Hi, all, Quite a day - filled with sights and sounds that'll stick with me for a long time. After the GREAT visit with everyone on Saturday, Tom and I drove back to CT where I rested up on Sunday. The rest was good but missing out on the Sunday get-togethers was the price paid. Guess we can't have *everything*, now, can we?

Monday we caught the club bus at 7 a.m. and arrived as the third bus into the club area. I think when all was said and done, there had to be 50 or more buses in that little area! I'd guess we were in our parking slot by 9:30 or so. I had to laugh at Melita's post about debating what to wear. In our bus, there were 45 runners and we were ALL debating what to wear. And changing and re-changing. One woman hadn't brought any long sleeves at all and so went and bought a long-sleeved cotton shirt down at the center of town (where they had sausage sandwiches and fried dough - at 10 a.m.?????)

I was really nervous but glad to see that there were LOTS of folks with high numbers present. After what felt like forever, we wandered into our corrals. I was in #16. When I watched Tom at the start two years ago, it really gave me the chills to see the helicopters overhead and the planes zoom by and this time it was like I was in a dream - that this couldn't possibly be happening with me as a participant. But it was! At least, I was told it was happening. Reports were that runners were running but you couldn't prove it by me!

It was probably a good 7 minutes before we even started to move. And then another minute or so before we crossed the start. I didn't get a good fix but I believe there were about 8 minutes on the clock when we went over the start line. But WOW what a feeling!

My race plan, thanks to the good, experienced voice of Connie Chan was to be conservative until after Heartbreak Hill. So, I figured on 10-minute miles which, if I held that pace, would still give me a PR, but I hoped I could pick up the pace after Heartbreak. First mile (by my watch which I started when I crossed the start) was 11:05. Yup, that was good and conservative!

I didn't change my pace, though, which had escalated from a walk at the start. Next 4 miles were all too fast (9:25, 9:34, 9:28, 9:58) but I'd started to slow down. Dang, it was tough to slow down. I mean, I was being passed right, left and center by what seemed to be every person who'd lined up behind me or had stopped to use the trees on the side of the road! I was SURE that I was dead last at this point. But it didn't stop me from having a ball - high-fiving all these adorable little kids - and even some adults! (Even high-fived some orange slices, I think!)

But I finally got to the pace I wanted and I held it there pretty well while enjoying the tremendous, incredible crowd support! Two ballerinas passed me somewhere in the first ten miles and I must've passed them somewhere along the way because within 2 miles of the finish, they passed me again. I was wearing my Hartford Track Club singlet and got lots of "Go, Hartford!" as encouragement. By mile 7 I finally started to pass some people and so my fear of bringing up the rear was dispelled.

I was feeling *great* and wanted it to stay that way so I had some GU at about 8 miles or so. Hit the halfway point feeling just super and grabbed for my GU flask: it was gone. Uh oh. I had this terrible sinking feeling. But I didn't want to have some sort of a crisis out there and decided I felt good, I'd trained hard, and I'd just drink Gatorade the rest of the race for my carbs (although I did worry a bit that this would cause me some stomach problems).

Grabbed a hard candy that a little girl offered. And then there was a GU stop! Snatched a couple of those. And then had a PowerGel at, what, mile 18? While it wasn't my "usual", it would have to do. I do have something of a cast iron stomach and had *no* problems whatsoever with the unaccustomed combination. I felt like a really lucky girl!

Some of the uphills started around 16 or so and that's when I started having some problems maintaining pace. After the relentless downhill, my quads were a bit overtaxed. The uphill was actually pleasant but, unfortunately, there was more downhill on the other side. My miles slowed to 10:30-11:00 - ouch! Shortly after Heartbreak, I pushed the wrong button on my watch and so lost the remainder of the race.

Luckily, I can reconstruct with the split times from the website. I had 3 5K's in target pace, two within reasonable tolerance and three out of range. I was actually surprised, though, to see how close the 5K's were. Guess I probably *felt* more like walking than I actually did walk. It was difficult to walk outside of water stops: the crowd just would NOT let you walk. I know that without the crowd support during the last 4 miles or so, I probably would have walked more than I did. But I felt so *guilty* - they'd just cheer you along and then when you'd start running again, you'd get a big hand. What an amazing bunch of people out there watching (and, not to repeat what others have said, but those Wellesley women were UNbelievable - I couldn't stop laughing and smiling the entire way.)

After Mile 25, there was no way I was going to stop. When you see the Citgo sign looming to your left and you know that the "1 mile to go" sign will show up soon, the rush is irresistible. You turn on whatever afterburners you may have left and go for it. Then you make the right turn and then the left turn onto Boyleston. And there it is: the finish line up ahead maybe .4 miles. Crowds pressing against the wooden fencing - yelling and cheering and here it is 4:30 into the race. My last mile had to be the fastest of the run - I couldn't stop myself from running and crying and laughing.

I haven't done tons of marathons - this was my fifth finish - but from my experience, there's just nothing that compared with the feeling at the finish of this race. I can't explain it logically. Maybe it's the love affair with the crowds; maybe it's the legend and lore of the race; maybe the tradition. I don't know. But I've never felt this kind of an incredible surge of energy and emotion at the end of a marathon. Yeah, I've cried at the end of marathons before, but I never felt so entirely overwhelmed. It's something else.

Here's my (net) 5K's: 30:04
30:22
30:42
31:15
31:48
33:43
34:16
34:15
14:31 (2.2K)

So, instead of speeding up at the end, I had, well, a bit of a slowdown. But my net time of 4:31:55 is within 2 minutes of my PR and, given the conditions (headwind) and the course profile, I'm pretty good with that. Well, my brain is. My legs, on the other hand, are toast!

Did probably 3 miles walking with Tom tonight and will run tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

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