Boston Marathon Race Report

Keep in mind that if you want a short recap, you should see my previous post.

I stayed with my friend Kathryn, her fiance, and her future in-laws at their beautiful home in Cohasset...about 30-40 minutes away from Boston.




The expo on Saturday was a lot of fun-TONS of people-waiting in line for an hour to buy stuff...










The Red Sox game on Saturday night was awesome.




My bday last Sunday:

Pre-Race: Monstering it up!

Athlete's Village: Around 6:30am we all got on buses and took an hour long drive to the starting point. We waited in this big grassy area behind a school for a few hours until the start time. It was a tad bit cold.

                                                                              GO COLTS! (no wedgy)

At the start line:


During the race: I was really proud of myself for pacing myself each mile and not running too fast early on, even though I felt good. There were rolling hills but nothing too big or bad at all. It was hard to notice them because there were so many people to look at. I felt like I ran a great, comfortable race and am happy with my time. Each mile was a lot of fun with tons of fans.

This was right after I crossed the finish line- 3:39:52...Disregard the last 10 seconds of it:


Post race:



I had an awesome trip and had fun with Kathryn and her family. The weather was perfect. The Boston people are very nice. A lot of strangers would randomly congratulate me on the street. I hope to be back again to do the race again.

Quick Boston Update

Update: See my updated Boston report here.

This will be a quick post about Boston for those of you that don't want to read a long arse post full of pics and videos tomorrow.

The weather was perfect for running: a little sun and no rain! I finished in 3:39:52 (and re-qualified for Boston) and felt great the entire time! It was hard to pace myself in the beginning because of the downhill portions. During the second mile one guy said, "If people are passing you in the first three miles then you're running a good race". I kept that in mind and made myself stay on pace for the whole race and it worked for me!

Initially I had a loose goal to finish under 4 hours...and then as I got closer to finishing, I wanted to finish under 3:40. This was my second fastest marathon (which when I think about it, doesn't sound very impressive), with Columbus being the fastest.

I polished everything off with a fat hamburger, fries, and two cider beers...and then an Auntie Anne's pretzal at the train station. Yum.

More to come later. All in all, a great day and weekend. Thanks for your support!

Weekly Recap

Mon- 4mi
Tues- 4mi
Wed- Off
Thurs-6mi
Fri- 4mi
Sat- Off (In Boston)
Sun- Off (In Boston)

Welp...the time has come. I ran 6 relaxed miles yesterday in awesssome weather and will run 4 this afternoon and then that's it. I might try to get in 1-2 miles on Sunday but I don't really want to get lost in a random Boston neighborhood.

Last Monday and Tuesday the inside of my hamstring was feeling a little sore which was odd... The pain has since gone away so I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it stays that way.

-My plane leaves tomorrow morning around 7am and I get in at 11am. I'll go straight to the expo...then hang out around downtown or something...then my friend somehow got us tickets to the Reds game (I don't even know who they are, but that's ok!) that night so it should be a fun, busy day. (I just now found out it's "Red Sox"...not Reds. Dangit)

-Sunday's my bday (WOOOHOOO! Big 25!) which will be a low-key, relaxful day...

-Monday I have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get to the starting line and then wait for about 5 hours for the race to start, which hopefully won't be in the rain. Then I run a great marathon with tons of people and drink beer and such (track my run, Bib #14152, here are instructions). That night we'll hang out downtown and do whatever.

-Tuesday- who knows what we'll do...

-Wednesday- back to Indy in the morning after an awesome weekend!!! See ya then!

Boston Bet is Off

Update: I emailed my boss and the fast guy and they are fine that I'm dropping out. Whew. However, the fast guy (Gio) said he just ran another half marathon in 1:15 and ran the last 6 miles at a 5:35 pace!! He finished 4th place overall. That is ridiculous! I told him I was even happier now that I dropped out because there is no way I can compete with him. I would have set myself up for failure.

*(Note to reader: This post is merely for me to vent and feel better)

Today my husband and I were talking about Boston and somehow he convinced me to drop out of the bet that my boss put on for me (bet: my Boston time has to be within 40 minutes of this other super fast guy's Boston time, whose goal is 2:50) . Of course I know I could have dropped out all along, but for some reason I never felt like I truly could.

Although it seems so simple to you all, the decision was/is SUPER TOUGH for me. The guys at work keep asking about the race and keep saying that they know I'll win and whatever else. There's too much pressure. Tomorrow I'm going to email my boss and the fast guy and let them know that I'm dropping out. They can still compare our times but I know that guy will win.

Here are the pros to dropping out:

• I enjoy the race
• No pressure to run each mile at a certain pace
• Who cares if I go slow up those hills
• Take pictures during the race
• Drink beer during race
• Give high-fives to people and fans
• Participate with the fans instead of listen to my music, focusing on my time
• If I never do Boston again, I'll always have this good memory of it

Here are the cons to dropping out and the cons to not dropping out:

• Disappoint my boss and perhaps other coworkers (if I drop out ahead of time, or if I don't drop out and I lose)
• If I don't win the bet, I'll finish the race being disappointed and always have a negative memory of Boston
• The opposite of the above items will occur

Bottom line: (*again, I'm just saying this for my own sake) The day after I get back to work and tell people about the race, my coworkers will already have forgotten about the bet and whether I won. However, I will always have the memory and it's up to me as to whether it's a good one or not. I'm not a fast enough runner to both enjoy the race and run it super fast...I put too much pressure on myself. For that reason, I'm an ultrarunner.

AHH! It's still hard for me to get in the mindset that I no longer have to worry about my time, since that's all I've dreaded for the past four months! But as my husband said, I'd hate to waste this opportunity (that could be once in a lifetime for me) on this stupid bet and regret it forever.

Soo..just tell me that I made a good decision and all will be well.

A bet at work puts the pressure on

*Updated info at bottom
**Another update at bottom
***and another

Well unfortunately the director of the company that I work for learned that I run long distances. He also learned that another employee at our San Antonio facility is a runner. The difference between me and the other runner is that I am slow and he is fast. He ran his last marathon in 3:30, but he walked about 6 miles and was sick. I think he ran another marathon in 2:30 or something crazy.

So anyway, the cmpy director is a competitive guy and wants to have a bet between us. We're both running the Boston Marathon this April and the director is going to use this Heartbreak Hill Striders Age-Graded Calculator to find out who's the better runner. If he's better, then the San Antonio employees will get a free day off work. If I'm better, then us Indy folks will get the day off.

Based on my results from my best marathon, I fall into the top 64% of my age group. The other guy falls into the top 88% group or something. Although I'm semi-competitive, I don't like this bet because the other guy is obviously way faster than me. There's too much pressure.

I just talked to the director this morning and he said that guy is running 90 miles a week. That's ridiculous! Who has time/motivation for that much? I thought my dinky 40 miles a week was good.

I told the director to change the bet because there's no way I'll win. I told him if we did a bet on long distance races (such as ultras), I'd be happy to win that one. I challenged the guy to run Land Between the Lakes 50 Miles or Mohican 100 Miles with me but it's 100% doubtful he'll try it.

Anyway....I might bump my mileage up to 50 miles a week in February just to get closer to him, but that's still far away from 90. Wish me luck!

*I just found out that I might get some leeway on my Boston finishing time. The bet might state that if I finish within x amount of time from the other guy, I win. Keep your fingers crossed.

**Okay...the bet is official- I have to finish within 40 minutes of the other guy's time. His goal time is 2:40 and so I am pretty sure (KNOCK ON WOOD) that I can finish by 3:29 (hopefully sooner). Also, this is that guy first's Boston marathon and I think he's only run 2-3 marathons in his life.

***The winner does not get a day off work. Instead, the whole facility will get a cookout in your name and a trophy up in the gym.

Boston Marathon Attire

I know it's early but I've been thinking a lot about what I'm going to wear for the Boston marathon and I know for sure that I'll be sporting the Colts while I'm there.

Would these be too harsh to wear? Although I love them (the shirts, that is), they don't sport the Colts at all- and that's the main goal.

Thankfully someone already asked the question about wearing the shirt and it looks like it might not be a good idea.

Even though this shirt below isn't made of runnable material and it will probably be freezing in Boston in April, I wanted to wear this tank top since it's in your face. Too bad they don't sell this item anymore. I'll keep on looking.

Please let me know if you see anything worthy of wearing.

Boston Marathon More Pain Than Gain?

I'm still trying to finalize my plans for Boston and decide on plane tickets, housing, etc. I asked my dad if he'd be interested in going with me and said, "Are you sure that's not the weekend of Pascha?". Dangit! We checked a calendar and sure enough, Pascha is April 19th! I'll be darned!

Technically we celebrate Pascha on Saturday night, April 18th...so I could try to find a church out there and attend the service. I'd sleep in all day Sunday, wake up for the Expo, sleep, and then run the race on Monday. That seems like a dud...but it might have to happen.

My dad also reminded me that out of all the huge cities he's driven in before, Boston was the most difficult to navigate around. He said he was lost many times and the roads are all weird.

Is this true? How do 25,000+ runners/fans survive Boston each year when the majority of them are from other states/countries? Do they just take taxis everywhere? Any advice/enouragment?

Finally BQ'ed and PR'ed- Columbus Marathon Review

Short story:

I finally qualified for the Boston Marathon- 3:34. I beat my 2004 PR by 13 minutes and I'm pretty happy. The course was awesome- very flat and a lot of downhill portions. The weather was great and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Longer story:

I woke up Sunday morning and had to scrape frost off my car. It was pretty cold in the beginning but it later warmed up- perfect running weather.

Somehow I just knew I would qualify at this race. Two days before the race I had a dream that I qualified, but I forgot to put on my chip so my time wasn't recorded. Then the day before the race, I had a dream I qualified and all was well. It sounds dumb but those 2 dreams actually gave me confidence during the race that I was going to make it.

I didn't know how to plan out my pacing for this race. I had thought about starting out with the 3:30 pace group and then later slowing down to the 3:40 group when I was tired. I was afraid to do that because I didn't want to kill myself early on in the race, but I knew I didn't want to start out with the 3:40 group. Too much pressure.

So anyway, I lined up to start with the 3:30 group. Before the start, I randomly saw Bill there. He was walking the marathon and finished in 5:08- 3rd place! Anyway, the gun went off and the 3:30 group was already out of sight. I ran the first mile in 7 minutes and that group was probably about 25 seconds ahead of me. Way too fast.

Sooo, I just put on my music and was going to try to run a nice pace on my own- always staying ahead of the 3:40 group. And I did- I somehow maintained an 8, 8:05 minute pace the whole way. I kept on feeling good so I kept on trucking.

I think 2 main things contributed to my good run (considering I had only run 3x in the previous 3 weeks).

• Number 1- my music. Before the race on Saturday, I put together a new "Clara running playlist" to get some good, upbeat songs for the race. It consisted of some Rage Against the Machine, Metallica, Blues Travelers, Dave Matthews, Dixie Chicks, Spanish music, etc. The music seriously helped a ton.
• Number 2- I took Chris's advice and sugared up during the whole race. I normally will eat 3-5 gus during a marathon and this time I ate 7. Every half hour I took an S!Cap and a Gu. I never felt sick and I actually had a better post-race recovery. I wasn't even hungry.

I had read reviews on the race beforehand about the amount of hills on this course. Half of them said that the course was flat, and the other half said it definitely wasn't flat as advertised. I was expecting the worst and I found the course to be super flat. I am one who hasn't done a hill workout in forever and I hate incline, and the course seemed perfect. There were maybe 2 small inclines that lasted less than .3 miles, and that was it.

There was surprinsingly a lot of downhill and that was super nice. It was especially nice having the last .2 miles into the finish line be downhill.

Anyway, a good race all in all. I'm glad I don't have to spend more money on an out of town race just to try to qualify again.

No Boston for 2008

Welp...I decided last night that I'm not going to try to qualify for Boston this year. I haven't really trained for it at all to come close to a good time. There's a church retreat the same weekend that I think I should go to instead. Next year I'll be done with school so I can put forth more effort into getting a qualifying time (unless I do this fall???) and do Boston then...or not.

I finally made a bet with some friends that starts next week. In mine, I said that I have to do sprints 1x/wk, hill repeats 1x/wk, and then run three other times. Good luck. I don't really want to make my schedule like that because I know it'll be hard to fit it in sometimes, but I need to so I can improve.

I did some hill workouts last weekend and it felt great. Eagle Creek trail hills are HARD and AWESOME! Too bad I don't live closer to the park so I can make myself go each afternoon. Oh well.