Boston Marathon 2012 (Read 2370 times)

My Boston will certainly make for a memorable experience, but it basically went as planned. I'd been hoping to run about 2:57, but I wasn't crazy enough to try that on Monday. I decided to pace for 3:20, hoping that would be enough to save something for Big Sur in two weeks, which has now become my spring goal race. Not that I can PR on that course... oh well.

I ran 3:19:10, with a minute negative split. It wasn't fun. I'm not eager to do that again. I am glad I did it once; I think I've learned some things about running in heat. There are different kinds of running pain. There's the lung-searing kind that you get in 5Ks and 10Ks; I hate that. There's the gradual burn that builds up over a properly run marathon; I love that. And there's the I'm-standing-in-a-fucking-oven-and-can't-get-out pain, that we had Monday. I not only dislike that, I now see it as a fundamentally different type of pain. I think heat acclimation is just as much about getting used to this kind of pain as it is about physiological adaptation.

I think I now see this type of pain endurance as ultimately pointless. It's totally orthogonal to everything interesting about running and racing. It just makes everything harder and suckier, period. The more a race is about who can stand the heat, the less it is about running.

I was amazed at how many of my friends still decided to go for sub-3, when they are not much faster than I am. Most of them blew up. One wound up in the hospital. One made it, just, but I think he's in about 2:50 shape. I still call that quite an accomplishment.

I have to say, if you have to run a marathon in 89°, Boston is the race for it. Aid stations every mile, with plentiful Gatorade and water. Properly mixed, with a lot in each cup. Tons and tons and tons of spectators with hoses, ices, more water, you name it. From mile 1 to mile 26. Faced with these conditions on a typical marathon course, in the future, I think I would just opt out.

STUFF THAT WAS UNEXPECTED TO THIS NEWBIE

  

3. The bus ride seemed a lot longer than I was expecting, and I've ridden lots of pre-race shuttles.

Yeah, funny how that is. You always think, "I have to run all that way back?!". It does go on forever.

4. You have to walk a really long way to the start from the staging area.  When they call your wave, get your ass up and moving.

If you want to be on the ball, anticipate, and get your ass moving before then. When I got to Colella's, there were no lines at any of the portapotties. This may only work for the first wave. But you can still get there early if you want; I found a shaded place by the side of the road to sit across from my corral before lining up. (Not that that's normally a consideration.)

 5.  There are a ton of portapotties in the staging area.  And a ton of portapotties at the drop bag buses.  And then, what they don't tell you about, there's a whole village of portapotties in a parking lot out by the corrals.  I waited in line at the bus potties thinking it was my last chance. Apparently all the other newbies had the same notion.  Didn't need to do that.

Oh, they tell you. The announced it repeatedly over the speakers; I was sure I mentioned it to you as well. But yes, that is quite welcome. Still, you will be in the corral for a while, so I will repeat my advice to carry a garbage bag and an empty Gatorade bottle, making your own private last-minute portapotty. I got some looks this year, putting on a garbage bag standing in the corral when it was 80 degrees. But I'm glad I did.

7. I didn't think the famous hills of Newton were all that.  I know, I know, shoot me.  Maybe I'll have to run them when I'm not all a-skeered of the people weaving and staggering. I was expecting Pikes Peak or something with fire at the top (that wasn't the sun itself).  They were just a series of, to this person from the land of hills, gentle hills.

Certainly, objectively speaking the hills are nothing. But practically speaking, they have destroyed many a Boston. And it does take some experience to pace for them properly. Personally I love the course profile. It's a nice, easy 16-mile warmup, then the race starts: 5 miles of moderate hills, 5 miles of fast downhill. It's when you don't view it this way, and don't control yourself in the 16-mile warmup, that problems happen. With all the Boston excitement, it is very hard to pace yourself properly early. If you run by feel, you will be toast.

9. Every year, people in message boards go ape banana wacky shit about bandits and "charity runners" (who aren't all charity runners).  Setting aside the bit about nonqualified runners getting spots and many BQed folks not getting to go, the wailing all seems to be about "they get in the way!" and "bandits take supplies!"  I can't speak to the wave 3 experience, but I can tell you that from the middle of the middle in 2012, it was all BS.  The "charity runners" I ran with were all running my pace (or, cough, pulling away from me).  The people getting in my way were the ones who were loopy from the heat, not the "evil" charity hand-in-hand walkers.  And bandits?  They mostly start in the back I reckon.  I saw a couple.  There might have been a few more... I wasn't checking bibs... but it wasn't a free-for-all and nobody was acting the fool. Except some people with actual bibs.

I don't hear anybody saying they get in the way. They do take supplies, but not from the qualified runners. The only issue is the spots they take up, but really, so what. They are a part of the Boston Marathon culture, and if Boston gives them extra motivation to raise money for charity, great. During the race they are a non-issue; they start behind you if you qualified. The only issue at all there is, for me, and it's very slight, is the extra crowding in the expo. They are not as slim as your typical qualifier.

The lunch bag thing is a good idea... when the bag has reasonable stuff.  Which this race very much had (although, in my foozied state, I had to ponder the oranges for awhile. "what do I eat them with? what is my name?"... before I finally said "shut up" and just drank it like a giant chunky jello shot).  I have had the lunch bag at several races where the contents were very WTF.  Not at Boston.

As for the announcements of the portapotty situation, I sort of listened, and basically got that there were portapotties "out there".  But not having made The Long Walk before, I got a little confused and thought maybe the potties after the buses were the last real shot.  Now I know.

I think if the BC students had crowded in and made the wall-o-people y'all are describing, I might have gotten cranky.  Which I would immediately feel very very bad about.

And there's the I'm-standing-in-a-fucking-oven-and-can't-get-out pain, that we had Monday.

Yep.

So is it really snowing there now?

No.

Six days later you run a 50 miler in 75 degree heat, come in 6th (4th masters... I was passed for 3rd in the last mile, dammit), and set a PR by 76 minutes.

 

Wow, that's great.  Congrats srl. 

9. Vasoline all over  your feet help not get blisters when your are water-logged and soaked.

Can someone who speaks Tonto translate this -- Vaseline does or doesn't help when you're water-logged?  'Prec.

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