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Comments: Thanks to a comfortable pace, I felt pretty relaxed and strong through 18. The 16 miles of downhill running really take a toll on your quads so I actually welcomed the hill section to use different muscle groups. The hills were tough, but I shortened my stride a bit and made it through ok. By the time I hit 21 the legs were definitely sore from all the hills. I made it through to mile 22 I think and was on pace for 3:24 or so which would have surpassed my expectations so I figured I had plenty of cushion. Around mile 22 I decided to stop at each water station, get some fluids, walk through the station, and then run a mile to the next water station. I basically did that the rest of the way which cost me 6-7 minutes maybe but that's ok. I also stopped around mile 25 to help this young girl who was crying hysterically cause her legs had cramped up. I tried to give her some encouragement but I think she was mentally bonked and she actually turned around for a second, then walked off the course. I hope she finished. I made the last turn and could see the finish line nearly a 1/2 mile away and picked up the pace pretty good to finish strong. Was happy I did that. I also had a guy dressed in a full cow-suit and there was no way I was going to let him beat me, nor did I want him showing up in any finish-line picture! Was just over 3:30ish pace which was totally fine, especially in those conditions. The wind was brutal. The 25 minutes or so it took to make it through the finish chute, find my bus, and wait in line for the guy to find my race bag was almost worse than the race. My body temp was falling super fast and I was shaking uncontrollably. What a horrible feeling that was. Thank god for the warm, dry clothes in the zip lock bags. I changed quickly right in the middle of the road and once zipped up starting feeling better. Called Mike on his cell and we tracked each other down. He hoped to run 2:50-2:55 and finished in 3:04. He's amazing. He really suffered from the cold temps and was very dizzy, nauceous, and mentally a bit out of it. We found a warm place to sit inside just down the street, I got us a couple of hot chocolates and poor Mike fell asleep right on the table. He was hurting. 30 minutes later we marched to the train station, took the train back to his sister's and cleaned up. Did the weight check again this year which was interesting. Last year was scary, and why I ended up in the medical tent. Pre-race weight was 153 and later that night I was 138, wow! This race I was 154 pre-race and 148.5 post-race. Much better. Splits: 23:34 5K 47:04 10K 1:11:01 15K 1:35:27 20K 1:40:45 Half 1:59:41 25K 2:24:42 30K 2:50:52 35K 3:19:50 40K 3:32:11 Finish What would you do differently?: Really nothing. I intentially avoided Gatorade during the race, but took some and diluted it with water around mile 22. Every 30 minutes or so I would hit a water station, each 2 Energy Jelly Beans and take in some water. But I stopped with the jelly beans around mile 17 as my stomach just didn't feel like it could take anything else. Hydration and jelly beans seemed about right. I am quite happy with the overall time, how I paced the run, stayed pretty positive mentally throughout, and felt pretty good from a cardio standpoint all the way to the finish. That course just beats the crap out of the legs, and the cold rain didn't help the cramping.  Post race
Warm down: Hot chocolate! Walked a few blocks in Boston to find something warm to drink and to find the train station. What limited your ability to perform faster: Weather for sure. Wish I left out the 4 or 5 walk/water breaks the last few miles, would have brought me in around 3:25 maybe, but no worries at all. Had no time goals and am feeling quite well today aside from some achy joints and sore quads. Event comments: Super tough course, and most physically challenging marathon I've done yet mostly because of the course combined with the Nor'easter weather storm. Good experience though, proud of how I handled it all. Last updated: 2007-04-13 12:00 AM
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United States
Boston Athletic Association
45F / 7C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 6,048/20,348
Age Group = 18-39
Age Group Rank = 2618/9,059
Left Mike's sister's place at 6:20am to grab the transportation to the race. After a quick stop at some marathon function with bagels and whatnot, we headed towards the race. The school she works for apparently is in with the police and they are able to get us past the closed roads and baracades and dropped us off right at the race pavillion. Saves us from taking the train into Boston, and then the marathon buses all the way back to the start, very cool!
Weather was horrific in the morning, pooring rain, unbelievable winds, etc... I brought a super strong golf umbrella that I would ditch later and a wind gust actually inverted it. Was crazy!!!
We arrived at the race pavillion around 8:15am, the pavillion was empty cause all the runners were huddled under a few large tents set up. I saw people sitting underneath delivery trucks, underneath buses, anything to find shelter. We found a wall with a small overhang the kept most of the rain away and shelter us from the winds. We covered up in garbage bags and waited it out til about 9:15am. A quick restroom stop (there seemed to be more this year which was nice) and we began the 1/2 mile walk to the starting corral after dropping our race bags at the buses. Rains were really coming down on the walk to the starting line, and it was slow going. Mike and I gave each other a quick "Good Luck" and he was in corral 3 and I was in 6, and by the time I got in my corral the anthem was playing and it was 5 minutes to the start.
Very little stretching in the starting corral just minutes before the race. Wanted to stretch more but I probably walked a good mile before hand between the buses and the march to the corral so I figured that was good. I thought I made 3 very good judgement calls which I was very thankful for later:
1. Prior to the race, I decided to wear backup shoes, socks, gloves, a hat and sweatsuit and pack what I actually wore in the race. That turned out to be great as all of these backup items were drenched by the start of the race. I changed into my race gear right before we walked to the starting line so I was beginning the race in nice dry, warm gear, which felt great.
2. In my race bag, I stored in zip lock bags a third set of clothes, socks, sweatsuit, and running pants for after the race. Once I finally retrieved my bag, changing into new, dry clothes never felt so good.
3. My gameplan of treating this as a training run at a comfortable pace made a huge difference. The weather made it too difficult to shoot for much faster, and my steady pace early on made the 5 miles of hills from mile 16-21 fairly comfortable.