Had SO much fun the entire Boston weekend: meeting new friends, re-united with old friends, ate so good, Chinese on Sat. with 24 friends and families, Italian on Sun. and Legal Seafood on Mon. with the gang! Was so great to meet fellow bloggers in person: Kam, his wife and parents, RattleTrap and his family. Saw Ryan Hall at the Expo. Rode the hotel elevator with Paul Petersen. AmberG & Amanda had dinner with us...I was SO EXCITED for Amber...lots of giggles!!! :) New activity for me this year was going to the Old South Church for the Blessings of the Athletes with Lowell & Terry on Sun. which was also Palm Sunday...very cool!!! Had so much fun that almost forgot I had a marathon to run! :)
It had been windy and rainy everyday except race morning. The running gods were with us this year, temps in the 40s-50s, mostly sunny sky, WSW 16mph wind. It's no wonder that Geoffrey Mutai set the world record and won the 115th Boston Marathon in 2:03:02. Only wish I had the health and fitness to take advantage of the perfect race condition. Due to illnesses, patellar tendonitis and busy family events, my training this Winter hadn't gone as well as I wanted: not enough downhill running for fear of aggravating the knee, ran only two 20 milers and very very little speedwork. I did put in the necessary mileage and some tempo runs and marathon paced miles. Thus, my goal was to finish my 4th Boston without a trip to the med tent. We (Marcie, Kathie, Rhett, Lark, TomSlick, Ronnie, Jose, Lito) rode the bus to Hopkinton and got there at 7:45 with almost 3 hours to kill. Kathie and I had a ton of fun lounging on our air mattresses, lots of giggles, p-o-p trips, tried to stay warm, hydrated and snacked on honey pretzel, chex mix, banana, PowerBar chew, gatorade. We said goodbye and wished our fast friends great runs as they headed to their wave 1 and 2 start. Finally it was time for Lark, Kathie and I to head to our wave 3 start. We lost Kathie at the bag drop off. Lark and I crossed the start mat at 10:46am. He managed to keep track of me while we weaved through throngs of slower runners. I lost him at the first aid station. I told him I would try to stay in the middle of the road should we get separated. I figured he would soon find me. (Mile 1-6 ~ 9:14, 8:48, 8:51, 8:35, 8:55, 8:58). My pace and thoughts started to drift quite a bit as my mind was filled with thoughts of my children, my SSF, upcoming wedding and mission farewells, and memories of past Bostons. Somewhere after Wellesley, Lark came up to me and woke me up. We crossed the half at 1:59:xx. (Mile 7-13 ~ 8:48, 9:11, 8:54, 9:08, 9:09, 9:18, 9:13). Lark asked how my knee was doing. He said the ball of his feet were on fire. That's when I realized my knee hasn't bothered me at all, in fact it was fine the entire race. But there was a blister forming on the ball of my left foot and both my quads were screaming. I told him I felt fine...everything is great...(ya, big lies)! He soon had to stop to tend to his blisters and I continued the rest of the race alone with my thoughts and aware of how painful my quads were getting. (Mile 14-20 ~ 9:07, 9:20, 9:18, 10:08, 10:10, 9:54, 10:21) I started to wheeze going up the first hill past the highway overpass so had to take the inhaler.
I passed father/son Richard & Rick Hoyt at mile 16.8 just before the Newton Fire Station where we would make a right turn to begin the Newton Hills. It was so inspiring to see them giving me resolve to NOT walk the hills. On the steeper 3rd hill, I was asked by 3 different runners: "Is this Heartbreak Hill?" to which I replied: "No, not yet!" "Where is it?" "It's right after mile 20. No worries, it's not as steep as this one, you are doing great!" The crowds, the music, the drums were AWESOME!!! I was able to RUN (albeit in the 10s) the hills! From Newton on I did not look at my Garmin once because I was afraid to see how slow I was going. The crowd at Boston College was as wild and loud as ever. However my screaming quads was much louder. I knew it would be disaster if I charged down the hill. I just focused on shorter strides and ignored the painful quads. I managed to high five all the kids (the only spectators at my level of height)! At around mile 22, Sharla Fillmore (Kam's mother) came up and asked: "Is that you Smooth?" I was so happy to see a familiar face (even though I had only met her for the first time at Sat. night's dinner). I congratulated her and told her how PROUD I was of her. Here she is at 64, running her 2nd Boston Marathon and passing all these youngsters (me)! It was as if I was running backward with all these runners flying by! I finally looked at my Garmin and was horrified at how slow I was running. I bonked BIG time!!! I could not get my legs to go any faster. The Citgo sign was still half a mile away when my Garmin read 3:59:xx. Oh Well, I am going to finish and I'm going to finish with a happy smile instead of cramps! Finally reached Boylston, I looked for James, Doone and my hubby outside the Convention Center among thousands of spectators. I blew them kisses and headed to the finish with a satisfying smile on my face! It's over! No more running! I walked wobbly with throngs of runners to get our recovery drink/food, blanket and medal! I kissed my medal and started to tear up with emotions! YES, I finished and avoided a trip to the med tent! (Mile 21-finish ~ 11:09, 10:05, 10:36, 11:17, 11:24, 12:20, last .59 mile in 6:50) CONGRATULATIONS to all my fellow bloggers who ran GREAT times today! :) :) :)
THANK YOU all for your many well wishes, love and support! You're the best! :) :) :)
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