How was it? The short answer is I'm very glad I went back. This despite the fact that I wanted to grab the first post-finish line wheelchair I could find and plop myself down in it.
First let me contrast this with my only other Boston experience. While I generally don't expect good weather especially for spring marathons, the 2007 Boston weather was really abysmal. That combined with a bad winter of training, no experience running on hills, and I had set myself up for a bad day. That year I faded badly after mile 22, had to walk a good deal of the way in, and was generally miserable most of the run. Although I didn’t realize it at the time (until I compared it to this year) crowd support and enthusiasm was also way down due to the weather. To contrast, the weather this year couldn't have been nicer and that was just the start of the differences.
I didn't have any particular time goal for the race but I was determined to enjoy the experience and not run out of gas like I did last time. So to help ensure I would have a relaxed mindset I brought my mini “Flip” camcorder in my race belt to make sure I could record some of the experience and to help me get my focus off of my time. I was also determined to keep my pace easy enough that I would still have something left when I finished the hills at mile 21.
The race however started with a stupid “rookie” mistake. I accidentally went into the wrong corral and ended up starting with wave two instead of wave one. Although frustrating, in the end it didn't make any difference and I had a few extra minutes to gather my thoughts at the start line, which was not a bad thing considering I would have barely made the wave one start anyway.
I spent the first few miles discarding my extra clothing as it was clear it wouldn't be needed. With the wind at our back and the sun shining it felt warmer than the 49° temperature. I had the camcorder out and sort of just filmed anything of interest. I kept telling myself to stay slow especially on the down hills.
I could already tell that there were more people and it was fun to see people out barbecuing, and just hanging out enjoying the sun and relative warmth. A bunch of people had the Red Sox game on the radio and the score was posted on makeshift scoreboards all throughout the early miles. I was taking at least a little bit of Gatorade at almost every aid station.
It was at Wellesley however that I really began to understand how many more people were out today than four years ago (and understandably so). The lineup and “kiss me” signs seemed to go on for three or 4 minutes along the course and as usual it was loud. Very fun. (I looked back at the video quickly and it is so fast and chaotic you can’t really tell what’s going on, but that’s kind of how it feels when you are running past anyway.)
The course is actually pretty significantly downhill as you head to mile 16. Again I told myself to slow down because 16 to 21 are pretty significantly uphill. I remember four years ago crossing the bridge over the interstate at mile 16 and thinking “uh oh”. I knew right then that I was can it be in trouble, my legs were not fresh and the hills were just starting. As I approached this year, I knew I was in much better shape going into it, and it also helped that I knew what to expect. I took my third and final Gu packet at mile 18.
I occasionally glanced at my watch but didn't worry too much about my splits after this point. My speed probably went down about 20 seconds per mile which seemed appropriate given the hills. Even if you feel good, I’m convinced it doesn’t make any sense to push too hard here or to try and match the pace you had on the flats/downhills earlier in the course. When I reached the top of Heartbreak Hill the overall craziness seem to step up a notch. As I started my way down the other side I got a serious rush of adrenaline (insanity?). I moved over to the right and just started high-fiving every Boston College student I could find. Everyone was yelling and screaming and I thought: “this is not a race, this is a party”. Of course at this point I felt pretty good given that it was mile 22. This was without a doubt my favorite mile of the race. An unbelievable rush!
But of course, all good things must come to an end. As the course flattened out the crowds grew thicker but my legs started to fatigue pretty significantly. It didn't take long for my high-fiving and yelling to turn into a grimace as I sought to hold it together for the last few miles. This of course is where all the mental games start. I hadn't been looking at my watch but I knew I was around 8 minute per mile pace which translates to a 3:30 marathon. Every time I tried to talk myself into going a little faster to get under 3:30 my body had a hard time responding. Once I got to mile 24, I determined I was just going to try to hold my (slower) pace and not walk if at all possible.
While I hoped to finish this marathon feeling good as opposed to battered, I was probably closer to the latter than the former. It was more relief than exultation when I crossed the finish line. After grabbing my water I had to sit down as I couldn’t even walk through the “chute” at that point. My legs just wouldn't carry me any further, so I found the curb and with five or six others sat there and talked about how bad we felt. And of course as you're sitting there you can't help but think thoughts like: “why the hell would I do this, nobody made me do this, as a matter fact I paid money to do this, what the hell was I thinking”.
Of course I've done this enough to know that as sure as you have a post marathon low when you cross the line, the post marathon high is not far behind. And somehow you manage to forget or at least put out of your mind how ridiculously uncomfortable you were during and immediately following the run.
As I thought about the race last night and today, I realized how much more of a positive experience this was than the last time. Certainly the weather helped, but despite feeling pretty bad when I finished, I paced myself about as well as I could. And given my current fitness level my result and time were as good as I could have hoped for. I was also happy that I did really take time to enjoy the course, the event, the incredible crowds and just the overall experience. Having run Chicago as my only other “big city Marathon”, I have to say that (IMO) it doesn't come close in terms of atmosphere to what I experienced in Boston yesterday.
As I always pray at the start line; thank you Lord for the blessing of just being there... everything else was just gravy.
Post race milkshake pictured below!
I'm still working on assembling the video footage but I did find some good clips (along with 9 minutes of video of the inside of my pocket). J
