Boston Marathon

I wanted to post this before I left for Boston but never had the chance! Boston is the race that I've been training for all winter. The two marathons I did over the winter were pretty much training runs for Boston. Boston has had a curse on me the past 3 that I've ran. I was determined to break that curse this year. I lost my training partner Lauren who used to do all my weekend long runs with me up until last fall due to a knee injury when she ran the Lakefront 50K ultra. That left me running either 8 or 10 miles with my Saturday group and then going the extra miles by myself.

Last weekend was my first 5K race of 2008, and the first circuit race. I figured that a 5K a week before Boston shouldn't hurt. With all the distance work I've been doing for Boston and virtually no speed work since last fall, I wasn't expecting much. I would have been happy with anything under 23 minutes. Surprisingly I finished with a 22:14 time and a 2^nd place age group finish. Was this a good omen for Boston?

I arrived in Boston on Sunday afternoon. I went with my friend Kielo who told me that she just came back at 3 AM after running 11 miles and driving 6 hours back from the IL River to River relay! Not a smart thing to do the day before leaving, but apparently she didn't seem to care. By the time I got to the Expo to pick up my things, it was 4 pm. Usually the shirts from Boston are regular long sleeve T shirts. This year they were nice long sleeve technical shirts, one for women and one for men. The only problem is that they only had women's large and XL left, and I wear a women's XS. How many L and XL women run Boston? I just don't understand why they don't take our sizes in advance and give us what we ask for. I registered for this race back in October. So it's my 4^th Boston and I have given away all my Boston shirts because they are all too big for me to wear. On the brighter side, the lady giving me my race # told me that my race # is a lucky one (11711) so it will be a good race for me.

The weather couldn't be more perfect. The morning started out cloudy in the 40s and went up to the mid-50s. The sun came and went. This was the first year that I made the Wave 1 start. For some reason I thought that Wave 1 and 2 had different athlete villages, but I was wrong...it's all in the same area. Wave 1 and 2 had start times 30 minutes apart. I asked someone after the race who was watching from the rooftop near the finish line whether there was any gap between Wave 1 vs. Wave 2 runners. He was watching for his wife who was in Wave 2. He said that there were no gaps in runners at all. That meant that lots of Wave 1 runners had bad races and Wave 2 runners had good ones to catch up to the Wave 1 group. He of course saw Lance Armstrong with his running entourage go by.

My goal was to finish Boston in under 3:40 (3:3x). Most people run this course about 10 minutes slower than their qualifying race because of the hills. The first 16 miles of the race was pretty uneventful. I started between an 8 and 8:15 clip. It is pretty much downhill, but there are some uphill slopes in there. During the first half the race, you really don't notice those slight uphill slopes at all. I didn't like the way my legs were feeling at all, and it wasn't even half done. I always look forward to the halfway point where you can hear the screaming college coeds from Wellesley College from far away. A lot of them were holding “Kiss Me” signs (no I didn't see anyone giving kisses). That gave me the second wind I needed, but I still slowed to between 8:15 and 8:30 (not by choice).

Just before mile 16 is a huge downhill drop. That's when you know that the uphills are coming up. The next 2 miles are pretty much uphill with the first of the series of hills between 16 and 17 and the second hill between 17 and 18. Mile 18 to 19 is downhill then you have another hill between 19 and 20 and then finally Heartbreak Hill between 20 and 21. I was able to keep just under a 9 min mile for each of those series of hills. It was not easy. I was running more with my arms up those hills than my legs. It's then downhill after Heartbreat with the same small uphill slopes here and there. The only difference is that you really notice those uphill slopes now and struggle up them hoping it's the last. Once you turn right onto Hereford St. you know that the end is finally near because it's one more left turn and the finish line is in sight. But before you turn left, you're going up another uphill slope. Someone next to me said, 'who put this hill here'? At this point in the race, it does feel like a big hill. Because I was passing so many people at the end, it felt like I was going faster than I actually was. My finish time was 3:41:29, 1-1/2 minutes over my goal, but I'm happy anyway. Now I have to go back next year to try to make my goal. My friend Kielo finished in 4:03 (not bad after River to River!).