3:13:11 Personal Record at BOSTON

Race Day, woo hoo.

Finally time to do the deed and toe the line. Team USASOC linked up with the Boston and Massachusetts State Police Department team, they really squared us away. We had a police escort all the way to the start line in their charter busses. While everyone else crammed into school busses, we were riding in luxury to the start line. We got there about 7:45 am, and wandered around a bit. I took some pictures of COL Torrey at the start line, and he did the same for me. There was also a Korean Church’s drum team going nuts right next to the start line, pretty cool. (pictures will be posted to the blog once I get home and get my camera cable). Hopkinton (where the race starts) is a great town on race day, just about everyone is turned out and was going crazy at the start.

We got to spend the pre-race hours sitting on the warm bus, instead of at the athlete’s village. Big advantage. Dry, warm, comfortable, instead of sitting around the football field with all of the other runners. The fine folks of Hopkinton are pretty laid back, they turn out and support the runners and put up with some, umm, less than savory traditions - - just imagine 25,000 hyper-hydrated runners, with pre-race (this is THE Boston Marathon, not some other marathon) jitters. There were folks pee-ing everywhere. There were three Hopkinton town policemen wandering around trying to protect the lawns and trees of the fine citizens of Hopkinton, but they weren’t having much success. I gotta say, most folks were good sports about having their shrubberies violated.

The marathon runs from Hopkinton through several small towns and winds its way to Copley Square in Boston. What is so cool about the marathon is that everyone in those towns turns out to watch the race. Little kids line up on the road and hand off oranges or want to get a high five from a runner, whenever you need a little lift or your feeling kind of sad about things, just go get a high five from one of the kids, picks you right up.

I Gu’d it up at the beginning of the race and took a potassium/sodium pill (E-cap?), I had never heard of those, but they helped me to avoid cramps for most of the race. John Y (the elf) turned me on to them after we had a discussion about cramps and how to avoid them. I started off with the white shirt, with “I Love Wellsley” printed on the front, not many folks understood that one, but it served its purpose. I went with the new blue shorts (good choice, I barely felt the Gu in the pocket), sockets and my standard Nike Air Vomeros.

The first 13 miles are all downhill, so, they went on by kind of quick. I kept putting on the brakes to keep me from going too fast and burning out too early. I hit the water station every mile, and had Gatorade much earlier in the race than normal. It was about 55-60 degrees, with a gentle head wind. The head wind was not enough to slow me down, but it did cool everyone down nicely.

The race was uneventful up to Wellsley, where the wall of college women greeted everyone, once again. For the record, they dug the shirt. One of the lucky ones got to keep it, I tossed it to a very nice young lady that was wearing a Wellsley Football shirt, I thought that was funny (Wellsley is an all girls school - - no football team) so I gave her the shirt. Interesting coincidence of the race: Addidas hung up some bill boards throughout the race course, on the billboards they put inspirational messages up that folks had written for runners - - each one had a runner’s number and the message. At mile 12, they had a huge bill board with MY NUMBER ON IT. 6408. Very wild. The billboard said: “Brace your Ears” - - this was right before the Wellsley chicks, my favorite part of the race. Whoever wrote that down, I do appreciate it. That made me say, hmmmmmm, but was very cool to see.

After Wellsley College, there is about a mile of downhill, kind of tortuous at that point of the race. Once again I was standing on the brakes to keep me from blowing my pace wide open. It flattened out around mile 14.5 and stayed that way until mile 16, which was where of the first 5 hills was. I saw the hill and realized it was not as steep or long as one of the sisters, so I hammered it up the hill and kept up a pretty good pace through mile 22. There are 5 hills between 16 and 22, I did pretty well up all of them, and all the hills on Bragg paid off.

After the hills, I started to struggle a little bit, my hamstring kept tightening up, so I had to really watch my pace. I Gu’d up at mile 17 and 23, and took an E-cap at 22, that almost worked. I cramped up at 24, but was able to walk it off, didn’t lose too much time. I kind of had some delusions of grandeur - - if I could have kept up my pace from the hills, I would have hit just under 3:10. Those fantasies quickly passed. I didn’t cramp up nearly as bad as I did in 2006, but I did have to slow down.

About mile 23 or so you can see the CITGO sign. That is one of the landmarks of Boston – it actually is at mile 25, but you can see it at 23. It kind of picks you up and then puts you down - - you are very happy to see it, but you realize that you have another 1.5 miles before you get to it. By the time you to this point though, you know it is in the bag and you just keep going.

After you go past the CITGO sign there is a little downhill with a tunnel at the end. You go down through the tunnel, it gets real quiet because there are no crowds so you have a little time to think about stuff, check your watch, gather your thoughts and generally have a moment of quiet introspection. After you come up out of the tunnel, it is game on, there are HUGE crowds on both sides of the road as you make a sharp right for two or three blocks then a left onto Boylston street up to Copley square, literally a wall of noise and inspiration. That was probably my fastest half mile of the race, I will have to check the Forerunner out, but I finished pretty strong.

Racing Note: Putting your name on the front of your shirt works. I was constantly cheered on by the crowd, I think it gives them something to do and they get into it. Up all the hills, folks were cheering me on. Once I turned into the city, it was even louder. Very nice boost from the crowd.

Thanks for following the blog and making the donations. I think I will end up close to 1800 bucks for SOF Warrior and KIA/WIA.