I'm not sure what time I got to the Athlete's Village. I did take a left as told by Dale, but I didn't see anyone so I headed into the tent and couldn't see anyone I knew. I thought the tent too cold, so I headed for the great outdoors and camped myself down near some garbage cans. Two other ladies sat with me. One was from Vancouver, Washington and the other from Portland, Oregon. The Vancouver lady was my age, 51, and Portland is 49. What are the chances that three ladies, close in age, from the Northwest, would come together at the Athlete's Village? We had a great time and thanks to the NoWDead listserv I actually knew about some of the road races that Vancouver and Portland were discussing (Shamrock, some Rose Race, etc.).
AS the morning progressed, it got warmer and the layers of clothing began to come off. I still felt comfortable temperature wise; I think it was because of the low humidity.
I was surrounded by a bunch of great people. No one was complaining about anything. We just got to know each other. Finally it was time for the last potty visit, which was a big mistake on my part. It took way too long which meant a rush back to my gear. Oh well, I wasn't going to panic and after I took off the rest of my outer layering and used Bodyglide on some key areas around my clothing, I was off to find the busses. Fortunately for me, because of my high number, the busses were located on the way to my corral.
By now, most of you already have read about the human traffic jam at the start. And yes, some runners did resort to using yards and bushes. I'm not sure if BAA took into consideration that when they increased the number of runners from 15,000 to 20,000+ that they should also increase the number of porta potties.
I wasn't really concerned about getting to my corral (#15) but when I did get there, I was a bit surprised with all of the people who where just sitting on the ground. That corral was pretty packed and those sitting took up a lot of space.
I was planning on shooting for a 4:00 finish but given the heat at the start, I decided to be more conservative. I think I was pretty consistent. My early splits were around 9:10 to 9:20 and would extend to 10:00 and more at the hills of which I think I counted 3 major hills. I did have to incorporate a potty stop at mile 3 which gave me my first 10:04 mile split.
>From about mile two, I asked for 2 cups of water, one for inside and one to throw on my head.
AT mile twelve, I could feel my buttocks getting very tight. I was glad I had some Succeed tablets with me and took one then. At mile 13 I took a Cliff Shot. I was feeling ok, maybe a bit tired. I saw a lot of the same people. Sometimes I would get ahead of them and other times, I'd get behind them. I had my DRS singlet on and a lady came up to me and started to talk to me. She reminded me about using my bathroom, so I told her she probably had the wrong person. I didn't mean to scare her off, because I never really got to talk to her. So, if she is a DeadRunner reading this, I hope I wasn't offensive.
I journalized my Boston experience, but it's not with me and I really don't want to bore any of you with too much detail.
I know I was slowing down but gradually which is ok with me. I know that I was able to run up all of the hills while so many others really slowed down or started to walk. I consistently took a Succeed every three miles and some energy gel every three miles. Given the heat, I was so glad I had the salt tablets. I think they saved me. Whenever I threw water over my head, I could taste the salt when the water ran over my face. I had only a calf twinge at about mile 23 and that didn't last very long. I took a Power Gel pack at mile 17 and saved it just in case I would need it. Otherwise, my gel flask was filled with Hammergel. I did end up using the Power Gel at mile 24.
I ran through most of the water stops until about mile 17. So many people stopped to walk through them, and if I wanted water, which I did, I, too, had to stop. That's all the walking I did. I'd say the shortest walk was about 15 seconds and the longest about 30 seconds.
I was glad that the pad of my feet weren't hurting like they sometimes do in marathons. I think I had my ASICS Gel Kayanoes to thank for that.
The last 7 miles or so was getting harder to run around fellow runners. So many would suddenly stop and start to walk. They wouldn't move to the side, so I had to run around them. I'm use to running around fellow runners from Bloomsday. When runners suddenly stop to walk, I had to almost come to a stop or run right into them. Then I just couldn't just zip around them because there could be another runner right behind me. For some I wanted to stop to help them as they would be crying with frustration as their body started to cramp up on them. I, however, had no extra Succeed tablets to share.
I finally saw the Citgo sign and remembered reading Mika's report last year of how he felt when he saw it. I did remember from six years ago, that at mile 22 there would not be a water station on the left so I stayed on the right. I forgot to mention, I like to take my water with my left hand, so I stayed pretty much on the left side of the road.
Finally mile 25. From mile 25 to 26, it felt like the longest mile in the marathon, although I did run it in 9:48:66. The last 2/10 took 2:04:89. I was happy with my time. I was happy that I was pretty steady and wasn't in pain, no cramping, and not a bit grumpy.
Wait let me take that back. I did get grumpy when we finished. Once again I faced the wall of human bodies. We're being herded forward, but being short, I had no idea where I was and where I was going. I did manage to get a mylar blanket, which was good, because I was getting very cold. Somewhere during the marathon, the heat went away and I was fighting a head wind. At the finish, the temps were very much lower and the shadows of the tall buildings and wind tunnels did not help me retain body heat. I kept walking and found someone to take off my chip that was laced through my shoe. BAA has not yet discovered the nylon taggy thing that can just be snipped off instead of untying and retying shoes. I did almost have a major cramp at that point. I continued on and was ladened down with a bag of goodies and various drinks. I had to find my bus which was located almost at Boston Commons. I was turned around a bit and walked one block in the wrong direction when I caught myself. I had a heck of a tim
I did really enjoy myself. I made it to the Bagel Brunch and met Julia, Joe, Dale, Tony, Connie, Jim Adams (who was wearing a NoWDead shirt), and many many more.
I saw Tony P, Steve Y and Chris W at Fanuel (spelling) Hall the next day. We did get a group picture and I think Tony said he would put it on his web site. I met Glen P at the airport going to Boston. If I had known I was just a minute behind Glen P I would have put a bit more gas on at the end. But I never saw him as he had a lower number than me so he was consistently ahead of me.
Had a great time in Boston. Saw Nomar's 9 inning home run on Sunday. And on the way back to the hotel, on Joe B's street, a man gave us a tour of a very pricey apartment. Mahogany floors with Cherry cabinetry. I think he said he had it priced at about a million dollars. My goodness Joe, but you do live in a pricey neighborhood.
Certainly hope to run this again. I guess I can, as I did qualify to run 2 Bostons.
Good luck to those running Big Sur.
Terry