Prelude:

This is my third Boston.  2008 was 26.2 miles of flu-induced misery (4:27:58), and 2009 was a wonderful PR where I finished feeling great (4:04:25).  I always hope for a breakthrough race, but with the marathon, you just never know what the day will bring.  I guess that is part of the attraction.  My training was a bit better than usual, and I had a strong half-marathon in March.  I was cautiously optimistic.

Pre-race:

We left after work on Thursday, drove 3 hours and stopped overnight in Mt. Laurel, NJ.  That got us into Boston mid-afternoon on Friday.  We quickly dropped off our things at the Beacon St apartment we’d rented for the weekend, and made our way to Somerville to see the Beerlings. 8-month-old Baby Beerling was just up from his nap and had world-brightening smiles for his Nana and Baba.  After visiting with them for a bit, we met up with runner friends for the first of several weekend get-togethers.

We brought Evanflein home with us for the night to fill a gap in her hotel reservation, and next morning the three of us went for a little run on the Charles.  After oatmeal, we made our way to the expo.  Packet pickup was efficient, and WRFB sadly parted with his number and registered his injury deferral.  Darn. I’d be on the bus Monday by myself, and he’d be making his way to the 20-mile RA/KR water stop.  The rest of the expo was the typical annoying crowded mob scene.  I did pick up the jacket this year – it’s such a nice color.

Saturday evening we threw a party for the “kids” who finished up their PhDs in late March and will make their way to San Diego next month to do their postdoctoral research (taking that baby even farther away from his Nana). We took over the MIT grad student pub for this event and it was great to see the new parents enjoying themselves with their friends (the baby safely tucked away at home with the babysitter).  We had a nice time too with a few of our friends and my local cousins.   The photo below is of our new doctors and some of their parents.

Sunday’s party at Robin’s place was wonderful. Thanks to our local runners: Marj, Henry, Robin and Kirsten for making this possible.  Below - see WRFB and his ole pal Tramps.  Lou always has that slightly worried look on his face when I use his camera.

Race Day:

I headed out to the Hynes Green Line stop at about 6:45am. 

Hopped on the train – and there is PeterNC!  (It turns out he was everywhere this weekend – everyone I talked to saw him somewhere).  After emerging at Park Street, I immediately ran into Perchcreek.   We rode the bus out to Hopkinton together, stood in line for the porta-potties, and then plopped down near the info booth to wait.  Looked up and there was Breger, sitting right next to us!  Now I know the running community here is amazing – in a crowd of 26,000, I managed to find three friends before the race even began.

Once in the corral, I ditched my sweatshirt, had some water, and within 15 minutes we were off.

The Race:

The first few miles were just a tiny bit faster than last year, and somewhat faster than the pace band had recommended.  But I generally do well on downhills, so I thought it would be OK.  I kept very steady splits through 25k (5k:28:08, 10k:28:50, 15k:28:20, 20k:28:36, 25k:28:38). I felt OK – not great, but not exactly fading either.  The crowds were wonderful, as always.  It is one fantastic 26 mile party, that’s for sure.

After pounding down the hill into Newton in mile 15, I went into the first of the four hills feeling a bit too tired.  Darn.  There is some hard work ahead. I hit 30k with a split of 30:00.  By the time I made it up the third hill and saw the support crew at 20 miles, I knew it wasn’t going to be a pretty finish.  Smiling broadly at my buddies (thank you guys!), I announced that I felt like crap, just to set expectations. 

Heartbreak was a struggle and it just never got much better after that.  Somehow I missed a couple water stops, which caused me to miss my last Gu and I wasn’t mentally alert enough to figure out how to fix it.  (I needed to move to the right, as it seems the left side water stops were disappearing towards the end of the race). This may well have been a contributor to the downward spiral.

I picked up a bit on the downhill in mile 22, but struggled to finish.  My quads were killing me, and I was just out of gas. I even walked a bit to get over the little hump at mile 25.  35k was 30:47 and 40k was 30:28.  My inner voice is saying: “This is a stupid sport – why do we do this?”  I think Tramps and I had the same tape playing in our heads during the final miles.

As I turned onto Boylston and saw the finish line, I was still moved by the momentous experience that is Boston.  There is always some risk in trying to do well at something, and the pain of a difficult finish is just a reminder that we’re courageous enough to put it out there.  This is in retrospect, of course.  At the time, I mostly just wanted really badly to be done.

Post-race:

This is the worst I’ve ever felt at the end of a marathon.  I fought off blacking out the whole walk to the baggage busses.  I kept sitting down on the curb when I felt like I was going to pass out.  I really didn’t want to spend time in the med tent, so when I was approached by the medical staff each time, I said I was fine and got up and lurched along another half block before sitting down again and attracting the attention of the next set of  red-jacketed volunteers. That was probably dumb, but I wasn’t thinking straight, and I didn’t want to be a bother.  Med tents and wheelchairs are for people with heart attacks and stuff, right?  I was just tired, in an almost-unconscious sort of way.

WRFB was able to sneak into the runner area and met me after I made my way through the food line (bagels, bananas, chips). It was great to see him.  I felt too sick to eat, but forced myself to have a banana and some chips. And a bit of water.  We had about a half-mile walk back to our place on Beacon Street, and that was a tough walk.  I had to sit down one more time, and it took a couple hours before I felt sort of OK. 

Our plans to meet up at a pub nearby didn’t work out because it was just too crowded, so we had folks come to our place and we ordered pizza and drank our own IPA.  The baby charmed everyone, and it was a great finish to the weekend.

Fashion Report:

Marathon Maniac singlet over a black short-sleeve T

Black running skirt.

Blue Saucony Progrid 2 Rides

Final Stats:

4:08:16  – a comfortable BQ for next year when I will have aged up to 55.

First half 2:00:03.  Second half 2:08:13.  Not great, but not a complete disaster either.

We'll be back next year! 

 AHA! I know now why you struggled. Blue shoes? There was no blue anywhere else on your body! 

Oh wait, I must be channeling Ribs. You sure looked great going by us at almost 20. You rallied nicely, thanks again for hosting the impromptu post race party at your rented digs.

It was a really fun weekend and I am so glad I got to meet the beergrandbaby before they go west.

I feel your pain...literally!  Except you're much more philosophical and mature about the whole thing than I was.  I pretty much stopped at "This is a stupid sport." 

Seriously, though, it is tough to never know quite what to expect, isn't it?  Sounds like you made the best of a challenging day and still managed to work through a decent time, giving it all you had.  Can't ask for more than that.  Congratulations.

It was great seeing you again and I really appreciated all the effort you and Lou made to coordinate some meet-ups.  Those were the highlights of the weekend....the last few miles of the race, not so much.

Are you running another in the Fall?

Awesome report. Your time was impressive and getting to see baby beerling & friends made you forget all the pain involved w/ running 26.2.  Sounds like a memorable trip and you're an inspiration to all of us RA yet-to-do-a-marathon.

Finally!!!

Except for WRFB being sidelined, it sounds like a wonderful weekend. I'm sorry to hear about the post race feeling.

Great attitude and great report.   Too bad you felt so poorly at the end, but I thought you had a crash and burn-  you were still running strongly in spite of feeling bad.

I hope that we get to meet again really soon.  Thanks for the hospitality afterwards.  I loved being able to hang out with you guys one more time.

Congratulations on punching another ticket to Boston. It was great to see you for a bit before the race and I'll look forward to the next time we're at a race together. 

Nate Jr. has the best smile! World brightening is right and no doubt because he was greeting you---world brightening yourself!

Rest well and go scorch some pavement at the next race.

goodbye to that PR and hello 3hours the next time.

Incidentally, your 4:08 qualifies you and a guest for any PNW Marathon you want.