Boston Marathon Race Report
April 19, 2010
My sister sent me an email just after the New Year's Holiday asking if I wanted to put my name into a drawing for a spot in the Boston marathon to run and raise funds/awareness for Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (FSMA). My initial reaction was that I was too busy, relatively out of shape, and not sure I could fit another thing into my hectic and packed life (mostly work-related). With some encouragement from my wife and her ability to see that goals are what motivates me to be at my best, I figured I would say yes, and assume that my name would not be chosen anyway.
Surprise. "Looks like you're coming to Boston!" was the wording of the email that made it official. Oh snap. Excited, nervous, honored, grateful......my name had been drawn.
I got pretty tight with treadmill #10 at the Mid-County YMCA. I was on that thing 3-4 mornings a week. The other two runs each week were a combination of runs from home or Forest Park. It was a wet and windy couple of months to start 2010.
Being the Excel nerd that I am, I got my schedule all lined up and started tracking time, mileage, heart rate, weight and body fat %. I used to think I could get close to peak condition in 6 weeks. It took longer this time - maybe 10 weeks to where I was seeing the results I was expecting to see earlier. The good news is that I avoided any injuries in my quick mileage ramp-up. I think experience and age help with that common mistake, but I was pushing the envelope and knew I had to be careful AND lucky to stay healthy.
Other than a 5 mile local run (lackluster result) pretty early on, I wasn't able to race in any tune-ups. Again, the life schedule was just too much. I decided to focus on the training and trust the numbers and not have to prove that I was ready by running races.
Race day arrived and I awoke early at my sister's house outside of Boston. My brother-in-law took me downtown on his way to work. I went to the designated tent to wait and relax until it was time to board the buses to Hopkinton. I spotted another runner that I had met at the FSMA dinner a few nights earlier. That's where my wife and I got to meet the other runners who had also fund-raised for FSMA and many families affected by this disease (a genetic disease, the leading cause of death for children under the age of two). It was very inspirational to see and feel everyone's courage in the fight against the terrible disease that took the life of my nephew Cianan and niece Cecilia in the late 90's.
The bus ride to Hopkinton felt way longer than 26 miles, but we finally arrived and had a few hours to wait in the gymnasium. The time went by quickly and there was a celebrity there. Italian Gelindo Bordin, was the only man to ever win an Olympic Gold Medal (Seoul 88) in the marathon as well as Boston (1990). Now looking like any other 50ish runner, he was pleasant and accommodating, taking photos with all who asked. I heard him say he was shooting for 3:10 (he finished in 3:21).
Soon it was time to make my way to the start. The weather was close to perfect. Temps in the high 40's to low 50's, wind coming over my left shoulder most of the race. I was way in the back at the start. I think I was in the 24th corral out of 26 or 27. It took 13 minutes to get across the starting mat and activate my timing chip. It felt like a parade, not a run. I was boxed in. I tried to stay patient and not waste too much energy running around people, but even I have my limits and did what I could to circumvent the masses. I was frustrated but at the same time was not justified in thinking I should have been allowed to start in a faster group. I had not met the prerequisites and this was no time to wish for a different situation. As I worked my way through the crowd, taking my share of elbows to the gut, the downhill helped offset the congestion and I was on pace after a couple miles.
5K, 10K, 15K - they all seemed to come and go quickly and I was feeling great physically and mentally. The amount of runners (25,000) and spectators packed along the course was truly incredible. The volume of support was good for keeping me motivated.
As I passed the Wellesley section, I started paying close attention to locating my family near the halfway mark.
Thanks to the matching orange shirts provided by my father-in-law ("GO JAN" on front, "JAN ROCKS" on back, with CureSMA.org), I spotted my wife, mother-in-law, two sisters and 6 nieces and nephews easily. I high-fived the whole group and continued strong up the hill, still feeling great and very grateful for their enthusiastic support.
The major hills were still to come, but I was running better than my goal pace and still enjoying the experience and challenge of it all. As I got into the high teens, and the hills presented themselves, I could sense that my legs had lost their bounce. It's not that the uphills were really that tough, but my quads started to feel like cement and the downhills were not any easier. The steady downhill and weaving in and out of runners had taken its toll and my pace was slowing significantly. At mile 21 I was still below my overall goal pace to qualify for 2011, but a few more slower miles and my 3:15 target was slowly fading over the horizon.
But still, there I was, running on famous "Heartbreak Hill" and running towards Fenway Park and the Citgo sign and having people scream encouragement for me and yell things like "Come on Ironman!! You got this!!!" (I wore a shirt with the Ironman logo on it.) I think I saw more college kids in one morning than I had seen since I left campus 18 years ago.
With only a few miles to go, I noticed that I was no longer passing people as I had been most of the day. I was in survival mode and just wanted to finish already. I recognized the area where my sister lived after college and a section where I think I went running once when I went to my buddy Ethan's wedding many years ago.
My Garmin said I was getting close, my quads were in agony. Only a few turns to go. Wow - look at all these spectators! I crossed the finish line in 3:20:22 surrounded by plenty of other runners. I shuffled over to the recovery tent, collected my thoughts and took a brief rest before heading out to the family meeting area to find my wife and mother-in-law as well as brother-in-law who was also wearing the GO JAN! uniform (over his work shirt!). Activated.
We took this awesome photo back at my sister's house. Team JAN was in full effect and I felt like the luckiest guy to have that kind of enthusiasm for me and this goal I had set out to accomplish and for all of the people who supported my run and donated almost $6K to FSMA.
It turns out that my finishing time of 3:20:22 was good enough for 2011 Boston because I'm turning 40 soon. I believe I made the cutoff by 37 seconds. Lesson learned. Even when you want to back off and take it easy or give up or say it's not your day, you should always give it your best until the end.
Thanks again for everyone's support and encouragement. I will never forget my 2010 Boston Marathon experience.
JPD