<short version> 4:13:20
<long version>
This was my first Boston, and second marathon. I had given up running 2 Boston marathons after qualifying due to nagging, tight hip muscles issues. So this was inexplainably special to me. I didn?t have any specific goal, though I trained as if 3:45 was my target pace. The training went surprisingly well, following Pfitzinger?s 18weeks <40mpw schedule, considering all I could do was to walk in October of 2006. With once-in-20-years kind of storm in the forecast, all I wanted to was enjoy running out there taking all in. The minimum goal I secretly had in mind - 4:00 ? was thrown out of the window by the time my family and I drove into the marathon town on Sunday (from Michigan!).
I met RunLin at Sheraton. What a pleasure to spend some time with her! I had a great time chatting with her while picking up my bib and visiting the expo. In the evening, my family and I headed out to the pasta dinner in spite of the cold, windy, miserable condition. Unlike the night before the other races, I was totally relaxed and calm. The TV and loud kids didn?t keep me from falling asleep instantly once we returned to our hotel and I completed stuffing an orange check-in bag with ?extra? clothes, shoes, socks, etc.
?The best $30 you ever spend? is what I was told by many Michigan runners about the buses arranged by one of the running stores here. That proved to be so true in a nasty morning full of strong wind and rain. The buses were parked in front of the Hilton at 6:30am. When I tried to cross the street from Sheraton, a gust of wind literally pushed/picked me up in the air for a few feet. I thought there was no way I could run against this kind of wind. A few people in the bus witnessed me flying in the air and we were all worried about what would happen in the course?.. After arriving at Hopkinton, we were able to stay in the bus until the last minute. I ventured out to the Athlete village because I had nothing to eat in the morning before I left and needed a banana and a bagel. The sight under the tent was unbelievable ? it was like a refugee camp.
After I left the bus, I decided to go again, lining up in front of port johns, though I visited a bathroom twice in the bus. My mental focus wasn?t there at all for the race. By the time I started walking toward the start line, it was already 10:30am. Yes, wave2 start time. And Oh my, people, people everywhere! I zigzagged passing charity runners with 2xxxx bib #?s and was getting nervous and panicky. At about 10:35am, I was still under the corral 21. Since it is chip time, it really doesn?t matter, but still, being packed with tons of charity runners wasn?t in my plan, well obviously I didn?t have any good plan. I didn?t warm up nor stretched. I don?t even know what time I crossed the start line. I welled up for this moment that I was waiting for a long time and pushed my watch?s start button. Here I go.
For the first few miles I just kept screaming and high-fiving lots of kids and just let my body take over. I felt good and the pace felt easy. So I said to myself, maybe just go with this, and I would have a decent race. I already regretted at this point that I wore a long sleeve shirt over a long sport bra plus rain/wind shell. The weather wasn?t as bad as everybody predicted. It was probably upper 40?s. Some wind but nothing horrible. I took off a long sleeve shirt (my bib# was on the shell) while running, that was a challenge (the split shows). To be honest, I don?t remember much of the course or scenery at all. When I approached about 11mile marker, however, I started hearing this buzzing noise. It took me a while to realize that was the noise from famous Wellesley girls! They were so loud and cheerful. What a great tradition!
<First half>
8:51
8:31
8:51
8:21
8:42
8:35
8:35
8:39
9:05 (struggle to remove a shirt)
8:38
8:41
:56 (1:53:48)
It felt long to get to the half point and legs already felt heavy and at that point I knew this wouldn?t be my day. I don?t know what it went wrong. My HR was just a 4-5 points below LT, which I thought too high for the above pace. Maybe I screamed and high-fived too much and used up my energy. Or 40mpw is just plain too low to run a decent marathon. Or a bigger, solid base period was an absolute must to build a marathon training upon. Or I did lose some fitness/edge during 3 weeks of extreme taper, or a lack of mental focus. Whatever. I still had sub-4 in me, I thought. Now I was heading to the longest run of my life?.
<13.1 to 21>
7:44
8:55
8:52
9:56
10:19
10:32
22:37 (missed 20 marker)
About 15 miles, I spotted a brown/orange jacket ? I doubted my eyes ? is that my son? Because of the weather, DH and kids were planning to go see movies (I found out all the museums were closed on Patriot day). But after tracking me on-line and I was running well, they decided to come out and cheer!!! That was so great. I told my DH that I was already tired and this would be a long day. I saw them again about 18 miles then again after the Heartbreak hill. I planted a huge kiss on all of them and smiled for a camera.
My R hip ? the side that forced me to stop running for some time ? rarely bothered me during the training runs. It didn?t bother me during the race either. My L glute muscles sometimes got tight but they usually worked themselves out. I felt the L glutes were tightening up through the first half. Related or not related, I started feeling some pain on the side of the L knee. I stopped a few times and stretched out. A series of up/down hills from 15.5 to 21 mile really killed me. My legs were just not moving at all.
<to the finish>
9:14
10:31
14:09
12:01
14:38 (last 1.2m)
With finally the heartbreak hill behind me and a hug from my DH and kids, I got some rhythm back. But it didn?t last long. Or a few miles of another downhill further irritated my L knee. I surrendered to a walk. It is just painful to look at the split now. I just couldn?t do anything about the excruciating pain to the knee. (After the race, I figured out where the origin of the pain. If I stopped completely and access the situation, tried to pressure the pain point, it might have helped. Who knows.) I thought, I had a strong enough will to dominate the pain. I couldn?t. I couldn?t run. I wanted to cry. But there is no crying in running, I told myself. This is a part of the whole deal. So I kept hobbling and moved forward no matter how slow and squeeze some smile out of me. I wanted to run the last mile no matter how slow. A strange thing was if I forced myself to run, the pain subsided for a while. And I ran, I ran to the finish on Boylston St. It was a bitter sweet finish.
The finish line to the chip removal/medal receipt area then to the bag pickup was awfully long and painful. I was so close to planting myself on a wheelchair.
This was very humbling experience. I didn?t respect the distance. I got overconfident. I decided to race though I wasn?t mentally prepared at all. And I paid for it big time. Also I have a renewed appreciation for things having worked out well at my first marathon.
Well, I feel I have an unfinished business in Boston and I have to redeem myself. But at the same time I am scared to run another marathon because of the on-course injury like this. For those who ran multiple Boston marathons, please tell me you got burned in your Boston debut, too. For those who keep going back to running a marathon even after a bad experience, please give me your strength and tenacity not to fear a bad outcome.
Ok, enough said, drama queen.
Yoshiko
<long version>
This was my first Boston, and second marathon. I had given up running 2 Boston marathons after qualifying due to nagging, tight hip muscles issues. So this was inexplainably special to me. I didn?t have any specific goal, though I trained as if 3:45 was my target pace. The training went surprisingly well, following Pfitzinger?s 18weeks <40mpw schedule, considering all I could do was to walk in October of 2006. With once-in-20-years kind of storm in the forecast, all I wanted to was enjoy running out there taking all in. The minimum goal I secretly had in mind - 4:00 ? was thrown out of the window by the time my family and I drove into the marathon town on Sunday (from Michigan!).
I met RunLin at Sheraton. What a pleasure to spend some time with her! I had a great time chatting with her while picking up my bib and visiting the expo. In the evening, my family and I headed out to the pasta dinner in spite of the cold, windy, miserable condition. Unlike the night before the other races, I was totally relaxed and calm. The TV and loud kids didn?t keep me from falling asleep instantly once we returned to our hotel and I completed stuffing an orange check-in bag with ?extra? clothes, shoes, socks, etc.
?The best $30 you ever spend? is what I was told by many Michigan runners about the buses arranged by one of the running stores here. That proved to be so true in a nasty morning full of strong wind and rain. The buses were parked in front of the Hilton at 6:30am. When I tried to cross the street from Sheraton, a gust of wind literally pushed/picked me up in the air for a few feet. I thought there was no way I could run against this kind of wind. A few people in the bus witnessed me flying in the air and we were all worried about what would happen in the course?.. After arriving at Hopkinton, we were able to stay in the bus until the last minute. I ventured out to the Athlete village because I had nothing to eat in the morning before I left and needed a banana and a bagel. The sight under the tent was unbelievable ? it was like a refugee camp.
After I left the bus, I decided to go again, lining up in front of port johns, though I visited a bathroom twice in the bus. My mental focus wasn?t there at all for the race. By the time I started walking toward the start line, it was already 10:30am. Yes, wave2 start time. And Oh my, people, people everywhere! I zigzagged passing charity runners with 2xxxx bib #?s and was getting nervous and panicky. At about 10:35am, I was still under the corral 21. Since it is chip time, it really doesn?t matter, but still, being packed with tons of charity runners wasn?t in my plan, well obviously I didn?t have any good plan. I didn?t warm up nor stretched. I don?t even know what time I crossed the start line. I welled up for this moment that I was waiting for a long time and pushed my watch?s start button. Here I go.
For the first few miles I just kept screaming and high-fiving lots of kids and just let my body take over. I felt good and the pace felt easy. So I said to myself, maybe just go with this, and I would have a decent race. I already regretted at this point that I wore a long sleeve shirt over a long sport bra plus rain/wind shell. The weather wasn?t as bad as everybody predicted. It was probably upper 40?s. Some wind but nothing horrible. I took off a long sleeve shirt (my bib# was on the shell) while running, that was a challenge (the split shows). To be honest, I don?t remember much of the course or scenery at all. When I approached about 11mile marker, however, I started hearing this buzzing noise. It took me a while to realize that was the noise from famous Wellesley girls! They were so loud and cheerful. What a great tradition!
<First half>
8:51
8:31
8:51
8:21
8:42
8:35
8:35
8:39
9:05 (struggle to remove a shirt)
8:38
8:41
:56 (1:53:48)
It felt long to get to the half point and legs already felt heavy and at that point I knew this wouldn?t be my day. I don?t know what it went wrong. My HR was just a 4-5 points below LT, which I thought too high for the above pace. Maybe I screamed and high-fived too much and used up my energy. Or 40mpw is just plain too low to run a decent marathon. Or a bigger, solid base period was an absolute must to build a marathon training upon. Or I did lose some fitness/edge during 3 weeks of extreme taper, or a lack of mental focus. Whatever. I still had sub-4 in me, I thought. Now I was heading to the longest run of my life?.
<13.1 to 21>
7:44
8:55
8:52
9:56
10:19
10:32
22:37 (missed 20 marker)
About 15 miles, I spotted a brown/orange jacket ? I doubted my eyes ? is that my son? Because of the weather, DH and kids were planning to go see movies (I found out all the museums were closed on Patriot day). But after tracking me on-line and I was running well, they decided to come out and cheer!!! That was so great. I told my DH that I was already tired and this would be a long day. I saw them again about 18 miles then again after the Heartbreak hill. I planted a huge kiss on all of them and smiled for a camera.
My R hip ? the side that forced me to stop running for some time ? rarely bothered me during the training runs. It didn?t bother me during the race either. My L glute muscles sometimes got tight but they usually worked themselves out. I felt the L glutes were tightening up through the first half. Related or not related, I started feeling some pain on the side of the L knee. I stopped a few times and stretched out. A series of up/down hills from 15.5 to 21 mile really killed me. My legs were just not moving at all.
<to the finish>
9:14
10:31
14:09
12:01
14:38 (last 1.2m)
With finally the heartbreak hill behind me and a hug from my DH and kids, I got some rhythm back. But it didn?t last long. Or a few miles of another downhill further irritated my L knee. I surrendered to a walk. It is just painful to look at the split now. I just couldn?t do anything about the excruciating pain to the knee. (After the race, I figured out where the origin of the pain. If I stopped completely and access the situation, tried to pressure the pain point, it might have helped. Who knows.) I thought, I had a strong enough will to dominate the pain. I couldn?t. I couldn?t run. I wanted to cry. But there is no crying in running, I told myself. This is a part of the whole deal. So I kept hobbling and moved forward no matter how slow and squeeze some smile out of me. I wanted to run the last mile no matter how slow. A strange thing was if I forced myself to run, the pain subsided for a while. And I ran, I ran to the finish on Boylston St. It was a bitter sweet finish.
The finish line to the chip removal/medal receipt area then to the bag pickup was awfully long and painful. I was so close to planting myself on a wheelchair.
This was very humbling experience. I didn?t respect the distance. I got overconfident. I decided to race though I wasn?t mentally prepared at all. And I paid for it big time. Also I have a renewed appreciation for things having worked out well at my first marathon.
Well, I feel I have an unfinished business in Boston and I have to redeem myself. But at the same time I am scared to run another marathon because of the on-course injury like this. For those who ran multiple Boston marathons, please tell me you got burned in your Boston debut, too. For those who keep going back to running a marathon even after a bad experience, please give me your strength and tenacity not to fear a bad outcome.
Ok, enough said, drama queen.
Yoshiko
then go get your b*tt back on the bike!! hehe
