Someone must have paid off the weather gods because it rained every day we were here except race day. We had near-perfect running weather. Thanks for the text messages & email messages & phone calls. It was nice to have you here in spirit.
It was so much fun to be on vacation with Coach & Marianne and Margaret & Vince. Good eats, sight-seeing, shopping and parties in Coach & Marianne's hotel room. (Sorry for the crumbs on your side of the bed, Coach!). We laughed so hard that our faces hurt and Marianne & I were trying to think about what (other than Lenny's blue shorts) triggered that. Ah, it must have been the wine! Marianne & were jealous that we had a race to run and couldn't stay out and party with the rest of them. They took Dave to a bar and in his words, "shined a bright light in my eyes" and got our whole story out of him. I think they like Dave better than me now.
Margaret picked the perfect location in Back Bay for our stay. The Newbury Guest House is two blocks from packet pickup and shopping at the convention center, right across the street from the Wired Puppy coffee shop, and a few doors down from a nice market. Of course all around us were restaurants and bars. The day before the race everyone was out hustling around; the day after hobbling like 90 year olds. It was probably a mile back from the finishing area, which was gruesome!
Race day was windy and freezing. Wearing a pair of Eben's old sweats, two sweatshirts & and garbage bag over my race singlet & shorts, I huddled with Marianne & Dave & Coach after Margaret & Vince took off for a run, waiting in line for a bus to the starting line for over an hour. At one point we saw Bart Yasso and I wanted to bolt out of line and go give him a hug, but I didn't do it, darnit.
Boston has no public restrooms (even in places like Dunkin Donuts) and most of the porta pots are locked except the ones right by the buses and by the time we were there, we just wanted to get on the bus and get going! It was a long ride to Hopkinton for the race start. Traffic was so heavy that a couple of guys asked the driver to let them off to pee in the woods while we were on the highway! They got off, ran up to the woods, did their business, ran back along the shoulder until they got back to us, and the driver opened the door to a cheering load of dummies who still had to pee.
When we arrived in Hopkinton, the buses were taking so long to park that runners were bailing off in droves from every bus to flee to the woods to pee. Marianne & I were among them.
We really didn't have to wait all that long for the race start. We nearly lost each other checking our bags. When we finally reconnected, Marianne said, "thank God!! Margaret would have KILLED me if I had lost you already!" I started the race still wearing one of the sweatshirts, but before the first mile was up, both of us had shed all of our layers, down to our singlets and shorts. I realized that, oops, I had forgotten the sunscreen. What a beautiful day!!
I really don't think Boston is all that difficult of a course. It is a net-downhill course (more down than up), and "Heartbreak Hill" is named for an instance during one race in which the local favorite was passed on the course's biggest hill, breaking everyone's heart, not because it is necessarily a killer hill. What makes it bad is all of the downhill travel up to that point. Too hard on the downhills and the uphill kills. Yesterday the winner broke the WORLD RECORD for marathons but was denied the title because the Boston course is net-downhill.
For me, though, it was hard! There is a LOT to be said for getting all of your training done, not just the long runs. I didn't get enough of my Yasso 800s done, nor my interval workouts. I got the miles in, but not the workouts.I paid for it. But the first half actually went really well. We started out slowly to warm up and gradually, each mile, picked up the pace just a bit.
Along the way, we saw a woman wearing a tshirt that said, "My greatest PR: Beating Cancer" or something like that. She was bald, wearing a ball cap. We pulled up along side her and I told her what an inspiration she was and that I was starting chemo on Wednesday. She told her story ... she's having her last chemotherapy treatment now, then radiation, surgery and then more chemo, and how she hadn't run since October but that she could do this, one way or another. I had tears in my eyes. After we talked for a while she said, "I don't even know you, but I can't believe cancer thinks it can try to mess with you." We said our goodbyes and good lucks. I am absolutely sure she finished, even though I didn't ask her name, and couldn't remember her bib number to look her up at the end.
Marianne & I were doing well... pacing ourselves very well and enjoying things. But then I had to make a pit stop.
When I had to make the stop and *wait* for the porta pot, I told Marianne to run ahead, or at least walk, and I would catch her. But she waited. She was worried that we wouldn't be able to find each other again. So, we had a few minutes pick up in order to recover our overall pace. I timed the stop to be right after we crossed the 10k split mat, in the hopes that we could make up the time before the next spit so that you guys wouldn't notice!! I don't think it worked, because it wasn't long after that that I had a really bad spell so early in the race that I was afraid everything was blown. So much for breaking 4 hours. (I knew going in that my body still hadn't recovered from the effects of percocet, which I really don't need to go into here!)
Marianne & I decided to stay together, which was really nice, but I felt some regret when I could see that she would be going faster if I weren't suffering. We decided to just take one mile at a time and walk through the water stops. She would get to the stop before me and I would catch her a few seconds later.
The hills were sort of energizing for me, because they weren't nearly as bad as I had read about, but my quads were NOT happy about it. Except for the gut cramping, which after mile 16 or so I had learned to live with, I was ok, but I was certainly feeling those quads. At the top, I had my second wind and was feeling pretty good. At this point it was my turn to help out Marianne, who was having some muscle cramping. Finally, I got to help out the woman who helped me prepare for and have a great day at Ironman, and who didn't run off when I was suffering a few miles back!
We finished together. Our time wasn't good, but we had a good time! (For the most part!). Certainly the long weekend in Boston was just what the doctor ordered (literally). The timing was just perfect. A forced holiday for cancer. Now it's nice to have a recovery week while I start this next challenge. As Marianne says, "This is just your next challenge and you'll meet it like you do the others." I doubt it'll be as much fun, although I'm going to try to have some fun with it. I think the Marge Simpson wig I ordered for Staff Development Day (among other events) should be waiting for me at home.
Love,
Diane
P.S.. Sorry that some of you got this twice... I copied in the Tri-Dawg list.
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