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Since I forbade him from banditing the race, my husband decided he’d run the course early, adding on a few miles to make it a 50K.\u00a0 He left the B&B at 4 a.m., ran to Back Bay and caught the train to Framingham.\u00a0 While he turned around in Hopkinton, he decided to save the section near Athlete’s Village for when he officially runs the race.\u00a0 Long before I started making my way toward the corrals he was done.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, I got up at 4:30 to eat some instant oatmeal and down a couple of cups of coffee (the owner of the B&B not only got up early to have our coffee ready, she also had bagels, peanut butter and bananas available for us to pack).\u00a0 I threw my drop bag over my shoulder and we headed to the T to catch the 5:15 subway to Boylston (runners ride for free on Marathon Monday).\u00a0 Paula Sue’s running group took a few group photos, then we were loaded onto one of the buses to Hopkinton.<\/p>\n
While it was somewhat clear in Boston, it got increasingly foggy as we neared Hopkinton.\u00a0 Although I had packed both warm and cool weather gear, I opted to be resplendent in my Maniac gear — tank, arm warmers and wind breaker, along with my Race Ready shorts.\u00a0 However, over that I wore an old pair of sweats, long-sleeved cotton race shirt and winter rain coat (I looked like a dork).\u00a0 I was told to bring something to sit on in case the ground was wet, so I found a great use for the banner we used to use for our personal chef chapter:<\/p>\n
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I tried to take in everything at the Village.\u00a0 Picture in front of the “It all starts here” billboard?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Write my name on my legs in black marker?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Get a shamrock temporary tattoo?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Score a pair of Boston running gloves?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 I was like a kid in a candy store.<\/p>\n
While I thought three port-o-potty visits would suffice, my bladder thought otherwise just as I was dropping off my bag.\u00a0 We still had several minutes before the start, but as the minutes ticked away I started getting nervous.\u00a0 I shed my throw-away clothes, but left on my heavy jacket until the last minute (wouldn’t you know it — I managed to hang on to the jacket I intended to donate, but lost my good one).\u00a0 I hadn’t realized how far it was to walk to the corrals, so I started jogging to get around the crowds.\u00a0 Even before I hit the #19 corral the gun had gone off, but fortunately it would take several minutes before we crossed the start line.<\/p>\n
Miles 1-6<\/strong> Miles 7-12<\/strong> Miles 13-18<\/strong> Miles 19-24<\/strong> Miles 25-26.2<\/strong> Roger, one of my Disney Running Forum friends, captured the following picture of me at about mile 25:<\/p>\n \n In past marathons I often could surge to the finish, and I figured once I made the turn off of Hereford onto Boylston the same would be true here.\u00a0 I was wrong.\u00a0 While the deafening crowds certainly carried me on, there was no surge.\u00a0 Just a painful struggle to the end.\u00a0 I heard my name called from the sidelines (I learned later it was my Maniac friend Lauri), and then heard the announcer say my name.\u00a0 While I missed my goal by 39 seconds, I was happy with my time.\u00a0 I thought I’d burst into tears upon crossing the finish line, but the waterworks would come later when I saw my husband.<\/p>\n \n It was a long, slow hobble to receive my mylar blanket, medal and food, but soon I was reunited with my sweetie, where we shared a long, tearful hug.\u00a0 But they were happy tears — for I had just finished the Boston Marathon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since I forbade him from banditing the race, my husband decided he’d run the course early, adding on a few miles to make it a 50K.\u00a0 He left the B&B at 4 a.m., ran to Back Bay and caught the train to Framingham.\u00a0 While he turned around in Hopkinton, he decided to save the section […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[100],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beantown","category-race-reports","tag-113th-boston-marathon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe first few miles are basically downhill, and the tendency is to get caught up in the excitement and go out too fast.\u00a0 But do that and you’ll regret it come the Newton hills.\u00a0 Because I hadn’t actually made the pace bands from the spreadsheet — I simply folded up the paper strips and stuck them into my fuel belt pouch — I never consulted them during the race.\u00a0 But I knew I’d need to average a 9:21-9:32 pace if I were to run a 4:05-4:10, keeping the first few miles much slower.\u00a0 I ran the first mile in 9:47, following it with a 9:23 and 9:24.\u00a0 I picked up the “speed” for the next few miles, which ranged from 9:08 to 9:19.\u00a0 I was feeling good, and the course didn’t feel that crowded.\u00a0 I toyed with taking off my Maniac wind-breaker, but would then get hit with a gust of wind and decided to leave it on.<\/p>\n
\nAs I was hitting the 10K mark I saw another Maniac in front of me and said hello as I passed.\u00a0 He asked me for my name and number, saying he was Larry, No. 120.\u00a0 I turned around and realized who he was — Larry Macon, the 63-year-old Texas lawyer who holds the Guinness world record for number of marathons run in a year (105).\u00a0 I pulled back to chat with him, and as rumored, he was much more interested in what I had accomplished than talking about himself.\u00a0 (Boston was his 30th marathon for the year).\u00a0 Our dialogue gave me a huge boost, which carried me several more miles.\u00a0 But as I was nearing the 12-mile mark the urge to pee struck again, so I decided to hit the port-o-potty.\u00a0 As the minutes ticked by I got a bit nervous, but I kept telling myself I wasn’t trying for a particular time.\u00a0 In the end that stop cost me about 4 minutes (my split was 13:36); I KNEW I should have ducked behind like another runner had done!<\/p>\n
\nBy now I was averaging about 9:25\/mile, hitting the half-way mark in 2:07:52.\u00a0 My eyes welled up as I hit the scream tunnel at Wellesley, but the girls provided another much-needed boost.\u00a0 Several had signs saying “Kiss me!” so I planted a sweaty one on one girl’s cheek.\u00a0 Shortly after that I spied a sign “Kiss me — I’m a Democrat” so she was victim No. 2.\u00a0 I mentally prepared myself for Hell’s Alley at the route 128 overpass at mile 16; it’s not as famous as Heartbreak Hill but it chews up a lot of runners who have taken the first miles too fast.\u00a0 I passed several runners as I soldiered up it, then tackled the first of the Newton hills at mile 18, again passing several runners.\u00a0 (Mind you, my pace wasn’t fast, but it was steady!)<\/p>\n
\nI continued to get a mental boost by passing runners on the hills, particularly Heartbreak.\u00a0 However, while the elevation\/grade of the hills were no match to what I’ve been running in Seattle, the headwinds picked up JUST as I was hitting Heartbreak Hill.\u00a0 Thanks a lot, Mother Nature!\u00a0 My pace by now was slower still and included three 10+ minute miles.\u00a0 I knew a 4:10 was out of the question, but there was still a chance I’d come in under 4:15:19.\u00a0 However, by now my quads felt as if nothing was left in the tank.\u00a0 I got another boost as I ran by Boston College where the hooting crowd was even louder than the Wellesley women (it was almost TOO loud!)<\/p>\n
\nWhile I knew the Citgo sign was exactly 1 mile from the finish, I also knew you saw it for at least a mile before you were up on it.\u00a0 Sure enough, it came into sight just after mile 24.\u00a0 I mustered up all my remaining strength and slogged on.\u00a0 By now even minor dips felt like Heartbreak Hill and I was concerned I’d pass out just before the finish line.\u00a0 I no longer paid attention to what was going on around me; I was simply focused on finishing.<\/p>\n![\"boston25\"](\"http:\/\/eatdrinkrunwoman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/boston25.jpg\" "\\"boston25\\"")
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