I arrived last Sunday afternoon just in time to jump into a cab for an encounter at a restaurant a block from the finish. I sat with Dennis H, Carl J his wife, Tonia E her sister. Too many other deads to mention as well. Food was good, but all the rushing around was very stressful and when I finally arrived to my hotel, my heart was racing - not a good thing the day before a marathon.
Marathon day was quite chilly (low 40's) and windy. I liked the low temps for running, but it was difficult waiting around and very difficult at the starting line. In addition, my bladder was 'talking to me' as I was well hydrated. I figured I would take a pit stop within a few miles since I was on a training run.
Now I really needed to take that pit stop and lost over a minute on the 14th mile. But the real problem was that my legs tightened up and I had a difficult time getting going again. The 3 hour time was out of the question now, so I decided to go into ultra mode and walk the uphills. This worked out pretty well except I had a tough time walking with the loud crowds telling me to not stop and saying "You can do it!!".
Those next 4 5k's went: 22:54, 23:49, 26:00, 23:14 as I reached 40k in 2:58:27 and I cranked out the last mile to finish 3:08:07. The 26 min 5k was due to walking all of Heartbreak Hill.
So my 5th Boston goes down as another less than steller effort, but as usual, it was a lot of fun and the crowds actually seemed larger and louder than ever. Incredible when you consider how cold and windy it was out there.
After my room mate and I went back to the hotel to get a beer and shower, we met up with Teresa Brobeck, Jim Adams, and Melita Morton for a nice dinner and lots of talk about Boston 2000.