Boston Marathon Recap
I don’t really know where to start with this recap, as its been years in the making. Everyone has a different Boston story on how they get there, but all come with their own set of difficulties. Long story short, I’ve been signed up 3 times and this is the first time I got to the line. The way I got to the line this cycle was anything but grand. If this cycle happened with any other training cycle, I would have scrapped it. But how do you scrap Boston? You can’t, especially with how long it took me to get there.
Leading up o the race, I had more apprehension than excitement. I was worried my bum calf wasn’t going to hold up. How would I feel running 26.2 at once when I maxed out at 46 miles a week back in March and the rest of my weekly miles were 20-35ish. I tried to push it out of my head, even with everyone being so positive with the “its fine, you will do fine” Yes, I know I could do just fine, but the problem is I am competitive and want to perform my best. I do not take pride showing up unprepared and that is what I did here. I guess it doesn’t matter because I go the job done!
Race morning was a little unsettling when I woke up to T-storms. Would the race be delayed?? Would we be stuck out at the start with an unknown start time? What if I get hungry since I am eating so much before a race than normal. Usually I wake up, eat, and I am running within the hour. Weather looked ominous, but it was clearing out. Ok, we will be good. Ashley and I drove out to Hopkinton and it definitely crossed my mind how far out we are actually going. I lived in Boston for 9 years, don’t think I ever made the jaunt out that way.
Our timing was great, we were ushered up to the front of the bus line because they were loading red bibs. We got ourselves all written up with our name all over us. This is key…. the people want to know who they are cheering for, so give the people what they want! When you are feeling like you can’t go on, hearing your name makes all the difference in the world! We hopped off the bus and vetoed athletes village to just jog over to the line. I have to say, the organization of this race is amazing. I think we only had to wait around 10ish minutes before the start and that was great.
I hopped into my corral and I felt like it was me and all dudes. I was worried it would be a stampede at the start. I am not one to sprint out. Put on my music and waited. Crossed the start line and we were off! I was checking my watch incessantly to make sure I wasn’t screwing myself early on. I remained controlled and went through in 715! Yay me, I felt really good and pushed thoughts out of my head of what I might feel like later.
I just decided to cruise and take in the sites. I was running fine, pretty even and then went through the half – I wasn’t looking at total time or average time, so if i didn’t see my mile splits I really didn’t have a gauge. I didn’t look at the total time so I didn’t know I went through in about 1:34. This was probably way too ambitious. Did I really think on no training I would go run 310.. I guess I did. Good for me for being ambitious.
I decided after this point, maybe we should slow it down a bit. I didn’t want to absolutely die on the hills and the last 6 miles. I knew I would most likely be fine through 20ish and then lack of training would show up. I kept counting down the miles until I knew I would see my friends at 17. I also wanted to get rid of my belt. It was soaked with sweat and was just bothering me. Saw them gave a big smile and went on my merry way. I take pride on my hill work and usually can handle hills. I did not have that in me, I just kept pep talking myself to keep running, stay focused and get to BC. That would make me smile and I knew it would. I went to BC and for practice sometimes we would run the newton hills at tempo and end at BC.
It was hot at this point and I was taking water and gatorade at every stop. I needed more, but I knew if I stopped to a walk, I would never want to start again. That wasn’t happening. Oh at this point I was well into high 8s for pace on these hills. I still (stupidly) thought to myself, I think once you get to BC, you can bring it back down! Great positive thinking on my part. I think my worst mile was a 9:50. But honestly, it didn’t get me discouraged. I was running the freakin Boston Marathon and I had a huge cheer group waiting at mile 25.5. Just get there!
I tried to get my speed back and I think came back with an 830 and that was all I had. I was done at that point and just took in Beacon street and cruised it in. I wanted to be functioning at the finish. In past lives, I would have gone against better judgement to really extend myself to run faster. It wasn’t going to beat my PR and I was fine with that. Just enjoy the moment. I realized Boston is one of those races that its just magical to be there. Anything you run is going to be fantastic. If its a PR, fabulous, if its your slowest marathon to date (for me), fabulous, you finished!
Before the race I set out to run the race with 2 goals, finish faster than I started and to finish happy and smiling. 50% for me! Yay! I think out of the two, I would rather be smiling and happy to be honest. I do know I will be back next year, and I hope to be back every year that I am able. I learned a lot about myself and the mind this cycle. You can do what you think you cant. I also learned to be at peace with situations and I can actually run a marathon for “fun”. If you asked me that before the race I would say absolutely not. A marathon is not supposed to be fun! The training you put in, the boring schedule, all to perform well! I am not going to just run one to run one. That perspective has done a complete 180. Marathons can be fun and this one for the most part was.
We all want PRs every race, but that just isn’t viable. Looking back I think I didn’t let my body fully take time to heal after St. George. I was so ampped up with my PR, I wanted to get right back into it. I had a mission to break 3 since I was so close. The warning signs came early on in my training and maybe I should have paid better attention. After Hawaii, which was like running a marathon between the crazy hard trail half and the near death hike experience. I had some hammy pain around Christmas. I thought it was just soreness, whatever. A week later I cut my 14 miler short at 6 because of knee pain I had never experienced. January became this horrible mental struggle of it feels better, it doesn’t, it does. What is wrong with me? MRI came back clean and it looks like my tendons were inflamed. A steroid shot fixed that, but the overuse was there and my body was telling me. Instead I saw I only had 41 training miles in January and I had to ramp back up!
February was probably the only steady training of the cycle, I had 4 weeks in a row of consistent running. By March I thought I was back. I decided to go for an 18 miler because I was behind. Prior to that I ran some shorter races, and had a 14 miler. I then did an aggressive speed workout the following Tuesday. The next 3 weeks would be torturous. I missed peak week all together along with many other weeks. The only goal here was get to the line healthy. Cross training is fine and all, but it doesn’t take the place of long runs and speed work.
I did get to that line healthy, but severely undertrained. Long run of 18 miles March 9th and 13 miles the Sunday before. Not ideal. But by being smart and not pushing myself to collapse, it seems like I didn’t re-injure anything I battled. I am of course sore and feel like I was hit by a truck, but I got through it. Now I am going to do nothing until May and then I will determine when I want to start to run again.
It’s so easy to keep pushing the body when you are at a high point, but I think that’s when you think you are invisible. Letting you in on a little secret, you aren’t. Lessons learned. I think the biggest lesson I learned was I could be most proud of a race that was nothing about finishing time. Still with me after all that? I hope if nothing else I shared some knowledge for those that maybe might need the break, but don’t want to think about it. The body is funny like that. It will keep telling you until you finally have to stop and listen.