7 days and the weather watch

My preferred 7 day forecast!

2014s Boston Marathon weather...This wouldn't be so bad for this year!

In just under 7 full days from this minute, wave 4 of the Boston Marathon will start. Nothing much to worry about for the next week unless you are injured, other than rest, eating well and of course, the weather come Marathon Monday.

The DFMC team thread is full of questions and speculation of what will the weather be. Even some out of town runners I know have messaged me asking me what to expect for the weather. Forecasts from many different sites, countries and even cities are being posted. What will the weather be in Hopkinton at the start, or Newton at mile 17, or Boston at mile 25? I have to admit that even though there is nothing we can do to control it, I am equally obsessed with this information. 

Currently my favourite and preferred weather forecast is courtesy of the Canadian weather network which shows a high of 11C/low of 6C with partly cloudy skies. That would be a dream. Weather.com on the other hand, has a decent but much less runner friendly forecast of the high 16C/low 11C. To a lot of you, you might wonder what the big deal is, if I can run 26.2 miles in -10 Celsius, surely I can do the same in +15 or +20. The reality is besides wanting to be able to run my best possible time, which would be easier in cooler conditions, everyone really just wants to pick out their race day attire so that they can check another box off the list, one less variable going into the weekend. Weather can also ruin 18 weeks of training in a flash. 3 years ago, the temperatures in Boston, peaked at 27-28 Celsius, prompting the Boston Athletic Association to recommend people skip the race, despite not cancelling it. Sure, I could run the marathon in those temperatures but it wouldn't be pleasant (as pleasant as running as a marathon is anyways). 

So as 30,000 runners focus on the weather for April 20th over the next 7 days, only tell them the good news if it is 12C/50F and partly cloudy, don't tell them the good news of a warm sunny day :-)