Not sure what’s up with the lack of Boston reports, so I guess I’ll post one. Hopefully there are a few others today. I think it’s a good experience to share, and would be interested in other stories (especially since mine is a bit whiny, still suffering a bit, and despite my attempted positive mental attitude in general, the following is not as happy of a story as it could be).
   So a few of the high (and low) lights of Monday's 109th Boston marathon. To put it in perspective, I’ll back it up a year. Last year I went, and it was a shocker - 2nd hottest day in recorded history, close to 30 degrees. After the first mile or two, you threw away the pace bands and figured just finishing was the best case scenario. A friend who I started with, and finished within a minute or so of, pointed out likely the only consolation - that we passed close to 4,000 odd runners on that day (and finished 20 min+ slower than our qualifying runs). So last year, we felt the pain, the down hill impacts on the quads, a tough run... Managed to re-qualify late last year, so it was back to Boston.
   This year, I was hoping for a much better day. Training included a lot of hills – up and down, and hopefully enough volume. After a number of months training, a bit of a challenge with a work related trip out to BC last week. Not a good idea – never adjusted to the time change, a few short night sleeps... came back, burnt out and picked up a slight cold. Not too extreme, just enough to stuff up my nose, introduce a bit of a bad mood, and make me not want to fly. Suffice it to say, I took it easy during that last week, missed a few training runs... wrote it off as tapering... Got to Boston Sunday around 2 PM to find it way too hot. Maybe I wasn’t used to it, but it felt like it was well into the 70’s. Decided to walk over to pick up my race kit. Too long of a walk, got a bit lost, decided to also go to the Pasta dinner - what a long line-up! In general, too long on my feet and another challenge in getting there.
   But next morning, we got there. Still a challenge or two. Thought I was a bit better off with my positioning - 6333, so in theory I could go to the buses to take you out to Hopkinton a bit later - an apparent advantage. In the end, I think it meant you just got to stand in line longer (it seems most people don’t really pay much attention to the instructions. I don’t blame them a lot... getting there for 7 or 7:30 for a 12:00 race start...). Hopkinton was ok, but you have to wonder as you wait around for a few hours, as the cool morning fades into the hot day... can’t this start earlier. With that being said, I don’t envy the job of moving 20,000 people 26 miles out of the city – it is a well tuned machine.
   Race time came, and we got in our corals. I was one further ahead this year (7718 last year), and I was hoping to have a much better race. Getting psyched now... Started ok... tried to go out slow... missed the first mile marker, by the second realized I was close to 7 min miles. I had my pace band on - should have been closer to 7:15... continued to try to slow down, my heart rate was too high - at one point even put myself behind runners to slow down. Still was doing 7 min miles most of the time... with the downhill at the start, I knew I wasn’t going to be doing a negative split, so I guessed it was ok. Tried to keep good form down the hills to avoid the destroying the quads again. I felt great through the half - a few minutes in the bank, had tried to grab water and Gatorade at every mile.. tried to pay attention to the heat which was feeling quite strong (someone told me it got to the high end of the 70’s, but I can't find anyone else saying it got that hot). Through! the half I started to dream of a really good time... started planning on how long to hold off before pushing hard. And it was so much easier in the States – only have to push your watch for lap times 26 times... so much easier than 42 ;-) Life was good...
   Soon after, reality set in. My 7:15’s became common. Soon after, they became a challenge. 7:30's... well I had a few 7:00’s, so that’s ok. 7:45... well, I’d better speed up. 8:00 min miles - speed up... soon after, it was getting to a point where I was going to just forget about it. Who cares about the time... it’s Boston! Then the hills came up... I noticed two (my watch said there were four in the 15 to 20 m range leading up to Heartbreak hill). I wasn’t really phased last year at Heartbreak hill. This time, I felt one before, and Heartbreak. I was getting close to toast. After Heartbreak, it was just ‘let’s just finish this running!’ It was now less than an hour - minutes away. I can do that. I felt terrible, was wondering why I ever started running marathons... Then at that point, I realized that a) I forgot to use the Bodyglide in one spot, b) maybe I shouldn’t be pouring all that water over my front, (partially trying to keep my core body temp down, partially spillage - and on a related note Gatorade does not feel good in the eyes... maybe next time I’ll walk a bit through the water stations), and c) maybe I shouldn’t of worn a white singlet... I’ll leave it at that at the risk of providing too much information. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t looking for any cameras by the end of the race. Three miles to go, feeling like crap, quads were toast despite my efforts to run down hill the right way - and I was toast. Time to add insult to injury – or more appropriately, injury to injury. Don’t ask me how, maybe it was uneven pavement, maybe I wasn’t paying attention – don’t know, but came down on my left ankle, foot sideways, twisted, legs buckled, went down hard on the pavement... it wasn’t pretty. And of course, enough people around to make this quite dramatic. Lots of fellow runners checking if I was ok, with my responding, ‘yes, keep going’ and trying to play it down... and having done this at least once or twice per winter, knowing! that if I don’t keep going, it just gets keeps hurting, swells up big ... Got up, started running taking as much weight off it as possible, cursing... But in a mile or so, it didn’t feel bad (suffice it say, I have a reasonably big, although not huge, ankle today). Went through hell for another two miles or so, swore off running several times, once again passed 4,000 odd runners throughout the race, and PB’ed in Boston re-qualifying for next year (Back to Boston – Part II ???). And of course, one of the good things about a day like that, is the next days are pretty good – no matter what! And who knows, maybe in a day or two, I’ll go for a short run...
   I also want to thank Gilles Lamenoise at the Ottawa Lions for his coaching assistance and support, and the rest of my training partners for being there and providing support... And of course, mention Chris Macknie’s great run in case he or someone else doesn’t – sub 3 hours on a day that I personally thought was far from ideal... great job Chris!
   Hope the next one, and your next ones... are all fun!