Linning up I felt good and confident that this would be a good race. The gun went off and corral C was at the start in minutes. The first mile seemed to take a long time and then mile 2 was the same. By mile 3 I needed my inhaler and I could tell I wasn't running well. My RPE was very high, like a 9. I felt like I was almost sprinting by my effort but my time at the 5k was off pace. The 3:40 pace team went running by and I heard them say "we are as close to an 8:23 pace as we can get" I tried to stay with them but it was so hard. My legs would not move and everytime I tried to push the pace my lungs would tighten and my HR would sky rocket. I knew right then this wasn't going to be my day. I had to let them go. By the time I got to the 10k mark I knew for sure Boston was out and I started to question if I could even finish the race. Every mile was felt and every mile I counted down one at a time. It was a horrible feeling. All I wanted to do was DNF but I knew that I would feel worse if I did that. After I went through the mile 12 aid station I had to take my inhaler again. Twice. I saw my parents and stopped to talk to them and tell them I was way off pace. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest and squeezing my lungs. I was so heavy and tired and it was so unexpected. It crushed me. By mile 14 or 15 I started getting my lungs back and my legs started to feel better but the damage was done. My mind was no longer in race mode and since my goal was impossible I took it "easy" the rest of the way in. I stopped at the aid stations to make sure I was hydrating and ran from one to the next. It was so freaking hot now it was stiffling. I dumped water on my head at every water stop from mile 18 on and ran thru all of the misting stations. I had about 23 miles to think of this race report and what I would say. I knew that early this was going to be tough. And it was. This race defeated me.

I have been asking myself this and have put a lot of thought into what I could have done. My asthma is completely random and I could not have forseen that part of my race. The first 14 miles I did what I could but I really was at the hands of my body and it would not let me move any faster. I could of had a better attitude but I didn't. I was angry and upset. Knowing from that early on and feeling as bad as I did physically it was hard to salvage anything positive, at that time.

Not much. I did a lot of walking...so it seemed. I met up with runners and runner support after and ate 2 hotdogs.


This is a tough question. I obviously want to say asthma, weather and my attitude but I feel like that would just be an excuse. Had I not had a bad asthma attack would my legs have felt so terrible? I don't know. Would I have been able to beat the hot sun and temps? I don't know. The thing is, I don't know to what effect any of these had on my race. It was a perfect combination of the 3.