The Boston Marathon 07

I started the week off good with hopes of a sub 3 hour marathon. I've done the typical race to just finish, and have been training hard all winter to beat that three hour barrier. Well after April 16th, I'm going to have to sign up for another marathon if I hope to break three...however the race will go down as one I just barely survived.

I traveled from PIT to Logan International Monday April 9th, an entire week before the race. About Tuesday or Wednesday the local news started to predict some of the worst weather the area could see as a Nor'easter moved up the coast. As the weekend approached, there were even talks of canceling the race for the first time ever. Luckily the race director convinced officials to let the race go on.

As the weekend approached, so did the storm. Tracking it on the local Doppler radar this week was really dis alarming. As Sunday (1 day prior race day) approached, the rain was relentless. There were talks that the rain would subside by morning, but that never happened.

As I woke up at 4:30 AM Monday morning, I dressed and headed to the Boston Common to catch the shuttle bus that takes you to Hopkinton. The bus ride to Hopkinton was not a pleasant experience. It was raining, and extremely hot and stuffy inside the bus. Once we arrived at the pre-race tents the entire ground was saturated with water and mud.

I walked to the start line at 9:30 AM with my make shift rain coat, and my throw-away clothes ready to run like I've never ran before. 10:00 AM approached, and the starting gun went off. It was slow at first, but I soon found myself running my 6:50 mile pace however I quickly noticed something was wrong.

Anyone that has ran Boston knows that the first six miles are the easiest on the course and also mainly down hill. I kept glancing down at my heart rate monitor, and it my heart was pumping 15-20 beats too high. My target rate was 165 for the first 10 miles, and I was already creeping over 180 beats per minute. I felt good, but could tell I was working too hard.

By the time I got to Wellsley and the halfway point, my race was over. I was completely out of gas, and there was nothing left in the tank. My glycogen levels were depleted, and the lactic acid was building up ever so fast in the legs.

As I made it to the top of Heart Break, and began my final decent into Beantown, I was already over my 3 hour target goal. I finished with a 3:20 or 3:21, which was disappointing. However looking back on the race and given the conditions, I'm glad I hung in there till the end.

I just told myself that there will always be another race, and even the best runners have there off days every now and then.

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 6:26 PM Comments: 0