Boston Marathon 2007
I sometimes find that the longer the race the less I remember. My coached mentioned that to me when I called him after the 50k. He pointed out that I barely had a word to say about it, whereas two weeks earlier I did a sprint duathlon and was quite verbose about that. However I will do my best to recount the marathon.
First off, the weather was completely anticlimatic. It was no where near as cold or rainy as advertised. There was only about 25 minutes of rain the entire time. It was windy at times, but nothing that I felt was so bad. I was very disappointed in the milder weather. If I was going to do a marathon in bad conditions, I'd just as soon have them be really terrible.
Since I was expecting colder and rainier conditions, I had dressed a lot warmer than necessary. I wore running shorts with tights on my legs, a long sleeve Craft base layer, a Nike dri fit top with a zipper in front and my Hammer Nutrition winter cycling jacket, plus a thin hat and running cap. By mile 5 I had tied the jacket around my waist, pulled my arms out of the sleeves of the second layer and forced it down about my waist by squeezing through the neck hole. Then I stuffed my hat into the waist band of my shorts. With all this crap about my waist it was just about impossible to reach into my jacket pockets to get a gel or electrolytes. That is all there really is to say about the weather. It was windy at times and I got the occasional chill, but I have definitely trained and race is worse weather.
The travel to the start was interesting. We stayed at the Cambridge Gateway Inn, which was about 25 minutes out of town by the Boston T (subway). Two stops away from where we had to get off, the trained stalled between stations. After about 15 minutes of them trying to fix the problem, the conductor promised the marathoners we would miss the race and had another train come up from behind to push. I have to give credit to people of the Boston T, as instead if making us get off the next stop to wait for the next train, they just pushed us to our station so we could make the busses. We made it onto the next to last bus. The bus ride was also interesting. Apparently the driver was unsure where to go and kept consulting his directions while driving. Each time he did that the bus would swerve from one lane to the next or we would suddenly stop short as we got too close behind the vehicle behind us.
The best part of being late for the busses was that we didn't have to wait long for the start once we arrived in Hopkinton. I was with my friends Larry and Willie and then miraculously found my friend Jon. We were supposed to meet Jon in Hopkinton, but his cell phone wasn't working so I couldn't get in touch with him. He stumbled upon us as we were putting our bags in the baggage car. It was raining in Hopkinton so we sought out shelter under the entrance to the high school. Larry, Willie and John all had high bib number and were in the second wave of the start. I had a low bib number and should have been in the first wave. I had to fight off the temptation to go start out ahead of them with my wave. However, I decided it would be better running with some friends. While we were standing in our shelter a runner from Uganda joined us. He was still wearing regular street clothes and had to change into his running gear. Everything he took out of his bag was brand new, with the tags still attached. We had to point out to him that he needed to remove his tags. The race started at 10am and it was by now a few minutes after. This fellow still hadn’t even checked in his bag. Anyway, we wished the guy luck and the four of us headed to the start.
The start at the back of the back is tremendously crowded. Our first mile was a 10:36. It was impossible to go any faster due to the thick crowds. It took several miles for the crowd to thin out enough to run a faster pace. Jon and I started to run a faster pace and Larry and Willie kept a slower pace. Eventually Jon and I had our pace running at an average of 8:30’s. We kept this going up through mile 13 and Wellesley College. The Wellesley girls were out in force with many of them holding signs telling runners to kiss them. It was tempting to stop. One wise guy had a sign saying Kiss a Boy.
By the time we passed mile 13, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold the 8:30 pace. I told Jon to run ahead; as I knew I would have trouble finishing the race if I tried to hold that pace for much longer. Several times I was tempted to quit and just take the railroad back into Boston. It would have been so relaxing to just sit on a train and take away the suffering of running. The urge to do so was somewhat strong. But as I have always said, I wasn’t hurt, injured or sick, so I really had no reason not to keep going. It was just a matter of how long it would take, which felt like it would be forever. Besides, how could I go back to my kids and tell them that after spending all this time away from home, I just decided not to finish what I set out to do.
As the marathon progressed I began to notice the timing clocks along the way. They were indicating a time that said I was running really slowly. It looked to me that I would be well over 4 hours. When I passed a clock that said 4:05 I got really discouraged and started to fear that Larry and Willie would catch up to me. Larry like to say how if you go out too fast that he will be seeing you later. I expected him to pass me at any moment and hear him start rubbing it in that I went out too fast. About 10 minutes later though, I past another clock and finally realized that the clock was reading from the 10am start time and not the time I started which was 38 minutes after that. I felt a little better once I realized that and saw that I could still break a 4 hour marathon.
At Heartbreak Hill, around mile 18, I passed a bunch of spectators ringing cowbells. All through the race I was worried that I didn’t get my kids souvenirs yet and I realized I could grab a couple of bells and be done with the chore. So I ran off the side of the road, asked the guy handing them out of I could have a couple (he said yes) and ran the last 8.2 miles with a cowbell in each hand. I would have stuff them into my jacket pockets, but it was impossible to get anything in or out them. I didn’t really mind carrying them in my hands as they were light and seemed to keep my hands warm.
I remember getting to mile 22 and feeling discouraged. It seemed like it would take forever to run the last 4 miles. I guess I was just feeling tired from the 50k two weeks ago. I was feeling fatigue in my hamstrings early in the race that should not have been there unless I did a lot of running recently. I guess the 50k counted as a lot, even though I hardly did anything during the two weeks between races. I just wanted it to be over and hoped my splits remained even for the remainder so I could at least predict when I would be seeing another mile marker.
Anyway, I made it through the last 4 miles of the race and finished in 3:56:19. Definitely not my best time, but not my worst time either. I was happy with breaking 4 hours. I am also very happy that I didn’t go out with the first wave. That would have been very ugly. I probably would have gone out much faster and would have really been hurting later on. The best thing about having a low bib number, but starting in the back of the second wave, was that my checked bag was about the only one left in my baggage bus. Due to the rain before the start of the race, the numbers were practically washed off all of the bags. About all you could make out on my bag was the words “New York” and the baggage handlers immediately knew that had to be mine when I asked them to look for it. I guess they could distinguish my Yankee accent.
After getting my bag I put on all of my warm clothes while I waiting for Larry and Willie at our appointed meeting place. I had to wait about 35 minute, but during that time I just relaxed, ate and made some phone calls. I was in no rush to make it back to the hotel. Fortunately, the train didn’t have any problems on the return. We walked the mile back to the hotel from the train station. After we showered and rested a while we went to a bowling alley next door to the hotel and ate chicken wings, burgers and drank beer. I would have bowled a game or two just for the hell of it, but the guys weren’t into it. After eating and drinking, we went back to the hotel, where I soon fell asleep for the night.
First off, the weather was completely anticlimatic. It was no where near as cold or rainy as advertised. There was only about 25 minutes of rain the entire time. It was windy at times, but nothing that I felt was so bad. I was very disappointed in the milder weather. If I was going to do a marathon in bad conditions, I'd just as soon have them be really terrible.
Since I was expecting colder and rainier conditions, I had dressed a lot warmer than necessary. I wore running shorts with tights on my legs, a long sleeve Craft base layer, a Nike dri fit top with a zipper in front and my Hammer Nutrition winter cycling jacket, plus a thin hat and running cap. By mile 5 I had tied the jacket around my waist, pulled my arms out of the sleeves of the second layer and forced it down about my waist by squeezing through the neck hole. Then I stuffed my hat into the waist band of my shorts. With all this crap about my waist it was just about impossible to reach into my jacket pockets to get a gel or electrolytes. That is all there really is to say about the weather. It was windy at times and I got the occasional chill, but I have definitely trained and race is worse weather.
The travel to the start was interesting. We stayed at the Cambridge Gateway Inn, which was about 25 minutes out of town by the Boston T (subway). Two stops away from where we had to get off, the trained stalled between stations. After about 15 minutes of them trying to fix the problem, the conductor promised the marathoners we would miss the race and had another train come up from behind to push. I have to give credit to people of the Boston T, as instead if making us get off the next stop to wait for the next train, they just pushed us to our station so we could make the busses. We made it onto the next to last bus. The bus ride was also interesting. Apparently the driver was unsure where to go and kept consulting his directions while driving. Each time he did that the bus would swerve from one lane to the next or we would suddenly stop short as we got too close behind the vehicle behind us.
The best part of being late for the busses was that we didn't have to wait long for the start once we arrived in Hopkinton. I was with my friends Larry and Willie and then miraculously found my friend Jon. We were supposed to meet Jon in Hopkinton, but his cell phone wasn't working so I couldn't get in touch with him. He stumbled upon us as we were putting our bags in the baggage car. It was raining in Hopkinton so we sought out shelter under the entrance to the high school. Larry, Willie and John all had high bib number and were in the second wave of the start. I had a low bib number and should have been in the first wave. I had to fight off the temptation to go start out ahead of them with my wave. However, I decided it would be better running with some friends. While we were standing in our shelter a runner from Uganda joined us. He was still wearing regular street clothes and had to change into his running gear. Everything he took out of his bag was brand new, with the tags still attached. We had to point out to him that he needed to remove his tags. The race started at 10am and it was by now a few minutes after. This fellow still hadn’t even checked in his bag. Anyway, we wished the guy luck and the four of us headed to the start.
The start at the back of the back is tremendously crowded. Our first mile was a 10:36. It was impossible to go any faster due to the thick crowds. It took several miles for the crowd to thin out enough to run a faster pace. Jon and I started to run a faster pace and Larry and Willie kept a slower pace. Eventually Jon and I had our pace running at an average of 8:30’s. We kept this going up through mile 13 and Wellesley College. The Wellesley girls were out in force with many of them holding signs telling runners to kiss them. It was tempting to stop. One wise guy had a sign saying Kiss a Boy.
By the time we passed mile 13, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold the 8:30 pace. I told Jon to run ahead; as I knew I would have trouble finishing the race if I tried to hold that pace for much longer. Several times I was tempted to quit and just take the railroad back into Boston. It would have been so relaxing to just sit on a train and take away the suffering of running. The urge to do so was somewhat strong. But as I have always said, I wasn’t hurt, injured or sick, so I really had no reason not to keep going. It was just a matter of how long it would take, which felt like it would be forever. Besides, how could I go back to my kids and tell them that after spending all this time away from home, I just decided not to finish what I set out to do.
As the marathon progressed I began to notice the timing clocks along the way. They were indicating a time that said I was running really slowly. It looked to me that I would be well over 4 hours. When I passed a clock that said 4:05 I got really discouraged and started to fear that Larry and Willie would catch up to me. Larry like to say how if you go out too fast that he will be seeing you later. I expected him to pass me at any moment and hear him start rubbing it in that I went out too fast. About 10 minutes later though, I past another clock and finally realized that the clock was reading from the 10am start time and not the time I started which was 38 minutes after that. I felt a little better once I realized that and saw that I could still break a 4 hour marathon.
At Heartbreak Hill, around mile 18, I passed a bunch of spectators ringing cowbells. All through the race I was worried that I didn’t get my kids souvenirs yet and I realized I could grab a couple of bells and be done with the chore. So I ran off the side of the road, asked the guy handing them out of I could have a couple (he said yes) and ran the last 8.2 miles with a cowbell in each hand. I would have stuff them into my jacket pockets, but it was impossible to get anything in or out them. I didn’t really mind carrying them in my hands as they were light and seemed to keep my hands warm.
I remember getting to mile 22 and feeling discouraged. It seemed like it would take forever to run the last 4 miles. I guess I was just feeling tired from the 50k two weeks ago. I was feeling fatigue in my hamstrings early in the race that should not have been there unless I did a lot of running recently. I guess the 50k counted as a lot, even though I hardly did anything during the two weeks between races. I just wanted it to be over and hoped my splits remained even for the remainder so I could at least predict when I would be seeing another mile marker.
Anyway, I made it through the last 4 miles of the race and finished in 3:56:19. Definitely not my best time, but not my worst time either. I was happy with breaking 4 hours. I am also very happy that I didn’t go out with the first wave. That would have been very ugly. I probably would have gone out much faster and would have really been hurting later on. The best thing about having a low bib number, but starting in the back of the second wave, was that my checked bag was about the only one left in my baggage bus. Due to the rain before the start of the race, the numbers were practically washed off all of the bags. About all you could make out on my bag was the words “New York” and the baggage handlers immediately knew that had to be mine when I asked them to look for it. I guess they could distinguish my Yankee accent.
After getting my bag I put on all of my warm clothes while I waiting for Larry and Willie at our appointed meeting place. I had to wait about 35 minute, but during that time I just relaxed, ate and made some phone calls. I was in no rush to make it back to the hotel. Fortunately, the train didn’t have any problems on the return. We walked the mile back to the hotel from the train station. After we showered and rested a while we went to a bowling alley next door to the hotel and ate chicken wings, burgers and drank beer. I would have bowled a game or two just for the hell of it, but the guys weren’t into it. After eating and drinking, we went back to the hotel, where I soon fell asleep for the night.
Labels: Boston Marathon
posted by Rebel at 1:06 PM
1 Comments:
Congratulations Charles. Now it's time to be an Ironman again.
Yay!
Todd
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