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| Scotty looking happy but tired. Photo courtesy of Jimmy Shelton |
Holy CRAP!!!
A marathon is not a individual pursuit. It takes a village to raise a idiot, I mean a child. Over the course of the last 6 months of training there have been many people who have helped me out. To many to mention them all and I know I'll miss some but I give it a shot.
First of all is my long time training partner, Pete Floss. He is an amazing person. To look at him you would say to yourself. He's not a runner. He's more of a line backer. Big, strong and built like the terminator. How he does it I don't know. He runs with a shuffle stride that you would think only propels him no more that a foot with each stride. His feet never come more that 1/100th of an inch off the ground. But he just keeps on going. Along with Pete is all my buddies in Westford who meet Pete and I at 5:45 AM at East Boston Camp almost every day. Sure a different group shows up every day but it keeps the stories interesting and the smack talk alive. David K. John L, Bryan W, Kevin C, Warren W, Tom, S, Randy U, Matt C and Mike O.
Then there is my wife, who has put up with my running habit for almost 30 years now. She's a saint.
There is also a special set of women from Westford who are about 15 strong when they all so up to East Boston Camp at 5:30ish to do their standard 5.4 mile loop. They have a great sense of humor and we lovingly call them "The Fit Chicks". In fact one of them helped me out one day directly. I was out on a 10 mile loop from my house and 5 miles in I realized that I was dehydrating so I stopped by Cindy Sacco's business Simply Fit and was able to beg a bottle of water from her. Saved my arse.
Lastly is the Greater Lowell Road Runners who make doing long runs on the course and race day a no brainer. All we have to do is put on our shoes and go.
OK, so what about training for this years race? It sucked. It snowed 10 straight weekends in Westford. We had the most snow ever and oh BTW it was also the coldest winter on record. My training went poorly at best. I just didn't have the will power to make it through most long runs. I cut every one short except for one 21 miler on the Boston course. After that one long run my hips hurt for a week. Things were not looking good for me. I was thinking that a 4 hour marathon was in my future. I did no speed work and couldn't run long. How was I going to get through this. But I've always said. Once I toe the line and the gun is fired, everything changes for me. I go into race mode mind set. I try and focus on the one thing I can do, put one foot in front of the other and repeat.
So it's race morning and I'm going over my strategy for the race. Go out slow and stay relaxed. Do NOT push the pace until the last 2 - 3 miles. I know that starting at mile 16 through 21 I was going to be stressed because of the hills and I would use miles 22 and 23 to recover then it was go time to the finish. The real question of the day was what to wear during the race. I went for a light underarmor top with my GLRR singlet, split leg short shorts(my daughter hates them), racing flats that have 10+ boston marathons on them and a light pair of gloves.
For breakfast I went with 2 raisin bagels, 2 bananas a bottle water and bottle of Gatoraide, 5 electrolyte tablets, 4 advil Gel caps and a 5 hour energy. The last item I wasn't sure about but I figured it was better than having a stomach full of Coke, which I usually drink b4 a marathon. We headed to the starting area an hour before our start at 10:25. Everything worked out perfectly. How ever I found myself in the coral having mother nature wanting me to GOOO! I looked around but the ratio of women to men was about 70 to 30. So I'd have to wait until some woods on the side of the road. DAMN!! Soon the gun was shot and we were off. Well sort of. It took me over 3 minutes to hit the starting line, but once we got there we were running....slowly. I told myself don't panic and stay relaxed. And that's just what I did.
Here are my splits:
Mile Split cum current pace If continued
1 0:08:01 0:08:01 0:08:01 3:29:53 It was crowded and this was perfect
2 0:07:35 0:15:35 0:07:48 3:18:58 Perfect
3 0:07:23 0:22:58 0:07:39 3:14:19 Perfect a little fast
4 0:07:23 0:30:22 0:07:35 3:14:19 Perfect to fast again
5 0:07:30 0:37:52 0:07:34 3:17:01 I choked on some water, almost puked
6 0:07:32 0:45:24 0:07:34 3:17:26 Perfect took my first GU
7 0:07:32 0:52:55 0:07:34 3:17:26 Pete's wife gave me some coke
8 0:07:32 1:00:27 0:07:33 3:17:26 I'm a running machine
9 0:07:32 1:07:59 0:07:33 3:17:33 I'm in the grove. Keep on trucking
10 0:07:40 1:15:39 0:07:34 3:19:57 Slipping a little but not to bad
11 0:07:37 1:23:16 0:07:34 3:19:03 Thats it.
12 0:07:36 1:30:52 0:07:34 3:18:47 Took my 2nd GU
13 0:07:51 1:38:43 0:07:36 3:22:20 Scream Tunnel done and half way
14 0:07:45 1:46:28 0:07:36 3:21:01 Slowing some more
15 0:07:59 1:54:27 0:07:38 3:23:47 This area is no mans land
16 0:07:40 2:02:07 0:07:38 3:20:17 Fly down to Newton lower falls
17 0:08:12 2:10:19 0:07:40 3:25:47 First hill I slow but not to bad
18 0:08:29 2:18:48 0:07:43 3:28:24 Second hill I slow a little more
19 0:08:15 2:27:03 0:07:44 3:26:30 Daughter gave me some coke
20 0:08:15 2:35:19 0:07:46 3:26:30 Held steady through 3rd hill
21 0:08:48 2:44:07 0:07:49 3:29:53 Heartbreak hill slowed me some
22 0:08:00 2:52:07 0:07:49 3:25:44 Speeding back up by BC (Amy on my mind)
23 0:08:22 3:00:29 0:07:51 3:27:15 Recovering a little
24 0:08:10 3:08:39 0:07:52 3:26:36 Puddles every where.
25 0:08:20 3:16:59 0:07:53 3:26:59 Friend passes me. I shift gears
26 0:08:18 3:25:17 0:07:54 3:26:56 I'm pushing with everything I got
26.2 0:01:48 3:27:05 0:07:54 3:27:05 Fastest I've finished in years.
That was one of the most even Boston marathons I've run. the difference between my fastest mile and slowest was 1:15. Not to bad. I never walked. only the 5th time I've accomplished that in Boston in 29 runs. What I wore was perfect. I was never hot or cold. Only 2 -3 times I found heart rate sky rocketing and I slowed my breath and got it under control. There were hundreds of GLRR supporters along the course. Each one gave me a lift. But the one I liked most was seeing my daughter Juliana at mile 19.1. She handed me my secret weapon, a coke cut with water, defizzed. One thing that pissed me off in the last 3 or so miles was there was a lot of people wearing the foil blankets while running because they were cold. These blankets were blowing all over the place and hitting me in the face.
After I finished I never stopped running. I got my medal, potato people blanket and a bag of food and off to the hotel I went. Within 5 minutes of finishing I was in the hotel. SWEET. But then it happened, when I went in the room, Pete Floss and Jill Trotter were already there to great me. ARRRGH. Pete ran a 3:15:00 Holy CRAP! Jill also smoked me with a 3:20. The both looked good (for now). I got my name on the shower list when Coco Sullivan came in the room. I asked her how her husband James did. He just got out of a walking boot Friday and decided to do the race. He's a sub 2:40 marathoner. But on this day, not so much. To my delight, I beat him...WAAAAHOOO!! I think that's what I yelled. Everyone chuckled. Now what was coming up is what I fear most in a marathon...the shower. How much chaffing had occurred? How loud was I going to yell when the soap did it thing on the raw skin? Would I cramp in the shower, fall, hit my head and pass out requiring people to rescue me in my birthday suit? To my delight, NOTHING, I wasn't even going to lose a toe nail. A success all around.
After I finished showering Pete, Jill and I made quick work of getting to Pete's car in the parking garage next door and headed home. Well almost. Seems that the race inflected a bit of pain on Pete. He is human, who knew? He was very slow walking down the 5 flights of stairs and over to the garage. Jill and I had to wait for him every 30 - 40 steps. Watching him walking down the stairs was a beautiful thing!!! What a SLUG.
I got home ate dinner and had my usual LARGE bowl of ice cream. SWEET. Then got on my computer and started replying to messages. Hundreds of them. But one I noticed on the GLRR page was a plea for help at 10 PM. Jack Pierce from the GLRR's daughter had not located Jack. She and her mother were in AZ tracking him. He showed up on the BAA tracking page until the 35K mark, just 4.1 miles from the finish, then nothing. She called all the hospitals in the area looking for him. Jack had 31 consecutive Boston's and this would have been his 35 total. But know one had heard from him. A flurry of messages popped up and I volunteered to drive back into Boston to pick him up at the hospital once he was located. He was found to be at Beth Israel Hospital and his sister had picked him up. Seems he was at the 35k mark when a woman stopped short in front of him which caused him to go crashing to the ground and needed 7 stitches in the mouth (hopefully they stitched his mouth closed, he can TALK) and he also got a black eye. His daughter doesn't want him to run any more because he's now 73 years old. But she knows he'll be back.
So that closes the book on another Boston. If you read this far you're a better person than most, either that or you don't have a life. Thanks for joining me in my little world. On to #30 next year
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