The Boston Marathon

A bit of a horror story - finished in 3:02:13.  Went well for most of it but ran out of fuel/something towards the end. Actually lost my vision in parts after 40k and had to be taken by wheelchair to the med tent after I finished. Looking forward to the finishing photo. 

The day started just after 5 as Sas & I (with Kim provided brekky) had to leave the apt. to get to Boston Common for the bus ride to the start. There were lots of people but lots of busses too. We managed to get on one pretty quickly and soon we were on the road to Hopkinton. The ride was comfortable and took just over an hour. It was pretty mobbed at the athletes village where bagels, bananas, gatorade and coffee were on offer. It was absolutely firdgid though, no more than a few degrees above freezing. At was all fairly well organised but the Q's for the toilets were horrific - although there were maybe 450 portaloos, there was 30 minute wait at least, so when I needed to go again I just went to find a tree...   

At 9am the call went out for the wave 1 runners to get to the start, so we dumped our clothing on the prescribed busses and headed off to the start. It was a bit of a walk but probably good to get the blood circulating.  We parted at Sas' corral # 6 and I headed up to corral #2. I was feeling pretty confident at the start line - it wasn't as packed in the corrals as I had feared and there was plenty of room on the course pretty much from the start. A guy next to me decided that peeing in the corral was a better option than waiting in line - too bad I was down-camber...

There was a fly past of two F111's and then the singing of the Star Spangled Banner and then we were off...

The first couple of k's were quite sharply downhill, and I knew pretty much from that point that I was in trouble as the left quad started singing. The pain ramped up to a fairly constant level and I just tried to go through it. I was moving very well and the pace felt easy with no strain on the cardio system at all.  I managed pretty well for the first half with constant on-target splits. I was really taking it easy down any hills to try to protect the legs, but felt pretty good up the hills.

The crowd support was really amazing - there was barely a spot on the course that wasn't lined with people yelling support. There were singers, bells by the million, and you could hear Wellesley (literally) a mile off ; my ears were ringing by the time I got past! 

The leg pain was getting worse and by half way I was suffering on both sides and the tfl's were starting to get a little tetchy. The hills were actually a relief but I couldn't take advantage of any of the downhills which really sucked. I also had to keep focussed so couldn't really get into the crowd either, I just had to slog it out. 

I as the splits bear out, it was getting harder and harder to keep moving - I had lost any comfort factor at all by the half and it was a slog thereafter. Heard Kim on the course at the 19mi mark which lifted my spirits a bit but soon thereafter hit 'heartbreak' hill - which really wasn't so bad. The crowd noise was ramping up and I tried to feed off it - I knew I was in trouble so I walked through a couple of Gatorade stations to get some extra fuel. I started getting spots in my vision around 37k and had a few dizzy spells which passed. I thought if I could maintain 4:30 pace I'd sneak in under 3. I saw the Citgo sign in the distance and felt like I was almost home. Problem is, it's a big sign and it took a while to get there along with the magic '1 mile to go' post at the side of the road. The easterly headwind really started to kick up as well.

Around the 40k mark, the piper decided that he wanted to be paid and my legs pretty much started to sieze. I started losing my vision and almost lost my bearings as I went down the last underpass. I knew it was only a k to go and the crowd was screaming. I was getting passed left and right as I turned into Boylston for the last (and longest) 600m. I saw biscuitman go past with a couple of 100 to go to hit his target of the sub-3. 

I hit the line and started to stagger - some guy spotted me and helped me into a wheelchair and the got me to the med tent. I have to say they were fantastic - they took my BP (110/60) and HR (85) and fed me up on Gatorade and I sat for a while to regain my strength. I was anxious to get going to meet Kim - I knew she would have seen my time and been a little worried as to what had happened... 

5k 20:16 

10k 40:39 (20:23)

15k 1:01:8 (20:28)

20k 1:21:59 (20:49)

HM 1:26:30 

25k 1:43:17( 22:18)

30k 2:05:26 (22:08)

35k 2:28:22 (22:56)

40k 2:51:17 (22:55)

M 3:02:13 

Very proud of Sas 115th overall in 3:06:28 - she ran the raced I had hoped for her, also carrying a quad injury and had to guts it out.

Biscuitman had a good one too - 2:59:58 ; nearly blew it by stopping for a snog at Wellesley ;-)

On reflection I'm disapointed with the way things turned out - but proud of the way I pushed through to salvage something from the wreckage - but I definitely want to come back and do this again. With healthy legs, this is not such a tough course and the crowds are phenomenal. It's a fantastic event and the whole city gets behind it on a scale I couldn't imagine.