Boston Marathon 2025 | Morley Running Club

Boston Marathon
21st April 2025

Race report by Paul Redfearn

So where did all this begin?

I would say around 12:00pm on April 14th 2024. At that stage I was at the half-way point of the Manchester Marathon and realised I was on for a half decent time. I vaguely recalled that the qualifying time for the Boston Marathon for an ‘old-boy’ like me was around 3 hours 25 minutes. It looked like I was on pace to beat this. As it turned out, I finished in 3:18:48 which was a pb for me. So, in went my application!

Fast forward to 24th September 2024 @ 22:58, and the following popped up in my inbox.

I was in, and by the looks of it by the skin of my teeth, as the qualifying time has been trimmed to 3:19:00

Before I knew it, we were into April 2025. My training had not gone as planned (when does it ever!). But Boston bound we were.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

Thursday 17th April, Susan and I boarded the LNER down to London, and onto an overnight stay in Heathrow. The following day we board Virgin flight VS11 bound to Boston. Our plane was named ‘Eliza Doolittle’. On board were fellow marathoners, that we got chatting to.

We touched down in Boston around 20:00. After some minor drama in the airport, we caught a short Uber drive to our hotel in the Seaport district of Boston.

Jamaica Pond Park Run

The next morning, we awoke and headed to Jamaica Pond Park Run. You can never turn down the opportunity of a parkrun when overseas. What made it particularly pleasing was that it also ticked off ‘J’ in the pursuit of our park run alphabet challenge.

The week before, there were 74 runners. This week, over 700 descended on them!

This was not my best park run! In fact, I struggled badly and had to walk a section of the course. This was not the preparation I needed (mentally or physically) ahead of the marathon less than 2 days later. How on earth was I going to manage 42k!!

Expo

After Park Run we hot footed it over to the expo to pick up the race number. Crazy busy!

It gave me chance to see the finishing straight and line on Boylston Street, picturing myself (hopefully) running down that same street 48 hours later. It was all beginning to feel very real!

Race Day

An early start. Up at 05:00 to get things ready. Check, check and check again.

How was I feeling? Pains, aches, do I feel 100%? Maranoia had set in.

We made our way to Boston common, where I was to board a bus to the start line in Hopkington. Bizarrely, this was to be one of my highlights. Boston common was lined with over 200 yellow American school busses, the type you’d seen on films. What a sight!

I was to get on the very front one, no 123.

We set off in convoy, with a police escort down the freeway, other vehicles being told to pull to the side so we could get through. The journey took almost an hour, and it was at this point I realised how far I had to run back into Boston!

We arrived at race village, a good 90 minutes ahead of the start. As all marathoner runners will appreciate , you always join the endless toilet queues, even if you don’t feel the need to go. Maranoia!

Before I knew it, it was my turn to make the way to the start. Wave 2, Corral 7, start time 10:25. The walk to the start was almost a mile. A chance to take my pre-race gel and discard my warm over top, to proudly reveal my MRC race vest.

At that point, 2 American fighter jets flew over the start line, perfectly timed to the US anthem. How do they do that?

Weather conditions arguably perfect. 14C, no wind and blue skies. Here we go!

10:25 came and off we went.

In the build up to the race, I had watched countless YouTube videos on the course, and felt I knew it inside out, but I was wrong, none of this looked familiar. What I did know was that the start is downhill, with the first km a particularly steep one. Every YouTube video gave the same piece of advice. Do not go off too fast, you will regret it later in the race!

So, what were my pre-race goals? I generally go into races with an A, B & C goal. For Boston:

A – Sub 3:30 (4:59 min per km)

B – Sub 3:45 (5:19 / km)

C – Sub 4:00 ( 5:41 / km and feel ok!)

I also had an unofficial goal, to beat my bib. In Boston, you are allocated a number based on how fast you are relative to the whole field. Number 1 being the fastest runner. I was 15,313 out of a field of 32,000, so just inside the top 50%. My goal was to finish in a position higher than this.

So back to the start and that steep downhill first km! My Garmin buzzed as I passed through the first 1km point, I looked down and it read 4:29, what the hell was I playing at! The game plan already out the window. I was going to suffer later in the race, especially when I reach the Newton Hills at 18 miles and the infamous ‘Heartbreak Hill’ at 20 miles.

I dialled it down slightly, but still did the second km in 4:41. However, I was feeling good, and the heart rate seemed reasonable, so I thought, ‘go for it’!

The Boston route is a straight 26.2-mile route from Hopkinton to Boston taking you through 6 towns in between. Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley (and the famous scream tunnel), Newton (and its hills), Brookline before finally arriving into Boston.

It was wall to wall support from start to finish.

The highlight of the course (apart from the finish obviously)? The run through the famous scream funnel at Wellesley. It is lined by hundreds of screaming college students, wanting to high-5 you. Many holding up ‘kiss me’ signs. I politely declined these requests, after all I had a race to run 😉

I then hit the half-way point. 1:37:50 averaging 4:38 /km. I was still feeling good. Dig in, just another half-marathon to go! It was at this point I decided to break it down into Park runs, so just the 4 left and some!

Then came Newton and those dreaded/infamous hills. The first 3 seemed ok, then I reached the bottom of Heartbreak Hill. This was it; this was the time I was going to regret and pay the price for heading off too fast. Half a mile of torture... But it wasn’t! It seemed surprisingly ok. A time where expectation was far worse than reality. Those American’s need to come to Morley and run Churwell Hill, now that’s a proper hill in comparison. Don’t get me wrong, it slowed me down, but didn’t de-rail the run.

When I reached the top, there was only 2 more park runs left mainly downhill and flat. I was nearly there.

My final landmark to look out for was the ‘Citgo’ sign. This is a big billboard, at the home of the Boston Red Sox baseball team and was the sign your nearly there!

I saw this in the distance, but frustratingly it didn’t seem to get any closer, but I dug deep. Cramp started to affect my left calf. Nearly there.

Then we reached the point where you ‘turn right onto Hereford and left onto Boylston’. I could see the finish line in the distance about 800m away. Now’s the time to ‘send-it’. I just enjoyed the cheers from the crowds and the realisation that I was going to do this.

I crossed the finish line. I had done this! I stopped the Garmin (I didn’t look at my time at this point). I made my way to get that precious medal!

I then met with Susan at our pre-arranged point. After a celebratory hug, I asked “what time did I get?”. I still didn’t know at that point. 3:20:01 she told me. I’d smashed my ‘A’ goal and was delighted. A tiny part of me thought, “if only 2 seconds faster” 😊

I’d also beat my bib, finishing 9,596th.