Race weekend 2011 was a different experience from last year!
On Saturday evening I ran the 10k with my daughter. We had a lot of fun, keeping a steady pace and enjoying the experience. A couple of people who saw us said they couldn't believe how relaxed the two of us looked, and asked if the other runners around us got annoyed. Not that I noticed, although it's possible that making a phone call while passing people might have gotten some rude looks. J went hard the last few hundred meters, and I actually had to work to keep up. My right Achilles was sore while running, especially for the 1st 5k, probably because the dog got his tie out behind my ankle and took off running a couple days before the race.
Saturday night I worked extra-hard to make sure I drank enough - water. I didn’t get into bed until near midnight, so 5:45 didn’t seem like enough sleep. My goal was to come in under 1:40, with hopes of breaking my best half time of 1:38:08. I went to get into the starting corral 15 mins before the race, but couldn’t find any entrances. The only entrance I saw was back around the 2:15 pace bunny. I hopped over the fence in the middle of my corral, and then realized there were lots of other people with the same problem. The corrals were jammed, and looking around it seemed like I should be farther forward, but I couldn’t move.
The temperature was ok (around 18C), but it was very humid. At the start it was clear they’d done a lousy job of placing people, there were a huge number of slower runners in front of me. For the first 3 km, I was constantly passing people. Even though I was only a few seconds per km slower than I wanted to be, I was working much harder than I should have been, my heart rate was over 180 (with my max at 190), hitting 185 at one point. I found this really frustrating, but at 3k decided I needed to relax, the crowds had probably only cost me around 20 seconds and I had a long way to go. Good thing, since I was passing people the entire way.
At the 9km mark I missed a water station, I was running past all the gatorade tables waiting for water, and then suddenly no more tables. This was a worry, but nothing to do. After that I stuck to gatorade. I hit 10km in just over 47 mins. One of my favorite race moments: Somewhere around 14k I heard someone I was passing say “Do you think there’s underwear under there?” I looked ahead and saw someone bouncing along in a very short skirt, and as far as I could tell the answer was “no”. Another runner commented that it was getting hard to run, and I decided it was best to keep passing.....
At 16km it started raining, lightly at first, then hard. This was ok, since I was finally getting into a decent groove & the rain cooled me off. The crowds were impressive in the last few km, it was raining hard but people were still cheering hard. My final chip time was 1:37:48, and I actually felt pretty good afterward.
It does seem like race weekend has gotten to the point where the organizers aren't able to deal well with the number of runners, but it is great having the city pay this much attention to running once a year.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Boston Marathon 2011 Race Report
All in all a great weekend, and a positive experience.
Saturday, we went to the expo first thing. The expo was fun, I bought a few things, and my wife & kids decorated the 1 mile to go sign. From there we headed an hour north into New Hampshire, to pick up a new dog. He’s a rescue dog from Tennessee, thought to be around 2 years old and a Samoyed-Siberian mix. He looks like a white wolf with blue eyes. I had a hard time with him at first, he pulls like a sled dog when he’s on a leash. While it was all I could do to control him outside, inside he is incredibly calm and gentle.
My sister dropped four of us in Hopkinton by the starting line at 7:30, and we headed into the building overlooking the start. This was a great location, the office we were in was being used by the motorcycle cops who lead the race, by the TV crew filming the start, and by other security details for surveillance. We were the only runners in the office, and were treated like absolute celebrities. It was great being able to watch all the groups starting from the windows.
For Boston I was wearing Adidas Boston 2’s, and my soft running orthotics.
A bit after 10 we headed to the starting line, and got into our corrals. Joe was with me, Steve was a couple corrals farther up. I was hoping to hit 3:30, but was determined not to destroy myself like I did last year in Ottawa. To do that I wanted to hit the half in 1:44-1:45, ease up on the hills, and then see if I could pick it up the last 5 miles. Joe was aiming for 3:45, Steve for 3:30. Right over the start, Joe took off like a rocket. I held back, and was hitting 8 minute miles right away. A lot of people were passing me.
I hit the 5k mark in 25:09, high 5-ing kids along the way. I saw my whole family just past 5k, high 5’d the kids, kissed my wife, patted the dog. As I started running again, someone shouted “Hey, was that your girlfriend?” No, I said, we’ve been married a long time (as usual I can’t do math while marathoning). “Good he said, since 3 other people did the same thing after you!” I laughed, and told him we’d been married long enough that it was ok. “OK, he said, what about the 10 people who stopped to pet the dog?”
One of the best things about Boston was the interactions I had with other runners. I spoke to people from Canada, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon, Chicago, Ohio.... I even spoke to someone who is planning to run a race in the Jemez (Jemez marathon?) soon. Also, the crowd support was amazing. I had my name on my shirt in big letters, and all day people were shouting encouragement, chanting, etc...
OK, back to the race. Between 5 &10K I figured out that 3:30 wasn’t likely. I wasn’t running quite as fast as I wanted, but because of the number of runners it was hard to just pick up the pace. I’d planned to drink every 2 miles, but the tailwind was making it feel hotter than it was. I was drinking almost every mile. Wellesley was a riot, I did give kisses to a couple of students (with my wife’s permission), and ran along the row high-5ing everyone. I hit halfway in 1:45:22, just a bit slow.
Then came the Newton hills. The first one seemed long, but right after this I saw the family again at the 17 mile mark, just waving this time. The rest of the hills went pretty well. Heartbreak was challenging, but knowing it was the last big one went a long way, the mile that included heartbreak took 8:26. By this point I was passing lots of people walking. At mile 21 I decided to pick up the pace. I managed about a half mile at the faster pace, but just couldn’t sustain it. My new goal was to make sure I finished without walking, but even this was tough. The thought in my head was that I should be happy, this was as fast as I could manage on this race, on this day.
There was a definite change in the tone of people calling my name now, from the early “You are rocking it” variant to “Don’t give up!”. I was thrilled to see the Citgo sign, and kept plodding on tired legs. Looking back, my pace only slowed to around 8:30 for the last 5 miles, but I felt really lousy. As I turned onto Boylston, I caught up to Steve (he saw me, I was oblivious) and we ran it in together. Steve managed around 3:36, Joe was at 3:46.
My final time: 3:34:46.
In the walk from the medals to family meeting, 7 different medical people walked with me to check and make sure I was ok, when I asked one she explained that I had a “far away look on my face”.
Apart from my quads being very tired/sore for the last 6 miles, nothing else bothered me during the race. My shin and right Achilles were a bit sore after, but this is by far the best shape I’ve been in following a marathon.
Saturday, we went to the expo first thing. The expo was fun, I bought a few things, and my wife & kids decorated the 1 mile to go sign. From there we headed an hour north into New Hampshire, to pick up a new dog. He’s a rescue dog from Tennessee, thought to be around 2 years old and a Samoyed-Siberian mix. He looks like a white wolf with blue eyes. I had a hard time with him at first, he pulls like a sled dog when he’s on a leash. While it was all I could do to control him outside, inside he is incredibly calm and gentle.
My sister dropped four of us in Hopkinton by the starting line at 7:30, and we headed into the building overlooking the start. This was a great location, the office we were in was being used by the motorcycle cops who lead the race, by the TV crew filming the start, and by other security details for surveillance. We were the only runners in the office, and were treated like absolute celebrities. It was great being able to watch all the groups starting from the windows.
For Boston I was wearing Adidas Boston 2’s, and my soft running orthotics.
A bit after 10 we headed to the starting line, and got into our corrals. Joe was with me, Steve was a couple corrals farther up. I was hoping to hit 3:30, but was determined not to destroy myself like I did last year in Ottawa. To do that I wanted to hit the half in 1:44-1:45, ease up on the hills, and then see if I could pick it up the last 5 miles. Joe was aiming for 3:45, Steve for 3:30. Right over the start, Joe took off like a rocket. I held back, and was hitting 8 minute miles right away. A lot of people were passing me.
I hit the 5k mark in 25:09, high 5-ing kids along the way. I saw my whole family just past 5k, high 5’d the kids, kissed my wife, patted the dog. As I started running again, someone shouted “Hey, was that your girlfriend?” No, I said, we’ve been married a long time (as usual I can’t do math while marathoning). “Good he said, since 3 other people did the same thing after you!” I laughed, and told him we’d been married long enough that it was ok. “OK, he said, what about the 10 people who stopped to pet the dog?”
One of the best things about Boston was the interactions I had with other runners. I spoke to people from Canada, Washington State, Arizona, Oregon, Chicago, Ohio.... I even spoke to someone who is planning to run a race in the Jemez (Jemez marathon?) soon. Also, the crowd support was amazing. I had my name on my shirt in big letters, and all day people were shouting encouragement, chanting, etc...
OK, back to the race. Between 5 &10K I figured out that 3:30 wasn’t likely. I wasn’t running quite as fast as I wanted, but because of the number of runners it was hard to just pick up the pace. I’d planned to drink every 2 miles, but the tailwind was making it feel hotter than it was. I was drinking almost every mile. Wellesley was a riot, I did give kisses to a couple of students (with my wife’s permission), and ran along the row high-5ing everyone. I hit halfway in 1:45:22, just a bit slow.
Then came the Newton hills. The first one seemed long, but right after this I saw the family again at the 17 mile mark, just waving this time. The rest of the hills went pretty well. Heartbreak was challenging, but knowing it was the last big one went a long way, the mile that included heartbreak took 8:26. By this point I was passing lots of people walking. At mile 21 I decided to pick up the pace. I managed about a half mile at the faster pace, but just couldn’t sustain it. My new goal was to make sure I finished without walking, but even this was tough. The thought in my head was that I should be happy, this was as fast as I could manage on this race, on this day.
There was a definite change in the tone of people calling my name now, from the early “You are rocking it” variant to “Don’t give up!”. I was thrilled to see the Citgo sign, and kept plodding on tired legs. Looking back, my pace only slowed to around 8:30 for the last 5 miles, but I felt really lousy. As I turned onto Boylston, I caught up to Steve (he saw me, I was oblivious) and we ran it in together. Steve managed around 3:36, Joe was at 3:46.
My final time: 3:34:46.
In the walk from the medals to family meeting, 7 different medical people walked with me to check and make sure I was ok, when I asked one she explained that I had a “far away look on my face”.
Apart from my quads being very tired/sore for the last 6 miles, nothing else bothered me during the race. My shin and right Achilles were a bit sore after, but this is by far the best shape I’ve been in following a marathon.
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