Last Chance for Boston Race Report

This was my birthday weekend and I turned 44 years young. I decided friday afternoon that I may as well run my age in miles since I was doing the marathon Sunday and had a 10 miler on tap for Saturday and missed another couple runs during the week. So on friday afternoon it was yulky outside and I decided to rent a movie and do a nice slow 5.5 mph run on the dreadmill while watching a movie, I chose Courageous-NOT a dreadmill movie unless you are really trying to train you lungs! I got choked up so many times with a lump in my throat trying to fight the tears and trying to breathe but there was no way I was running any slower! I did 8.5 that day then on Saturday morning headed out early for 9 and couldnt remember my route and took the extra mile and ended that day with 10.5....so now I will be running more then my age but oh well. :-)

I am still trying to take this marathon all in because it left me in complete astonishment! I signed up for this marathon because I had a long run on my schedule of 24 miles for this weekend and 10 the day after so I thought why not do the 10 the day before and jump it to 26 the day after. The month of February I had so many different set backs that my mileage was low for the month and I didnt want it to get to me. A couple of days before this race a friend actually warned me that it wasnt a good idea to run a full marathon on a one mile counter clockwise loop with my left ITB having been causing so many issues since the night time trail marathon. WOW - that thought never even crossed my mind but when I thought about it it made perfect sense to really watch how I was feeling. I promised I would stop if it started to get to me. When I got to the packet pick up the day before I was speaking to some of the workers who are runners and getting their opinion and one gal battles ITB in her right knee and she too was worried with it being my left side and all the turns, she suggested I bring my foam roller with me and leave it by their tent in case I needed to roll it out at anytime. I was so glad I had a roller in my car even though I didnt end up needing it. I stayed at my brothers house and his wife and kids had me a birthday cake and ice cream....nice pre race meal yes? :-) I slept pretty good and got up early so I could do the early start option at the race. This marathon due to the one mile loop course has a 5 hour time limit, my best marathon to date was a 6:09 (remember too that I dont train for real marathons I train to just get done after biking 112 miles and swimming 2.4) I still am not training to run a marathon I am training to FINSIH a 50 miler so in my mind with the way things have been going for the past couple months I thought I bet I could do a 5:30 marathon! And the thought entered my head that during the Shamrock Marathon in a couple weeks I may just push it with all the people around and helping motivate me I may just try for a sub 5:00 their. I ate a panera cinnamon crunch bagel with a little peanut butter, a diet dew, and had a banana about 30 minutes before the start. There was probably about 30 or so that did the early start. It was only about 20 degrees but I dressed appropriately. The race director wrote all our numbers down and timed us down to a GO.....I started with a younger guy and an older guy for the first lap-each asking questions about what races have you done to each other and the normal Q&A. After the first lap I was feeling decent and they were already doing a couple walk breaks and water station breaks and I dont mind running alone at all. I dont typically listen to music especially at races because I love to eavesdrop on others conversation and giggle. When I got to mile 6 or 8 I decided to grab a water...in my head was Trixie making a statement a couple months ago about proper nutrition and hydration and I am not good at being proper with this. I wasnt thirsty but knew I had been running and sweating for over an hour and I needed to start with some hydration. I do remember at mile 8 thinking holy shit I have to go around this damn circle 18 more times!! I dont think I let that discourage me at any other point. The next thought that kept repeating in my head was from an older man I met at the Frozen Sasquatch race, I met him near the beginning and he was a pretty well seasoned ultra runner and marathon runner and his famous words that I will never forget were "I do these ultras because they make a marathon seem easy" At mile 13 I decided to take in my first gel, for the race I took in a total of 4 gels about every 3-4 miles after the first one, I also then started rotating water and gatorade but went every 2 mile before drinking. That works very well for me! I dont recall what mile but my right hamstring area that has been tightening up on me started feeling like it was actually seizing up so I kicked up my leg on a table or a light post every so ofter and stretched it out. My hydration musta been good too cause I had to have a potty break. Franklin University had a tent set up and their track or cross country team was doing relays all day. I made a connection with a man at their area around mile 10 and each lap he was good at motivating me while I was good at making some silly wise crack. At one lap he said...wow you are a minute early. I never really hurt during the race it just got a little boring at times so I made a game. When we passed the timing mat we then ran by the different tents that were set up and down this stretch that the wind blew right at you, and it was a bitter wind where I was glad I wore my buff so that I could pull it up on my face on that section, I also knew once I made it down that .25 of mile and turned the corner the road changed a bit then i would see the policewoman in her car then would be turning one more time thru like a park area then another turn and then back in the circle. I played that game over and over. They were playing music and the song somebody call 911 was repeated several times and I had to giggle, I thought the Hamster Dance would be appropriate as well due to the fact that going around and around had you realizing what a hamster must feel like in that silly wheel. I had 2 miles left and was feeling amazing-In my head I told myself you are at the gym and its 2 miles to the house and you are done-a typical training route I take in town. My last mile pace was a 9:18??? When I hit my garmin at the finish my final time was 4:40:13!! HOLY COW first of all an hour and twenty nine minute PR, secondly 50 minutes faster then I ever dreamed and thirdly I turned 44 and ran 44 miles over the weekend and ran this in 4:40??? How does that happen....seriously there is no way you could even try to do that! After the race I jogged over to my person...he knew it was my bday cause each lap I shared something with him but he didnt know how old I was, how many miles I was running over the weekend nor my finish time. He got a kick out of it too, sometimes things that are so cool to you may not be as cool to another and I tend to forget this. I went back to my brothers and showered then to Cap City and grubbed then headed on home. My favorite overhead conversation of the day was when a couple gals and a guy were running behind me and we were coming upon an older gentleman that wore a tank top over a long sleeve shirt that read 50 marathons in 50 states then in red big letters said TWICE....the young guy was trying to make conversation with the group of young girls and reads the shirt out loud and then says, "wow thats like running 100 states" I found that to be the dumbest and funniest thing I had ever heard.