Lead up to the race
I had a great 10k time and decent running volume almost as much as I did for Ironman training minus the biking and swimming. I knew that I wasn’t in top shape and I still carried an additional 10 lbs compared to previous years. I was thinking a lot about how fast I should start and how much I should err on the easy side to enjoy the race. After all Boston is special and I wouldn’t want to run the with tunnel vision.
Come race week, race expo and talking with other runners and I got excited. Based on my training fitness I should be capable of running a 3-3:05 marathon. I threw caution out of the window and said I might as well start with that pace and see how it goes. That said I was aware that this would be the upper limit and I should not start any faster then that.
Based on my qualifying time I was seeded quite up front. The Boston Marathon has over 30’000 participants which are split up in 4 waves. Each wave again is divided into 8 corrals. I was placed in Wave 1, Corral 4.
While the weather was warm and nice in Seattle, it was really cold when I arrived in Boston. I knew that we had to wait a long time in the cold before we could start so I did some last minute purchases and spent $50 on a jacket, gloves and hat which I could “throw away” at the start.
Race Day:
Before entering the athlete village. Exited and ignorant of what lies ahead 🙂
The Boston Marathon is a point to point race and everyone needs to be bused to the start line. That takes a while for 30’000+ people. With me being in the first wave, I had to take one of the earlier shuttles. I meet up with a Barry at 6am to take the shuttle. We had to wait in line for about 30min and left around 6:40am from Boston Downtown. We arrived at the athlete village in Hopkinton 1 hour later at 7:40. I used the time on the bus to eat my race day breakfast (the usual: apple sauce + banana) which I normally eat 2.5-3h before race start. With a 10am start, that worked out great. The athlete village is the staging area for the race about 0.8 mile away from the start line. Thanks to the jacket I bought I was warm enough that I could lie in the grass and rest. The sun was coming out and getting warmer and warmer. I soon realized that I won’t need to run with gloves. I got rid of most of the warm close. (Note: no morning bag, all the warm clothes were being donated.)
Wave 1 was allowed to leave the athletes village at 9:05, this meant we were allowed to walk over to the staging area. There we had to wait until it was our turn. They let 2 corrals at the time walk towards the starting time. At 9:10 it was my turn to start the journey to the start line. The street was fenced off and 100s of runners in my coral started walking to the start. Now I was definitely getting excited.
Since it still was another 30 min I decided to sit down on the curb of the road in the shade and wait. With about 15min to the start I made my way to my corral. The setup is really great since you enter the corals from the side. So no problem getting in the proper starting block. I seeded myself in the back of my corral since I knew I wasn’t as fast as my qualifying time.
Race:
The atmosphere was great and once the gun went off you could feel the excitement. I took a few minutes until I could cross the start line. It was crazy how packed it was. I really wanted to start slow, but just ran along with the crowd. We started about 10sec/mile faster than I wanted but with the excitement I just went with it. It was crazy even with that I was constantly overtaken by people. Everybody either starting too fast or they are all in much better shape than me (based on the finisher stats, it was the first).
I was pumped and saw a guy wearing a shirt which had his finisher times of all the 6 major marathons.
I thought what a great idea and that I wanted to do them all too.
It started to feel warm. Because of the sun I decided to hold on to the hat and arm sleeves as sun protection. The first few miles are downhill and felt really good. I did a quick pee break at mile 2. I took off the arm sleeves and put them into my pocket. I was still amazed how fast everyone was running. Unfortunately, at mile 3 and 4 I got drawn into running too fast with everybody else. Running a good 15sec/mile faster then my optimistic pace. Despite being overtaken for the last 2 miles and taking a pee break everybody was still running faster than me.
At mile 4 I already felt that my legs were getting tired and my stomach felt weird. I checked my watch and noticed a HR of 180bpm. Oh oh, I knew that I couldn’t sustain such a heart rate since that was just slightly below my threshold HR. Considering the tired legs, I decided to slow down with the idea to speed up in the 2nd half. I slowed down a little but wasn’t successful at lowering the HR. It took me several miles until my HR dropped. I also needed to slow down significantly for that. I told myself that it would be worthwhile and I could enjoy the 2nd half of the race more.
At mile 6 I was looking for Amy who was supposed to be cheering there. I saw her on the other side of the street and threw my arm warmers and hat to her since I like them and wanted to hold on to them. It was great seeing her! After the race she told me that I was looking strong. However that is not how I felt. I was tired and was thinking that I haven’t even done a fourth of the race yet. What a great mind set to be in 🙂 I wasn’t worried about the distance, I knew I could finish. It might just end up being much less fun then I hoped for. I went into survival mode, keeping my HR in check and getting some nutrition in and ticking off the mileage. It was getting really warm. I was getting hot. After the race I checked the actual temperature and it was only in the 70s, it definitely felt much warmer then that. Maybe with the direct sunlight and running on concrete reflecting the sun… In any case it definitely felt warm.
People were constantly overtaking me. At around 10 miles is where my pace and people around me started to align more. It was such a different experience then most other races I do. At that point I also started to catch the first people who had already blown up and were walking. I crossed the halfway point in (1h36) and was thinking that it wasn’t a bad time and if I would maintain the pace it would be a decent finisher time; still faster than my fastest Ironman Marathon. But I also knew that I was very tired already and had an upset stomach. I definitely had to postpone the speeding up for later (if even).
As many of you know around mile 14 is the Wellesley College. As I was told before the race each year the college girls have a competition of who could kiss the most runners. They are also cheering very loud, you can hear the girls before you can see them, the noise they produce while cheering for the runners is phenomenal. At that point I wasn’t going for a time anymore but rather the experience. I figured I might as well help out one of these girls. One of the girls pointed at me so I ran over for a kiss. Getting the full experience, check!
The sun was burning down and I was looking for sunscreen, while the race is very well organized I could not find any sunscreen. There was even a tent that had sunscreen advertised, but they weren’t handing it out to the runners.
There are 4 major hills in this race starting at mile 16 to 21. With the last wall called Heartbreak hill. When I arrived at the first hill people finally were spread out a little more and there was more flexibility as to where to run. The encouragement from all the people along the course was fantastic. At one point I was thinking that it would be great if I could get a little quite time my ears were hurting. And then I was thinking of most races I do where hardly anybody is cheering. I told myself to shut up and enjoy it. When do you get ever to run in front of such a big crowd. While the first 3 hills were steep I ran them all at a moderate pace, it was strenuous but doable. However after the 3rd hill I took my first walking break at an aid station to get some more fluid in. My stomach was really not happy with me and I longed for some Coke. I was tired of Gatorade and was thinking how great coke feels in the later stages of an Ironman.
Happy to be done
Around mile 21 they were handing out roses. I grabbed one and put it into my singlet in the back. I was hopping to give it to Amy at mile 25 where she was supposed to cheer for me. However, this was still a long way to go. My quads were beaten up and I walked at the end of every aid station to get water in and let my quads relax. I didn’t care about my time anymore, but just wanted to soak it in.
Remember the guy with the 6 marathon shirt, well that idea now definitely sounded stupid. I figured if this is my last race I might as well get the most out of it.
The next few miles were a little blurry, I shuffled along with the occasional walk breaks and trying to enjoy the atmosphere. With about 2 miles to go I took a longer walk break and a group of young people were giving me crap for walking. They cheered me on and were going crazy once they got me to running again. I laughed at them and thanked them an continued on.
Mile 25 was where I was supposed to see Amy. I was frantically looking but could not see her. A little disappointed, I ventured on. I figured the chances of me not seeing/hearing her is very likely in such a big group. Besides who knows if she is still waiting since I’m running that much slower. There was one last underpass with a slight incline which felt very steep thanks to the tired muscles. I checked my watch for the first time in a very long time and figured if I hurry up a bit I could at least still finish sub 3:30.
I did the last turn onto Boylsten street and was just happy running towards the finish. I crossed the finish line in 3:26:47.
After match:
It was surprisingly cold in the city with the wind. After being hot for 20mile the last couple miles were cold. I was freezing and my quads were killing me. However my brain was functioning very well. I took all the goodies and just wanted to rest. I decided the quickest would be to just go back to the Hotel. Within 5min of crossing the finish line I was walking into my hotel, people were looking at me funny for walking fast. But I figured if standing around hurts I might as well walk fast. In the hotel lobby they were handing out ice bags. Exactly what I needed! I got back to my room and soaked myself in an ice bath while smiling like an idiot.
Ignore my poor selfie skills. This was after the race and it got worse later one. Another lesson to always bring sunscreen to a long race.
This was a very humbling experience. Many other runners also slowed down and some of them even fell apart. The most interesting statistic of this years Boston Marathon was that only 4000 of the 30k runner ran a Boston Qualifier time. The previous year where it was cold it was 3 times as many with 12000. So I’m definitely not the only one who slowed down. Despite that it was amazing to see how many great runners show up for the Boston Marathon.
I knew that starting too fast was a danger and unsurprisingly I fell into that trap. What is more surprising is that even with slowing down in the middle miles I wasn’t able to salvage the race. The damage was already done muscle wise and also with an upset stomach (potentially overheating)
I average a 7:54min/mile which is a whole minute slower than I ran the first few miles. The finish time of 3:26:47 means that I ran a Marathon faster in 4 of my 10 Ironman’s. And for another 5 I was within 10min of. Maybe the biking and swimming is good for me 🙂
Update: Now 1 week later that shirt with the 6 major marathons sounds more appealing again. 🙂
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