Well, that could have gone a lot worse!
I had a good run yesterday at my first Boston. Although I’m surely glad it’s over, I’m just as sure that I want to do it again. Not soon. Later. Much later.
I very lucky to get out of Berlin on Thursday, and feel great empathy for everyone who got stuck in Europe or elsewhere due to the volcano. Who knew that volcanic activity could cause a problem for runners? It’s like something out of the Flintstones!
But the whole week I’ve been stressed about the Marathon. It is my third, and I realized that my fears can be summarized in three short statements: “I had a ok Marathon in New York. It was a fluke that I ran so well in Bay State. Now Boston will reveal me as a fraud.” Healthy positive thinking!!!! I think for sure that this had as much to do with the energy build up during a taper, combined with the jetlag, but I couldn’t shake it. I did take some encouragement on going back and reading my training journal and remembering some good runs in recent months.
There was a 10k in New York about two weeks ago that I could have ran, and now I really wish that I had; I think having a tune up race close to the big day would have been a profound help. It’s hard as things wind down to the day itself to remember why we run — that confident stride that creates speed felt like a part of the distance past rather than a tool in the toolbox ready to be used again.
My friend Sal drove me up — he’s a good friend and great to hang out with. We got rooms at the Framingham Marriott Residence Inn, which was just perfect. Plenty of runners, but none of the frenetic energy that seemed to dominate the area around the expo.
I bought a jacket at the expo, which struck me as very bad luck. I shoved it in my bag and didn’t even look at it after the race. I grow more insane by the day! Other than that, no major purchases which is great. Like the rest of the world, I’m not swimming in cash these days and it’s great to escape from the pre-race retail experience without saying “well, at least everything was on sale!”
The pre-race was great. I met up with Joe, Karen and Ted from the Taconics;Ted had brought a blanket so we could relax under the tent and pass a couple of hours before the race. Off to the starting corrales, which I have to say are much more mellow than New York. It’s a small village street, and everyone is very relaxed. Not relaxed. Resigned? OK, relaxed.
Off went the gun, a few minutes of shuffling and then we were off. The rolling downhills at the start were a little rough, and after a while I felt like while I was rolling I wasn’t as prepared for the downhill work as I would have liked to have been. I printed out a pace band to do a 3:20 — I got it from Nike and it was graded for the elevation change. But it was a challenge for me — I felt like the downhills were called out as too fast, so I took it easy. But then the uphills I was running way too slow to match what was on the band. After I while I stopped looking at the band, and tried to do 7:37 through the rest of the race. That would have been fine. Except for the hills of Newton.
I have a running friend name Jenn Latham. She doesn’t brag at all about her massive running accomplishments, but she’s done amazing things and I’d recommend a quick google. She gave me a great marathon strategy last year — let’s called it the 3 10s. I’ll summarize it like this: Run the first 10 miles as relaxed as you can. Run the second ten miles trying to hold onto what you accomplished in the first ten. Run the last 10k as freakin’ fast as you can. And then it’s over.
This is a great strategy and differs from a more traditional approach of thinking of the marathon as two half marathons. In this approach, you’d look at your time after 13.1 miles and try to match or better it for the 2nd half. The problem, I’d suggest, is that the first half isn’t anywhere near the halfway point of the mental or physical effort of the marathon; that comes closer to the 20 miler mark. The “wall”, if you will. By concentrating concentrating concentrating conserving energy for the last 10k, it’s hoped, you can really open it up and do well while others are maybe suffering.
The problem, as anyone who has run Boston would find painfully obvious is that the 20 miler is at the bottom of heart break hill. So you power up that hill, and try to open up, but then all the quad pain kicks in from the earlier downhills. And you’re rewarded with an excruciating downhill. Handy! I just didn’t have it in me to make up the time I had lost on the hills. I pushed hard, but it was torture.
I finished the Boston Marathon in 3:22:57, an average pace of 7:45.
I am thrilled and proud. Although I worked hard, it was the support of my friend and family that got me through it. That being said, I am blessed by being a part of a great running community. Everyone in the Taconic Road Runners has had an an influence on me, and any success I’ve had is due to their guidance.
Listen, I wold have loved to have run 2 minutes faster and qualified again. I can and will beat myself up a little bit about that. But I learned so much running this course that I can use when I run it again. But it’s a happy day for me, and I’ll find a way to shave (hopefully more than) a few minutes off next time.
I’m off to a meeting now, about to walk through the East Village — hopefully I will see some other poor bastard barely able to walk, maybe cursing with each step and groaning at the sight of even a slight curb. It won’t require even a smile to share what we’ve been through. I imagine everyone is thinking the same thing.
It’s over for now. But there’s always another one to come.
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