Dawn Bonker
The Boston Marathon is the oldest and most prestigious annual marathon in the world, and Chapman President Jim Doti had trained hard for this year’s event – his seventh time participating in the grueling 26-mile, 385-yard race. What neither he nor any of the other runners counted on this year was that marathon day – April 16 – turned out to be one of the hottest days yet this spring, with temperatures in the mid-80s, even in the morning.
“When I heard that the average temperature was going to be 85 degrees, I planned to slow down right from the beginning of the marathon,” President Doti recounted to Happenings. “A well-known running coach and Olympian, Jeff Galloway, says that every interval of five degrees over 60 degrees slows your pace (miles per minute) by 30 seconds. So a temperature of 85 degrees suggests that one’s pace will be 2 ½ minutes slower than normal. I qualified for Boston at the California International Marathon, which I ran in about four hours. That’s a pace of about 9 minutes a mile. The 85-degree heat in Boston meant I’d have to slow my pace down to 11:30 per mile. And that’s pretty much what I did – running the first half in 2:31:51 and the second half in 2:31:32. That’s an average pace of 11:35, right near my goal.”
He says that at the halfway point, he was feeling “pretty good in spite of the heat. The Wellesley girl from California, though, may have given me needed inspiration.”
“Keeping my pace under control allowed me to finish feeling fairly strong. That made it possible for me to have a great dinner with a Chapman alumnus and his wife an hour after finishing the race.”
But the president added that his most important strategy probably involved his pre-race visit to a terrific Boston Italian restaurant:
“I carbo-loaded the night before the race at my favorite pasta restaurant in the world – Mamma Maria’s at the Italian North End of Boston, near Christopher Columbus Park. A fellow runner and I split two pasta dishes — an incredible pasta with rabbit sauce and wild mushroom sauce. I think the great pastas were even more important to finishing the race than my pacing strategy!”
With pasta and gusto, President Doti finishes strong in heated Boston Marathon
Great article. Our daughter, Kyle Murray who is a 3rd year law student at Chapman also ran in the marathon this year. Like yourself she visited the North End for a pre race pasta dinner. As you mentioned, the weather was miserably hot and her overall was much slower than her qualifying time. Go Chapman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!