Boston: Rain, Wind,a Pothole, and Lisa too!!
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 3:11 pm
This was certainly an interesting experience for me this year. I qualified for the 2015 Boston Marathon in Belfast Ireland in May of last year. Within the last few weeks of preparations, my friend Lisa issued a "Shallonge". Whom ever crossed the finish line first would win. She was in Wave 4, Corral 1 and I was in Wave 4, Corral 2. A separate thread was posted on runningmania and we were off. There was much back and forth leading up to the race that provided many of us with a few laughs.
Prerace:
We left on Friday afternoon and stayed overnight in Syracuse, NY. We arrived in Franklin, MA on Saturday afternoon. The weather was sunny and warm. We checked out our plans to get me to Hopkinton for the start on Monday and relaxed for the remainder of the day. On Sunday, we took the commuter train to downtown Boston and met Lisa and James at the Prudential Center Food Court for lunch. This was a very enjoyable visit with no trash talking, just support for each of us. Then I picked up my packet and Bonnie and I attended the Expo. I bought a storm shell from the official race products store as the weather forecast was for cold, rain, and wind. This was a very wise action on my part. We wandered through the expo. This is the largest Expo that I have attended. Many interesting products. We stopped to say hi to my friend Bart Yasso at the Runner's World Booth. After taking the train back to Franklin, I rested for the evening.
Race Day:
I was up about 7 AM and had some yogurt, chocolate milk, and a banana for breakfast. We left to drive to Exit 21B on I-495 about 9:45. Bonnie dropped me off and I walked into the assembly area near the starting corrals. It was a 3 km walk which took about 35 minutes. I still had a lengthy wait until Wave 4 was allowed to enter the corrals. About 5 minutes before the start, the rope between corrals one and two was removed and we became one mixed corral. As Lisa was late getting to her corral, I believe that I was a bit in front of her at the gun. However, I never did spot her then or anytime during the race. It started to drizzle as we were waiting for the start. There was a light or heavy drizzle for most of the time I was on the course.
My goal time was 4:15 or failing that to at least beat my official Boston Marathon Time for my age group which is 4:25. To do that I wanted to maintain a 6:00 min/km average pace. I was able to maintain that average pace until the 35K mat. However, at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill I stepped in a puddle. Unfortunately I was hiding a small pothole. My left foot twisted a bit and I walk to determine what, if any damage was evident. The foot was fine but my left hamstring started bothering me. I walked to the top of the hill and checked into a medical tent. The nurse figured that I pulled the hamstring a bit and said she could put some pain relieving gel on it. As I was wearing compression tights she was a bit hesitant to slide them down to apply said gel. Fortunately, I always wear running underwear with compression pants. Thus any embarrassment by either of us was avoided. She applied the gel and sent me on my way. Total time lost - maybe 2 minutes. I did take a few more walks for the remainder of the race. My goal of 4:15 was gone so I focussed on 4:25. I did make sure to run the total distance on Boyleston Street. My official time was 4:21:33. I am quite satisfied with that.
This was an uncomfortable race pretty much from start to finish. I wore the storm shell and gloves throughout the entire distance. The wind wasn't a problem until after Heartbreak Hill. Then it was definitely a factor. Not very much fun then at all. Although I didn't spot any of our wonderful volunteers along the route or any of the other K-W runners, I did see my friend Cathy from Cruise2Run. We chatted for a couple of moments and then she was off in front of me. I found out later that Lisa finished about 4 minutes ahead of me. Kudos to her. She is a tough little cookie. I can only imagine what the wind in the latter part of the course was doing to her effort.
As I have now qualified for next year's Boston Marathon and my other two qualifying times are considerable better, I will use one of them for 2016. Next year, I plan on slowing down to enjoy the spectators ( including the Wellesley College Ladies ) and the experience.
Stats:
Men 70-74: 41/123 Men: 12,581/14,588 Overall: 22,048/26,610 Average Pace: 6:09 Tom Tom measured distance: 42.5 km
Ken
Prerace:
We left on Friday afternoon and stayed overnight in Syracuse, NY. We arrived in Franklin, MA on Saturday afternoon. The weather was sunny and warm. We checked out our plans to get me to Hopkinton for the start on Monday and relaxed for the remainder of the day. On Sunday, we took the commuter train to downtown Boston and met Lisa and James at the Prudential Center Food Court for lunch. This was a very enjoyable visit with no trash talking, just support for each of us. Then I picked up my packet and Bonnie and I attended the Expo. I bought a storm shell from the official race products store as the weather forecast was for cold, rain, and wind. This was a very wise action on my part. We wandered through the expo. This is the largest Expo that I have attended. Many interesting products. We stopped to say hi to my friend Bart Yasso at the Runner's World Booth. After taking the train back to Franklin, I rested for the evening.
Race Day:
I was up about 7 AM and had some yogurt, chocolate milk, and a banana for breakfast. We left to drive to Exit 21B on I-495 about 9:45. Bonnie dropped me off and I walked into the assembly area near the starting corrals. It was a 3 km walk which took about 35 minutes. I still had a lengthy wait until Wave 4 was allowed to enter the corrals. About 5 minutes before the start, the rope between corrals one and two was removed and we became one mixed corral. As Lisa was late getting to her corral, I believe that I was a bit in front of her at the gun. However, I never did spot her then or anytime during the race. It started to drizzle as we were waiting for the start. There was a light or heavy drizzle for most of the time I was on the course.
My goal time was 4:15 or failing that to at least beat my official Boston Marathon Time for my age group which is 4:25. To do that I wanted to maintain a 6:00 min/km average pace. I was able to maintain that average pace until the 35K mat. However, at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill I stepped in a puddle. Unfortunately I was hiding a small pothole. My left foot twisted a bit and I walk to determine what, if any damage was evident. The foot was fine but my left hamstring started bothering me. I walked to the top of the hill and checked into a medical tent. The nurse figured that I pulled the hamstring a bit and said she could put some pain relieving gel on it. As I was wearing compression tights she was a bit hesitant to slide them down to apply said gel. Fortunately, I always wear running underwear with compression pants. Thus any embarrassment by either of us was avoided. She applied the gel and sent me on my way. Total time lost - maybe 2 minutes. I did take a few more walks for the remainder of the race. My goal of 4:15 was gone so I focussed on 4:25. I did make sure to run the total distance on Boyleston Street. My official time was 4:21:33. I am quite satisfied with that.
This was an uncomfortable race pretty much from start to finish. I wore the storm shell and gloves throughout the entire distance. The wind wasn't a problem until after Heartbreak Hill. Then it was definitely a factor. Not very much fun then at all. Although I didn't spot any of our wonderful volunteers along the route or any of the other K-W runners, I did see my friend Cathy from Cruise2Run. We chatted for a couple of moments and then she was off in front of me. I found out later that Lisa finished about 4 minutes ahead of me. Kudos to her. She is a tough little cookie. I can only imagine what the wind in the latter part of the course was doing to her effort.
As I have now qualified for next year's Boston Marathon and my other two qualifying times are considerable better, I will use one of them for 2016. Next year, I plan on slowing down to enjoy the spectators ( including the Wellesley College Ladies ) and the experience.
Stats:
Men 70-74: 41/123 Men: 12,581/14,588 Overall: 22,048/26,610 Average Pace: 6:09 Tom Tom measured distance: 42.5 km
Ken
