Masters Running

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Alaska Maniac Runs Boston (Read 392 times)

evanflein


    (Long and wordy, but it's my report and that's the way I like it... Big grin Short and sweet Stats are at the end) Qualifying for Boston was my number one goal last year. I trained carefully all summer and finally got it in August at the Humpy’s Marathon in Anchorage with a time of 3:52. I went on to run 5 more marathons by the end of January with a new PR at Seattle of 3:49, but I didn’t update my time. Figured it didn’t really matter whether I started one corral up or not. DH and I got into Boston a little after 6 a.m. on Saturday after flying all night and crossing 4 time zones. We were bleary-eyed and punchy as we got our luggage and tried to figure out the T system. My instructions said the hotel was right “next to the Green Line C Train’s St. Paul stop…” which at that point meant very little to us. Finally found the shuttle to the trains, bought a Charlie Ticket that would let us on anything for 7 days and headed for the trains. Once we figured the basics out, it was great! And sure enuf, when we stumbled off the train, DH looked at me and said “Ok, what’s the address.” I told him to turn around and cross the street. I’d arranged for early check-in (otherwise wait till 2:30!!), and sure enough the room was ready. We both suffer lower leg edema on long flights so spent half an hour lying on the bed with our feet up against the wall—ahhhh! Quick showers and then off to find breakfast at a great deli a few blocks away. Bought a bag of bagels to have in the room. Back to the hotel and took a nap, then I went to the Expo to pick up bib/packet/Addidas stuff (can’t believe how much $$ I spent), DH stayed at the room to try to get some work done. I went back to the room, dropped off stuff and collected DH, and hopped the train for the get together in Somerville at PDR’s DD1 and DSIL’s apartment. What a treat that was! Others have posted pictures and descriptions of the event, but I’ll add that Amanda and Nate are a wonderful couple and thanks so much to them for opening their home to all of us. And Amanda really does take after her mother. Sunday: Many others were all excited about the trials, and while I was too… I didn’t commit to anything. My favorite day-before-a-marathon activity is resting. We slept till 11… it was wonderful. Didn’t get out of bed until almost noon… Then we walked to Trader Joe’s. Now, you people who have Trader Joe’s may find this an odd destination. We don’t have Trader Joe’s. I lurve Trader Joe’s! We bought so many wonderful things… almost thought we’d need a box to pack them up in for sending home. Back to the room to drop off our loot… and back out for lunch at Finale. Yum. So many fun places to eat right around the hotel, I loved it. Back to the hotel for a nap… 3 hours later I figured we’d better get ready for dinner: a Marathon Maniacs gathering in the North End at Assaggio’s. I swear by mushroom risotto before a marathon and this didn’t disappoint. Glass of Valpolicella, too. Back to the hotel where I couldn’t get to sleep all night (all that napping, big surprise?). Tossed and turned, every hour it seemed I would check the clock… I think at 3:15 I finally drifted off. I’d arranged for a shuttle directly from the hotel, same as PJH did (we were in the same hotel, but I never did see him), but mine left at 8:30. Amazingly enuf, we had a first wave runner on board with us! The driver seemed to not be sure of his route a couple times but he got us there where our wave one runner had to bail out and run the last mile (shuttles couldn’t go all the way to the village like the official buses). I took his bag (6th corral) and schlepped it to the village and found his bus. I think he had all his camping gear in there… Stood in the porta potty line, sweating (who knew it would get so hot??), and saw Fortunate One standing over by the exit to the corrals. I ran over to say hi, had a brief chat, but he’s the only one I saw in the village that I recognized. Time was a bit short, but I made the stop in the Loo and headed right to the corrals, passing lots of runners from corrals behind me as I went. Found 19, wormed my way up toward the front and waited for the big bang. I was expecting the corrals to start one after the other, but we all just sort of pressed forward and went at once. I’d been warned about the first mile cuz it’s nothing but elbows and heels, and downhill. Well, not crowded on the edges! I made my way over to the side and picked up a nice trot, passing people easily as I went. The downhills were nice, very much like my first two miles off my road so it’s how I normally warm up. I just kept it easy, moved on out and loved every minute of it. I was moving along at a nice clip, not stressing anything, trying not to go too fast (jury still out on that one) and enjoying every step. It was a lot warmer than I was expecting, and I remember a passing thought about wishing I had sunscreen on my arms and shoulders (had spf 40 on my face). I did take water at more stations than I normally would, trying to be aware of the “over watering” problem but determined to not get dehydrated. My Garmin was ok the first couple miles, but soon started losing ground (so the 5 mile marker was 5.15 on my Garmin). Given that, my first five mile splits were 8:03, 7:50, 7:54, 7:43, 8:04. Just past the 4.5 mile point, I heard, “Hey there’s that Alaska runner!!” and it was Steve (Perchcreek)! Yeah! Someone to run with! I couldn’t believe I’d caught up to him though… He commented on how cool it was that we were there, running the race we’d worked for for so long. Total agreement here. The next few miles were a blast, I felt like I chatted his ear off, commenting on the pretty flowering trees, the sun and heat, running the relay in AZ, etc. He’d take water on the right, I’d get it further up on the left, then we’d meet up again and run along. The photographers got a really good shot of us together at one of the checkpoints, I’m thinking it’s the 15k. Next five mile splits were: 8:07, 8:09, 8:19, 8:08, 8:11. I think it was when we hit the halfway mark, Steve said, “ok, it’s just a nice hilly training run from here!” which I thought was a really good way to phrase it. I repeated that to myself after every 5k mat from then on, and it helped make the distance not so daunting. I think it was around mile 12 I saw Bob (btb) walking on the far right side. I yelled to Steve, “Steve!! There’s Bob!!!” He said “I’m right here” and we ran over to the side to greet Bob, who broke into a run to go with us. It was so cool to see him, he seemed to be doing ok and ran on ahead to take our picture. Told us the noise we heard was Wellesley (wow), and he wanted to run with us to see our reaction. I told Steve to get over to that side and I ran down the middle, watching him hi-five all the girls. He said he missed a couple, but couldn’t be sure… didn’t go back to double check. Bob went with us a little further, and stopped at mile 13 to find Amy. Mile splits for 11-15:8:22, 7:58, 8:14, 8:08, 8:19. I was stopping at just about every water stop now, it was really warming up and the sun was strong, no clouds it seemed. I lost Steve between mile 14 and 15, thought he’d gone on ahead so I tried to speed up (a little) to catch him, looking back and up ahead but couldn’t find him. Hmmm, rats. I’ve never mastered the running/drinking thing, and by mile 15 I was taking two cups, drinking one and dumping the other down my neck and back. DH was going to try to see me at about the PowerGel station, and when I hit that I looked all around but couldn’t see him… I didn’t know what he was wearing and turns out he was up a hill a bit with Holly’s DH; I missed him completely but he did see me briefly. The Newton Hills were coming up, and I was more than a little nervous about them just cuz I didn’t know what they’d really be like. Turns out, they really weren’t bad at all, but you can sure tell where they were: Miles 16-20: 7:57, 8:32, 8:41, 8:05, 8:39. Ok, I’m getting really hot. And my mouth is all sticky, as are my fingers. I was looking for the water stop, but couldn’t find anyone. I’d forgone one of the last regular water stops thinking the boomer station was just ahead. And I feel blisters on my pinkie toes. Rats. I hate pinkie blisters. The blisters made it hard to take advantage of the downhills coming up. I got to thinking about pre-race stuff, and realized I didn’t Glide my toes. Rats again. I always Glide my toes… what was I thinking? This mental debate got me most of the way up Heartbreak Hill before I realized what it was. Miles 21-26.2: 9:11, 8:08, 8:26, 8:37, 8:34, 8:39, 8:10 for that last bit. Mind you, my Garmin thought that last bit was .48 mile… So, all those splits need to have the Garmin idiosyncrasy factored in there… It was hard to keep going when my toes were on fire, but I saw that Citgo sign and yelled a little cheer! I hadn’t seen anyone I knew for quite some time, but rounded the corner to the finish and tried to put on my jets, but someone had taken off with them I guess. Felt like slo-mo to the end, but managed a pretty good finish line photo anyway. I walk a lot after marathons to keep things moving, but my feet hurt. Still, got the potato wrapper and headed down the line for the chip removal/medal placement/photo opp, goodie bag, drop bag and off to the W Family Greeting area where I found… NOBODY. I waited for so long and nobody showed up. I thought, hmmm, did I have the wrong letter? So went all around the block, checking every letter, nobody. I had no phone so couldn’t call anyone. I had no train ticket, so couldn’t go anywhere. Rats. I did find the AT&T booth where they had computers so I could check my final time (yeah!). Went back to W and waited. Found a volunteer, called DH, got voice mail, left a message. He called back saying he was stuck on the train and would be there soon. After awhile, I saw Holly and Teresa, traded hugs and high 5’s, then they went back to their hotel. Rats. I moved to the sunny side of the street cuz I was getting chilled, and I think that’s where I got my sunburn… After about 1.5 hours, DH found me at about the same time I saw Pro and Orapin, we found Hally and went to the Rock Bottom Brewery for a really fun meet up that’s been written up by others. We went back to the hotel, I spent 15 minutes in an ice bath, bandaged up my blistered toes and we cracked open a bottle of wine! (went to the after race party, but didn’t see anyone. Danced a couple times, had a beer, went back to the room.) Stats: 3:38:48 for an 11 minute PR and another BQ (I’ll bet I use this one!) Overall: 8,976 out of 21,963 finishers (top 40.8%) Gender: 2,123 out of 8,935 (top 23.8%) Age Division: 477 out of 2,980 of 40-49 year old women (top 16%) Alaska Runners: 26th out of 56 finishers (I was one of the slowest seeded at the start) Thanks for reading, it was a wonderful experience once again made so special by all the wonderful members of this forum that I got to meet and spend time with! The race was really just a good excuse… (Edited to remove photo links which didn't work and just messed up the formatting...)
    HermosaBoy


      Wow!!! You killed this race. A Big PR and a great report! Big grin

      And you can quote me as saying I was mis-quoted. Groucho Marx

       

      Rob

      stumpy77


      Trails are hard!

        Erika--an 11 minute PR and a huge smile at the end. you sure ran a great race. Sorry I missed seeing you at any of the weekend gatherings. Kevin

        Need a fast half for late fall.  Then I need to actually train for it.

         

        PBJ


        Marathon Iowa 2014

          It was a pleasure meeting you and your DH at the Saturday night party. You got an eleven minute PR in Boston? Including the effects of all day travel and jet lag? Imagine what you could do at a flat marathon like Chi-town! You rock!


          Manchild

            Terrific race Erica!!! You are fast and with an 11 minute PR/BQ, super fast!! I enjoyed your report and you sound like a fun person to run with! Congratulations!! It just goes to show us that all your tough wintry training paid off BIG time! Chris


            Renee the dog

              I'm in such amazement how well you handled it all with the jet lag! Soooo great! Congratulations!

              GOALS 2012: UNDECIDED

              GOALS 2011: LIVE!!!

              PJH


                Erika - congratulations on a fabulous race and PR!! I sure wish I had known you were staying at the Holiday Inn. I would have made sure we said 'hello'. I'll bet we saw each other, but just didn't realize it. I spent quite a bit of time in the lobby area with my wife and friends. Ah well, maybe next year!? You ran an amazing race and are a really strong runner. It doesn't surprise me from your training that you would conquer the Newton Hills with ease. Congrats again on a great accomplishment. Glad you had such a great experience. PJ
                wildchild


                Carolyn

                  Wow, amazing race and report! The picture links didn't work for me but I saw Btb's pics of you and Steve. You're awesome - nice steady fast running. Congrats on the PR.

                  I hammered down the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still.

                    Good girl......you flat out NAILED this one. That is great. I wondered the same thing as CharleyGross did......do you think the weather conditions from Alaska actually worked to your advantage when it came to a "summer" type of course? It is something to consider. It sounds like you guys had a blast on top of the race and your BQ. Congratulations on a great race. I certainly enjoyed your report. Joey
                    Vista
                      And absolutely great race in some hotter than expected conditions......hotter than Alaska? A PR at Boston ...?...Wow......Wow....wow....wow..... Next year you move up//////......wayyyyy up.... And , it was great meeting you...hope to see you next year..... Big congrats...
                      SteveP


                        What an energetic RR!!!! Sweet experience and greta time! Thanks

                        SteveP


                        Marathon Maniac #957

                          Woohoo!!!!! I knew you were going to blow this away, Erika, and you didn't disappoint. I'm betting you have a much faster marathon yet in you, on a flat course with fewer people to get in your way. You are an awesome woman, and it was a joy to meet you in person. You rock!

                          Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."

                            Erika: What a fantastic race you had! You just keep getting faster!! It was great to meet you two, but I feel dreadful that we left you at letter "W" for so long with no company, though of course I came in long after you did. I'm glad that you were finally able to meet up with Teresa and Holly (and DH, of course). See you next year!

                            aka Mrs. WillRunForBeer, MD, USA

                            Marathoning, the triumph of desire over reason

                              I've already congratulated you via PM, but this great race deserves a big public one as well. Congratulations on busting one. I'm with the others that you have more to give as well. Nicely Done! Bill

                              "Some are the strong, silent type. You can't put your finger on exactly what it is they bring to the table until you run without them and then you realize that their steadiness fills a hole that leaks energy in their absence." - Kristin Armstrong

                                congrats on a great race and BQ for next year and Pr by 11 minutes. You are the Bomb! Is that 6 marathons this year? You deserve to be called the Alaskan Maniac thats for sure. Larry

                                Chumbawamba: I get knocked down But I get up again You're never going to keep me down

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