Boston Marathon Race Report

I now can say that I ran the Boston Marathon -- one of the almost 23,000 who raced officially. While I did not achieve the self-set aggressive goal (qualifying at this race for 2007), I raced a very hard, honest event and learned a lot from the experience.

I went into it well supported by friends and family -- well rested after a couple of days in Provincetown and tapered to perfection :) Even race eve traffic and Expo madness did not stress me out too badly because Ruth was wonderful about managing it all -- even insisting that I rest in the hotel in the evening while she went to the airport to return the rental car and battle back through public transportation for our take out pasta dinner. One thing that was fun was the Reasons to Run promotion they were doing at the Expo. You can see mine here (# 15367).

We woke up before my alarm went off the morning of the race -- went for soy latte's, ate my oatmeal and made it to the shuttle buses that took the participants to the Athlete's Village at Hopkinton in plenty of time. Here is where I had my 1st learning opportunity for next time as I chose not to take a bag with warm clothing and supplies for the 3 hour wait ahead of me. I assumed that the Athlete's Village meant that there would be warm places to hang out and was quite wrong. I just had on my thin racing clothing and spend most of the time sitting on my race number as the only barrier between me and the damp cold ground. The sun shone intermittently and while there were a few moments of warmth when the sun came out, I was shivering uncontrollably by the time we started. I believe that not preparing well for the wait took way too much out of me before the race even started.

The race start was crazy -- we were corralled into areas per 1000 race numbers and it started with much cheering. Despite being cold for hours, the race start was HOT and I ended up shedding my dri-fit long sleeve shirt and gloves within 2 miles. Although my race pace bracelet had me ahead of pace, I ran instead with the crowd thinking that my pace was not fast enough and perhaps my watch was off -- and had my 2nd learning opportunity. One that I had even read (newbies go too fast in the beginning and burn out when the hills hit) about but got caught up in the moment. By the half-way point, I was 2 minutes ahead of my goal pace. Before racing, I asked Ruth's parents to pick a mile they wanted me to race for them and mile 11 was her mom's. I said out loud "This is for you, Erika" when starting it. This helped me to focus and thinking about her -- her kindness, strength, support and wonderful sense of humor carried me through the mile. Then there were 9 miles to Rolf's at mile 20.

My favorite part of the race was Wellesley College and the women's cheering was so much fun and energizing. A bit past that point, I was humbled by seeing a participant in a wheelchair -- no use of his arms using his TOES to inch his way backwards up the hill. damn.

Even though I carried my own hydration (water and nuun), I could not stop CRAVING the water and gatorade they had on the course and the slight pick me up they offered that my own did not. As the fatigue got greater, I started to walk the stops and drank both before picking up the run again.

There is a big deal made about HeartBreak Hill -- but it was the TWO big hills BEFORE it that really kicked my ass. OUCH. I wish I had trained better for the hills as they took more and more strength from me -- and my legs hurt too much to offer me recovery on the downhills. But HeartBreak Hill happened during mile 20 -- the hill I had already started to give myself permission to walk until realizing it was on Rolf's mile 20. I could not walk that hill thinking about Rolf and how hard he is training for Ruth's ADA event and the very hilly 50 mile bike ride he is going to take on next month. So I ran the entire thing inspired by him and made it through.

I ended up walking parts of mile 22-24 and really struggled physically and mentally despite the overwhelming cheering of the crowds. Dedicating the last 1.2 to Ruth was quite symbolic as I just wanted to quit and walk and committed to finishing it knowing I was giving it everything that was left.

My official finish time was 04:02:07 and while that was 16 minutes too slow to qualify for next year, I am already working on Ruth to run the Portland Marathon with me this fall to qualify for the 2007 race as I really want to do it again and next time conquer it! But my coach reminded me that my focus now needs to be on my first Ironman and I am quite committed to preparing well to race it strongly.