Race report

The infamous No'easter.... well, our No'westers are just as bad. Except we just call them storms. No, really, it was pretty bad the night before. But by race time it was high 40's and the winds were only about 15 max, and really just gusts, not the full on head wind. It was way worse for us during the Seattle Half Marathon last Thanksgiving. We lucked out. The day before and the day after were very cold, rainy and windy. Hypothermia would have been an issue.

The day started early. The 5:00am wake up call jolted me, which caused a charley horse in my calf. I DID NOT NEED THAT ! Had a little coffee and some food. Didn't want to drink too much cuz I had a long bus ride from Boston out to the start in Hopkinton. School busses, no on board potties. It was raining sideways at 6:00am when I got down to the lobby. I scratched the plan to walk the mile to the Boston Commons where the busses were loading. TAXI !! That was $6 well spent. The weather calmed down a bit while waiting in lines to get on the bus. Then during the ride out it just looked to get worse and worse. Chatted with a gal from LA on the ride. We got dropped off at the Athletes' Village, which is the Jr & Sr. High School grounds, and about a half mile from the town center/start line. There was a huge tent on the field that we were to hang out under. It was packed with people, but also in the middle of the field, which was several inches deep with rain water. I chose the parking lot instead. They said they'd open the school doors to wait inside, but either I was too late or it wasn't happening cuz that wasn't an option by the time I got there at 8:30am. The spot I chose to wait just happened to be near a perfect spot for guys to relieve themselves, which was fine with me cuz I was uphill, and all huddled up under plastic but there's only so much of that one can take before having to "go" myself.

I had planned on blogging from the village with my phone, but it was difficult enough to drink my G-ade, munch a bar, keep the plastic from blowing crazily, and hold my Red Sox umbrella, much less try and text from a teeny phone. The whole scene was kind of refugee camp-like. Everyone had garbage bags on, plastic bags over their shoes. The weather finally started calming down on the walk to the start line. I still hadn't changed into race shoes and jacket. I stopped along the way and put on my shoes and sox. I had put bags over my sox so my feet were nice and dry to start. Tossed the old shoes and sox and fell in line.

The corral areas are along the main street, and another slew of porto's were just before that, so I stopped there, and shed my many layers. And put on my race layers, and pinned my gu's to me. Next thing I know the announcer is saying 2 minutes to start of wave 2. HEY !! I'm not in my corral yet. I beat a path thru the crowds to corral 18. and then we were OFF !!

The course is downhill for several miles, which is good cuz it's easy. It's bad cuz it will make your quad's sore later in the game. Then about mile 5 there was a huge puddle across the road, so I tried to go on the sidewalk only to find the source of that puddle, a POND and my whole left foot went under water. Great. I just spent 3 hours trying to keep my feet dry and it gets soaked in the first hour of the race. BUT my sox are the BEST ! a short while later I couldn't even tell that my foot was wet. And you all know about my feet and blister issues.

I stopped twice along the way for potty breaks. The key is choosing a porto a pot with a short line. Normally, I have no qualms about using the woods, but this time I didn't want to muck around in the mud.

I started looking for Jane at mile 15, figured I'd missed her. Then spotted her at mile 16. For me it's really a boost knowing someone might be there. Helps to keep form and speed. We had a photo op and hug, and then I was off to tackle the hills of Newton. There are 4 or 5 hills from mile 16 on. They are not huge or long, it's just that it's late in the game and the legs are sore from those early beautiful downhills. I didn't charge up the hills, but neither did I walk.

I was getting pretty sore the last couple miles and tried to distract myself by high fiving fans, and there was a guy with a big Chinese gong, the runners could grab the mallet and gong it. So I did. The long stretch that looks into downtown was kind of emotional for me. And then we turn a couple corners onto Boylston St. for the last couple blocks. There was Gina hanging off a lamp post. I ran up for a quick hug, then I was really tearing up, what with the Finish sign in sight, and all.

I guess due to the weather the crowds were not as large as usual but it seemed to me there were a lot of folks. It was great. The famous tunnel of screams at Wellesley College was amazing. I could hear this high pitch scream from what seemed like a mile away. That was surpising. And there were lots of groups of college kids having parties and high fiving runners at Boston College, and Boston U. It's a real scene. I can imagine it's absolutely crazy on a good weather day.

The finish area is a bit of a zoo with thousands of freezing runners milling about with their peeps, taking the timing chip off, getting our medal, trying to find where our bags were stored, and just trying to get out of there. Our hotel was at the finish line, but I had to walk 6 blocks further, 2 over and then 6 back to the hotel. Just what you wanna do at that point, go sightseeing. I found Gina and got to the room. No ice bath for me. Jumped in a hot shower for a bit. Then we headed to the bar to celebrate. Jane met us there after a bit. Being a head honcho ATF agent she had to go to the office (after seeing me on the course) and check into things with the VTech shooting. But we high fived ourselves for a while. Then had some dinner and crashed.

Anyway, thanks for listening.... if you're not asleep by now, bored to tears. I've blogged myself bleary-eyed.

Now, what's the next event??