Third time's the charm - A wicked good time at BayState (Read 1548 times)

Cliff Notes version 265 81/250 M4049 3:22:24* 7:44 3:23:49 Very Complete version with pictures I know from my previous marathons that the last six, and especially the last four miles are brutal for me with a significant fade. Instead of the traditional strategy of even pacing (at about 7:45 per mile), several weeks earlier I had decided on an interesting plan of attack based on Clarence DeMar’s great quote “run like hell and get the agony over with”. I told Toad I was going to hammer 7:30 miles to the 20 mile mark then hold on for dear life. Don’t try this at home kids, there are reasons good runners don’t do it this way (see the amazing BayState report by mikeymike for how you are supposed to do it with even or negative splits). The Tsongas Arena is a FANTASTIC staging area for the race. Warm and dry, with tons of space and restroom facilities. Nothing warms a runner’s heart more than available porcelain, talk about spoiled you even have sinks and soap. NICE upgrade from endless lines in front of a row of porta potties. I’d brought an RA cheat sheet with numbers, but there were few numbers to be seen. They were hiding under warm-ups and jackets. I saw someone that looked like seeEricaRun, but her hair was too blonde. I fumbled the cheat sheet out of my pocket, and her number confirmed my suspicion. I’m guessing she dyed her hair in an effort to hide from me, but I busted her. Talk about perfect facilities, as we were chatting, she pulled her Garmin out of her bag and plugged it in to charge it. Trentman359 arrived shortly after, and I introduced him to Erica. I got a call from my son, Toad was parking nearby and would be at the Tsongas shortly. What a huge lift to see him and get a good luck hug.

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Trent, Erica and myself (we were on the second level concourse, the black void behind us is the arena seating area. It was really weird with no lights).

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Can you tell he’s my kid? Synchronized squinting at its finest.

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Eyeing my gloves jealously, Trent asked if I had another pair. I sighed the sigh of a bemused and prepared “running dad”, reached into my bag and tossed a pair to the young un. Someday he’ll learn. With all the yapping and kidding around, an hour had flown by and it was time to head toward the start. I met jaybar just outside the doors, and chatted for a minute. More squinting, this time with Jay.

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Jay mentioned that the Black Widow from Good Times was in the lobby, and I zipped in to say hello and get another good luck hug. You can never have too many of those. Jessica the Black Widow, winner of the 2008 Miss Information pageant.

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On the way to the start, Trent saw Doug and we hung out for another minute with him and his wife Mel. It was pretty chilly, so all these were very welcome distractions. Tres amigos Mill City style, myself Doug and Trent. Check out that fall foliage.

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My hair provides evidence that the wind was picking up. Nice gloves Trent, where’d you get ‘em?

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The corral was pretty well packed by the time I got there, so I took my place at the back of the pack. I wasn’t very concerned, I figured the net time would take care of the start delay and the runners around me would keep me from starting too fast. It was only a couple of minutes before the national anthem and the gun, and then more than 2000 runners surged forward. I can’t imagine having an iPod on, you just can’t beat the sound of more than 4000 feet pounding the pavement. The folks on the second level of the parking garage must have had a great view.

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After warming up with a couple of minutes of easy running I started to weave my way through the pack but traffic was really heavy. I was sliding over to the left side when I spotted Jay. I stayed with him for a minute or two, then broke off into an opening in the middle of the street and picked up the pace a little bit. From behind, I’m pretty easy to spot with my hair and the winged ToadKing graphic on my shirt. I heard HTFU Ed! from behind, and turned to see Erica. I yelled back “same to you” and continued my weaving. A couple of minutes later I was tired of weaving in and out of runners, and was just running with the traffic on the side of the road. The Great and Powerful Eric of RunningAHEAD fame came bounding up, and told me that I needed to run faster. I knew he was right, wished him well and returned to the difficult and tiring task of weaving. It requires a lot of concentration and bursts of speed when you find an opening, next time maybe I’ll yap less and start further up in the corral. At eight minutes my Garmin beeped, and I took the first of many one minute walk breaks. It always feels somewhat silly taking those early breaks, but they do seem to pay dividends as the day wears on. I would continue the 8/1 ratio of running/walking for the day. The traffic was still heavy even after the full and half split at about mile three, but there were more opportunities for passing and this is where I began to find a rhythm. I was running “comfortably hard”, the weather was perfect for a nice long run and my pace was dropping slowly but steadily toward my 7:30 target. At some point I passed the 3:30 pacers. From running events in Lowell, I know a lot of the volunteers that do such a great job with this race. I saw Ken at one of the early turns. As we approached the eight mile mark, I could hear a strange sound from the Tyngsboro bridge. The metal plates of the pedestrian walkway kind of flex and bounce and you could hear the runners pounding away on it. At the corner of the bridge, I passed Dennis from the Good Times series. Next up was Mike, it’s sort of a home field advantage having friendly faces on the course. My favorite was Nick, my sixteen year old foe from Good Times. He was in costume at a water stop manned by the Tewksbury High School cross country team. I was actually happy to find that the course was not pancake flat as I had heard. There were some New England rollers which give you an opportunity to use different muscles (or the same muscles in a slightly different fashion). There was a clock at the ten mile mark, and it showed 1:16:30 as I passed. I was within 90 seconds of my 1:15 target and was feeling pretty good. I pulled out my sandwich bag of Sharkies for the first time and had a hard time opening it and then they stuck to my glove. Mmmm, Sharkies with glove fuzz. I didn’t really need the gloves any longer, but without long sleeves what would I wipe my nose with? I thought about tossing one or both, but I just decided not to close the zip loc on the bag. The next event of note was the Rourke Bridge, I was surprised by how steep it seemed. For the first time, I had to make a conscious effort to maintain pace and felt fatigue. Thankfully, the race materials recommend it as a good place to watch the runners and there was great crowd support on the bridge and especially on the turn just beyond it. In spite of being tired I passed a lot of runners on the bridge, I think it caught a lot of them by surprise. Most of the second loop was pretty uneventful. I passed Ken, and was able to say “yeah” when he asked if I was on pace. I was on a walk break when I approached Dennis, and was able to say “not yet” when he asked if I was blowing up. Mike gave me the traditional “looking good, keep it up” as I trotted past. As I passed the twenty mile clock, it read exactly 2:30. Phase one was completed, now I just had to implement my “hang on for dear life” plan. The first step was one more friendly face sighting, I was closing in on the Tewksbury High water stop. I didn’t see him, but yelled out “Nick? You there Nick?” As I passed, I could hear kids yelling “where’s Nick?” A few seconds later I heard Nick yelling “I’m coming” and I turned to see him running down the road with a cup of Gatorade. That put a smile on my face, I said “gimme five for luck” and stuck out my hand. I was tired and hurting, but I was mentally prepared for that. What I wasn’t mentally prepared for was the soul-sucking wind* that was howling down the Parkway. It was really making me work, and I remember thinking “I really don’t need this at this point”. I took a couple of ten or fifteen second walk breaks to compensate for the wind. I was giving up some of my margin of error, but my quick calculations told me I was still on target. I passed the president of the Greater Lowell Road Runners at about mile 23, Glenn took a look at me and said “hang in there E.J.” Not “looking good”, not “looking strong”, but “hang in there”. In runner-ese that translates to “you look like death”. I knew if I could just keep moving, I could make my Boston qualifying time. Wind be damned, I wasn’t going to get this close only to fail. As I passed the mile markers, I recalculated the pace I would need to make it and at the twenty five mile mark I finally let myself believe I would succeed unless I screwed up. Then I screwed up. As I crossed the most beautiful bridge you could imagine (because it means the end is near) I stopped to give Mel a hug and said “I’m going to Boston!” Then in my state of delirium, I took a wrong turn. I was on auto-pilot, and had turned off the BayState course onto the Good Times course. Now I must emphasize that this is absolutely completely and totally 100% my fault. The race staff had it blocked off so you couldn’t go off course at this spot if you wanted to. Only I could find a way to try to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I was running along when I had the sinking feeling there were no runners ahead or behind. There were no orange cones. Oh sh*t! What the hell am I doing? I’m off course! Reverse! REVERSE! I really wish I had a heart rate monitor on, I came steaming back up the Riverwalk at 5K pace. Amazing what adrenaline will do for you. I think my little diversion probably cost me two minutes, but at least it didn’t cost me a trip to the Hub in April. Gun time on the finish clock was good enough, and net time provided a little extra cushion. I made my BQ dream a reality, and had an experience unlike any other runner that day. I’ve always had a tendency to do things my way, rather than the easy way. Makes things much more exciting.

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Hang in there E.J. (El Presidente was right)

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Having Toad at the finish was the best thing in the world. He believed in me more than I did.

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You can see the arches of that beautiful red bridge over the outfield fence.

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With Festus and Trent after recovering a bit

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Laughing hysterically as I tried to extricate Trent’s medal from his zipper

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Doug crossing the line

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Wrapping up BayState 2008

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*soul sucking wind copyright of JakeKnight from the rvelich Glass City Marathon thread

WOW. thank you for the race report. WOW. love the pictures! (the fall foliage comment made me chuckle remember a Saturday night live skit) WOW. great race! Congrats! See ya (probably the back of you) in Hopkinton.

I love the reports with pictures because they always remind me how I, rightly or wrongly, always begin to associate a person with his/her avatar. So it shocked me to see the hair . HA. Also, who knew that mikeymike doesn't really look much like David Ortiz? That was a great report. Ouch for going off course, but you certainly seem to have a postive attitude about it. BOSTON!

Hey Edziu! Congratulations on your very significant accomplishment! Only wish I could have seen you run. It's not like I live in Tyngsboro and actually drove over the bridge a couple times that day. Pick up the phone sometime and just perhaps you will have more family to encourage and push you, you jackass! With undying love and devotion. Your nephew. Kiki Postscript; Reviewing those photos I wasn't sure if perhaps you were channeling Sam Elliot or The Big Lebowski. Perfect! I now dub thee The Big Hrynowski!

Yay, Ed!!!! Congrats on your BQ! Great race and great report! Thanks so much for including pictures

I really liked the HTFU shirt ... and HTFU you did. Congratulations on the BQ.

I passed the president of the Greater Lowell Road Runners at about mile 23, Glenn took a look at me and said “hang in there E.J.” Not “looking good”, not “looking strong”, but “hang in there”. In runner-ese that translates to “you look like death”.

So many quotable gems in this report I didn't know where to begin but I figured I'd start with this one. How true. Great job, Ed!!! And you got lost?? I'm still trying to figure out how that happend on that course...but hey, strange things happen when you're that low on fuel. This is why I don't stop to hug anybody--just keep pushing to the finish. Great job again. Congrats on your BQ.

Great race. Really great race report and pictures!! Inspirational stuff. Congratulations!