Boston Marathon Recap
This past weekend saw stress, emotion, nerves, enlightenment and exhileration packed into just a few short days. The culmination was obviously on Monday when I ran the 111th Boston Marathon. I was living on edge the entire week before that due to a combination of nerves, tapering and uncontrollable anticipation. The weather had me very concerned, especially since on Sunday it was pouring rain with gale force winds and temps in the 30's. I tried to prep for the worst running conditions possible and was not looking forward to slogging 26.2 miles in a nor'easter. Monday morning proved no better than Sunday night, with wind and rain slamming through Boston. However once I reached the bus loading area downtown it had lightened up a bit and there were thousands and thousands of excited runners milling around. The ride there I spent napping and staring out at the rain. Once we got to Hopkinton I luckily was able to get into the gymnasium before it got too packed and got to spend the 2 hours of waiting time in a dry, warm place. Around 8:45 I got in line for the bathrooms and by the time I got through it was practically 9:30 and time to get ready. I decided on shorts, a tank top, short sleeved shirt and long sleeved underarmour shell. At this point it was still pretty windy and light rain, so I threw on an old sweatshirt, reluctantly took off my warm up pants, dropped off my bag and proceeded to walk the half mile or so to the start. On the way to being herded into our corralls, I chatted with a guy who was in my same corrall and who had flown from Houston with his wife. I was in corrall 10, the very last corrall of the first wave so we were positioned at the very bottom of the hill and had 10,000 runners in front of us. So I stood there and shivered and hopped around trying to stay warm for about 15 minutes, until they shot the starting gun. Of course, we still had to stand there and couldn't move for another couple of minutes. I finally ditched my sweatshirt as we slowly started to walk towards the start. We eventually were able to jog past the start line, about 7 minutes after the official start. However the marathon gods had decided to smile upon us and stopped the rain and wind, it was still chilly but otherwise perfect running weather. The first couple miles were really slow going, I estimated around 8 minute miles as I was practically surrounded by people and so I spent a lot of time at the very left hand side, moving up through the pack and trying to pick up my pace. My right leg had been giving me problems the weeks prior to the marathon so I was kind of worried about how it would hold up, and as I expected it felt tight and hurt for the first couple miles. After I loosened up and warmed up and actually started running at a decent pace my leg didn't bother me as much anymore. I did not wear a watch or anything so I really had no idea what my pace was, aside from trying to calculate it from the clocks along the course. I just had a feeling I could go faster, so I was pushing my pace for the first half. I figured that conditions were pretty ideal at the moment and the closer I got to Boston the windier it would become so I wanted to make as good time as possible for the first half. I was really impressed by the number of people who made it out in the cold and drizzly weather to watch and support the runners, even the Wellesley scream was just like last year! After the halfway mark I still felt really good and strong and powering up the hills and coasting down. I definitely took advantage of the numerous downhill sections to speed up. I was still passing most of the field and by that time I was among the 6000 and 7000's. The wind also picked up but having trained all winter in Boston it didn't really feel bad at all, after doing training runs in minus 15 windchill the wind felt pretty refreshing on a 50 degree day. I was definitely in the zone and my competitive spirit pushed me to pass everyone, which could have turned out badly, but I just didn't find anyone to pace with. At mile 17 I took a gel in preparation for Heartbreak Hill. The hill was tough but I couldn't remember where it actually started, and since there was a series of hills in Newton I wasn't exactly sure which one was Heartbreak. That worked out well psychologically because I wasn't nervous about it, and just ran through all the hills. I had half a gel at mile 21, and definitely felt some fatigue setting in but there were now tons of people cheering the entire way and it was a huge boost to see the Citgo sign and know how close I was. I focused on getting to the next mile and concentrating on maintaining my pace, thoughts of stopping briefly entered my head but once I passed the mile 23 marker I knew there would be no stopping until the finish line. The last hill up beacon street into kenmore square was probably the hardest part of the course for me and once I was over it I felt so elated and excited. I kicked the whole way to the finish line on Boylston St. and finished the greatest race I've ever run.
I far exceeded my expectations for the race, and finished in a net time of 3:16:56, a pace of 7:31/mile. I was most proud of my splits, which indicated I ran the second half faster than the first and my last 5K was 2 minutes faster than my first 5K. I think I am still running on the endorphins from the marathon, and the incredible satisfaction of how well I ended up doing. A lot of factors turned out just right, we lucked out with the weather, my stomache didn't rebel, I actually tapered and carb loaded and did just the right amount of hydration during the race. I came in 2,882 overall and 245th out of all the women. I'm so proud and happy that my time and effort paid off with such an awesome result!!!
What's next? Eating, sleeping and relaxing for a couple days, then considering what to run next. I'm definitely doing the half marathon over Memorial Day weekend (Run to Remember) and then I am considering New York or Chicago marathon in the fall. My time is good enough to automatically get into NY :-D so I will probably take advantage of that; and it would give me more time to recover and train since it is in November.
I far exceeded my expectations for the race, and finished in a net time of 3:16:56, a pace of 7:31/mile. I was most proud of my splits, which indicated I ran the second half faster than the first and my last 5K was 2 minutes faster than my first 5K. I think I am still running on the endorphins from the marathon, and the incredible satisfaction of how well I ended up doing. A lot of factors turned out just right, we lucked out with the weather, my stomache didn't rebel, I actually tapered and carb loaded and did just the right amount of hydration during the race. I came in 2,882 overall and 245th out of all the women. I'm so proud and happy that my time and effort paid off with such an awesome result!!!
What's next? Eating, sleeping and relaxing for a couple days, then considering what to run next. I'm definitely doing the half marathon over Memorial Day weekend (Run to Remember) and then I am considering New York or Chicago marathon in the fall. My time is good enough to automatically get into NY :-D so I will probably take advantage of that; and it would give me more time to recover and train since it is in November.