I boarded my plane in Portland at 11:30PM on Friday full of excitement and some trepidation. I had a particularly stressful week with work and some health issues but I was really looking forward to Boston and getting away. David Hays and I were supposed to meet at the airport on Sat morning since he was also taking a red-eye, from Seattle, and was getting in a hour before me. However, when I arrived in Boston, there was no David at my gate or at the other side of the security. Hmm, not a good way to start off. I went down to the baggage claim level to see if he was there, but still no Dave. Just as I was getting ready to head off to the hotel, I hear Dave calling. It seems he decided to lie down on some chairs at my gate to wait for my flight to arrive and was asleep in a couple of minutes. I was looking for a vertical David not a horizontal one, so I must have walked by him a couple of times. Anyway, we were off to our hotel and the expo. After getting our numbers and walking around a bit, I bumped into Connie Chan, who we were meeting for lunch on Sat, along with Mike. It was great meeting a familiar face in the crowd and it meant that we wouldn't get lost going to lunch, which was probable. After a great lunch, it was back to the expo to spend some money (very little in my case -- just a cap this year) and then back to the hotel to meet up with our third roomie, Mika. I then walked down to the MFA to get tickets for the Impressionist show on Sunday. As I was walking to MFA, I saw a familiar face pulling into the Collonade -- Kate Spencer. I got back into my NYC mode, jaywalked across Huntington dodging cars and said hi. After visiting a bit, I continued to the MFA, back to the hotel, and then Dave and I went off to the dinner.
It was great seeing old friends and meeting new folks that I have only known via email. As usual, the dinner was great and many thanks to Robin, Val, and Susan for doing a great job organizing it. The silent auction was fun, even though I was out bid on a couple of items.
The next morning, Mika, Dave, and I took a very easy 3+ mile run along the Charles and over a couple of bridges. Then, I went out to Val's bagel brunch, including the nice 1.3 mile walk to her house. Val, it was wonderful of you to open your house again for us. After visiting with folks, Doug Dodds drove Cary Craig and me to the Harvard T stop, where she went home and I went off to the MFA to spend time with Monet, Van Gogh, Manet, etc., which I really enjoyed. I probably spent way too much time on my feet on Sunday, given the morning run, the walk to brunch, and the museum visit, but I don't go to Boston just for the race. I go for the whole experience. And, speaking of walking, for dinner, we met up with Kirsten and her husband Harry (first time I met them and they are wonderful people) and then went to the North End. Mika, not trusting my low tech method of using a map to find the restaurant, told me to leave the map at home and we would use his Palm Pilot to get there. Let's just say that we took a little walking tour of the North End (we did pass by Paul Revere's house). Anyway, it was a great dinner and I was feeling pretty good for the
little jaunt on Monday.
On Monday morning, we were up bright and early since we wanted to catch an early (around 6:45) bus to get our space at the Athletes Village. Mika had proposed a spot for us in the food tent and we were able to claim some prime real estate. We met up with Steve Brown, another NoWDead, and Kirsten joined us slightly later (she was smart and had us get up real early, get the space, and then joined us later -- how did she talk us into that? :-). The time went fairly quickly with reading, snoozing, and waiting at porta-potties. Nextel had cell phones available for free use and I called home to say hi to Elizabeth, who was just leaving for school, and Elaine who was barely awake. The weather was perfect -- foggy, cool, and no sun. After all the fretting, it appeared that Mother Nature was going to cooperate.
By the way, Mika posted some pictures of the NoWDead contingent at the Athletes Village, as well as Dave's colorful eye. The URL is:
http://homepage.mac.com/mmanty/PhotoAlbum3.html.
On the way to the start, we helped the drought by watering some trees close to the start since we were all pretty well-hydrated. Unfortunately, I had already dropped off my disposable camera, as had Mika, or we could have had a nice NoWDead poster.
I lined up in corral #8 and met up with Dennis Halpin. I saw that he was going for a 3:25 and I had finally decided that I would try for a 3:30. I felt confident that I could do that given my past training and race at San Diego in January.
As the gun went off, we went nowhere. This was the longest it has taken me to get across the starting line at Boston, over 5 minutes. But, once we crossed the running was pretty smooth. It was great to finally run after sitting around all morning but I was careful not to go out too fast. I'm pretty good at pacing and got into a nice rhythm. The weather was cool and all was looking good. During these first 5 miles, I saw the best sign of the race (it was around the 1.5 mile mark, I think). It said, 103 miles to go -- sponsored by Arthur Anderson. The splits for the first 5 miles were:
7:55, 7:41, 8:03, 7:38, 7:59 -- 39:16
Right on target. I was drinking at every water stop, which were at every mile. I'd take one cup of water and one cup of Gatorade, mix them, and drink most of a cup. And, I did this while jogging. I think I finally figured out this drinking on the run. I was sweating a bunch but I think I was rehydrating real well. The pace seemed easy, the crowds were great, and life seemed good. I, of course, started to get optimistic and thought about negative splits and getting around 3:25. Oh well, fantasy can be fun. The next splits were:
7:54, 7:51, 8:02, 7:56, 7:47 -- 1:18:46 (39:30)
Pretty consistent. The next 5 miles is all about passing the halfway mark and running through Wellesley. Definite my favorite part of the race and I wasn't disappointed. I passed the halfway mark in around 1:43:30 and still felt good. But, during this section, at around mile 14 or so, I turned my left ankle. After a few expletives, I kept on running and while it was sore, I thought I could keep going without problems. I don't know if I changed my gait or anything to compensate, but this was the last good 5 mile section that I had. These splits were:
7:58, 7:57, 8:01, 7:58, 8:08 -- 1:58:48 (40:02)
I realized after mile 15 that things were turning bad. The 8:08 mile felt much harder than all the rest had so I was beginning to slow down. During the next stretch, my left quad really started to hurt (as did the outside of my upper left leg) and then my right quad starting hurting a little. I really started to slow down at this time. Also, during this next stretch, the sun made an appearance and I tried drinking more. I did walk a couple of aid stations to make sure I stayed hydrated but the wheels were beginning to come off. The splits:
7:53, 8:22, 8:25, 8:13, 8:43 -- 2:40:23 (41:35)
OK, even though I was on pace for 3:30 at mile 20, I knew that I could not run a 50 minute 10K anymore. I was just going to have to hold on. I went up and over the last of the hills fairly slowly since my legs were definitely painful at this time. I didn't feel like I was out of energy but every step hurt. Luckily, the crowds kept me going. The BC crowd sounded particularly loud this year. This last section was the toughest and hottest for me. I kept drinking and didn't walk except for a couple of aid stations but I wasn't really running, more like shuffling. And, the splits showed it:
9:24, 8:56, 8:57, 9:08, 9:14 -- 3:26:02 (45:39)
We are at the Citgo sign and only 1.2 to go. The crowds were great here and I decided to try to finish with as much dignity as possible. I "picked up the pace", though I knew that I wasn't going to break 3:35. After making the right turn onto Heresford (I think that is the name) and cursing that slight incline, it was the final left turn onto Boylston. I was really getting into the cheering and milked all their energy. The final 1.2 was:
8:44, 1:57 for a chip time of:
3:36:35
While my time was a little disappointing, it was a Boston PR by over 10 minutes. Of course, in my previous two Bostons, I carried a camera and took it real slow, so it was a very soft PR. This was the first Boston that I had a time goal and took it a more seriously.
I came out of the race not too badly injured. My quads are still real sore and I probably won't be running until the weekend. I got a pretty bad sunburn on my neck, back and upper arms, which is a little painful. I carried sunscreen to the Athletes Village but the weather looked so bad I kind of forgot about it.
Marathon #19 is over. #20 is coming up in a scant seven weeks at Newport, OR. I don't know what my plans will be for that one yet. I'm pretty beat up right now and don't know how much hard training I'll want to put in over the next bit. I'll wait a while to decide.
I'd like to really thank the NEDeads for their hospitality and events. One of the reasons I like to run Boston is to see all the good friends that I have made and meet new ones. It never fails to succeed on that account.
Dave and Mika are great roomies and don't even snore (Jerome, do you read that?? :-) It was wonderful getting to meet Kirsten and know her better as well as her great hubby, Harry.
I'm sure I'll be back at Boston again, not next year, however, due to Passover (even though I am qualified for 2003). Being in a new age group, I "only" need 3:30, which I should be able to do. While it is a tough course, I like running it and being seeing folks as Imentioned above.
Another point that I really liked about Boston this year was it gave me an opportunity to get away from some of my recent stresses, hang out, and enjoy something that I love to do. I am definitely feeling better about life. Of course, I'm now back to reality at work and seeing a doctor tomorrow to schedule a colonoscopy.
I'm not sure of my running goals for the rest of the year but I'll certainly run a fall marathon, with the hope of a fast time in the fall. As I mentionedt, I'm not sure about my goal for Newport. That will be decided next week.
Thanks for reading.