Boston Marathon - RunMarathon


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Boston, Massachusetts
United States
Boston Athletic Association
Total Time = 3h 24m 11s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group = 35-39
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

Up at 5:20. Got a ride to the buses. Sat on the bus to the start for about 1.5 hours. I was a little surprised at how long it took to get there. Glad I didn't need to use the restroom. Got to the athlete village and found a corner of the building out of the wind to keep warm. Sat around for almost about 1.5 hours.
Event warmup:

Mostly just some stretching. figured I would use the first few miles as warmup since I had no intentions of going for a fast time.
Run
  • 3h 24m 11s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 07m 47s  min/mile
Comments:

Lined up in corral #6. They have about 1,000 people per corral and its seeded by your qualifying time. I learned later that the time difference for my corral was about 2-3 minutes, So essentially, we all had the same time. The race starts and it takes a few minutes to get to the starting line, something I've never experienced before. Kinda a hurry up and wait sort of thing. We got running and it was shoulder to shoulder for about 4-5 miles. Saw lots of people peel off into the little sections of woods to pee. Since I didn't know how populated the rest of the course was, I did the same so I wouldn't be looking for a port-o-can later on. I also didn't realize it at the time, but I tied my left shoe too tight. I had to stop twice to loosen it up. Not a big deal but an annoying interuption. Legs felt good early on. My strategy was to be ultra conservative until I got to the top of heartbreak hill. Then I was going to hit the afterburners and destroy the last 5 miles. The reality was that the downhills destroyed my legs over time, so by the time I got to Newton for the 4 hills, I was actually looking forward to an uphill. At the top of heartbreak hill my legs here pretty much finished. So I shuffled the last 5 miles into the finish. My time was about 12 minutes slower than my qualifying race, but I was pretty much expecting that. The real story though is the race itself. What an experience. I have never seen crowds so big for a race. There isn't a spot on the course without crowds of some sort. I really tried to soak it up. Each town you ran into, the crowds tripled and the noise level was fantastic. The noisiest spot without question is Welsley College. I could here those girls screaming from a quarter mile away. They were all holding signs like 'kiss me, I'm a senior' or 'free kisses', etc. One of the runners next to me decided to take one of the more striking girls up on her offer. Instead of the typical peck though, this girl grabbed the runner and went to town! the guy stumbled off with a big smile. While it was great fun to watch, I decided not to partake. As I mentioned before, I was about 6,000 people back, so I wasn't too jazzed about the thought of the hundreds of others this girl has already kissed. Not into sloppy 300ths. At the bottom of heartbreak hill, I decided to take a group up on their makeshift 'beer aidstation'. Why not? Legs were shot, time was no longer an issue and beer tastes great. The last 3 miles entering town the crowds got progressively larger until the final left turn to the finish. There is about a half mile straight to the finish line and it is just solid people. Good fun. I finished and began to freeze my butt off. I figure the locals didn't think anything of the cold, but I thought I was going to die. Legs tightened up so that it hurt to walk. I spent the rest of the day walking around like a 98 year old man.
Post race
Warm down:

Walked a pretty good distance to get to my bag

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Poor training volume and no training on hills whatsoever.

Event comments:

Definitely would recommend. I'm not a bigtime runner, so I don't know if I will go back. I'll probably move onto the next thing on my bucket list, but I am sure glad I got to experience this great race.




Last updated: 2009-02-02 12:00 AM
Running
03:24:11 | 26.2 miles | 07m 47s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance:
Course: Rolling Hills
Keeping cool Drinking
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?
Evaluation
Course challenge
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5