I won’t go into great detail about the party events or this thing will need binding and a publisher, but I love my imaginary internet friends so much, my heart is full to the brim and then some.

Beautiful babes from the Women’s BQ thread

Disco hummer limo to Ron’s house
Ron’s brunch with a clever idea for us to “put our balls on the table”, a favorite phrase of Paul/Zab, who sadly could not be there that afternoon due to a family commitment.

After Ron’s party, I went to the pasta dinner where I got to spend some quality time with my California gal-pals Barb and Jackie. What an incredible weekend of friendship.

Race Day Morning

Audra and I got up at 5:00am, I had a peanut butter sandwich and coffee, then we took the T with our little group to Boston Commons, meeting up with some of the guys from the sub 3:20 thread, then boarded a bus for the Athletes Village.  Once we arrived, I had another peanut butter sandwich, then went around and said hi to a couple different forum factions so the time went very quickly.   Didn’t take long before we were checking our bags and walking to our respective corrals.

The weather was perfect: 40s at the start, low 50s at the finish (the winds were crosswinds and even some tailwind in spots).  I had my small bottle which I filled up twice during the race and I carried 5 gels, though only ate 3.

Here I am with Steve (aka Gladiator) at the Athlete’s Village after I discover my throw-away pants are wet, thanks to a water bottle opening in my bag.  Oh well.

The Boston Marathon Begins

It took 12 minutes for my corral (Corral 13) to cross the mat and I got quite teary as we approached, thinking about the fact that it would be my last marathon and that I couldn’t have chosen a more awe-inspiring way to finish, but also, fear for what the day would bring.

If you’re new to this blog, I’ve been lucky to qualify for Boston with both marathons I’ve done, but both ended on an ugly note: one with a seized-up back so hunched over I couldn’t stand up and huge blood blisters on both feet, and the second one spent run/walking for nearly 8 miles.  So as I approached the start loaded with a ton of emotions, I said aloud, “Here we go, Flo” and hoped it would be a good day.

Pacing

A couple posts earlier, I showed you my paceband, which didn’t have a single pace on it, just where the hills were and how long each one was.  I ended up writing my 10 mile and 13.1 projection on the back of my hand with a sharpie, so at least I’d have a clue by the halfway point if my goal was on or not.  This worked out perfectly – a traditional pace band would have been useless to me, I didn’t even pay attention to the Garmin in the second half.

I was aiming for 7:45 average and expected some faster miles in the first half, but settled back a bit so by the time the Half came, I knew my goal of 3:24ish was gone – I was already 2 minutes over and still had the hills to contend with.  But I was so relaxed about the goal, really wanting to make this a “by feel” race, that anything under 8:00s on the non-hills was fine by me.   All I really cared about was trying to make this the first marathon where I didn’t walk and could finish in one piece.

The Hills

I was very worried about the hills since my usual running route doesn’t have any, but for this cycle I did all my Sunday long runs on a trail that has some elevation to work with.  It paid off.  I couldn’t believe how non-scary the hills were.  The first one came and it was so uneventful, I passed a bunch of people and it didn’t last very long so then I thought the next one must be way harder, but no, I took them as they came all the way through Heartbreak Hill.

I was so surprised that by 21-22 I got some extra energy and ran it a bit harder, but I realized that was pretty stupid since anything could happen before 26.2, so I made myself chill out.  Sure enough, the last few miles felt much tougher.

Body-wise, the downhills didn’t do too much to me, I had some IT band twinges in the second half, but fleeting.  My ankle was troublesome for a good while and but my feet weren’t too horrible (no blisters or bruises this time!), though I did tie my shoes tight to keep my feet from sliding on the downhills, and the right one was too tight, so I spent a few miles wondering if I should retie it, but eventually forgot about it.

Splits

7:58
7:48
7:38
7:44
7:52
7:46
7:50
7:59
7:56
8:00
8:03
7:45
7:55
8:02
8:05
7:41
8:11
8:10
7:58
8:19
8:25
7:42
7:54
7:58
8:06
7:48
1:47

No walking, no wheelchair.  Yay me!!

In the end, the course was not as difficult as I’d anticipated.  Might also be helped by having screaming people surrounding you from the start to the finish, which I found pretty entertaining as a whole but I didn’t high-five or interact with anyone.   I thought the Wellesley tunnel would be louder, wasn’t so astounding as I’d imagined, though it was pretty funny.

I was only ok on tangents because there was always a thick stream of people and with all the water stops, it seemed like going down the center of the road was often the best bet.

Final Statistics
3:28:29
66th in AG out of 1583, 1136 out of 9772 women, 6641 out of 23126 OA.

The People of Boston

I cannot believe how amazing the hundreds upon hundreds of volunteers were.  You would be shocked at how kind and happy and helpful they were, from the Expo to the pasta dinner to the race, over and over you’d hear stuff like “have a great race” and “great job”.

Then the non-volunteering Bostonians were just as supportive; you’d be walking after the race and one after another would say “congratulations!” or talk to you on the train about it.  It was like a cocoon of good feelings wherever you went.  I can’t describe it adequately.

Did I Buy A Jacket?

Sorry to disappoint, but no I didn’t.  I just didn’t care enough about it.  The color combo is too vibrant for my tastes and the fabric too thin to be very useful.  I will say though, that the race shirt is great and the only one I’ve ever gotten in a goody bag that I’ll actually wear (it fits properly, which is so rare for us small gals)

Did I Change My Mind About Quitting Marathons?

Hell no!  Around mile 7 I reconfirmed that it’s the absolute correct choice for me.  That was when my ankle had already started hurting, my feet were already feeling the pavement and I was thinking, “19 more miles of this shit?”  Not interested.

But what a way to go!

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