Firstly, a HUGE thanks to all the deads who helped to make this a fabulous trip: - all of those who offered encouragement through the training, - Gary (
) who sent out Bob Glover's description of the Boston course and how to run it - especially the bit about maintaining cadence on uphills, and the detailed description of the number, placement and length of each of the Newton Hills. ***Invaluable***!!!!! - Teresa and her lucky "T" token, - Robin & crew who set up the dinner (I can't get over how much fun it is to finally shake the hand of someone who's been an email penpal for years), - Connie who offered her driveway as a parking spot for our rental car and continues to inspire with the most wonderful Boston posts, - A, Julie, Schaef & Karen who helped keep the jitters away leading up to the start, - Kate and Cary who joined me in the start corral brimming with positive vibes - Julie (again!) and Neil who handed me gingerale at mile 15 - all those who yelled Go Dead Runner! along the way - to AndyE - Boulder training buddy and dead runner - who has been teaching me how to run downhill and is always willing to push the pace to help illustrate how it's done.... my quads *really* thank you! - and especially Neil who coached me to a most fabulous run!!!!! *Prelude* Approaching Boston I purposefully avoided responding to the spouse at races thread - cuz, my spouse would be accompanying me on this one! I must say, he performed admirably. We went out early and visited a friend in Lyme, Connecticut for a totally relaxing two days. Then he hung right in there with me at the expo - and followed that as a most gracious escort to the drs dinner. Sunday I opted for a leisurely, unscheduled day [so no drs brunch ;-( ] but Kendall surprised me with late morning Duck Tour tickets. I highly recommend this as a pre-Boston activity! We followed this with a late afternoon dinner in the North End, then I retired to the B&B while Kendall poked around the town a bit. On marathon day, he occupied himself with the freedom trail and miscellaneous sight seeing while I did the tour from Hopkinton to Boston. All in all, we were both quite pleased with the excursion!
*The Run* The plan was pretty straightforward: go easy (at or just over 8:30 pace) up until the hills, hit the hills with vigor, then race the last 10k and, if all things go very very well, cross the line at 3:45.
In reality, as I wrote to my Boulder running buddies: "You know how some days are golden - you show up at the start, tell yourself to pull back pull back go slow and your first mile is still 30 seconds quicker than planned; bang bang bang and before you know it you're 5 miles down the road? Well, Monday was NOT one of those days! "
Mile one was slow and felt not easy. I had started with Kate and Cary - but they were going at a pace that felt just a smidge too much like pushing to my non-zippy body, so I let them go. I suspect they hit the one mile mark exactly on pace. I was 26 seconds over. I did get to mile two on pace but it was still not easy - not hard, but not easy. By 5k I felt like running was something I actually knew how to do (phew!) and, tho' still nothing was easy, managed to keep pace fairly well into the hills. Regardless of the non-peppy feeling, tho', all I had to do was open my ears to the roars of encouragement, stick out my hand for a high five and look about me at the throngs to feel revitalized. What a FABULOUS event Boston is. The energy is unbelievable! As an extra energy boost, Neil met me at mile 15 with a bottle of ginger ale. (And Sweet Julie actually sat there and waited for my arrival after motoring there at 8:15 pace! Sweet does not begin to describe Julie!!! She and Neil then 'jogged' in the rest of the way - but that's their story to tell!) Ginger ale often helps if my stomach is dicey - which it wasn't - but it *really* helped on Monday cuz it let me avoid the aid stations which, tho' beautifully organized, were horribly congested. I was religious about getting fluids since the humidity in particular as well as the heat were rather worrisome to this dry Colorado runner.... My first post-ginger ale mile was the fastest of the day so far (7 seconds under pace!) so the golden elixir still works its magic! The per mile pace slowed through the hills but I was able to find a good hill running gear and was passing lots of people and able to muster the effort to stay with people who were passing me. Running hills well is something my Colorado running buddies expect out of me and I can't disappoint donchaknow! Cresting Heartbreak was time for a little lecture. It went something along these lines: It's time to race and ya' didn't train two years to back off now. An "in your face" Big Sur finish line picture of my ace number one hill running buddy after breaking 4 hours - which another running buddy had said he couldn't do - flashed through my brain. That's when I put down the hammer and challenged myself to see just what I was made of. Seeing a billboard along the way there that said something along the lines of "Ignore the Pain, Grit Your Teeth, Dig Deep. Repeat." really stuck - especially the dig deep. Twas just what I did. I'd dig, tell myself to forget the pain and dig some more. All of my focus went to running - just running - the screaming of the crowds bombarded my ears, 'excuse me' 'excuse me' tumbled out of my mouth as I dodged past those who were slowing, the Citgo sign got bigger, the right hand turn that Schaef had me visualize as I struggled through a track workout in the snow came and went, then it was a hard left and charge charge charge to the oh-so-beautiful blue and gold finish line. My last five miles, the fastest of the day: 8:14, 8:29, 8:22, 8:22, 8:19 and 1:44. Hit the watch at 3:46 - my fastest Boston since 1992 - and, with the exception of Las Vegas '95, my fastest marathon since Boston, '92. Yes indeedy it was worth every single step of the last two years of training. Yep! Yep!
*Post-Marathon* A lovely side trip to Cape Cod, long flight home, and then back to work. Sigh.... But I'm running again - and planning the next one!