Greetings all,
By now, many have heard that the Boston Marathon was an exercise in fluid management. It was very warm and the predicted winds were at the end and in the face! My time was 4:18:35. I was realistically going to try to run 3:45 to 3:50. That is about what my lack of training should have allowed. In my case, I do not think the temperatures were the cause of the degradation in my performance as I went. It was merely a lack of training mileage. I was probably just slightly dehydrated, but thoroughly exhausted and sore. As a consequence my pace from about 15 on was slowing, and it was not intentional. However, at 24 I began rationalizing: 3:45 or 4:30, same medal. I walked much of those 2 miles. My 'sprint' to the finish was .2 miles (well, 385 yards) in 2:25, and that really was the best I could do at that point.
Rather than proceed with a long version of the race, I'll just go into the details of the good parts. :-)
Friday I arrived and Julia was kind enough to pick me up at the airport. Joe and Julia invited me to dinner and I was quite grateful and happy to accept. Saturday I went to the expo early. In previous trips to Boston, I've found the medium and large sizes of 'stuff' tend to sell out quickly. So I tried very hard to wear the magnetic strip off my credit card. But I got everything I came for and a lot of things I newly discovered there.
Saturday evening was the DRS Dinner that Robin Cain put together. She did a great job and has my thanks for all her great work! It was great to see so many friends and to have the opportunity to hoist a brew in honor of Ken Olsen. Connie gave a kind description of him, and Deads from across the country paid their respects at the same time.
Sunday, Joe hosted the Bagel Brunch. He seemed concerned about 40 people fitting into his small apartment. Everyone seemed to fit just fine! It was a great encounter.
Monday I walked out to the busses for the ride out to Hopkinton. At the Athletes' Village, the most impressive event for me was hearing John Kelly speak and sing. The next most impressive event was a Massachusetts State Trooper sang at the expo and later the National Anthem at the start. At about 11:00 we headed out to the corrals. Whenever you are comfortable in a short sleeve t-shirt, you know it is going to be a very warm run. From the starting gun, it took me about 5 minutes to get to the starting line from the 8th corral. Since I was going to be running much slower than my qualifying time, I started at the very back of that corral.
Once we got started, it went pretty much as I expected. I was fine for 15 miles, and it started getting ugly at 18. Yep, just as I expected. So other than being about 30 minutes over what I wanted, my expectations were met, I had a great time visiting a terrific city for a 1st class marathon.
Ken Myers
San Diego, CA