2010 Boston Marathon

Yesterday’s run up in Boston went way better than what I was expecting, and even better than what I was hoping for. I finished in 2:53:57, a 6:38/mile pace and a personal best by almost four minutes. That was good enough for 713th out of 23,126 runners. Even more exciting was that I ran a minute-forty-one negative split on a notoriously tough second half course. Finally, I ran a smart marathon.

Antonio and I arrived in Boston via train Sunday morning. We headed straight to the expo, which was a zoo, got our bibs and then met up with Hans and his girlfriend for lunch. Sitting in the food court at the mall where I used to work was a little surreal and reminded me how happy I am to have escaped retail. We spent the afternoon wondering around Harvard Square and then met up with Antonio again for pizza dinner in Cambridge. The pizza proved to be a good pre-race choice, sitting on my stomach well and keeping me full.

I stayed on a rollaway bed in Hans’ hotel room and was asleep by like 8:30. Surprisingly, I slept well despite the pre-race jitters. Our alarms went off at 4:45 and were followed by breakfast and then a little more sleep. Eventually we took the T to Boston Common and caught a school bus to the start with Antonio. The ride was super long, and I was getting a little intimidated by the distance. If it’s taking this long to drive, how long is it going to take to run?

The Athletes’ Village was actually a lot of fun. We got a bunch of free food and water, then met up with Sarah and her new Boston running club. After relaxing in the cool but sunny air for an hour or so, the four of us ran a slow mile together, made our final preparations, then headed towards the start. The walk to the corrals was long and then there was more waiting, but finally the race started. About a minute later, those of us back in the third corral finally crossed the line. Crazy, I thought, this is the Boston Marathon.

The first eleven miles were incredibly frustrating. There was so much energy around, the weather was perfect, and all I wanted to do was run fast. But I kept forcing myself to slow down and reminding myself that the real race didn’t start until later — that I was just setting up for that last 10K. The downhill was grueling on my quads and I was super happy every time we’d get a little break in the form of a hill. My pace hovered between 6:40 and 6:44 this whole time.

Somewhere around mile eleven, I finally started to get tired. It sounds weird, but it was actually refreshing because it meant that I wasn’t having to focus so much on slowing down. But, the problem with that was that I began to drift farther away from my plan. I’d glance down and see 6:35, then have to reel it in a bit. Even though my pace was getting a little bit erratic, I hit the half at 1:27:49 and was still feeling really good.

The hills starting in mile 16 were where it got fun. I’d heard so much about how tough they were, but in actuality they’re not very big hills at all. I was weaving through runners, passing people every couple steps. It was unreal. I couldn’t believe that this was the Boston Marathon, the marathon that was supposed to eat runners up. By the top of Heartbreak Hill, I had a huge grin on my face and was almost laughing. That was more fun than I’ve had in a long time.

But I internalized that energy a bit too much though and took off too fast down the other side. I glanced down at my watch and saw I was doing a 6:12 pace for the mile. Yikes. Reel it in. But I never really did. I ran between 6:17 and 6:27 for the remainder of the race. I was passing lots of people and enjoying it, but I was also in more and more pain. I was worried about how light headed and dizzy I was getting and so grabbed Gatorade at almost every mile. I felt the starts of cramps too, but luckily none of them materialized into anything serious. I was seriously struggling by the time mile 25 rolled around, but managed to hang on knowing that the end was so close. The crowd support here was huge too.

I met Antonio in the chute after finishing and we hobbled over to baggage claim together. I clumsily changed into dry clothes, read through a bunch of congratulatory texts and emails on my phone, and then rendezvoused with Sarah. It was great hearing the different versions of the race from her and Antonio.

Later on, as we were walking to the train after cleaning up, drinking beers, etc., we ran into Ryan Hall in a crosswalk. I said, “Nice race,” and he responded with a thank you even though he looked pretty bummed out. I couldn’t help but think how funny it was that I was thrilled with my time, a time 45 minutes slower than the one he was disappointed with.

My legs are feeling pretty good today. I did a quick 1.4 mile loop here with Helen this morning and my quads felt tight, but not nearly as bad as I imagined they would be. I’ll probably try for four or five tomorrow. Now that Boston is out of the way, I need to ramp back up quickly in preparation for the New Jersey Marathon (twelve days from now) and, more importantly, my 100 miler which is now just over four months away. I’m so happy that I have this great run in the bank to help start out the new training cycle. It’s going to provide a huge mental boost, I know.