2018 Boston Marathon

The race was insane, it was in the high 30's with heavy rain and a 25mph headwind.  I a brief recap is below, but here are some stats for you...


  • 5% of the runners DNF'd
  • 2,547 runners got medical treatment on the course, according to the medical director runners were coming in with body temp in the 80's
  • 81 runners went to the hospital
  • 60% of the elite field DNF'd.  5 elites bailed before the start, 23 gave up during the race.
  • Only Boston I've ever seen emergency vehicles with lights/sirens transporting runners on the course.


I had a rough day.

Before the race, I gave an interview to an AP reporter and did a 3-4 minute segment on the morning show for the local Boston CBS affiliate.  It all got worse from there.



By mile 5 my legs were toast.  Every muscle I had was crazy tight. I had friends at the 7.5 mile mark and I spent 10 minutes before seeing them debating walking off the course.  I honestly kept going because I didn't want the AP reporter calling afterwards and finding out I dropped. By mile 9 I bargained with myself that I would start walk/running at mile 10.  At mile 12 I caught up to someone running slower. We started talking and agreed to run together. I was relieved because I've never fallen apart so quickly and it worried me.  It seemed like I might need help getting to a medical tent. The whole thing was bizarre.  After a few minutes running together I realized he was a bandit. I asked about it and he admitted he had snuck into wave 1.  We stayed together and around mile 22 when the sky opened up again with a total deluge I turned to him and said, "Well you know things could be worse for you.  One of us actually paid to do this today!"  That got a pretty good laugh, at least I think I did.  Visibility was pretty poor with all of the rain coming down.  There were 3 occasions during the race where I couldn't see more than 100 yards ahead the rain was so heavy.

By the time we got to the Newton Hills I was fine but he was suffering. Helping him make it through to the end gave me a sense of purpose on an otherwise crappy day.  It might sound corny but having a chance to help someone that was worse off was the luckiest thing that happened to me.

I'm now signed up for the Poconos Marathon on 5/20 to re-attempt a BQ for next year.  The 4:25 marathon (10:05 pace) that I just did isn't going to cut it.  If the Poconos Marathon gets a bad weather forecast I'll be in Buffalo 5/27 for the full instead.


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