Wow. That sums up this weekend for me. Lost of stuff to tell so here it goes…

Boston Marathon Pre-Race:

Saturday Morning we packed up everyone and headed up to Boston. Not a bad trip, Crossing the GW in NY and driving through New Haven, CT on I-95 was slow going but can’t complain. Got into Boston around 5PM and with the Packet Pick-up/Runners expo open until 6PM we decided to pick up my bib and packet before going to the hotel. I figured that after 5PM on Saturday (with the expo open all day Sunday as well) it wouldn’t be too crowded and the vendors would be wrapping things up. Boy was I wrong, the expo was packed!

I went in to pick up my stuff and I sent my wife and the boys into the expo to look around so they wouldn’t have to wait while I stood on line. Got all my stuff in about 10 minutes. The organizers at Boston have really got their act together, very smooth painless process unlike Baltimore (that made you walk the entire length of the expo twice just to get everything you needed for race day). Got my bib, timing chip, long sleeve T and such then headed into the expo to find my family. Very thankful for us all having cell phones at this point because the expo was huge and busy. Lots of shoe companies there with full diagnostic gear to determine your perfect shoe, lots of running gear, beverage and food vendors as well. Adidas was giving out a free poster for this year’s race that had the name of all the runners on it (we each grabbed one and kudos to my son for finding me on the poster). Eventually we all found each other and then headed to the hotel.

Got the hotel with no problems. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency which was about 1/4 mile from the pickup buses on race day and about 1/2 mile from the finish. Every Hyatt I’ve been to I’ve liked, great service overall.
On Sunday we did some fun family stuff. We took the boys to see Clash of the Titans in 3D (good movie, plenty of action). Then we did a late lunch at Dick’s last resort in Quincy Market and saw a cool acrobatic street performance followed by some ice cream and Boston pretzels (hey, you need to carbo-load right?!?!).

We headed back to the hotel were we hung out and watched the Bourne Identity until about 9:30.  I then put everyone to bed because I had to be up at 5AM. I wasn’t the most popular Dad in America that night but I’m thankful for my both of my son’s understanding. My wife wasn’t an issue though because by 9PM she’s barely awake.

A lot of logistics are involved with running Boston. Since the Start and Finish are separated by 26.2 miles (as opposed to most races that have circular courses), they need to get you to the start for the race so there are buses that drive you out to the start. Everything is based on your bib number, the wheres and whens depend on that. If your number is from 1 – 13,999 you are in wave one with a 10AM race start and if you’re 14,000 or greater you start at 1030 in wave two. So I look in the runners guide and being in wave one it recommends that I take the buses running between 6AM and 6:45AM so I plan for that.

Boston Marathon Race Day:

You never sleep really well the night before a race so I set my cell phone alarm for 5:15AM and then a hotel wake up for 5:15 with a 5:25 follow up (not taking any chances here). Well I woke up on my own around 4AM so I didn’t need any of my alarms and backups. Considering 6 hours of sleep an accomplishment for the night I get up around 5AM, I get my gear together, kiss my wife and head out to the bus pickup at about 5:50AM. Since I’m on the early side I’m thinking there wouldn’t be much of a crowd, wrong again! I get out to Tremont Street by Boston Common and there is a line of school buses as far down as you can see, every bus nearby is already fully loaded with runners and there is about a 15 person line outside each bus (so much for being early). So I jumped in line with a bunch of other runners and waited my turn. The first group of buses pulled out and as the second group pulled in I got my seat and by 6:20 we’re heading to Hopkinton.

One interesting thing to note is you have to plan out your clothing for race day carefully. They give you a race-day bag where you can put your warmups and other items you bring to the start, then they will take that bag back to the finish for pick up after the race. Anything you bring to the start that you want back has to fit in the bag. Also while wave one starts at 10AM you have to start lining up at 9:20AM. If it’s still chilly then you need to consider the possibility of standing around for 40 minutes so you should wear some throw-away sweats and discard them right before the start (all discarded clothing is donated). Considering a 40 degree morning was coming I wore some torn up sweat pants and a sweatshirt that hasn’t been worn since Clinton’s first term.

You also need to plan your eating. Getting up at 5AM and finishing the race around 2PM is a 9 hour window where if you eat too little it will affect your performance (drastically) and eating too much (or eating the wrong things) will make you sick. I usually stick to breads, bananas and water with a little fruit juice if it’s still a few hours before the race so I brought an extra bagel to snack on.

So with bag in hand I get off the bus at Hopkinton around 730AM and head to the athletes village which is behind a local high school. The first group had already settled in and you could tell the experienced Boston runners because they’re the ones that brought small tarps, foam pads and blowup pool lounges to lie on during the down time (the ground being both cold and wet, it was not the best place to take a nap). So after helping myself to some provided bananas and water I find a spot and after constructing a make-shift blanket to lie on out of some extra clothing I brought, I try to relax. Killing 2 1/2 hours doing as little as possible is not as easy as it sounds but I gave it my best. I tried to nap, sent a few text messages and took a few port-a-potty trips. Minutes seemed like years and after some brief warmups it was time to head out to the start.

Since my bib was 11675 I was in corral eleven and as I entered, it was reassuring to see a group of 40-something men mulling about. There was also a much smaller group of women at least 15 years younger in there as well. It made for an interesting dynamic as you might imagine but the two groups didn’t intermingle much.

Boston Marathon Race Start:

Finally the gun goes off and we start moving toward the start. It was amazing to see that, with the exception of very few breaks at the beginning, there were people lined up the entire length of the course. This is quite an event for the towns that the course runs through. Folks hanging out in their front yard cheering, kids handing out everything from water to orange slices to jelly beans, it was really a festive atmosphere.

The first 15-miles is downhill, almost all downhill. On paper this is a dream run but in reality there are some things to consider but more on that in a bit. First the weather at the start was perfect. Partly-cloudy, 50 degrees or so with a bit of a breeze and a slight tailwind. Having run a hilly 10-miler in March in under 1:09, I’m comfortable with a 7:40ish pace to start and then see how I feel down the road. Well at mile one I knew something wasn’t right, both my hamstrings felt weird, not sore or pulled, just weird in a fatigued way. Sometimes your body just needs to warm up and adjust to the race so I chalked it up to that and pressed on. But miles 5, 10 and 12 clicked by and that feeling didn’t go away. Also after running 12 miles of mostly downhill your legs are taking much more of a pounding than they would on a flatter course. My race shoes are very light and while they served me well in Baltimore the soles of my feet were beginning to feel the strain. So at the half-way point I made an adjustment and started backing off my pace. A mile or two later, with the hills coming at 16, I backed it off some more.

At about the half-way point is Wellesley College which Boston runners refer to as the ‘Scream Tunnel’ due to all the coeds lining the street screaming. There were quite a few holding ‘Kiss me’ signs which clued me in to a tradition I was not previously aware of.

For the majority of the race there were runners all around me. In most races the crowd of runners tend to thin out as the race progresses, but at Boston this only happened because the streets got wider toward the end of the race. This made every water stop an adventure in crowd navigation. What made the stops particularly hazardous were the runners who would move over to grab a drink and then walk the length of the water stop while they drank impeding other runners from getting to the volunteers holding the cups. Add to that all the spilled water and flattened empty cups in the area and you had to really stay focused. It would probably be safe to say that every runner lost about 2-3 minutes total off their time just trying to get their water and get out without falling.

The hills at Boston weren’t a big deal. “Heartbreak Hill’ in and of itself wasn’t much of a challenge but with my hamstring situation and all the downhill running I could feel the warning signs of a cramp (or worse) developing so I let go of all my pre-race time goals and played it safe. I wanted to finish, nothing else came close to that so at mile 21 I took it down to a quick jog and at mile 25 I was just enjoying the ride. The spectators got 3 and 4 deep as you got to Boston and seeing the finish after making that right on Hereford and left on Boylston, it all started sinking in. I would have liked a better performance, but all things considered I’ll take the 3:35:47. The best part? Getting that finishers medal put around my neck.