Charlotte Douglas Airport Sunday afternoon already contained more than a
dozen @ the gate sporting their vintage Boston apparell from years past. This already had my heart racing in anticipation for the weekend to come. I sat on the plane next to Sean Mooney who was racing his 2nd Boston in 2 yrs and when he slowed his voice, looked at me, and said "this is your first? Well, believe the hype! It's incredible." The plane couldn't get to Logan Airport fast enough for I was already grinning from ear to ear. We traded war stories, races, and goal times for this years race. Time literally flew as did we.
Landed. Mom and I Checked in @ hotel. Convention center packet pickup. Duck Tour. Dinner! My sister joined us in the room. Sleep.
5am wake_up and 20 minute walk to the buses at CommonWealth Park. As I exited my hotel room I met Christopher awaiting the elevator as well. Here was a spitfire of a 49 year old, 5 foot nothing, 100 and nothing lbs ready to race. He convinced me not to take a cab and instead we chatted about goal times and such during our 20 min brisk walk to the bus line. I feared I needed more breakfast than the bananas and bagels available at the village so I split from Christopher, not sure if he heard me as he was talking continuously, and invaded Dunkin Donuts for an everything egg and cheese bagel hold the cheese.
6am sitting in the bus awaiting departure. Guy next to me apologizes ahead of time for "just waking up" otherwise known as "Leave Me Alone." 20 minutes into our journey Steve awoke and we swapped qualifying races and more goal times. He also offered advice on hotels just outside of Boston for half the price then connected using the public T-train.
7am we arrived in the
Athletes village. Brrrr. Damn its early. I was given an extra trash bag from a kind runner to protect from the wet ground and stake my plot of land in the open air circus-like tent for the next few hours and just chill, literally.
8am Yawn.. Banana, Bagel, Granola, Bathroom - phew! Decided to drum up a conversation with my fellow runner and camper Paul for the next hour or so. Paul was 37 from Michigan also running his first Boston. He sat upon a childrens size sponge bob lawn chair which kept his butt off the ice block of a ground. We again swapped qualifying races, goal times, and stories of our kids which passed the time effectively.
9:15am dropped off my bag on the bus to be taken to the finish and listened to a guy named Ryan tell a few others how to race Boston. Ryan was in the first corral and was not shy to tell a few folks gathered about how he ran a 2:45 in Boston a few years back. He gave one tip which I feel was very useful. Shorter strides on the downhill with greater turnover so as not to bang the quads down the hill. This I hadn't practiced but he seemed convincing as he claimed he was a high school track coach from the area.
So then it was the 0.7 mile walk from the village to the start line. Can you feel the energy?? It was electric!
Made my way to the second corral because my bib# was in the 2000's and in order to do so you walk past corrals 14-3 in descending order based on your qualifying time. This was cool because it was quite an ego-boost. The only thing better would have been the first corral right behind the elite runners. I was wearing my throw away sweat pants and an older long-sleeved shirt but most importantly in my arsenal were 2 empty Gatorade bottles.
That's right, my baño-2-go! As everyone stared at the two F-16 jets screaming overhead I was going potty in the bottle. I didn't need both so I offered my unused bottle to my neighbor who seemed obliged.
Next we saw Ryan Hall and the elite runners come out 4 minutes before the race.. U>S>A.. Threw the clothes in the donation bag, Star Spangled Banner. Said a prayer and..
10am BAM! (Gunshot) We're off...
Unlike anything I have ever experienced was the feeling of running amongst hundreds of runners all while trying to hold back my pace and not go out too fast. By far these were the easiest feeling 6:3X miles of my life. Felt like I was walking or even running backwards as everyone passed by. Runners were spraying left and right into the woods for emergency pee breaks in the first miles.
I settled into a pace and began to ask runners around me what their goal time was in order to gauge my pace as well as hitch-hike someone's pace and run with them because I had no watch. Unfortunately, my watch said low battery in the village so I left it in the bag and deemed it my fate to fly blind. Fortunately, there were clocks at every mile AND every 5K mark. Can you say World Major Marathon? Indeed.
10K 21:22 (6:54 pace) 41:54 Total - 1st Gu
Finally, the speedsters had thinned out and I was now with runners from mostly the 3rd corral as I could tell from their bib numbers in the 3000's. I settled in with an older guy from Toronto running his 3rd Boston with an ultimate goal of a sub 3 hour time.. perfect!
15K 21:24 (6:55 pace) 1:03:18 Total
My "pacer" was near but I began to stray and sort of "feel" my pace as we strolled down the hills. I couldn't help but run near the sideline and give high-fives to the many kids lining the streets. It felt worth it as they would light-up and yell to their parents everytime a runner smacked their hands. Note: This would be helpful on training runs to not only place water bottles along my route but also 6 year olds. :) Felt like a pro.
20K 21:20 (6:53 pace) 1:24:38 Total - 2nd Gu
Nearing the halfway mark I remember taking a sort of inventory and the result wasn't great, I felt fatigued as my legs weren't entirely fresh considering I was only halfway done. However, I was on pace as planned and could here the faint screeching of the girls at
Wellsley College in the distance.
Half Marathon Split 1:29:17
Race plan of Sub 3 was in tact so I couldn't resist the temptation of doing the Boston tradition of randomly hurling myself towards a suspecting student and smacking a kiss on her cheek. I halted to a stop and kissed the first girl I saw and off we went while the screeches faded away.
I was preparing myself for the coming uphills and trying to remain smooth and relaxed. I met back up with the guy from Toronto and chatted with a few others sort of killing time as we all knew what lay ahead... I remembered reading recently that the race begins at mile 18 and that served as my mental preparation for things to come.
25K 21:16 (6:52 pace) 1:45:54
At Mile 16 we encountered our first significant uphill after a steep downhill past the 25K mark. The change of elevation actually came as a rather welcome feeling because we were forced to use different muscles i.e. ones that didn't hurt yet. I enjoyed the uphills but did not motor-up them for fear of bonking late. It was definitely beneficial to read
26 Miles to Boston and already have a clear idea as to which hills were at what location, no guesswork. Into Newton Hills.
30K 21:44 (7:01 pace) 2:07:38 - 3rd Gu @ 17
Coming out of the 30K checkpoint I was thinking about some of the people that might be tracking my progress in the race and there was a great connection I was feeling, something like I wasn't alone and we were all in this together. Or more like, "don't stop asshole." As I finally crested Heartbreak Hill, it was bitter-sweet. I knew that was the last of the hills but I also knew there was like 5 miles remaining. The wheels were coming off and it was time for damage control. People were dropping off like road kill as they shuffled on the sideline while being harassed by the Boston College kids. Drew a line in the sand, I wasn't going out like that.
35K 21:51 (7:03 pace) 2:29:29 - 4th Gu @ 21
This is the Boston freagin Marathon, if not here, where? I was thinking if I can just get to 24 then the energy of the crowd will carry me home. I knew that it was tight to make the sub 3 goal and I didn't feel like I had any 6:30's left in the tank. The big Citgo sign in the distance was teasing me as it remained in the distance for far too long. There musta been a local guy named Mike running right behind me and this worked out great as he had a lot of friends yelling "GO MIKE!" which benefited us both.
40K 21:51 (7:03 pace) 2:51:20
Finally the turn off Beacon past the Citgo sign and eventually onto Boylston. I dug deep for that extra gear but it wasn't there so I scanned the crowd for my Mom and Sister but there were far too many people so I put my head down and finished.
42.2K 9:18 (6:49 pace) 3:00:38 FINISH
I am here to report that for this one day, for a brief 3 hour period on a spring day in April, Ideality met Reality and clashed but this time Ideality was the victor and Won! I got to be that rock-star, that professional, that seemingly unstoppable force for a moment in time that can do no wrong! It was the epitamy of my running career to this day. Not especially because of the time I ran, as it wasn't a PR, nor for the place I finished - 1400 something, but rather for the look in the people's eyes both on the sidelines and in the race... there was magic and spirit in the air and I was right in the middle of it. Boston met and exceeded every expectation bestowed upon it. Now I am hungry for seconds... God Bless!
In the meantime, I intend on running in some other local races during my marathon training. You see, while sidelined for 3 weeks due to an achilles injury, I was given ample time to reflect on my training and I was sort of upset that I didn't race on my current level of fitness before it all went south. I was in pretty darn good shape at the end of February and purposely did not run in several races including a Half Marathon in Columbia for fear of injury on my way to Boston.
However, as Murphy's Law states.. "If anything can go wrong, it will" and in fact it did but I did not benefit from racing on my tuned up fitness level in the process.
