Boston Marathon!!
We took a hired car to the marathon which worked out very well hind site. The only down part is not knowing if you will get there and how far you will have to walk if you can't get through. This is something I will do for sure next year. We did have to walk about a mile to the villiage which would have been ok if we had more chuck away clothes. I think when your nervous especially the first Boston you start to shiver a bit more.
Got to the villiage and G had to stand in line for 1 hour for the bathroom so I had a pee 2 times in the bushes and waited for him. By the time he was done it was time to start walking to the corals, therefore we did not get to the athletes villiage which was kind of a bummer. Walked to the corals about a mile and waited for the start, pretty smooth if you ask me.
I was in awe for most of the start with the amount of runners and the down slope we were running, I thought to myself " they all were not exagerating" I did not panic and stayed with the flow thinking this would help me out and keep me from going out too fast. To my surprise I was on pace for a 3 hour marathon at 5k. I was a bit emotional at that crossing becasue I could all my support back home as my first time was posted. The first 5k I did feel slugish but I said to myself that's ok, no problem it will pass. It did pass and I started to pick up the pace not knowing it, I looked at the garmin and I was as low as 6:15's, I decided to keep a good pace but not push it. At 10k I was 258 predicted and 15k I was predicted at 258 finish as well so I was told by everyone watching the splits.
Around mile 8 I started to feel my right side which is what eventually what seemed like the end of the world at the time. The stitch really hit me hard at mile 10 and I even had to walk, I could not figure out why now and why BOSTON!! I fought my way to half way at 130 and thought it might pass and moved my goal to 305 but only a mile later before the toughest part of the course I had thoughts about quiting it was just too much pain to handle. I was basically running most of the way bent over by 20 degrees and at times holding my side with my fingures. I had to walk about 5-8 times before heartbreak hill, I only walked for 30 seconds or less but nevertheless it was such a hopeless feeling.
When I got to heart break hill I told myself to shuffle all the way to the top without stopping so that is what I did. When I was at the time I started doing the math and decided that I would fight all the way to the finish without walking, I did not care if it was 10 min miles I was going to finish my first Boston Marathon.
I started to actually get into a groove and felt no need to stop and made sure I did not look at the pace on my watch either because it felt like I was crawling but actually my 35-42.2 was better than 25-35, notice I did not say faster!
Anyways 314:21 great considering and I am so proud of what a any person can do when their back is against the wall and in retrospect I am sure that this marathon will be much more memerable than the day I do break 3 hours.
Booked my hotel room before we left on Tuesday! By the way if anyone is reading this, our hotel is directly at the finish line, I was in my buddies room that had a window and we sat and watched so many people crossing the finish line whild sipping on a nice cold beer, fantastic. The hotel is called the Charlesmark, awesome boutique hotel.
Congratulations everyone who ran the 2009 Boston Marathon.
Sorry, I wrote this quickly back to reality, work.
So nice to run again today without a stitch!!!
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