My race report starts with the Wednesday before Boston. I ran that morning and felt great, but later that day was really hampered some severe pain that I think was plantar faciaitis. I've dealt with PF before and decided I would just not run anymore till Sat in Boston. I stuck with that and thought it was getting better until I tried to run Sat. afternoon. I did a nice easy run along the river and pulled up a little short of 5 miles do to some intense pain. I hobbled back to the hotel and never thought I was going to get there. That night I went to the Sox game with Smooth and Mr. Smooth, Canyon, MarcE and TomSlick. We had a blast, but with each step I wanted to stop. I tried not to let it affect me, but it did. Sunday I thought it felt a tiny bit better, but maybe that was wishfull thinking. I almost skipped the pre-race dinner because I couldn't stand the thought of walking over to it. I'm glad I went with the gang though. We had a lot of fun. I spent Sunday night laying in bed, not being able to sleep, and praying a lot. I thought Monday morning it felt better, but by the time we walked to the busses it was hurting again. I took all the pain pills I thought was safe, hung out with the gang at the village, and then went a met up with MattK. We headed over to the corrall together. It was way cool being so close to the start. We crossed the starting line within 20 secs of the start and were off and running without doing the whole jogging/walking thing I've done in the past from a few corrals farther back. MattK and I ran the first half together and we were right on pace where we wanted to be. I tried not to think about my foot, but with each step there was sharp pain. At mile 2 we passed a lady holding a sign that said, "With God, anything is possible." Each time I wanted to quit due to pain, I used that as my montra. At the half way mark I realized that I had not been pushing off with my right foot so my left calf was doing all the work. I told Matt to go on ahead and get his Sub 3. (And he did! You'll have to read his report.) I backed off the pace, knowing that if I didn't I may not finish. It took me a few miles to mentally accept the fact that I wasn't going to get my goal, but that I should be super stoked that God allowed me to have the stregth to endure and hopefully finish the race and if I even finished I should be super happy. I kept repeating my montra from above. After coming to grips with not going sub 3 I started having a blast out there. I noticed things I had never seen before. I enjoyed running the Newton Hills. I high five many children and and fun with the crowd. At one point around mile 25 the foot pain hit an all time high and I thought I may be walking in, but it went back to where it had been. I did the airplane running down Boylston a few times and raised my arms in victory as I finished, slower than I would have liked, but still with a new Boston PR. My foot is close to a 10 on the pain scale, but the good news is since I didn't go all out on the second half the only muscle discomfort I have is my left calf which had to do twice the work. I'm going to the doctor tomorrow to figure out exactly what happened and what I need to do to get it better. Looks like I'll be rehabbing for a while. I had a blast at Boston this year! I am more than happy with my finishing time of 3:08:40 considering the circumstances. I think it is a small miracle that I was even able to run 26.2 miles. | 