Notes
Boston Marathon, official time 2:36:39. I've seen 73rd, 72nd, and 75th for my place, so who knows what it really was.
Pre-Race:
Went to bed around 9:30 the night before the race and didn't have much trouble falling asleep. I woke up a little after 2am and needed to pee, so I did that and when I got back into bed found myself wide awake. No more sleeping for me, listened to the wind whipping the flags outside and the rain hitting the windows while I checked the weather praying it would change and perused the letsrun forums until it was time to get up around 4am. Rolled out of bed, took a shower, had my coffee and oatmeal then packed up my bag before hopping in an uber to take us to the finish line. The bus ride to Hopkinton was fine, the athletes village was a muddy swamp, though. We found an area under the tent to set down our stuff and lay out our towels and were able to sit shoulder to shoulder with 30000 of our bestest friends. It was really nice having the guys to chat with though, definitely made the time in the village go by faster.
Once 9:15 rolled around Willy G and I wished the rest of the guys good luck and we left the village to head to corral 1. We stopped along the way to change our shoes and socks and ditch our sweats. Once we got to corral 1 we used our mini porta potties to relieve ourselves and waited for the start. Found Cole Decker in the corral so got to chat with him a bit before we started.
Early Race:
Will and I got out nicely, our first mile was 5:47 which was perfect and felt like a jog. We were moving up through the groups and picked it up into the 5:20s for the next few miles. Things were good, it wasnt raining too hard and the wind seemed to not be much of a factor the first 5 miles. I think it was shortly after mile 5 when we had the first big downpour and I realized how much of a bitch the wind was going to be. Around mile 7 my legs were starting to feel a bit fatigued, there should have been alarms going off in my mind, but Will said he was feeling good so I just ignored it and figured I'd work through it.
Mid Race:
Running through the underwhelming Wellesley college Will made a comment about him being concerned for his quads, this made me feel more confident in how I was feeling because I was quite concerned for my hammys at this point. We just kept clicking off the miles and working together into the wind and through the regular downpours. A little before we hit the Newton fire station I told Will I was going to try to take the hills a little easier, and shortly after the turn at the fire station Will was gapping me. It was at this point when I realized just how screwed I was.
The hills:
Tried to run the hills controlled and keep my cadence up, but my legs were already toast. I was getting gapped by Will hard and I was doing everything I could to keep my pace respectable which I was actually able to do (probably paid for this later) as heart break hill was my first mile significantly over 6 minutes. After heartbreak I just wanted to get my pace back down into the 6:0x's and maintain to try to better my 2:31:38 time from Boston last year. I was able to do that immediately after heartbreak with a 6:10 mile 22, butt that would be the end of any time goals for the day.
The 4.2 mile death march:
Just after hitting mile 22 and near the reservoir I saw my family and Kaylee as I was crossing over the train tracks. I stuck my tongue out at them because I knew I was done. About 30 seconds later the heaviest down pour of the day came and I was reduced to a walk with thoughts of DNF'ing on my mind. I came all this way and trained so hard the last 3 months though, so a DNF wasn't a though I entertained for long. I started running again with a goal of just getting to the finish line, regardless of time. I walked through the mile 24 water station and took down as many liquids as I could and started running again. I saw the Citgo sign in the distance and just focused on that, all I wanted to do was stop running. Walked through the underpass with about 3/4 of a mile to go because I was feeling light headed, then saw the Hereford right turn and all of a sudden I was able to run what felt like a respectable pace again. Right on hereford, left on Boyleston. Running to the finish I made sure to look around and take in how cool the scene was, which was something I didn't do last year.
Post-Race:
As soon as I finished I found the nearest barricade to support myself. A volunteer came and supported me as I started walking (he said it was his 31st year volunteering at the race). Then I started the shivering trek down the water, food, medal, and poncho hand out line to get to my gear check bag. I wasn't noticeably cold during the race, but less than 5 minutes after finishing I was miserable. I found Will and we got to the changing tent full of dudes and tried to get some of our wet clothes off. Then we started wandering the streets until we found a bar and finished changing in their bathroom before calling an uber to get back to the airbnb.
Reflection:
Definitely not my smartest race. I knew around 10k that I was running too fast too early, but I ignored it. I went through halfway in 1:12:28, which given the conditions was way too fast. Will was feeling good though and we had trained together all winter, so I made the incorrect assumption that it would be okay. I sort of feel like I ran his race the first 15 vs my race. If I would have been ~2 minutes slower at halfway I think its a whole different race for me. But oh well, Will had himself an incredible day and I'm so pumped for him. I should've just been smarter myself.
With graduation in a few weeks and starting a new chapter in my life I think a race like this is actually a blessing in disguise. I won't have Will to train with anymore, we did a really good job of holding each other accountable and crushing workouts all winter. This race leaves a sour taste in my mouth and will serve as motivation this summer when I find myself training mostly alone again. I'm already registered for the Chicago Marathon on October 7th where I want to run under 2:22 and I'm going to run Park to Park in early September where I want to run under 1:06 for the half. Once I get that marathon PR into the 2:20 ballpark I will start focusing on getting the sub 2:19 for the trials. Monday afternoon Fr. Kirby messaged me "Marathons are a bitchy mistress, you'll get your day!" Now I just need to do what it takes to make sure October 7 is my day.