pictures.

I feel like it comes down to a perfect storm of three factors: Genetics, Environment, and Incentives

See that red star? That is the necessary but not sufficient place to be in order to be in the running (see what I did there?) to become a world-class distance runner. Of course, not everyone can actually reach their full potential.

So if you're wondering when can the white man rise back up again to dominate the distance runner landscape? The famous running coach Renato Canova, summed it up really well: "The dominance of African is due to their talent, but also to the fact white athletes disappeared. And the solution is not to look at Africa too much, but to look at our young generation, creating again interest in running and organising a different type of life."

In case you are wondering, I did make the majority of this post in Powerpoint. I was a world-class consultant, after all.

And now we have come full-circle. I began this blog a year ago with a recap of my first Boston Marathon, and now I just finished my second. Last year was known for its “once in a lifetime marathon conditions,” with 50 degree weather and 18 mph tailwinds the whole way. This year, not so much. Some wonderfully smart chaps from South Africa called it “The Boston 2012 Meltdown,” and that was probably generous.













For the math-inclined members out there, here are some helpful comparisons between the two years:

If that last row made no sense to you, it doesn't make any sense to me either, so here’s to deconstructing my race and figuring out when precisely I made a pact with the devil.

Pre-race

This year we managed to make it out to the buses right before the crowds hit, so were able to avoid most of the lines and get to Hopkinton by 7:30am or so. A very nice teacher from Michigan lent us her half of her tarp and so we enjoyed staying dry and in the shade for the next two hours. I ate a peanut butter and nutella bagel, a banana, half a powerbar, a Gatorade Prime (side note: expanding Gatorade from 1 to 3 products has got to be one of the most brilliant ideas ever, even accounting for the fact that Gatorade Recovery tastes like something I would feed to my worst enemy, or Drew), a Nuun tablet, and a gel. Three cheers for processed foods! I got to my corral around 9:50, made some small talk with the dude in the caucasian-fro, and we’re off!

Start-10K 
Mile splits: 6:08, 6:06, 6:10, 5K@19:06, 6:15, 6:20, 6:05, 10K@19:23

While all of the pre-race email announcements focused on dropping out, going slower, giving up your goals, and generally destroying self-esteem, I had a slightly deranged set of logic in my mind. In perfect conditions, I was hoping to run a 2:42 marathon (6:12 pace). In order to have any hope of getting close on a brutally hot day I had to start off fast, taking advantage of the nice and cool 83 degrees and downhill before it turns into 90 degrees in the sun and uphill in the second half. And if this strategy didn’t work I would just blow up spectacularly and bum a free ride to the finish from some compassionate volunteer. Who says people who go to business school are risk adverse?

Just like last year, the first few miles downhill went by like a blur. At least I stayed above 6-minute pace this time around. Just knocking off miles and having some good, defeatist conversation with people around me.

10K-Half
Mile splits: 6:18, 6:18, 6:13, 15K@19:33, 6:23, 6:21, 6:10, 20K@19:38, Half@1:22

By this point the euphoria has tapered off and you’re left thinking to yourself, it is going to be really warm today, people who have run sub 3 hour marathons are beginning to fade (as are you), you have barely run the equivalent of one lap around Central Park, and you signed up to do this all over again in two weeks. What the hell is wrong with you?

A little before mile 13 there is a half-mile long line of scarily enthusiastic college girls with creatively inappropriate signs daring me to give up on my race and pick up mono instead. Luckily, I was running next to a blind runner at the time who was getting even more attention than I was. And by golly, if he wasn’t going to stop and get assaulted by hundreds of sexually repressed co-eds, then neither was I.

Along this stretch I also began my rhythm of one sip Gatorade, one sip water, throw two cups of water over my body at each water station. Also decided to start taking oranges from random strangers, because, why not? My teeth have been in pain for two straight days. 

Half – Mile 19
Mile splits: 6:22, 6:08, 6:21, 25K@19:28, 6:12, 6:35, 6:32, 30K@20:03

I have never run an evenly split marathon. Somehow, my legs always manage to conspire to cramp up around mile 24 and reduce me to a sweaty pimp walk to the finish. So after hitting the 1:22 half, I figured that if I can pull off my usual collapse, I still have a shot at breaking 2:50, which is about as good as I could hope for.

Vague memories from this section: awesome support from local towns, The Bone! from the show “Bar Rescue”, this other Asian runner dressed in all orange that kept passing me on downhills, grabbing my first Otter Pop from a little kid, which might have saved my life (brain freeze felt heavenly), a run-through car wash!

Miles 19-21
Mile splits: 6:21, 6:36, 6:43, 35K@20:13

Why only three miles in this section? Because this was the point during the race that separated wheat from chaff, men from boys, Jeremy Lin from the other billion Asian dudes. Although I was looking forward to seeing my support crew post Heartbreak Hill, these splits were not trending well. In fact, if you were to draw a graph, it would probably look like my wheels are starting to come off…

Miles 22-Finish
Mile splits: 6:16, 6:09, 6:03, 6:05, 40K@19:00, 5:54, 1:17

UNTIL THEY DIDN’T! Now here’s the part that I don’t understand at all. I started to run faster, like much, much faster. The miles felt easy. I didn’t even notice the high temperature. In retrospect that probably should have worried me a bit, but hey, I'm still alive and I felt great! Yes, I was that jackass pumping up the crowds coming into Boston, giving high-fives to everyone and wearing a huge shit-eating grin like I somehow stole something and got away with it. You can all punch me in the face the next time you see me, but at that moment I didn’t care. Matthew Kisorio, one of the leaders in race, ran the 5K between 35km to 40km in 19:06. Yes, for four glorious miles I outran this guy:

Really, I should just retire now. I will never perform this well relative to others again.

Overall impressions

Boston has the absolute best crowd support of any race I have ever done. Every town and college came out in full force and it was truly appreciated, but I will still hate all of your sports teams. I still honestly don’t know how I was relatively unaffected by the heat, but I guess if I sold my soul already I might as well take advantage of the opportunity for as long as I can! Big Sur Marathon in 1.5 weeks here I come.

Nutrition summary
15-20 gulps of Gatorade Endurance Formula
7 gels (1 pre-race)
2 Nuun tablets (1 pre-race)
2 glorious Otter Pops
~2 oranges

Nerd summary:
1,191 Calories
3,620mg Sodium
1,015mg Potassium
407g carbs
350mg caffeine