North Strides

After the marathons in Hamburg, April and Helsinki (HCRD), May, I still had one chance to get under 3:50 which is the official qualifying time for women 45-49 age group for Boston marathon 2025. And this chance was the BMW Helsinki Marathon 24th of August. The first time I got under 4 hours was at the same marathon a year earlier and with a time of 3:54, so my hopes were high for this event.

My training continued according to the program made by my virtual coach Simo, who convinced me already at the beginning of the year that I am in great condition and able to get sub 3:45 on a good day. I had my last semi-long run a week before the marathon and during the week just a couple of shorter easy runs with some marathon-pace kilometers. My prep during marathon week includes:

1. Pay extra attention to the amount of water I drink starting from Monday. 2. Eat extra carbs for three days with one normal or lighter day just before the marathon. 3. Lower my blood sugar monitoring levels so that I don’t have below 4mmol/l levels during this week.

A week before the marathon I started following the weather forecasts from three different providers just to be on the safe side and select my favourite weather. Unfortunately it didn’t look good with more wind from Hurricane Ernesto’s remains than I would have hoped for. Even refreshing the weather apps many times a day didn’t help and it was 10m/s with gusts of 17m/s. Otherwise a beautiful sunny +18C day welcomed the runners to the very south of Helsinki. I decided to follow my plan and start strongly and then alter the plan when needed during the course which had major parts just on the seaside.

The atmosphere was great at the event location and it was easy and fast to get to the starting line (one reason to love these smaller marathons). And off we went. What a beautiful route it was with many changes compared with the previous year. My running felt great from the start, I was happy and felt privileged to be able to run and attend. I started like planned, but specifically during the second half the wind took its’ toll on me and my pace slowed down a little. I was super delighted to reach the finish line and very happy with my result, which was 3:46, so I managed to both lower my earlier time with eight minutes, and also get sub 3:50, so the Boston qualifying time is there, finally. However, I might still not get to attend, since there are different cutoff times each year and the qualifying time might not be enough. Fingers crossed until October when we get to hear yay or nay for next year.

An addition from October: Unfortunately I didn’t get to attend Boston next year, since the amount of applicants was record high. No worries though, it will come sooner or later. And now eyes on New York.