Dear Fellow Daisy Pushers,
Well, the 110th Boston Marathon went pretty well. I finished 598th
with a time of 2:54:25. It's a lot faster than I anticipated. I
just couldn't help myself. I saw a guy from Tucson with whom I used
to run and I just couldn't allow him to get out of my sights
(although he beat me by a solid 90 seconds or more). The ol'
competitive spirit lives, I guess.
The weather was great for me. The elites thought it was a little
cold, judging by their comments in the paper. We did have a slight
headwind, but otherwise, it was cloudy and 50's, so that was nice
from my standpoint.
As usual, I took out the first six miles far too fast. That's a
downhill stretch of the course that has now lulled me into a false
sense of speed two years in a row. Stupid me. But even though I
felt like I was slowing down, the miles still ticked by far too quickly.
But by the time I got to Wellesley, where throngs of Wellesley
College girls line the course holding signs asking for hugs and
kisses (I didn't want to slow down to oblige), I got into a groove.
A 6:40 per mile groove. I knew it was dumb but I felt pretty good,
so I just hung on.
The hilly section between mile 17 and 21 was nothing. I seriously
didn't push hard until Heartbreak Hill, and even then I was holding
back a little. I've had tougher days on those hills during training
runs. Go figure. However, I knew that I wasn't prepared to keep up
the pace until the finish, and I wanted some gas in the ol' tank in
case I hit the wall after the hills.
Well, I didn't hit the wall until mile 24. I decided at that point
that unless I wanted to jeopardize my next race in a mere six weeks
from now that I'd better slow it down dramatically. This was
supposed to be a training run, after all. So, I walked at the water
stations and walked every half mile for about twenty seconds to try
to keep the lactic acid from building up in my legs. This, to avoid
cramping.
It was a good send off since I'm leaving Boston soon. I saw some of
my NNHS students. I saw some co-workers from Marathon Sports. I saw
some other Simmons grad students.
After last year's migraine fiasco, this was a nice way to prove to
myself and the difficult Boston course that, yes, I can run a
respectable time. I cursed the course roundly after finishing as my
way of telling it off. Silly, but it felt good. I think the race
official who escorted me to the B.A.A. tent thought I was nuts.
With that done, I will now focus on getting through my last few weeks
of student-teaching, moving to Cincinnati and finding one of those
job things.. Oh, and running the ninth-consecutive Rock 'n' Roll
Marathon in San Diego. Rock on!
This morning, I found my ugly mug clearly visible in the lower right
corner of the Globe's photo of the mass start. I don't know why I
got a thrill out of it after my dopey grin being on TV for 15 years,
but I'll confess it was nice to be in the photo that got printed.
Thanks for your well-wishes via email. I hope you caught some of
the race on TV. We had five Americans in the top ten, including Meb
Keflezighi and Alan Culpepper. I think Americans have a lot to look
forward to in the next Olympic marathon!
Carpe Viam,
Frank Field