I set out to train harder than I had the previous year and that meant adding an extra day to my running schedule. Many people think runners run every day, and while many do, I run a lot less than other marathon runners because I teach tennis and I am on my feet all day long. So I have always trained 4 times a week. I dilligently added the 5th day of running in this year and things were going great. Until they weren't.
In early March, I suffered a set back because of my sesamoid bone at the worst possible time of training, the long weekend run phase. This is a tough injury to rest because it is in the big toe just under the pad of your foot and you use it every single time you take a step, whether it is walking or running. I took 3 days off in early March hoping it was just a tweak and it would go away. And it did. For 4 days. And then the foot started bothering me again the day before my first 22 miler.
I thought I would completely have to bag that run until I happened to see an email from MIT about the new Alter G Treadmill they have. I called Dr. Sean Huffman at Fit For Life to see if I could get a run in that day and sure enough, it was available.
Thus began my week and half training on the strangest treadmill you have ever seen. You put on a version of biker shorts and zip your self in to the treadmill. Then it inflates with air and allows you to adjust the amount of your body weight your feet are taking. It basically makes it easier to run so that you can maintain some fitness while working through an injury. The first day, I had the treadmill at 55% and I was running 6:20 miles like it was nothing. Normally on a treadmill, that would feel like I was going to fall on my face at any moment. When I got off the treadmill, I felt 8,000 pounds. It was a bizarre feeling.
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| Alter G Treadmill |
I ran all four of my runs the next week on the Alter G increasing the amount of weight I was bearing on my foot. By the last time, I was up to 75%. At the same time, I started doing physical therapy for my sesamoid. I discovered that my big toe sits down from the rest of my foot so my sesamoid bone takes an extra pounding because it always hits the ground first.
My therapy was making things feel better and I was glad I could still maintain running on the treadmill in no pain, but it was very important to me to get my last 22 mile run in outside and on some hills. I had designed a run that was supposed to mimic the Boston Marathon course as best as possible and I wanted to do that run. I felt like I needed it as a confidence booster. So I went out for a 22 miler on my own 3 weeks out from Boston, and thankfully to my delight, my foot only bothered me for one step the entire run.
More therapy and more runs was giving me more confidence. My goal time for the race kept changing as I regained faith in my foot. And then the weather stalking began. In tennis, 75 degrees is beautiful weather but in marathon running, not so much. Last year at Boston, it was brutal sun and I was hoping to avoid that this year. Anything above 55 degrees starts to adversely affect your time, so you can imagine what 70+ can do. At first the weather looked good, 55s and partly cloudy. Then it started looking hotter and hotter until the day before we left, it was obvious that I probably would have to recalculate my sub 3 hour attempt at Boston. Heat around 70+ adds anywhere from 3-6% on to your time, that would be 9-18 minutes approximately which is a pretty large gap.
I made sure I did a better job of carbo loading the weekend of the marathon. Last year I felt like I really neglected that. This year, I had a huge spaghetti dinner (and three pieces of cheesecake) with my fellow Rogue Racers the night before the marathon that had me carbed up and ready to go.
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| Rogue Racer carb load dinner |
The next morning, I got up early, had a little breakfast, then caught a cab to the transportation area to meet up with some of my Rogue Racers. For the Boston Marathon, you meet down at the Boston Commons, catch a school bus at 6:30am, and then are taken to the start line 26.2 miles west of town to a city called Hopkinton. It is one of those things unique to Boston. Many races have transports, but not many are 26.2 miles away.
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| Boarding the bus |
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| Got off the bus and met up with Brian |
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| Our Rogue "tattoos" made by Nicole Cook |
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| Rogue Racer team |
Then they start calling your waves and corrals. Unfortunately this year, I was not in a corral with any of my Rogue Racers. But once I got in my corral, I saw the familiar faces of Shane and Mike from MIT so that was cool. We even later made the Boston Marathon highlight video-thank you Justin for pointing that out as I never would have seen it! You slowly make your way down to the start line and you pass all these small houses on the course. Everyone is making you feel like a rock star. It is an extremely cool moment in a day full of cool moments.
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| Mike, Shane and myself right before the start |
We finally approach the start as all the other waves in front of us go. The crowd is so loud and every runner is pumped. If you aren't excited at this point, you don't have a pulse. The gun fires and I am off. Because of the heat and the weather, I am trying a running strategy I have never attempted before. Normally for every marathon I run, I have an exact time per mile that I am going to run. In Dresden it was 6:50 pace and I ended up at 6:51. I study up a lot about what pace to choose and what splits I need to hit the entire time and constantly memorize what my time will be at certain miles running this pace. For this race, I have an idea of what I am trying to achieve but it is more about how I feel at particular parts of the course and which areas of the course I can attack and which parts I need to slow down. I am attempting to run different splits for different sections.
The first 5 miles of the course go downhill. In the first mile alone, you drop 130 feet. This can wreck your quads almost immediately if you don't run this section properly. The advice (thank you Darris and Star Blackford for your 2016 Boston Marathon course preview podcast suggestions!) is not to run out too fast so my first mile ends up being the slowest mile I run in the first 19 miles and I clock a 7:25. In the first mile, lots of people are passing me going down the hill fast, and I pass a guy on crutches. Yes crutches. People take dropping out of this race very seriously and will do pretty much anything to do the race. There is a drop over the next four miles but it is not as extreme and I keep with my plan and get myself around the 7:05 mark ticking off 7:03,06, 03, and 02 the next four miles.
The next segment of my "run on feel" strategy is that miles 5-15 are where I need to run my best and keep a good pace going. It is a flat section of the course and if I can maintain a good pace through here, I will be happy. I have a little mental tweak around mile 7 where I tore my calf last year and start feeling phantom pains there, but I tell my brain to shut up and I keep running. Miles 6-9 feel good and this is my fastest section through the course the entire day as all four of those miles are between 6:54-59. I see fellow Rogue Racer Lauren cheering me on around this section and it gives me a boost.
Mile 10 goes a little bit uphill so I slow up a bit. I still feel pretty good and I am taking in a lot of liquids. Every water stop, I am getting a gatorade, a water, and dumping a water over my head. I notice on my watch that it helps my heart rate go down for a minute or so after I hit the water stop. But it is slowly getting hotter and hotter because there is no cloud cover to speak of. Around this time, the temperature on the course will hit its highest mark at 78 degrees. It starts dropping as we head East to Boston and closer to the ocean, but once your energy has already been sapped and you get dehydrated, it doesn't matter how cool it gets.
We approach Wellesley College and the "Scream Tunnel". It is hard to explain how loud this section of the course is if you haven't been there, but it is insane. You can hear it over a mile away as you approach the college. The all girls school has a tradition to try to kiss as many runners as possible at this section of the course. I stop twice because, hey, its tradition! I tie my "kiss" PR from last year at 2, so it looks like I will at least need to return to break that record. I still run a 7:06 mile and keep going. The energy you get from this section is amazing and sometimes it can be hard not to run too fast after that.
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| Our Rogue Racer sign made by the Wellesley girls |
I know mile 16 holds the first of the infamous hills of Boston. This first hill is sometimes forgotten because you drop down over 100 feet over a half mile, but starting at mile 17, you start a slow climb back up that can be very difficult. I hold myself back and run slower down the hill than I probably could and clock a 7:03, and I am ready to crest my first hill.
Now we are hitting the third phase of my strategy, run the miles with the hills about 15-20 seconds slower than the miles I have been running. At this point, I want to keep the hill miles around 7:20-7:30. I don't want to waste too much energy but I don't want to go too slowly either. I emerge from the first hill at 7:19 and I am happy. Last year, that first hill killed me. I felt like I was walking up the hill at the end.
The next mile has another hill but it is much smaller. You hit the first turn on the entire course at the fire station (where I see Nicole Cook cheering me on!). I am happy to clock a 7:17 and I am still feeling ok, but the first twinge of a cramp has arrived on both of my inner thighs. I start to change my gate to avoid full on cramps coming on. Thankfully, the next mile is a little flatter with a drop of about 50 feet. I get myself back in rhythm and hit 7:15.
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| Picture by the fire station courtesy of Nicole Cook |
At this point, I am starting to calculate what I need to run the last 6-7 miles to go under 3:10. If I can hold 7:30 pace over the last 6 miles, I will get under 3:10 by about 10 seconds. So I start using 7:30 as my golf "par". Anything under, I have time banked, anything over, I need to make it up.
Mile 20 starts another slow hill over that mile and the rest of my legs are starting to feel the effects of the accumulation of all these hills. I am starting to see more and more people around me walking, moving off to the side of the road, and some just going straight to medical. Just like last year, I am grabbing anything and everything from fans on the side of the road. I grab popsicles, twizzlers, water, orange slices, bananas, cold sponges, wet paper towels, ice. The crowd through here is really great about having stuff for the runners. Anyways, I finish the slow climb of mile 20 and I hit 7:29 so things are still looking pretty good. But up next is Heartbreak Hill.
Even if you don't know anything about the Boston Marathon, most people have heard of Heartbreak Hill. It isn't a huge hill, it just is where it is located, at mile 21. The old joke is the first half of the marathon is the first 20 miles and the last half is the last 6.2 In Bostons case, that is definitely true. Last year, once I hit the top of Heartbreak, I had to stop running and could never get myself back on pace. I was determined to run the entire race and crest this damn hill!
I had my watch on current mile pace most of the race and in this case, I didn't care how slow I had to go to get up Heartbreak. It is about a 150 foot climb spread out over 3/4 mile and it is exhausting. I am going so slow and actually passing a ton of people. This section goes through Boston College and the students here are absolutely insane. They are so loud and enthusiastic, you can't help but give it your all. I finally crest the hill but at this point, my legs are shot. I finally finish the mile at 7:49, and now I know, going under 3:10 is going to be tough.
The rest of my leg muscles above my knee are all in full emergency mode. Down the backside of Heartbreak, my left leg starts having a spasm and I keep going but slow down to keep the leg from cramping. The original plan had been to go slow on the hills and then resume my 7:10 pace. I know that is not going to happen. Just trying to hold 7:30 is the goal and hopefully have a big sprint at the end.
Miles 22 and 23 are downhill which can sometimes just be as tough on your legs. I will myself to keep on pace and hit 7:31 and 7:30 the next 2 miles. I am now only 10 seconds behind pace. But the cramps will not die down and I have to back down even more. Mile 24 you start coming in to Boston and my pace slows even further to 7:38. At this point, I know that 3:10 is out the window because my body is shutting down and my legs are almost straight with every step. It is taking all I have to relax my body enough to keep from cramping. The crowds are getting thicker as you approach the finish line and I start seeing runners flat out swerving and falling, people stretching out on the side of the road, and people suffering from heat exhaustion. But the fans keep urging you on.
Mile 25 was 7:56. I know I have lost 3:10, now my goal is to make sure I can keep it under 3:12 so that I have a buffer to qualify for next year (3:15 is what I need, but 3:12:51 is what would get me in last year).
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| Banner with Boston Strong on the bridge |
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| The famoust Citgo sign |
I know at this point thought that I have the energy to pick it up a little bit. The crowds down the last street (Boylston) are so loud and crazy, you can't help but get some energy to run faster. You see the finish line but it is a lot further than you think it is. I look over and find Stephanie on the left side of the course. I get out my phone to film the finish line. I am going a lot faster now and enjoying the scene. I get near the finish line and the thought of the bombings from 4 years ago cross my mind, but I keep going. I finally get to the line and jump (probably very badly and not very high) and celebrate. I have finished the Boston Marathon and run 26 minutes faster than last year, and I re-qualified on a blazing hot day.
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| Running up Boylston |
You could not wipe the smile off of my face after the finish. I ran a sub 3 hour marathon in the fall for the first time ever, but I think my time here (my 4th fastest time) was probably my best time based on the hills, the heat and the conditions. It was satisfying to come back and redeem my race from last year, and it was satisfying to know that I could conquer this course. I found out later that only 30% re-qualified at the race and the numbers of people re-qualifying were down from last year. Also, 8% of the runners needed medical attention either during or after the race so it was a tough and brutal day to run. I was also excited that I move up in the "rankings" as my bib number was #4037 and I improved my finish time to 3132 place. Even cooler, our Rogue Racer team finished 20th place in the Masters division and we were the top team in Ohio!
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| Celebrating with my biggest fan Stephanie |
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| Boston Marathon #2 |
All in all it was a successful day and I feel like I finally conquered the Boston course. I am ready to come back next year and hope for better weather to attempt a sub 3 hour race. Thanks again to all who were tracking me online and wishing me luck or congratulating me. It means a lot to have all that support. Congrats to all my fellow Rogue Racers and other runners I know that got to run this course with on a beautiful hot day.
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| Celebrating at Fenway with Ryan after the race |
