This is going to be long so be prepared, Kimmy ask me to
give her all the details. If you only want
to read about the my race skip to the heading Race Report.
James and I left for Boston on Monday the 11th,
James was going to work all week and that left me time to sleep in and
relax. That is exactly what I did. I think I got at least 8 hours of sleep each
night and I may have even had one night with 10 hour! I enjoyed several runs along the Charles
River it is so beautiful.
On Wednesday we drove the course together. I printed off the description of the course and
would read it as James drove along. I
wanted to take a ton of pictures but it was raining really hard so I only took
two. One picture was at the start and
then one at the John Kelley statue.
I was lucky to go to
the expo on Friday right when it opened.
There was no crowd at all. I kept
telling James “this took us hours last year”.
We were done in just under an hour but my feet still hurt. I have to remember that I need to wear my
comfy shoes not my cute shoes to the expo.
Finally Saturday arrived and the crew started to come
in. We meet for the best Chinese food (thanks
to Smooth and Larry) and great conversation!
Sunday morning went to brunch with Rhett and Doone again a great
time. I really think I do this just to
be with all the great runners in our group!
After brunch we were off to church and then after church we went up to
the North end of Boston for Italian food!!!!
I had ravioli and it was so yummy.
Because we ate so early we avoided the crowds, best idea yet (thanks
Doone for setting that up). After dinner
laid out all my race stuff I was completely ready to go and it was only
8:00. Took an Advil PM and I was out by
9:00!
Monday morning I woke up before my alarm went off at
5:00. We were meeting at 6:15 in the
lobby so I got up took a nice long bath ate breakfast and headed down right
around 6:00. It is a good thing runners
are skinny I think there were at least 20 of us in the elevator! I was happy to see that Rhett had tried to
squeeze in the same elevator it was nice to see a friendly face. We had a group
of 10 of us I hope I can remember them all: Lark, Canyon, Smooth, Rhett, Tom
Slick, Hillbilly, Bobcat Terry (a friend of Canyon) and myself.
As we were loading up on the busses Tom and Hillbilly got
separated and had to take another bus but we told them to meet us in the usual
spot. We started to blow up our air
mattresses. Smooth and Lark blew theirs
up right away. I however couldn’t get
mine to blow up at all. I finally gave
up even though it had hardly any air in it.
Smooth and I then started to make our way to the port-o-potties we did
this over and over we were very well hydrated.
Finally it was time to head over to the start. Lark, Smooth and I were the only ones left
in the third wave. I kept looking around
saying wow these people are all old, and then I realized I am old!!!! I am going to
try to work really hard to get into the second wave next year so that I can
keep denying my old age for a while!
When we went to drop our bags at the busses it was a mad house. I lost Smooth and Lark before the race had
even started. I waited for them for a
while but knew I would never find them in all these people.
I hurried to the start and got there just as the gun went
off.
RACE REPORT
It seemed to be a lot more crowded this year and everyone
was running a lot slower. Maybe it was
because Teena was not at the start running like a crazy lady and setting a
really fast pace! I had a hard time
getting around people and I was tired of fighting the crowd. Anyway my first mile was supposed to be 8:32
and it came up as 9:03. Thirty seconds
behind and I am only on mile one.
I decided right then I am going to run by what feels good
and see what happens. The splits for the next few miles are listed with the
pace I should have ran in parentheses.
8:29 (8:40) 8:13 (8:32) 8:23 (8:32)
By mile 5 I have caught up and I even have gained an extra
30 seconds. I feel really good. I am hoping
that I have not gone out too fast and I will crash on the hills. Splits: 8:28
(8:58) 8:44 (8:34) 8:22 (8:40)
Still feeling great I hope I am not running to fast. 8:40 (8:45) 8:38 (8:40) 8:37 (8:50) by this
time I am a minute ahead.
I know I am going too fast.
I tell myself that for the next six miles I need to slow way down and I
try I really do. Splits: 8:58 (8:50) 8:37 (8:34) 9:06 (8:40) 8:42 (8:40) 8:58
(8:45) 9:07 (8:32) oh no I have slowed too much and I find myself 30 seconds
slow again and I am losing steam.
I readjust my goal now instead of going for 3:50 I am going
to try for 3:55. This means I am now 4 minutes
and 30 seconds ahead. Unfortunately I am
now heading into the famous Newton hills. Splits: 9:20 (9:11) 9:14 (9:11) 9:06
(8:45) 9:39 (9:01)
I am about to go up heartbreak hill. I still have a few minutes in the bank but my
legs are gone. I now just want to qualify
again anything under 4:00 and I will be happy. Splits 10:06 (9:16) 9:00 (8:45)
9:09 (8:45) 9:57
Two miles left I try to do the math I think I have qualified
but my brain won’t work I give up 10:11 (8:45)
I see the CITGO sign…I think I can make it one more mile “come
on Kathie you can do this” 8:38 (8:55)
I come in at 3:58:59 I just barely qualify, I hope I can get
in next year just to see if I can ever run the last six miles of this race
strong!
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