My 2 cents, after having run Boston 7 times (sometimes successfully, sometimes not too successfully!):<br>
1. Start out smooth...not slowly necessarily, but smooth. On downhills, learn to lean forward and keep your feet under your knees instead of out in front of them. This will help you keep your knee slightly bent to absorb some of the downhill shock without trashing your quads. For me, Boston is a tough course to negative split so don't get hung up on that...I target not more than a 1-2 minute positive split so I am running an aggressive enough first half to run a good time, but not so fast that I'm dead meat by mile 22.<br>
2. Be prepared to have a LOT more people in front of you than you're accustomed to...I have to remind myself of this every year. If you can get comfortable with that in the early miles when it's crowded and the road is 2 lanes, you'll resist the urge to go out guns-a-blazing. This isn't always easy for Boston qualified runners who are used to being near the front of most race packs.<br>
3. Train on hills (duh) both up & down. If you're stuck on a TM, stick a piece of wood under the back to simulate downhills. Practice hills late in your long runs. Tempo runs up & down hills. Just get used to them so you can use them to your advantage. If you run Boston smartly, you CAN run a fast time on that course.<br>
4. When you're running up the Newton Hills, keep your chin up. I see a ton of people slouched over, staring at the ground 4 feet in front of them. This restricts your lung capacity and gives you bad posture, so find someone about 50 yards up the road and stare at their back until you reel them in.<br>
5. Recover on the downhill of the Haunted Mile just after Heartbreak - it's like hitting the top of a roller coaster because you're chugging up the last hill, you crest it, and then you fall down the backside of it. The last 4.5-5 miles are fast so if you keep your legs under you and run smart to that point, you can pass a load of people and make up some time.<br>
6. Wellesley - enjoy it. It's a few hundred yards long, and I think of that as the starting point of when I can start to run "fast." Relax until that point, feel free to run a little harder during that stretch to show off, and then calm down again afterwards.<br>
7. Athlete's Village - find a spot and stay off your feet. Try to get your business done early and bring a pee bottle to the start (for the dudes). Bring the paper to relax and read about the greatness of the Red Sox to take your mind off the race.<br><br>
Boston is a fantastic race, if you've not done it before. Crowds the whole way, history all over the place, a great city, etc. Enjoy your hard work and training - the weather can be unpredictable, so adjust your plan based on the weather. The field in Boston can be quite gung ho - in 2004 when it was 86 degrees pretty much everyone charged out as they would have if it were 55 degrees.