Boston Marathon 2007
saturday morning i headed to the airport and jumped a flight to boston. i got in a little later than planned so i skipped hitting the expo on saturday evening and went to a movie across from boston commons. i paid a whopping $10 for a ticket and saw "300" which is a movie based on a historical battle between the spartans and persians. one word to describe it…awesome!
sunday i got up and took the hotel shuttle to the race expo. i picked up my race number and dropped some cash on souveniers. after saying hello to jan from marathon & beyond, i headed back to the hotel. for the afternoon and evening, i pretty much channel surfed between sports and weather broadcasts as a big weather system was moving in. outside it was raining in sheets and the wind sometimes made it look as though it was raining horizontally. after resigning myself to not having ideal weather conditions for the race, i went to sleep.
monday i woke up at about 4AM. i packed up my belongings and watched the local news broadcasts. the weather was forecast to be improving as the race went along and the organizers were trying to make adjustments to keep us comfortable in the athlete’s village at hopkinton. after dropping my luggage at the front desk, i ate a bagel and chatted with other runners. we piled into the hotel shuttle and headed over to boston commons. to my surprise, i sat on the shuttle next to a guy that posts to hillrunner.com. it was great to be able to meet someone in person after reading their posts online.
after arriving at boston commons, i put a plastic bag over each of my shoes and rubber banded them around my ankles. i donned a plastic rain poncho that i bought for $2 at my company’s store and headed toward the buses. after a quick stop at the port-a-johns, i was loaded on a school bus and we headed to hopkinton. the bus driver had a tough time finding the high school in hopkington and spent alot of time aimlessly driving around. i personally didn’t mind much since we were warm & dry on the bus plus i didn’t have to hit the bathroom.
when we finally arrived, i made my way down to the athletic field and found a small area inside a large tent with hundreds of fellow runners. we were all crammed in like sardines, watching the wind & rain with only minutes before the start. i ate two marathon energy bars and downed some more water while getting on the right gear for the conditions. i chose to go with a long sleeve compression top with a tyvek jacket and spandex shorts under my race ready shorts. with 30 minutes to the start, i made my way from the athlete’s village to the starting line.
i made it to the starting line while the national anthem was being sung. after a few more minutes, the race started and we began to move forward to the starting line. as i began to run, i purposely tried to hold back to 7:15-7:20 pace to respect the (hilly) course and the (lousy) conditions. i rolled through 5K(3.1 miles) in 22:40 which was 7:17 pace. it should be stated that as we’re running with temps hovering in the mid 40’s and the wind is blowing at us not quite as a headwind but not quite a crosswind. by this point, i had taken off my tyvek jacket and tucked it into my race number belt just in case i needed it.
as i made my way down the roads of rural massachusetts with thousands of likeminded folks, i kept trying to stay loose and relaxed. by 10K (6.2 miles) i was at 45:11 which maintained my 7:17 pace. at 15K (9.3 miles) i was at 1:08:07 which was 7:18 pace. by this time, i had come to the conclusion that today was going to be more about enjoying the moment rather than running my dream race. as we approached wellesley, we could hear a roar that grew louder with each step. making our way past wellesley college, we were bombarded by the sounds of ladies yelling for us and holding signs saying "kiss me". to say that it lifted our spirits in a gloomy day would be understating the effect. shortly after passing the co-eds, i downed my first energy gel as i approached the 12 mile mark.
i hit 20K (12.4 miles) in 1:31:27 which put me at 7:21 pace. i could tell i had slowed down although i hadn’t stopped to kiss a wellesley co-ed! i went through the half marathon (13.1 miles) in 1:36:30 and was still at 7:21 pace. i tried convincing myself that i could get in the sub 3:20 finish range and opened up my second energy gel while approaching the 14 mile banner.
i rolled into 25K (15.5 miles) in 1:55:14 which put me at 7:25 pace. to this point, the course has a net elevation drop of 400 feet which pounds runner quads to prepare them for the newton (up) hills. i consumed energy gel number three while approching the 16 mile mark and then began climbing the first of the newton hills. we made the 90 degree turn right after 17 miles and the second significant hill greeted me shortly thereafter.
i wolfed down energy gel number 4 as i passed through the 18th mile and made my way to the 30K mark. At 30K (18.6 miles), i arrived at 2:21:01 which was 7:34 pace. by this time, my mind is mush and so are my quads. i knew i was slowing down but i also saw many others in the same or worse conditions. soldering on, i climed the third newton hill shortly after 19 miles which left only one hill to climb. i downed energy gel number 5 as i approached the 20 mile mark and prepared for the infamous heartbreak hill.
heartbreak hill on its own isn’t a massive climb as it’s roughly 125 feet in elevation change in maybe a half mile. the agony of heartbreak hill is that you’ve been pounded with downhills for the first 16 miles followed by more than 4 miles with 3 significant uphills before climbing this one last hill on your way out of newton. after cresting heartbreak, it’s a downhill run to downtown boston.
35K (21.7 miles) greeted me in 2:38:07. my overall pace had dropped to 7:44 per mile. i vaugely remember some guys trying to offer me a beer as i ran by. admittedly, i was tempted but knew i had some work to do first. i shuffled along to 40K (24.8 miles) in 3:15:43 (7:52 overall pace) which would have been a good finishing time. unfortunately i still had a little under a mile and a half to run.
i passed under the giant citgo sign and saw the one mile to go banner. we made a right then a left onto boylston street. even with the lousy weather, there were spectators lined 4/5 deep. seeing the finish line i picked up the pace and smiled with great satisfaction. i crossed the finish line in 3:27:36 with an overall pace of 7:55 per mile. my finishing time ranks 6th best of my 18 marathon finishes.
Overall – 4,889 out of 20,348 finishers
Men – 4,224 out of 12,373 finishers
Division – 2,374 out of 9,059 finishers
after finishing, i was given a space blanket to try and stay warm. i stooped over, untied my shoes and exchanged the computer chip for my finishers medal. i gathered some food and water and walked toward the buses that had our gear bags. many of the folks from my race number range had finished around the same time i had. the volunteers weren’t keeping up with the need and i began shivering uncontrolably. knowing this wasn’t a good sign, i tried going on the bus but was admonished for doing so. luckily, my bag was found shortly thereafter and i headed toward boston common. after clearing the finish area, i hailed a taxi and headed back to the hotel.
after a quick shower in the fitness area, i took the hotel shuttle to the airport. my flight ended up being delayed and by the time i flew into cleveland my connecting flight had already left for milwaukee. i got a room for the night and got up early the next morning to fly home.
this boston marathon was intended to be a redemptive effort for a sub-par performance in 2002 at boston. my 2007 effort didn’t improve on my 2002 time but i did run the entire way, instead of resorting to a walk like i had in 2002. obviously the weather didn’t cooperate in the 2007 edition, which was evident with the slowest winning times for both the men and women’s races. in the end, i view the effort as a character building experience. we’re not given perfect circumstances all the time and sometimes we just have to make the best of the situation we’re presented with. in the end, i gave what i had on race day and finished with a smile on my face.