This article is part of Outside Run’s complete 2023 Boston Marathon race coverage.
While it might have looked like Scott Fauble made the conscious decision to run the Boston Marathon with a patient, conservative approach, that’s not really what happened.
It was more that Fauble just couldn’t hang with the fast early pace and decided instead to back off after the lead pack blazed through the first four miles at 4:37 pace on the early downhill section of the course.
With most everyone else in the elite men’s field staying on the heels of marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge—including other top Americans Conner Mantz and CJ Albertson—Fauble backed off considerably and quickly found himself well behind the frontrunners.
While the lead pack of 12 runners came through the 10K in 28:53, Fauble was 38 seconds off the back with fellow Americans Nico Montanez and Colin Mickow, seemingly out of contention.
“I don’t know that I was that patient,” said Fauble, whose 5K split was a blistering 14:25 (4:38 pace per mile), even though he was already seven seconds back from the leaders at that point. “I don’t care if…
