a
thin red line along the eastern horizon heralded the approach of
dawn
less than 12 hours after crossing the finish line in Boston. for
a
"morning after", i felt pretty darn good, i was able to carry my
suitcases
down the stairs at Connie's house as i prepared to once more
negotiate
the "T" and the flight back to the left coast. i would have
lots
of time today to kick back and remember all that happened
yesterday...
unlike
Connie (to be known hereafter as "Miss Doom and Gloom")i needed
more
than 45 minutes to prepare for a race that was still 6 hours down
the
road in Hopkinton. i climbed out of bed at 5:45 and immediately
looked
out the window. the predicted rain hadn't materialized during
the
night and at this hour conditions looked promising, but it did
look
awfully cold outside. i went through the usual
preparations...Squeezies,
disposable camera and garbage bag packed in
a
small
waist pack, Body Glide applied liberally on my toes and several
other
places i won't go into, leopard tights, a jog bra, singlet,
light
weight long sleeve shirt and finally a sweatshirt thrown onto my
body.
i remembered to wear a cap and insert my orthotics into my
latest
pair of Talarias. what seemed really abnormal was downing a
bowl
of oatmeal and a banana prior to running a marathon but i knew
i'd
never make it otherwise.
Mike
Sheldon showed up at 7:15 and we were off to ride on Connie's
running
club's chartered bus. the 30 minute drive to Hopkinton was
filled
with the lively chatter of nervous runners. one oldish dude
named
Duffy was running his 33rd consecutive Boston. Connie was
running
her 10th. i knew we had
arrived
in Hopkinton when i saw growing numbers of warmly clothed
runners
walking
down
the road carrying the great sweat bags Boston provides to it's
runners.
Connie and i were actually sharing a bag to save time at the
finish.
our bus parked fairly close to the start line and Connie, Mike
and
i headed to the nearby "Hawaii House" where we would spend the
next
3 hours in warmth and comfort with several real bathrooms at our
disposal.
this is the first and probably last race where i didn't use
a
Porta Potty even once during the day! we talked and hydrated met old
friends
and new runners and
soon
it was 11:45 and time to head to our corrals. we dumped off Mike
in
#8, i hugged Connie good-bye at #11 and i slipped into #12. almost
immediately
ran into Dead Sam Levitin who was hoping for a 3:30. it
was
growing warm by now and i tied the sweatshirt around my waist. i
was
planning to hold on to all my warm clothing as Miss Doom and Gloom
had
spent 3 days convincing me of the frigid winds that would start
blasting
into us at mile 20. Since my arrival she'd whined..."Oh you
are
gonna freeze, it's gonna be so cold. It will be a tailwind till
Monday
and then change direction." she was at least right about that
last
part. i wasn't willing to trade warmth for
cramps
at that late stage in the race, especially at the slower pace i
was
aiming
for.
at
exactly noon the gun went off...and we stood there. and continued
standing
there for 3 minutes.
the
corrals had been narrowed this year to prevent the funnel effect
at
the
actual start line which meant a longer time to get there. we
finally
began shuffling forward and walked our way up a short hill to
the
start
(which i only knew by the presence of the chip mats...there was
no
starting
banner
of balloons or any other indication of an actual "line".) my
plan
was to finish with a chip time of 4:30 to 4:45 but the time on my
watch
misled me the entire way. my plan was to savor the crowd, take a
lot
of pictures, walk the hills. the race didn't really turn out quite
like
that but it was close.
from
the beginning, the crowds were incredible. music was blasting,
people
were screaming and cheering, i must have high fived hundreds of
tiny
outstretched hands. it was also VERY warm and i quickly shed my
remaining
shirts and added them to the layer around my waist which was
creeping
towards my neck. the aid
stations
are plentiful and well manned along the entire course, with
an
initial one on the right side of the road and a second one about
200
yards later on the left. they are there each mile after about 2
miles.
i walked through each one and drank
copiously
but didn't dare pour water over my head in anticipation of
Miss
G & D's frigid winds. as a result, i was hot...hotter than i've
ever
been in a marathon. my pace was somewhere between 9:08 and 9:d0
with
aid station walks each mile of at least 30 seconds. i tried to
slow
down, but it was
difficult.
Connie said the first 16 miles was downhill, but i would
describe
it more as just gently rolling. the downhill was enough to
keep
the pace faster than i'd planned however. the miles rolled by,
the
crowds,
always noisy and encouraging, ebbed and swelled, and the sun
beat
down relentlessly. at mile 9 some cloud cover finally
materialized
and the temps took a good drop and i began feeling
better.
my legs weren't feeling all that energetic and i hoped that
the
early miles in the heat wouldn't cause me to bonk at the finish.
at
about 10 miles i hooked
up
with Cal Dead Sue Bernal and we ran about 3 miles together before i
lost
her at an aid station. Sue...hope the rest of your run went well!
i
also met lurker Dead Bob (didn't catch the last name) who knew who i
was,
must have been the tights. the crowds started out calling me a
cheetah...than
a leopard...then a tiger...briefly a lion...and finally
a
leopard in the final miles.
it
was fun seeing up close all those little towns i've only read about
or
seen on TV...Hopkinton, Framingham, Wellesley (with it's deafening
noise)
and finally Newton. i remembered Newton was known for it's
hills
and sure enough, they suddenly appeared. by mile 16, the semi
dead
legs i'd felt the entire run started feeling a little worse and
the
mental part of the race kicked in. at mile 17 i finally went over
10
minute miles and on some of the hills i walked about 50 feet before
shuffling
to the summit. i
stretched
my hamstrings once or twice although they continued to
tighten.
but stamina? boy do i have stamina. running slower didn't
feel
any better and at mile 22 the pace started picking up a bit.
around
here i finally asked someone when were we gonna get to
Heartbreak
Hill? he said it was my lucky day...that last hill at mile
21
was it. sheeshhh...that wasn't a hill, just an annoyance :-).
to
be honest, by the final 4 miles the crowd began to be an annoyance.
i
tried to ignore them and visualize a shady single track in the
mountains
with just the sounds of birds and flowing water. it didn't
work,
the screaming of the thousands lining the side of the road just
grew
louder. the dreaded freezings head winds never appeared (although
Miss
G & D disagrees), conditions felt perfect. i saw Dead Doug Dodds
right
where he said he'd be and snapped a quick picture. and then i
saw
the Cisco sign...what a beautiful welcoming sight! got a picture
of
that.
i saw runners ahead turning a corner and wondered if this is
where
we entered Central Park...oops, wrong race! the final turn
finally
came and
ahead
was the finish line, i finally got my arch of balloons. i dug
down
for a final push and was overcome by a huge wash of emotion. it
didn't
last long, however, as it made breathing too difficult. i
stopped
100 yards shy of the finish for a final picture and hit the
final
chip mat in 4:31:46 by my watch. right on schedule until i
realized
the first 9:12 didn't count.
the
cold finally hit after a 30 minute wait while Mike, Connie, MJ and
i
located each other and then it was a LONG 2 mile walk back to Mike's
car.
it seemed so odd that it was 5:30 in the evening, it should have
been
noon! on this walk i picked up a great trivia question...whoever
answers
first (excluding Boston deads) wins the standard DRS prize...
-How many Smoots are there on the
Mass Ave Bridge?
and
for a bonus...what is a Smoot? :-)
so
now i've got my 26th marathon, 9th state and first and last Boston
behind
me. as i sit here in first class on the plane, somewhere over
Idaho,
downing
Mimosa's,
i can't really say i'm looking forward to running Big Sur in
two
weeks. but...tomorrow's another day.
for
anyone interested (ha ha), here are my splits...(9:12 from corral
12
to the start),9:30,9:08, 9:25,9:41,9:50,9:49, 9:50, 10:17 (some
logistical
problems with the camera), 9:54, 9:48, 9:55, 9:38, 9:58,
9:47,
9:57, 9:38, 10:52, 10:33, 10:08, 10:48, 11:33 (must have been
Heartbreak),
9:48, 10:15, 9:59, 10:37, 12:04 for the final 1.2.
sally,
tired and happy and 20,000 feet high