2019 Boston Marathon
This is really a Boston 2019 Race Report, it is just going to take a while to get there. You should feel free to skip ahead if you would like, but I don't think I can tell the story of this year without spending some time going back down memory lane to recap everything that happened in the prior 12 months.
Boston 2018 broke me. I totally underestimated how bad the weather could get and kept assuming that with beautiful weather the week before, and beautiful weather in the forecast for the days after that the hellacious storm would move out of the way. It didn't. I was in really good shape going into Boston 2018, but by mile 5 I was hurting bad. At mile 7.5 I almost walked off the course. The only thing that kept me out there was fear that the Associated Press reporter that interviewed me at the Athlete's Village would call for a follow up and I didn't want to be the quitter outted on the newswire. I was walking by mile 10 and had to partner with a random stranger, who turned out to be a bandit, to get to the finish.
Oh well, no big deal I had plenty of marathon fitness in reserve so I figured I'd head down to Pennsylvania for the Poconos Marathon. I'm in good shape and it is a downhill marathon. Maybe I'll set a PR! Nope. My heart wasn't in this race. I had big plans for triathlon post Boston and to be "stuck" back running so much wasn't where I wanted to be. I told myself to suck it up because it was only a few more weeks of run focus to get the 2019 BQ out of the way. The RWOL Boston Marathon folks were all super supportive through this effort. The amount of encouragement I got from everyone was fantastic. Race day weather was good enough so I went about executing to plan. Everything was going well, but I just didn't want to be out there. I had the physicality to do well but mentally I was done marathoning and not just for this day. I knew it would be a letdown for my online support crew, but when I got to the halfway mark I stepped off the course. It was a huge relief. My #1 athletic goal since 2013 has been to make it back to Boston 10 years in a row. Now I had failed twice in 5 weeks and really didn't care if I ever ran another 26.2. I immediately signed up for a last-minute chance at the Erie Marathon in September but figured I would be a no-show.
Nobody understood what I was going through as well as my tarp friend, Diana. She is one of two new friends that I made in the Athlete's Village prior to Boston 2018. It is funny how if you bring thick plastic and stake out prime ground it becomes easy to make new friends :-) Diana and I have traded emails sporadically about running and racing. After the debacle at the Poconos Marathon she really helped me crystalize my thoughts about the entire 2018 season so far. At the end of the day, I came up with the 10 year goal early in my running history because I was trying to change my life and if I was able to get back 10 years in a row it would be a strong objective measurement that my "exercise kick" had stuck. There is no doubt that getting out and being active almost every day is now part of who I am and that isn't going to change. I don't need a 10 year streak to validate my success at changing myself. What I needed was to be happy again.
Triathlon made me happy, so I proceeded to put any thoughts of another marathon on the back burner and I just got out and swim/bike/run'd as much as I could. It was great. I wasn't having the fastest season, but I was really enjoying myself. I still struggled with my run. I could run well, but in a race it just never seemed like I was willing to suffer enough in the run to turn in great performances. I didn't care. It was fun. I finally had a breakout swim performance midway through the season and I set my sights on Triathlon Age Group National Championships where the goal was to race well. I didn't have a specific time goal for Nat's. I didn't think I could qualify for World's, but I did think I could gain experience that might help me come back in 2019 to make a serious attempt at qualifying for the World's Championships.
A week before Nat's I did a bunch of open water swimming. I was very curious to see if I could pull off another breakout swim. 5 days before Nat's I hopped on the bike for an extra long bike commute to work. My bike was switched over to race configuration and I was wearing a brand new tri kit. I rode far enough in the wrong direction to turn my 20 mile commute into a 40 mile commute. I was halfway done with the ride when I met Bambi. I was descending on a slight hill riding 30mph when one deer ran in front of me and a second deer plowed into me. There was no time to react. She drove her head into my thigh, bent her head down and with one flick sent me flying over the handlebars. I twisted in the air and came down on the back of my head and the back of my left shoulder. I screamed for several minutes and with no help in sight got up, collected my bike from the other lane and got it off of the road. Fortunately, two guys that work at a golf course a quarter mile away heard me screaming and came looking for me. They were already on the phone with 911. My left arm was frozen in place. When everything was said and done I had a grade 3 separation of the AC joint. 3 ligaments are no longer attached to anything and 1 tendon was torn. This paragraph started with swimming for a reason. I picked up an e coli infection that incubated until the day after the accident. Bambi took me out on a Monday and by Tuesday I was no longer able to keep food inside of me. I was sick for 6 days straight and only had one arm that worked.
Well, shit. Now what? I planned on a 5 week unlikely-to-work marathon build for after Nat's but after being sick I was down to 4 weeks and didn't have an arm that worked. All I could do was whatever was possible and then see what happened.
Week 1 was 10 hours of walking on a treadmill at a steep angle.
Week 2 was 12 hours that started with steep walks but ended with a 20 mile run. I did the 20 mile run coincident with the Rochester Triathlon so I could cheer on the athletes and take pictures of my friend Scott who was racing with his disabled son in tow. BTW, Scott is a serious badass. Not only did he finish his race, but under the immense power of his T-Rex legs he actually managed to sheer his rear derailleur completely off of his bike. He finished the bike on foot. Watching a race was a great way to get the 20 miles in even if it was interrupted a few times with some picture taking.
Week 3 was 44 miles of "taper".
Week 4 was more tapering and ended with the race on Sunday.
I went to Erie at peace with whatever was going to happen. I'd decided months earlier that I was going back to Boston 2019 regardless of having a BQ. If I didn't BQ I was going to volunteer. Standing on the side of the road handing out water in 4 ounce cups felt like a great way to say goodbye. Then the miracle happened. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was a little cool for September with thick overcast, a nice breeze and just the lightest of rain exactly when you wanted it. I spent the first 16 miles chasing, but refusing to pass the pacer that would have given me a 10 minute BQ. From 16 to 18 miles I started to crack a little and from 18 to 26.2 held it together well enough to come out of Erie with a 5+ minute BQ. I still can't believe it happened. Bambi helped me learn to enjoy marathoning again.
Long before I'd given up on 26.2, I suffered through the NYC Marathon registration process so now I'd be running again at the beginning of November. The challenge in NYC was to find a way to keep joy in my running. As I reflected back on the last several years one thing stood out at me. I've been too hyper focused on getting back to Boston every year. The consequence was that for the last 6 years it seemed that every marathon was run with carefully planned out tactics. In NYC I wanted to run reckless and have fun. While this guaranteed I would blow up, I didn't care because at least it would be epic! At NYC I went out way too fast. Mile 2 coming down the bridge was under 6 minutes a mile. Despite starting too far back, by mile 10 I had caught the 3:05 pacer. By 16 I knew the explosion was coming and somewhere around 20ish I started walking. I did a run/walk to the end and it was a blast. I got to within a couple hundred yards of the finish, with spectators all around in stadium seating, and I still walked one more time. I was empty and it was glorious. I finished in the neighborhood of BQ-8, which is now a BQ-3 for Boston 2020.
After NYC it was time for a running break. My Garmin data showed that ever since Bambi I've been running lopsided, which is not normal for me. I took 5 weeks off to focus on swimming and hoped that when I started running again my stride would be back to normal. In November and December I built up to swimming a ton of yards. The shoulder hurt a little, but mostly it just felt gross. I kept at it and was able to pop off a 35,200 yard week (a.k.a. 20 miles). It was now clear that my shoulder wasn't just separated, but was divorced. The bones were never going to get back together. The surgeon wanted me to try and live with it under the theory that the body will often adapt better than a smart guy with surgical tools. He was right. The shoulder is very ugly now and I don't like that I look lopsided but I carry it around as a badge of honor. F U Bambi.
When I started the marathon build for Boston 2019, I didn't have any specific goals in mind so it seemed like a good time to try something very different. Every marathon plan was a derivation of the previous marathon plan with a tweak or two so that I could try out a new strategy. Over the years, the mileage has been getting higher with more long runs. I threw out the book and started over with a low mileage, high intensity plan. I was now running intervals every week. I hadn't done intervals since 2012. The plan was going pretty well, but I was still running lopsided. I thought maybe the HRM strap wasn't accurate anymore because my lopsided shoulders might be throwing off the data. After the first couple of months I started getting pain in my hip flexor. It wasn't that bad at first and responded well when I foam rolled my IT Band and Quad. The pain always went away in the first 10 minutes of running, so no big deal. The pain started getting worse over time and became unbearable when I first got out of bed in the morning. I got professional help and after about 6 weeks of trying different things it culminated with an MRI 2 weeks before Boston and a cortisone shot 6 days before Boston 2019. I only ran about 30 miles the month leading up to the race. The MRI showed 6 things wrong with my hip, but the doc didn't think any of them were bad enough to cause the pain I was having. She didn't like the idea of me running 26.2 so soon, but just laughed at me when I told her it wasn't a race but rather a parade. A really long, fun parade where I'd get to take a victory lap.
And now on to the race report...
The days leading up to marathon weekend it was looking more and more likely that we could get weather that was similar to 2018. At the last minute, after several days of the forecast getting worse I ordered a 2 mil thick wetsuit top w/gloves and had them delivered to Boston. The idea was that if the weather was going to be ridiculous that I would have some fun with it. I planned to run in wetsuit shorts, top and gloves with a swim cap and goggles. I was undecided if I'd also throw in the "I swam from Hopkin to Boston 2018" shirt to make it more obvious. The package was delivered to the "host family" that I stay with every year after the race. I drove up to the race with my friend Eric on Friday. He was there with me in 2014 and is the one that introduced me to the "host family". The Internet, or maybe just Amazon, has gotten out of control because less than 3 minutes after Eric and I arrived a delivery person stopped at the door to drop off the gear. Eric was going to stay with the "host family" for the entire weekend, but I booked a room at a hotel a few miles from the start for Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, Eric dropped me off at the hotel and I waited for my friend Chris to come up from Connecticut and stay with me. It was a 420 kind of weekend. I made a joke that he was coming to meet me on 4/20. The hotel room we had been put in was 420. Finally, Chris got there and knocked at the door at exactly 4:20 pm. Chris and I hung out for a short while and then went downtown to Beerworks to hang out with the rest of the RWOL'ers. Beerworks was packed with Bruins fans but after an hour or so we managed to get a long table and about a dozen of us got a chance to catch up. It was a great time. Saturday at Beerworks never fails to be a highlight of marathon weekend. One funny forum encounter from that night was getting caught up with Chiara. She had missed the Bambi story when it originally happened, so I told her and showed off the misshapen shoulder. She was grossed out, but couldn't stop looking at it for the rest of the conversation. At one point I got a really good laugh out of her and her friend when I told Chiara in my most serious voice, "Hey, my eyes are up here!"
Sunday morning I did the usual Aussie carb load thing. I felt flat and the 1 mile hard run sucked, but what else did I expect? I had only run about 30 miles total in the 4 weeks prior. Chris and I drove the course and went over to the expo for packet pickup. While we were at the expo, we stopped in one of the conference rooms to talk to some students from the University of Kansas. I had signed up for a medical study. They wanted me to track everything I ate that weekend and the online website was pretty bad. I needed help trying to input 400 grams of Gatorade powder with 24 ounces of water. There wasn't much to see at the expo so we did a quick lap and then got dinner before hitting a grocery store to pick up food stuffs for race morning. I was debating when to set my alarm for Monday morning since I wanted to continue the tradition of being one of the first people in the Athlete's Village when inspiration struck. I set the clock for 4:20am, laughed about it and went to sleep.
On race morning I got up, grabbed my stuff and Chris tried to drop me off at the South Street parking lot. I say "tried" because the volunteers told me to go away and come back later because they weren't ready yet. The busses were delayed and there were some ugly thunderstorms rolling through. Eventually, I got on the bus and made some new friends. It was nice that I've been able to connect with one of them on Strava since. There were delays getting to the village. The bus driver didn't know where he was going. We got there and then he went down a road near the school I've never seen before and stopped. The volunteers wouldn't let us off the bus. I figured out later that they were holding us because of the lightning storm. After getting into the village, I put out plastic and hung a red balloon for the "red dot" so that the rest of the RWOL'ers could find us and then I went in search of the medical study. They needed to take blood and urine from me before the race and I was in a hurry to get rid of one of those ;-) After I found them, they were discombobulated by the rain but they processed me quickly, but after a protocol change they skipped taking blood. Back to the red dot and time to relax.
As always, it was funny hanging out with friends (new and old) at the red dot while we waited for the race to start. When it came time to go to the starting line, the skies had parted and instead of hard cold rain it was warm and sunny. Fortunately, I chose not to race in a wetsuit but as a remembrance of the year I've had I did run in the blood stained tri kit from the accident. I'd planned to start the race with one of the RWOL crew, Geo. I didn't know how long I could hang with him but I thought it would be fun on my 6th attempt at Boston to have a chance to line up with a friend. We walked over together and he made an excellent sherpa as I tried to peel off layers of clothing along the way. We got to the corral, I got a chance to see my friend Chris and before I knew it the race was started. Geo and I hung together for a little while, but then he started making some moves to get through the crowd. I followed him through the tight gaps a few times, but it was pretty uncomfortable trying to stay together. At one point after we had rejoined, there was a big gap in front of us so I shot into it but he had a harder time following. Around mile 1 or so, I quietly let him go so that he could do his own thing. The last thing I wanted to do was to trip or shove someone when I was only there with the goal to have a fun time.
I kept running along for a few more miles, unsure of what my strategy was going to be for the day. Finally, around mile 3 or 4 I looked at my watch and saw that my HR was in the "easy long run" range. Perfect. I'm here to have fun not race so "easy long run" it would be. I kept my HR in that range for most of the race. I had a great time. I high fived lots of people. I saw the "host family", a.k.a Dave and Jen in Natick. I ran right up close to all of the Wellesley girls and now I get it. I've never thought the scream tunnel was "that" loud before, but running up close to everyone might have caused permanent hearing loss :-) Around mile 15/16 on the last fast downhill I could tell that my quads were starting to get sore. I decided to keep running until the fire station in Newton or mile 18, whichever came last. I got to mile 18 and started walking. Once I started walking, I couldn't run well. Any attempt to run just came out slow, but I didn't care. It was a beautiful day and the only thing I was worried about was whether or not I should ask for sunscreen at an aid station. Later on the Newton Hills, Chris surprised me by showing up on the side of the road again. I took the time to admire the Citgo sign and the way it seems so large as you get closer. I took the left on Hereford and the right on Boylston and then slowed to a jog that can barely be called running. Chris was going to try and get a view of the finish line so I was intently staring into the crowd on the right side. I never saw Chris, but did see a Japanese man who collapsed in front of me. We were only a couple hundred yards from the finish when he cramped and fell to the ground. I helped him up and put my arm around his waist until he was steady. He was still coherent, just cramping badly. After walking together for a short while he assured me he'd be OK so I finished a nice slow jog into the finish.
After the finish I went over to the medical tent for the UofK study. They weighed me, took some blood, had me pee in a cup and answer some questions. After a little confusion, I caught up to Chris who drove me over to the "host family" to hang out for the evening. It is always a good time getting caught up with Dave, Jen and their kids. They were all being silly and went for a swim in the outdoor pool that had not been heated yet. The water was in the 50's. They put on wetsuits and were having so much fun splashing around I had to join in. So, since I didn't make use of the wetsuit gear in the race I put it on and did a single lap in the pool. My feet were immediately chilled to the bone and I couldn't wait to get in the shower and warm them up.
It was nice going back to Boston one more time. I'm going to keep trying to go back but I'm done going out of my way to keep the streak alive. I've got a 2020 BQ-3ish that should get me in, but if it doesn't no big deal. I'd rather enjoy the journey than keep the streak alive.
Boston 2018 broke me. I totally underestimated how bad the weather could get and kept assuming that with beautiful weather the week before, and beautiful weather in the forecast for the days after that the hellacious storm would move out of the way. It didn't. I was in really good shape going into Boston 2018, but by mile 5 I was hurting bad. At mile 7.5 I almost walked off the course. The only thing that kept me out there was fear that the Associated Press reporter that interviewed me at the Athlete's Village would call for a follow up and I didn't want to be the quitter outted on the newswire. I was walking by mile 10 and had to partner with a random stranger, who turned out to be a bandit, to get to the finish.
Oh well, no big deal I had plenty of marathon fitness in reserve so I figured I'd head down to Pennsylvania for the Poconos Marathon. I'm in good shape and it is a downhill marathon. Maybe I'll set a PR! Nope. My heart wasn't in this race. I had big plans for triathlon post Boston and to be "stuck" back running so much wasn't where I wanted to be. I told myself to suck it up because it was only a few more weeks of run focus to get the 2019 BQ out of the way. The RWOL Boston Marathon folks were all super supportive through this effort. The amount of encouragement I got from everyone was fantastic. Race day weather was good enough so I went about executing to plan. Everything was going well, but I just didn't want to be out there. I had the physicality to do well but mentally I was done marathoning and not just for this day. I knew it would be a letdown for my online support crew, but when I got to the halfway mark I stepped off the course. It was a huge relief. My #1 athletic goal since 2013 has been to make it back to Boston 10 years in a row. Now I had failed twice in 5 weeks and really didn't care if I ever ran another 26.2. I immediately signed up for a last-minute chance at the Erie Marathon in September but figured I would be a no-show.
Nobody understood what I was going through as well as my tarp friend, Diana. She is one of two new friends that I made in the Athlete's Village prior to Boston 2018. It is funny how if you bring thick plastic and stake out prime ground it becomes easy to make new friends :-) Diana and I have traded emails sporadically about running and racing. After the debacle at the Poconos Marathon she really helped me crystalize my thoughts about the entire 2018 season so far. At the end of the day, I came up with the 10 year goal early in my running history because I was trying to change my life and if I was able to get back 10 years in a row it would be a strong objective measurement that my "exercise kick" had stuck. There is no doubt that getting out and being active almost every day is now part of who I am and that isn't going to change. I don't need a 10 year streak to validate my success at changing myself. What I needed was to be happy again.
Triathlon made me happy, so I proceeded to put any thoughts of another marathon on the back burner and I just got out and swim/bike/run'd as much as I could. It was great. I wasn't having the fastest season, but I was really enjoying myself. I still struggled with my run. I could run well, but in a race it just never seemed like I was willing to suffer enough in the run to turn in great performances. I didn't care. It was fun. I finally had a breakout swim performance midway through the season and I set my sights on Triathlon Age Group National Championships where the goal was to race well. I didn't have a specific time goal for Nat's. I didn't think I could qualify for World's, but I did think I could gain experience that might help me come back in 2019 to make a serious attempt at qualifying for the World's Championships.
A week before Nat's I did a bunch of open water swimming. I was very curious to see if I could pull off another breakout swim. 5 days before Nat's I hopped on the bike for an extra long bike commute to work. My bike was switched over to race configuration and I was wearing a brand new tri kit. I rode far enough in the wrong direction to turn my 20 mile commute into a 40 mile commute. I was halfway done with the ride when I met Bambi. I was descending on a slight hill riding 30mph when one deer ran in front of me and a second deer plowed into me. There was no time to react. She drove her head into my thigh, bent her head down and with one flick sent me flying over the handlebars. I twisted in the air and came down on the back of my head and the back of my left shoulder. I screamed for several minutes and with no help in sight got up, collected my bike from the other lane and got it off of the road. Fortunately, two guys that work at a golf course a quarter mile away heard me screaming and came looking for me. They were already on the phone with 911. My left arm was frozen in place. When everything was said and done I had a grade 3 separation of the AC joint. 3 ligaments are no longer attached to anything and 1 tendon was torn. This paragraph started with swimming for a reason. I picked up an e coli infection that incubated until the day after the accident. Bambi took me out on a Monday and by Tuesday I was no longer able to keep food inside of me. I was sick for 6 days straight and only had one arm that worked.
Well, shit. Now what? I planned on a 5 week unlikely-to-work marathon build for after Nat's but after being sick I was down to 4 weeks and didn't have an arm that worked. All I could do was whatever was possible and then see what happened.
Week 1 was 10 hours of walking on a treadmill at a steep angle.
Week 2 was 12 hours that started with steep walks but ended with a 20 mile run. I did the 20 mile run coincident with the Rochester Triathlon so I could cheer on the athletes and take pictures of my friend Scott who was racing with his disabled son in tow. BTW, Scott is a serious badass. Not only did he finish his race, but under the immense power of his T-Rex legs he actually managed to sheer his rear derailleur completely off of his bike. He finished the bike on foot. Watching a race was a great way to get the 20 miles in even if it was interrupted a few times with some picture taking.
Week 3 was 44 miles of "taper".
Week 4 was more tapering and ended with the race on Sunday.
I went to Erie at peace with whatever was going to happen. I'd decided months earlier that I was going back to Boston 2019 regardless of having a BQ. If I didn't BQ I was going to volunteer. Standing on the side of the road handing out water in 4 ounce cups felt like a great way to say goodbye. Then the miracle happened. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was a little cool for September with thick overcast, a nice breeze and just the lightest of rain exactly when you wanted it. I spent the first 16 miles chasing, but refusing to pass the pacer that would have given me a 10 minute BQ. From 16 to 18 miles I started to crack a little and from 18 to 26.2 held it together well enough to come out of Erie with a 5+ minute BQ. I still can't believe it happened. Bambi helped me learn to enjoy marathoning again.
Long before I'd given up on 26.2, I suffered through the NYC Marathon registration process so now I'd be running again at the beginning of November. The challenge in NYC was to find a way to keep joy in my running. As I reflected back on the last several years one thing stood out at me. I've been too hyper focused on getting back to Boston every year. The consequence was that for the last 6 years it seemed that every marathon was run with carefully planned out tactics. In NYC I wanted to run reckless and have fun. While this guaranteed I would blow up, I didn't care because at least it would be epic! At NYC I went out way too fast. Mile 2 coming down the bridge was under 6 minutes a mile. Despite starting too far back, by mile 10 I had caught the 3:05 pacer. By 16 I knew the explosion was coming and somewhere around 20ish I started walking. I did a run/walk to the end and it was a blast. I got to within a couple hundred yards of the finish, with spectators all around in stadium seating, and I still walked one more time. I was empty and it was glorious. I finished in the neighborhood of BQ-8, which is now a BQ-3 for Boston 2020.
After NYC it was time for a running break. My Garmin data showed that ever since Bambi I've been running lopsided, which is not normal for me. I took 5 weeks off to focus on swimming and hoped that when I started running again my stride would be back to normal. In November and December I built up to swimming a ton of yards. The shoulder hurt a little, but mostly it just felt gross. I kept at it and was able to pop off a 35,200 yard week (a.k.a. 20 miles). It was now clear that my shoulder wasn't just separated, but was divorced. The bones were never going to get back together. The surgeon wanted me to try and live with it under the theory that the body will often adapt better than a smart guy with surgical tools. He was right. The shoulder is very ugly now and I don't like that I look lopsided but I carry it around as a badge of honor. F U Bambi.
When I started the marathon build for Boston 2019, I didn't have any specific goals in mind so it seemed like a good time to try something very different. Every marathon plan was a derivation of the previous marathon plan with a tweak or two so that I could try out a new strategy. Over the years, the mileage has been getting higher with more long runs. I threw out the book and started over with a low mileage, high intensity plan. I was now running intervals every week. I hadn't done intervals since 2012. The plan was going pretty well, but I was still running lopsided. I thought maybe the HRM strap wasn't accurate anymore because my lopsided shoulders might be throwing off the data. After the first couple of months I started getting pain in my hip flexor. It wasn't that bad at first and responded well when I foam rolled my IT Band and Quad. The pain always went away in the first 10 minutes of running, so no big deal. The pain started getting worse over time and became unbearable when I first got out of bed in the morning. I got professional help and after about 6 weeks of trying different things it culminated with an MRI 2 weeks before Boston and a cortisone shot 6 days before Boston 2019. I only ran about 30 miles the month leading up to the race. The MRI showed 6 things wrong with my hip, but the doc didn't think any of them were bad enough to cause the pain I was having. She didn't like the idea of me running 26.2 so soon, but just laughed at me when I told her it wasn't a race but rather a parade. A really long, fun parade where I'd get to take a victory lap.
And now on to the race report...
The days leading up to marathon weekend it was looking more and more likely that we could get weather that was similar to 2018. At the last minute, after several days of the forecast getting worse I ordered a 2 mil thick wetsuit top w/gloves and had them delivered to Boston. The idea was that if the weather was going to be ridiculous that I would have some fun with it. I planned to run in wetsuit shorts, top and gloves with a swim cap and goggles. I was undecided if I'd also throw in the "I swam from Hopkin to Boston 2018" shirt to make it more obvious. The package was delivered to the "host family" that I stay with every year after the race. I drove up to the race with my friend Eric on Friday. He was there with me in 2014 and is the one that introduced me to the "host family". The Internet, or maybe just Amazon, has gotten out of control because less than 3 minutes after Eric and I arrived a delivery person stopped at the door to drop off the gear. Eric was going to stay with the "host family" for the entire weekend, but I booked a room at a hotel a few miles from the start for Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, Eric dropped me off at the hotel and I waited for my friend Chris to come up from Connecticut and stay with me. It was a 420 kind of weekend. I made a joke that he was coming to meet me on 4/20. The hotel room we had been put in was 420. Finally, Chris got there and knocked at the door at exactly 4:20 pm. Chris and I hung out for a short while and then went downtown to Beerworks to hang out with the rest of the RWOL'ers. Beerworks was packed with Bruins fans but after an hour or so we managed to get a long table and about a dozen of us got a chance to catch up. It was a great time. Saturday at Beerworks never fails to be a highlight of marathon weekend. One funny forum encounter from that night was getting caught up with Chiara. She had missed the Bambi story when it originally happened, so I told her and showed off the misshapen shoulder. She was grossed out, but couldn't stop looking at it for the rest of the conversation. At one point I got a really good laugh out of her and her friend when I told Chiara in my most serious voice, "Hey, my eyes are up here!"
Sunday morning I did the usual Aussie carb load thing. I felt flat and the 1 mile hard run sucked, but what else did I expect? I had only run about 30 miles total in the 4 weeks prior. Chris and I drove the course and went over to the expo for packet pickup. While we were at the expo, we stopped in one of the conference rooms to talk to some students from the University of Kansas. I had signed up for a medical study. They wanted me to track everything I ate that weekend and the online website was pretty bad. I needed help trying to input 400 grams of Gatorade powder with 24 ounces of water. There wasn't much to see at the expo so we did a quick lap and then got dinner before hitting a grocery store to pick up food stuffs for race morning. I was debating when to set my alarm for Monday morning since I wanted to continue the tradition of being one of the first people in the Athlete's Village when inspiration struck. I set the clock for 4:20am, laughed about it and went to sleep.
On race morning I got up, grabbed my stuff and Chris tried to drop me off at the South Street parking lot. I say "tried" because the volunteers told me to go away and come back later because they weren't ready yet. The busses were delayed and there were some ugly thunderstorms rolling through. Eventually, I got on the bus and made some new friends. It was nice that I've been able to connect with one of them on Strava since. There were delays getting to the village. The bus driver didn't know where he was going. We got there and then he went down a road near the school I've never seen before and stopped. The volunteers wouldn't let us off the bus. I figured out later that they were holding us because of the lightning storm. After getting into the village, I put out plastic and hung a red balloon for the "red dot" so that the rest of the RWOL'ers could find us and then I went in search of the medical study. They needed to take blood and urine from me before the race and I was in a hurry to get rid of one of those ;-) After I found them, they were discombobulated by the rain but they processed me quickly, but after a protocol change they skipped taking blood. Back to the red dot and time to relax.
As always, it was funny hanging out with friends (new and old) at the red dot while we waited for the race to start. When it came time to go to the starting line, the skies had parted and instead of hard cold rain it was warm and sunny. Fortunately, I chose not to race in a wetsuit but as a remembrance of the year I've had I did run in the blood stained tri kit from the accident. I'd planned to start the race with one of the RWOL crew, Geo. I didn't know how long I could hang with him but I thought it would be fun on my 6th attempt at Boston to have a chance to line up with a friend. We walked over together and he made an excellent sherpa as I tried to peel off layers of clothing along the way. We got to the corral, I got a chance to see my friend Chris and before I knew it the race was started. Geo and I hung together for a little while, but then he started making some moves to get through the crowd. I followed him through the tight gaps a few times, but it was pretty uncomfortable trying to stay together. At one point after we had rejoined, there was a big gap in front of us so I shot into it but he had a harder time following. Around mile 1 or so, I quietly let him go so that he could do his own thing. The last thing I wanted to do was to trip or shove someone when I was only there with the goal to have a fun time.
I kept running along for a few more miles, unsure of what my strategy was going to be for the day. Finally, around mile 3 or 4 I looked at my watch and saw that my HR was in the "easy long run" range. Perfect. I'm here to have fun not race so "easy long run" it would be. I kept my HR in that range for most of the race. I had a great time. I high fived lots of people. I saw the "host family", a.k.a Dave and Jen in Natick. I ran right up close to all of the Wellesley girls and now I get it. I've never thought the scream tunnel was "that" loud before, but running up close to everyone might have caused permanent hearing loss :-) Around mile 15/16 on the last fast downhill I could tell that my quads were starting to get sore. I decided to keep running until the fire station in Newton or mile 18, whichever came last. I got to mile 18 and started walking. Once I started walking, I couldn't run well. Any attempt to run just came out slow, but I didn't care. It was a beautiful day and the only thing I was worried about was whether or not I should ask for sunscreen at an aid station. Later on the Newton Hills, Chris surprised me by showing up on the side of the road again. I took the time to admire the Citgo sign and the way it seems so large as you get closer. I took the left on Hereford and the right on Boylston and then slowed to a jog that can barely be called running. Chris was going to try and get a view of the finish line so I was intently staring into the crowd on the right side. I never saw Chris, but did see a Japanese man who collapsed in front of me. We were only a couple hundred yards from the finish when he cramped and fell to the ground. I helped him up and put my arm around his waist until he was steady. He was still coherent, just cramping badly. After walking together for a short while he assured me he'd be OK so I finished a nice slow jog into the finish.
After the finish I went over to the medical tent for the UofK study. They weighed me, took some blood, had me pee in a cup and answer some questions. After a little confusion, I caught up to Chris who drove me over to the "host family" to hang out for the evening. It is always a good time getting caught up with Dave, Jen and their kids. They were all being silly and went for a swim in the outdoor pool that had not been heated yet. The water was in the 50's. They put on wetsuits and were having so much fun splashing around I had to join in. So, since I didn't make use of the wetsuit gear in the race I put it on and did a single lap in the pool. My feet were immediately chilled to the bone and I couldn't wait to get in the shower and warm them up.
It was nice going back to Boston one more time. I'm going to keep trying to go back but I'm done going out of my way to keep the streak alive. I've got a 2020 BQ-3ish that should get me in, but if it doesn't no big deal. I'd rather enjoy the journey than keep the streak alive.
