Montreal, September 21st 2015, I ran a 3:14:48 first marathon yesterday. The Boston registration process is 1 week in, and is opening again on Wednesday for the final batch of registrations. Since I don’t race much, and never plan past my next race, I have not decided yet if I want to run Boston or not, and have to make a hasty decision. The fact that everyone I know who has run it have nothing but good things to say about the experience is the scale tipping argument. Let’s do this!
Preparation
Winter training is not as easy as summer training. Less day light hours, difficult running conditions… I plowed through it all, including the occasional injury (there is always something), and got in decent training. I felt like I was in better marathon running shape going into Boston than I was going into Montreal.
Pre-race weekend in Boston
Walked in the Somerville apartment on Friday at 3:30 PM. Spent Friday evening, all day Saturday and all day Sunday in Boston. The famed jacket is everywhere. A cab drives by, the passenger is wearing last year’s jacket. You walk in a restaurant, there are 5 people wearing the green jacket and a few from other years. You take the train to Somerville, there are a couple of people in your train with the jacket. And if you look a little more, you realise how many runners there really are. So many fit looking people of all ages wearing running shoes. They’re not all wearing the jacket, but you recognize them. It’s almost impossible not to feel part of something special, as a runner.
The expo
Just crazy. It’s something I’m glad I’ve experienced, but it’s not for me. I stayed in there for as long as I could handle with a smile on my face. But after maybe 45 minutes, the getting bumped into got to me. I like to have a little air around me. Most people would smile and apologize, but my smile disappeared and I left. I can understand why most people love this expo, though, as it is something else.
The shakeout run
Met with LRB and Jay on Sunday morning for a 4 mile shake out run. That was very nice. The pace was a little fast for me, but it was worth it to hang out with these guys.
The race report begins!
All week they had forecasted a high of 70 degrees, but on Sunday, the forecast had dropped to a high of 60, to the delight of runners. Monday morning it was chilly. Not cold, but I was glad I had my throwaway shirt. I waited for Toronto for about 15 minutes (never saw him), then waited another 5 minutes in line to get on the bus, and my hands were cold when I got in the bus.
Departure from Boston, 7:15. Arrival in Hopkinton at 8:15.
We hopped off the bus. It wasn’t cold anymore. I took off my throwaway to sit on it, and was actually warm in my singlet. Bad news for the race, but it was the perfect temperature to sit back and relax for 2 hours or so. Talked a few words with LRB a couple of times as he’d walk by my current sitting spot, but then I started moving around and mostly kept to myself. They started calling the red bibs after a while, and then the white bibs (I was white) so I followed the crowd to the starting line. It is a little way out, maybe half a mile, but the temperature was nice. There was a last port-a-potties spot in a parking lot, so I used the facilities and continued walking to the starting line. Maybe 2 minutes before the start I saw LRB again in my corral. He saw me, we waved, but it was race time, not chat time, and the race was about to start, so we both stayed in our respective spot.
Go!
We started walking forward, then sped up to a slow jog, then to a run and we crossed the starting line. It was shoulder to shoulder, row behind row of runners. Remember what I said about the expo, I like my wiggle room. I did not have any. Oh well, it was supposed to thin out after about two miles in. The problem is the first two miles are downhill, and I like to let go on the downhills, but everyone was on the brakes and I had no room to pass them. So I had to brake instead of letting myself go. Some will argue that running downhills fast will kill your quads, but I think that if you lean forward and just let the legs turn over so you don't fall, you let gravity do its work and go fast-ish without tiring. Oh well, so much for my philosophy on downhill running, I HAD to follow other people’s philosophy that you need to brake going downhill to save your quads. After a mile and a half of this I was getting pretty pissed and threw my hands up in disgust 2 times as I was stuck there, but thankfully after about two miles it did thin out enough so that I could do my thing.
I soon realized that although the net elevation is negative, the course is almost never flat. It felt like I was almost always going up, or down, and when I was running on a flat stretch I could see that I’d soon be running up or down. It was playing with my mind, but not with my running. I’d slow down on the ups to save my legs, and let go on the downs to catch up. I was running at an even marathon pace effort. As my splits show, I was nailing it. It just was not as relaxing to me as running on flat ground.
Around mile 12, we went past Wellesley College. It’s downhill, and it is loud. Kudos to the girls for lifting everyone’s morale when passing by. Almost all runners had a smile on their face running through. That is definitely a high point of my race.
Mile 15.5 we hit a hard downhill. I knew from my very little study of the course that the Newton hills would follow. When I hit the bottom of the hill, it was kind of flat for a few hundred feet, and then we hit the uphill. As planned, I didn’t try to hold my pace going up. Runners were passing me, but I knew I’d pass them back on the inevitable downhills later on. That hill seemed ok, but when I reached what I thought was the top of the hill, it turns out it was just a mini dip and there was still quite of bit of hill to climb. This one does not count as one of the Newton hills either, as it is not in Newton, but it really is worth mentioning. Although I was still running with pretty good form and my breathing was in check after the hill, I didn’t have much left in my legs.
After that, it was yet again gentle rolling hills. Nothing dramatic, but never flat. If the course had stayed that way until the end I could maybe have made my goal, but I had not even reached the Newton Hills yet.
A little later, if I remember correctly, we turned a hard right and there was a steep hill. I slowed down going up, as I always do, but that was not enough. My legs were burning and I could not hold that effort. I had to make a decision. I had side stitches, and I knew if I kept pushing up that hill, I would explode. About 75% up the hill, I walked. I threw my hands up and looked at the sky and yelled “Fuck” and I stopped running. I remember a guy in the crowd telling me it was all right. I didn't acknowledge him, but looked at the ground in shame as the reality of my physical failure was slowly sinking in to my brain. On the top of the hill, I started running again. There was a little dip, but my side stitches were even worse and that was badly affecting my downhill running too. I was trying to control my breathing and pull myself together, but it was not working. There was a very small uphill right after, and I walked that too. It was ridiculous.
After that there’s a good downhill stretch but I was not the same runner anymore and doubted I would recover. I don’t know if it was the stitches or my abs, but it hurt to run downhill also. I think I stopped to walk a few seconds here and there and would start running, in pain, right after. Trying not to quit, hoping to pull myself together by taking a little break (downhill, and short walk breaks). Then I hit the third hill, and I don’t remember much after that.
At some point, after the hills, I remember the stitches were gone, but I had nothing left. I was running on reflexes alone. I remember 7:45-8:15 paces in the parts I was running, and I also vaguely remember walking a few seconds in every slightest uphill. I was trying to do the math of what my finish time would be like, and figured if I kept a 8:00ish pace until the end, it wouldn’t be a total catastrophe.
In the final two miles, it’s pretty much flat, but I was in pain. My pace was slower than 8:00 but I didn’t care. This marathon was definitely the stupidest thing I had ever done. Much worse than my previous marathon. I felt so miserable, and had been feeling this way for over an hour, and still had 2 miles to go.
In one place we go under a railroad track or something, and there’s a dip in the street, I think I walked there too, not sure. I also remember the Citgo sign, but can't remember if that was before or after the railroad track.
I finally turned the corner on Boylston Street and gave it all I had. I didn’t know if it was fast or not but it was the fastest I could go. I think I rember going at 7:15 pace at some point, but I'm not sure. I did had enough conscience left to raise my hands for the photo finish, though, and then it was over. I looked at my watch. 3:18:01, far from my objective, but not a total catastrophe.
The suffering
The glory
Then the long walk to get to the Boston Common to meet with the woman. It is a long walk, but on the other hand it makes for a less crowded finish place to get your medal and all the other post-race goodies and I appreciated that.
Final words
Will I run Boston again? I don’t know. It was a top notch experience and it is a world class organization. I’m really really glad I was a part of it, and I mean the whole week-end experience. The race itself, on the other hand, was not easy. The fact that there are 30,000 people to move 26 miles by taking a 1 hour school bus ride to the starting line and then wait over two hours for the race to start is a bummer. I can imagine how the wait must have been aweful in last year’s weather. And the course itself is difficult. The crowd support was incredible, but it was not enough, in my case, to compensate for the difficulty of the course. There’s also the fact that it’s a spring marathon. It was hard to train this much in the winter. Thankfully I qualified again, and have a few months before I really need to decide.
Was it the temperature, the hills, the walking around Boston for two days prior to the race, bad training methods, a bad evaluation of my own capabilities? I don’t know. I thought I could run a 3:10, but I could not. I tried, though. The wiser decision given the temperature, and I knew that, would have been to shoot for a 3:15, and maybe squeeze in a few seconds and get a PR. But I chose to go all out, and paid the price. I accept that, and am happy about how I handled myself in a very difficult situation.
Final time and splits
Official finish time: 3:18:01
Splits in a readable form (thanks LRB)
1 - 7:29
2 - 7:11
3 - 7:04
4 - 7:04
5 - 7:11
6 - 7:12
7 - 7:11
8 - 7:18
9 - 7:16
10 - 7:19
11 - 7:17
12 - 7:09
13 - 7:18
14 - 7:12
15 - 7:16
16 - 6:49
17 - 7:27
18 - 7:34
19 - 7:20
20 - 7:40
21 - 9:12
22 - 7:53
23 - 8:02
24 - 7:52
25 - 8:00
26 - 8:35
.2 - 7:32 pace
Statistics
Qualification overall : 9671/30741 = 31,5%
Overall : 4482/27487 = 16,3%
Men : 3899/14877 = 26,2%
M45-49 : 521/2552 = 20,4%
race obsessed
Congrats Cy! You blew my time away.
You raced like Boss and have nothing to be ashamed of. The truth of the matter is we were doomed from the starting gun shot due to the temps, it was just a matter of who could hang on the longest. As a result, coming in only 8 minutes off your goal, I'd say you hung in there with the best of them!
PS; several of my real life peeps recognized you from the pic I sent out on the TV coverage. Apparently you got quite a bit of airtime.
That right? Hahaha, that's cool.
I did? I mush have missed that, with the traveling and all. Shit, it must have been a real bad day for you. Will you post a RR?
I think you did well considering the conditions. Weren't you running in snow or ice like a week ago? To then jump to 60-70 and full sun is a recipe for a rough day.
I like my personal space too. I think I'd be thoroughly miserable.
You don't race a lot and therefore don't do race reports often, so allow me to post your splits in a manner that we can understand:
I was just too lazy. Thanks Rick
I will when I get back home.
Missing your goal by 8 makes makes mine pretty horrendous!
28 min in the shitter here... F it. Just time to reassess...
It doesn't look all that bad when displayed properly, unlike mine. lol
I think you did well considering the conditions. Weren't you running in snow or ice like a week ago? To then jump to 60-70 and full sun is a recipe for a rough day. I like my personal space too. I think I'd be thoroughly miserable.
It was pretty much winter training conditions up until race day, with a couple of nice days thrown in here and there.
Thank you
Given how bad I felt, they surprise me too. We can clearly see that mile 21 almost broke me, but my disaster management after that was not too bad.
I ran an 11:06. In hindsight, I probably should have looked at my watch to stop the bleeding!
Runs4Sanity
Awesome job Cy!
I can't imagine pushing hard during a marathon in temps above 55 degrees, which is why I am looking forward to the trail marathons.
*Do It For Yourself, Do It Because They Said It Was Impossible, Do It Because They Said You Were Incapable*
PRs
5k - 24:15 (7:49 min/mile pace)
10k - 51:47 (8:16 min/mile pace)
15k -1:18:09 (8:24 min/mile pace)
13.1 - 1:53:12 (8:39 min/mile pace)
26:2 - 4:14:55 (9:44 min/mile)
Pretty much this. You really did well in those conditions. You are in sub-3:10 shape. Probably closer to 3:05. But you got a warm day, after training through winter and not having any time to acclimate to warmer temps.
I felt the same way about being glad I did it once but not sure if I ever will again. And the crowded expo. And the crowded race start. But it's an experience and I'm glad you ran it