BayState Marathon - RunMarathon

After the gun went off, I found myself running next to 3 Lowell Runner guys in green shirts. They looked young and had good form, but they were going just a little faster than I wanted... maybee a 7:10 pace, but I figured I would stay with them for a while. They had a coach come by on a bicycle and check in with them and give them splits, so I would listen in and make sure I was on pace.
The 3 green shirt guys had a nice pace going and a good sized group formed around them, and I was happy to stay there for a while. Gatorade was at every 2 miles and I was doing alright at squeezing the cup and taking in as much as I could in the mouth and not up the nose. Some cups were full and that gatorade deffinately went up the nose. At 7mi there was the first gels to hand out and I grabbed one that ended up being chocolate, which wasnt that bad, and my tummy didn't mind it too bad.
Before I knew it we were out of Downtown and on a nice road with the leaves changing and running next to the river, and there were lots of spectators cheering. I gotta say having the name Mike is nice because people are allways yelling for some guy named mike at any given momement.
As mile 10 came around, I was taking gatorade every station and gel at mile seven, so my belly was getting a little full, but I knew it would pay off. I usually never take anything on my run, unless I'm going over 16miles so it was deffinatly a little wierd having so much to drink and eat. It made the 7:10 pace seem more relaxed since I was having so much to eat.
Around mile 13 the coach came by for the green shirt guys and they picked up the pace. So I really didn't want to go much faster and my Garmin said I was about .2mi ahead of the 7:12 I set it for. So I let them take off. I found this other set of legs from a guy with a camelbak and curly leg hair. I couldn't imagine a 7:10 pace with that backpack on, but he was doing fine, so I stayed with him mile 13-15. At mile 15 I saw one of the green shirt guys heading backward, and curly legs started to slow down. So I couldn't stay with those guys.
About that time a girl passes me in pink shorts and she kept a good pace around 7:12 and I was happy with that for a while. We passed a nice golf course and some horses before getting to mile 17 for some more gel. I stocked up and ate them down slowly. At that time the pink short girl started falling back and I was still feeling like just a stroll in the park so I needed a new set of legs to follow.
This time a guy with a red tank top and a necklace was running a good pace just a few yards in front of me so I got on his legs and hung on for awhile. He was good until mile 20, then he started falling backwards. It was becoming noticable that more people were going backwards instead of forwards. I was still feeling good at mile 20 and around mile 21 I saw the rest of the green shirt guys. They were loosing thier pace, but I was still moving and passed them.
About mile 22 I was starting to notice my legs were letting me know that they wanted out of this running thing. My calfs were starting to give up, but I still had my hammies, so the pace was not changing too much. Still my garmin said I was .2mi ahead of where I wanted to be, so I was cool with that.
Mile 24 things started sucking. My hammies said no more, and my calfs were long gone. I had my hip flexors and my quads left, but it became impossible to keep the pace. I was going from .2 to .18 to .14 .... but I only had 2.2 mi to go. I found a guy wearing grey short and a grey shirt and hung onto him as long as I could, but He still had some legs and I was alone again.
Lucky a downhill was coming up and I just let it take me down. People were struggling all around me. The smiling faces have turned to people who looked like they were in crazy pain. I just kept trucking toward the final bridge. Leia was on the bridge and she was excited and started running with me, but I yelled at her not to run, because she was still sick from a cold I gave her last week.
After yelling at leia to stop, I ran into the ballpark figureing I was all done, but we had to run the outfield and into homebase. I made it to the line but with some super stiff legs. Funny enough the thing that hurt the most was my Low Back. Guess I wasn't used to that much extension for 3hrs.


-Bring shorts that had room for gels.

Found leia and while running she lost the camera case so we found that and got the heck out of there before everyone elese got in and caused crazy traffic. Leia was awesome and got the car within .25 miles of the finish so I didn't have to walk far, which was good, because I wasn't able to walk very far without stretching out.


Getting the same cold 2x and a cyst getting infected. Really gave me 3 wks I couldnt' stick with my plan.


Nicely run race, great time of the year for Mass., Great course superfast.

CAN'T BELIVE BOSTON SOLD OUT BEFORE I GOT HOME ON THE COMPUTER!