I bettered that time in April
2011 (Canberra, 3:12) and again in December 2011 (CIM, 3:05), so I was given a
number in Wave 1, corral 5.
The training
Over summer the MRT Holiday
Mileage Challenge, although a total debacle in many ways, taught me a lot about
myself as a runner. I always used to think I could not do high mileage (over 60
miles/100km per week) or doubles, I’d be sure to get injured, but there I was
running 190 miles in 10 days and feeling totally fine. So for Boston I ended up
doing Pfitzinger 12/85 but adding miles to top out at 92mpw with a weekly
average of 82mpw pre-taper.
The travel
How considerate of the BAA
to put their marathon right in the middle of my son’s school holidays! We
headed out a week early to Florida and Disneyworld, where I walked around way too
much and put my feet in constant peril at the water parks for two whole days,
but had a ton of fun as well.
Then we moved the whole
circus to Boston and watched the weather forecast for Patriot’s Day steadily
worsen until it was actually going to be hotter than it had been in Florida. I
started to get warning emails from the race medical directors, including one
that said everyone but the elites should just do it as a fun run, NOT A RACE.
Well, bugger that, I thought. That’s not my style – but just about everyone I met up with during the weekend was telling me they were doing exactly that. Many were already talking about a new goal marathon in a few weeks, and running Boston as just another long run. But in Australia I don’t really have that option, so I stuck to my guns: I was going to run the best I could on the day and in the conditions, whatever they turned out to be.
I did my own version of carb-loading
the day before, and bought myself a new (very skimpy) race outfit to make up
for the fact that this race was probably going to be a total debacle.
Picking up my bib at the most crowded expo EVER
Race Day
Overnight I wake up at 2:30,
3:30 and finally 4:30am for good. I walk to Boston Common, chewing on a bagel
and drinking some Gatorade, where I meet up and ride the buses to Athlete’s
Village with a group of RW buddies. At 6am it’s already warm.
We hook up with some others
under the tent and although it’s a nice temperature there, outside the sun has
started to bake. I spend 10 minutes waiting in line to get this photo taken,
and walk back to the tent thinking
“hmm, maybe 3:15 is the way to go after all"..... but I keep my 2:59:30 pace band
on anyway.
Walking to the corrals,
people around me are visibly sweating already. I’m carrying the Gatorade bottle I
bought with me and sipping on water, but I ditch it after a brief debate with
myself about whether I should keep it for the first few miles. In corral 5 I
stand unobtrusively in the shade of an enormously tall guy (he has to be at least 6’4”) and
try not to get too hot. Finally the gun goes off, we shuffle forwards for a bit
and then YAY! we are running the Boston Marathon!
Miles 1-2:
6:50, 6:47
Downhill. Woo! It’s hot but plenty of shade. The crowd is thick but I’m on pace, which is a bit of a surprise since I feel fine. Mile 2 is still downhill but WOW, it’s hot. Is that a drink station up ahead? I’m actually already thirsty. I grab a cup of water and power onwards.
Downhill. Woo! It’s hot but plenty of shade. The crowd is thick but I’m on pace, which is a bit of a surprise since I feel fine. Mile 2 is still downhill but WOW, it’s hot. Is that a drink station up ahead? I’m actually already thirsty. I grab a cup of water and power onwards.
Miles 3-4: 6:44, 6:38
Rather than just drinking, I
start dumping water on myself at the water stations now. Checking my Garmin it
seems I am going a bit too fast, and I wonder if I’ll pay for that later. I
pass Tony (one of the 3:20 gang from Runners World) and we exchange complaints
about the weather, then I press on.
Miles 5-6:
6:46, 6:42
Ewww. My shoes are
squelching from all the water I’m pouring over myself. It’s working, though:
I’m neither uncomfortably hot nor thirsty. I can’t say the same for the guy
dressed as Minnie Mouse (complete with ears) whom I pass at this point. I
high-five a few little kids as I pass and hope that I’m going to still feel
this good in another 15 miles or so.
Miles 7-8:
6:43, 6:49
The crowd support starts to
impact on me: it’s totally incredible. Everywhere there are people holding out
cups of water, passing out handfuls of ice, freezie pops, slices of orange –
there is no way I’m every going to want for anything during this race.
I catch up to another RW
friend, Zab, who coined the term
“BOTT goal” – it stands for Balls On The Table, an aggressive race goal that is
borderline insane but also possible if everything aligns. He tells me he’s
pulling back from his original goal of sub-3; I think hard about doing the
same, but then tell him “Well, my balls are still on the table”. He laughs and
says “Go for it!”, and in that second I realise yep, I’m going to do exactly
that.
Miles 9-10:
6:46, 6:48
Running over the timing mat
at 10 miles, I know there are quite a lot of people at home tracking me, and I
imagine at this point that many of them are yelling at the screen, telling me
I’m going WAY too fast and why the heck haven’t I slowed down like everyone
else? By now I’m 45 seconds ahead of my pace band so that’s sub-2:59 pace. I
can almost hear them cursing my stupidity, and I have a bit of a semi-hysterical giggle to myself.
Onward!
Not drowning, waving....
Miles 11-12: 6:49, 6:36
At the start of mile 12 I
hear a strange noise that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard. I realise
the Wellesley scream tunnel is approaching….and sure enough, there they are, a
mile-long line of shrieking girls holding signs saying “Kiss me, I’m ____”. By
halfway I’m almost deaf in my right ear and I’m running right in the middle of
the road so as not to get grabbed and kissed by an overzealous freshman. Trying
to get past them earns me one of my fastest miles in the race.
Miles 13-14: 6:40, 6:35
Through halfway in 1:28:45
and feeling okay. I’m still dumping water all over myself at every opportunity
and passing people in a steady stream. I accept a handful of ice from a kind
woman and shove half down the front of my bra, half down the back. Aahhhh,
feels good. I run by a store with a temperature display out the front: 85F.
That’s 29.4C for us metric folks – I really wish they would have turned it off
because it’s not something I need to know at this point.
Miles 15-16: 6:45, 6:36
The Newton Hills are
approaching, but there’s a nice downhill first. A wonderful little boy by the road gives
me a full bottle of icy cold water and it cools me down very nicely for the
upcoming challenge. I carry it for at least 2 miles, taking small sips and then
pouring most of it on my head. I look like I’ve just had a shower, but I’m
still not too hot, which is a bloody miracle at this point.
Wet, wet, wet. And concentrating really, really hard.
Miles 17-18: 6:56, 6:56
The first uphill comes and
goes without my really noticing – was that really a Newton Hill? Mildly
surprised, but the worst is yet to come, so I’m not counting my chickens yet. I
grab some freezie pops from another small boy and stick them in my top. This is
kind of gross but also very effective at cooling me down, so whatever.
Miles 19-20: 6:40, 6:47
In there somewhere is
another uphill but it’s not too bad, and then the one I’ve been told is the
worst. Somehow I get through it on pace, though, and then there’s only Heartbreak Hill
to go. My pace band tells me I’m almost a minute
ahead now. I start seeing people with bibs that have an M or F before the
number, but I’m too busy concentrating on running to realise what this means.
Miles 21-22: 6:59, 6:47
At the top of the hill
there’s a sign that says “The Heartbreak is Over!” and someone yells “All
downhill from here!” but there’s another small incline right after that, which
gets me feeling rather annoyed. I decide to stop checking both Garmin and pace
band, and just run as hard as I can.
Miles 23-24: 6:45, 6:48
By now the crowds are doing
LOTS of yelling but very little handing-out-ice-or-water. It’s all self-service
now, and we are running in full sun. There are more people walking than before
and I’m starting to get hot and mighty pissed off that of all days for a record
high temperature in Boston, it had to be THIS freaking day. Add that to the
minor sprained ankle I got at Disney last week and the massive bruise I have on
my left hip after slipping over by the hotel pool on Friday, and you’d think
the universe is trying to tell me something. But it’s too late to give up,
really, so I just keep going.
Mile 25: 6:53
My family see me during this
mile but I’m not seeing much of anything other than the road right in front of
me. I toy with the idea of “assassin mode” – picking off and passing runners
ahead – but actually I’m passing people in droves now and I can’t concentrate
anyway, so forget that. Just keep running.
Mile 26, final 0.2: 6:17, 5:43 to end
Maybe I do have a bit of a
kick left! Turning right onto Hereford and left onto Boylston is one of the
most exciting things I’ve ever done as a runner, and I briefly
feel very emotional, but I pull it back together when I realise how FAR away that
bloody finish line is.
And the clock is ticking
over towards 3:01 – I can no longer remember how much time it took me to get
over the start line, maybe 90 seconds? – so I put my head down and run as hard
as I can.
I hit my Garmin right after
the finish mat and there it is: 2:58:14! OH MY GOD!!
Walking through the finish
area seems to take forever, although after a single small wobble as I stopped running, I'm totally fine. Quite a few other runners come over to congratulate
and compliment me on my run, and they all have either seeded bibs or numbers
below 1000. I don’t even remember running past many of them, but I congratulate
them back and go to get my bag.
Most hard-earned finisher's medal ever
The Analysis
Placement: 22nd
female, 5th in AG (40-44) and 454th overall.
I'm not entirely sure how to explain how I pulled this one off. 80+ mpw certainly has something to do with it, as does the fact that I am small and small bodies dissipate heat better than larger ones. Having just trained through summer probably also helped, although it was a ridiculously cool summer and at any rate it's never 85F at 5am when I am usually out running. But pull it off I did, and I'm stunned, excited and really proud of myself all at the same time.
People tell me I should have been able to run 2:50 in colder weather, but I disagree. I was never targeting that sort of pace - however in better conditions I certainly might have been able to speed up a whole lot more after Heartbreak Hill. That might have gotten me 1-2 minutes, but I guess we'll never know.
Next up: Gold Coast Airport marathon on July 1. I can get a seeded start based on my Boston performance (someone pinch me! Is this real??) so I'm really excited and also already nervous to experience something like that for the first time in my life.
