Well, it was crazy! Quite the rookie Boston experience for me. It rained all night, but when Chris and I got off the train it was just sprinkling, but when we got to the clothing drop off it started rain cats and dogs! We got soaked getting onto the bus and the ride there took forever and the windows were open so it was cold.
When we got to the start we were directed to the porta pots in a sewer swamp where every step your feet would sink in muddy water. I asked a volunteer if there was a better place, amybe concrete somewhere, he told me no that this was the best spot. If I saw that guys again I probably would have knocked him out! After trudging through the mud and water we went around the corner and there was a track! We could have sat on the track and turf and not gotten muddy. Of course being rookies we didn't have extra shoes to chuck, which is what I would do next time. So we were ticked adn wet, muddy, and cold before we even walked to the start.
It stopped raining before the start, and other than the pre-race BS it wasn't bad, just sprinkling. I started in the middle of wave corral 2 in wave one. The start was crazy because everyone takes off and they are all of your own ability, so it was crazy, just trying not to trip over people the first 4 miles. The first 5 miles were so muggy and humid that I was sweating bullets the whole time. This concerned me because of the amount of fluids I seemed to be losing. I was careful to drink often and I took electrolytes and all 3 Gu. The weather was crazy too. It would get hot and muggy, then sprinkle a bit and be muggy, and then cold and muggy. I welcomed the cold part, because I have been used to doing runs in the dry cold air of Utah, 20- 35 degrees most of the time.
I never really felt good the whole time, and my attitude sucked off the bat because of the pre-race issues. I started at 6:20 pace, then started to fall back to about 6:27 pace by half. By then I could tell I was running out of gas, literally! Imissed my family and Chris' family at 16 miles too. I started to really fade the last 10k and then after dragging Heartbreak, the legs were starting to slow a lot more. The last 4 miles I would put a little surge on and feel the calves trying hard to cramp, so I would slow back dow, but I didn't care at that point since my average was going down the toilet. I just wanted to finish! I have never run out of gas like that, I am sure it was the humidy that contributed a large part of that. The other bummer was that I was close to Chris and Damon Cox a lot of the race and never saw them. I was bummed about that because running with a friend might have helped a bit, but on the other hand I was plain old done!
When I crossed the line I felt crappy, but kept moving because the body was starting to cramp up. I have never been so drained at the ened of any of my 27 marathons. I drank 7 cups of Gatorade at the finish and 3 water bottles as I staggered down the street. I had a banana and protein bar too, I was out of fuel bad!
I made it to the clothing pick up and then to the family meeting area, which of course both were the furthest away. When I got to the meeting area I saw Riley Cook, then my wife and son, and my buddy Damon Cox, and Chris and his family all together close. We had a good visit at the end.
Overall, Boston was a good experience. The trip was great and I finished decent for conditions and my lack of long runs and decent training. I will go back and do it agian, but I will no longer be a rookie, I will be better prepared when I do. The energy of the runners, family, and city was amazing, wished I could have sucked some of it up to propel myself to a little better race, but that is how marathons go sometimes.
| 