Couch2Boston

Totals Swim - 650023 yards Bike - 2004 miles Run - 1213 miles Duration - 528 hours

500 yard freestyle- I was in the first heat and this was the first event.  I put 7:45 down for my seed time, which was the fastest in my heat...but I knew others had put down unrealistically slow times.  I was in the middle lane and to my right was a 28 y/o that I swim with in practice occasionally that is consistently faster than I am.  He put 8:30 down for his seed time :-/  The woman to my left had 8:15 for hers.  My guess was that a time of 7:5X was going to win the heat and that I would take 2nd place to the 28 y/o.  I did not have confidence that I could go 7:45.  When the horn sounded we left the blocks and I was relieved to get into the water and still have my goggles attached and my eyes dry.  The 28 y/o immediately started pulling away at a fast pace.  Oh well.  I consistently had 1 or 2 body lengths on the woman to my other side so I focused on just trying to hold her back and swim my own race knowing full well that there woul...

Totals Swim - 520002 yards Bike - 2623 miles Run - 1206 miles Duration - 512 hours

This was my first triathlon and it has been in the making for quite a long time. Way back in November 2012, my wife Amanda signed us up for swim classes. It seemed like a good idea. I already ‘knew’ how to swim, but had always wanted to be better at it so classes were a great idea. My fitness had come a long way since I got up off the couch 6 months earlier so I went into the classes with a fair amount of (misplaced) confidence. I quickly remembered that my swimming was really just a survival mechanism. I worked my tail off that first class, and while I have it in my log as 350 yards, I really have no idea how far I went. 350 yards is probably a significant over estimation even though the first class was dominated by flotation devices to help keep us from going under. While running was the major focus throughout 2012 and 2013 I tried to keep getting into the pool at least once a week. I didn't exactly like swimming, but it was hard and I think in some way that the struggle is good ...

The thing about Boston was that everywhere you went people made you feel like a rock star. Everyone wanted to talk about the marathon all weekend long, whether they were running in it or not. On Saturday I was walking from the train station to the hotel and a guy stopped his car in the middle of the road, rolled down the window and shouted, ‘Nice jacket, is that the color for the marathon this year?’. We then had a conversation about it while traffic came to a stand still behind him. BTW, my initial response was, ‘Yep, fortunately obnoxious is my favorite color.’ I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that line and it’s going to be a keeper. I did the Aussie Carb Load a day early. I warmed up on the treadmill and was about to go crazy with incline/speed when the circuit breaker blew. I went outside and ran the parking lot instead. I was a little reluctant to run as hard as they say to, but I spent most of the 3 minutes in 5:30ish pace territory. I then cooled down and start...

Totals Swim - 78462 yards Bike - 622 miles Run - 1520 miles Duration - 279 hours

Once I had an epic fail at The Empire State Marathon I was hooked.  I no longer wanted to go the distance once to check the checkbox and move on.  I wanted to learn everything I could about marathoning from any source that I could find.  I couldn't fail twice.  I needed to be as over prepared for this race as I was under prepared for the last attempt. (Note: This was written in 2021 for posterity, but I've tried to tell the story from a 2013 perspective) Everything Changed April 2013 I don't know what was most stressful, the race or the weeks leading up to the race.  I had recently started a new job.  A few weeks before the race, I had to travel to Nashua, NH.  The trip was fine, but I had tried every manipulation I could to get the date of the trip moved by a couple of weeks.  We had to pass through the outskirts of Boston on the way and I was looking for any excuse I could find to be in Boston on Patriot's Day to watch the marathon and maybe ge...