Notes
Incredible experience! Boston definitely lived up to the hype and I am very glad that I committed to at least putting myself out there today to race.
Was up in a wave 4, which was very overwhelming as right off the gun everyone around me was flying by. Tried to keep my composure and stay very slow and relaxed but still came through the mile in 7:10. At about 2 miles I found Steve Hammar, who was only doing the first part of the race. Matt passed us at mile 2.5. It was nice to have company for at least the start to keep things casual. Around the same time Steve dropped to meet up with his family Shannon blew by me on the way to a great time.
Things were going really smoothly for those first 16 miles or so. I knew it was going to end up being a muggy day out so I was taking a water every mile and a Gatorade every 2 miles and downing a Gu every 5 miles. It definitely seemed aggressive at first but it payed off because by the time I hit Newton hills the sun was out and it was getting pretty warm. I expected the hills to hurt but just tried not to focus on pace and just keeping my feet moving without walking. It was a nice feeling once I got over those hills and actually wasn’t feeling bad at all. Was able to cruise a little bit from miles 21-24 (got a nice boost from Brian around this time) but then I got a really bad stomach cramp from all the gu, water and juices. With a mile to go I was searching for my family on the sidelines and that took me out of the race even more than I thought as I look back on the splits. Didn’t really have a finishing kick and was honestly still surprised I was under 3:20 given my very lax approach to this one. Didn’t end up walking either, which was like the only real goal I had set for myself. Overall this was relatively a much better marathon than my faster Philadelphia experience, I was even smiling in those final miles as I could see downtown Boston coming into view.
Alright...so now that I’ve got this one under my belt I think it’s time to really take a step back from running, or at least training, for awhile. Being out there today was really cathartic in the sense that I felt really comfortable having this be the way I walk away for a bit. Probably means this log is going to look very bleak for the foreseeable future but before I go dark I want to say thanks to all the fans out there that kept me in this sport for as long as I was. Until next time...
The End(?)