“It is only in sorrow
bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it.”
~Amelia Barr
Well, it wasn’t the race I had been dreaming about for the
past 16 weeks but I did it. I ran the
122nd Boston Marathon. I can forever
call myself a Boston Marathoner.
It was the coldest Boston Marathon in over 30 years. There were 20-30 mph headwinds. Rain ranged from rare bouts of mist to
steady, soaking rain with periods of torrential, “car wash effect” rain. 15 days out meteorologists were predicting
this. I never in my life wanted them to
be so wrong but it only got worse as race day approached. I tried to avoid watching the weather but I found
myself checking multiple sources waiting for just one to tell me that the storm
was taking a turn or that it was moving faster than expected…
I’ll admit that I spent some time last week feeling sorry
for myself. I worked so hard and I was
pissed off that I wasn’t going to get the true Boston experience. I wanted everything to be perfect. I wanted sun.
I wanted to wear a crop top and my new sunglasses. I wanted a long purple ponytail flying behind
me. I wanted to actually see and pay
attention to the different towns… the Wellesley girls… the Citgo sign…
Fenway… I wanted crowds out in full
force. I wanted to dominate the hills
and surge up Heartbreak Hill. I wanted a
shot to take on a course that can humble even the greatest runners. Honestly, I was being selfish and greedy. There was no doubt in my mind that I could do
it and run in those conditions—I just didn’t want to.
I had a really hard time focusing at work last week. My weekly meeting with Joe on Wednesday
consisted of about 5 minutes talking about work related topics and 30 minutes
talking about the race. He was about to
run his 7th Boston Marathon—his 3rd in a row running for Boston Children’s
Hospital. On Thursday I was in charge of
decorating the office with signs for Joe, Eric and myself. That was probably the most productive thing I
did all day. I had a 4-day weekend
coming up and I was mentally checked out.
On Friday morning I went into work to surprise Joe with a
“good luck” video from the staff.
A life
size cardboard cutout of Joe appeared in all 3 offices a few months ago and we
had a blast with it…
https://youtu.be/SoSveFOax5k
After the viewing party, my mom and I headed up to Boston to
pick up my number at the expo. As we
were walking up to the Seaport World Trade Center, it really hit me. I was about to
run the Boston Marathon. So much
history. So much prestige and
honor. I was prepared for whatever race
day was going to throw at me. Finishing
was the only thing on my mind. I didn’t come this far to only come this
far.
We got in line to enter the expo and just like a kid at
Disney World had the biggest smile on my face.
Once we entered, we made our way to number pickup. As I held my bib in my hand for the first
time I knew for sure that there was no turning back.
We browsed the Adidas area with the official race
merchandise and I ended up buying a backpack and coffee mug because I had
already gotten the celebration jacket from Marathon Sports. My mom and I were getting hungry so we
sampled a bunch of snacks—yogurt, string cheese, spicy avocado hummus with
pretzels, munchkins from Dunkin’ Donuts and we even stopped for a drink at the
White Claw Hard Seltzer booth!
After that it was time to head home and rest up until Monday.
Saturday was pretty low key.
I got my nails done in the morning followed by an easy 3 miles—my last
run before Boston! I felt great. It was pretty windy but the sun was shining
and it was 56 degrees. Hard to believe
that the weather was about to take a drastic turn. Later that day I went out for burgers with my
parents then started laying out all my race day options.
On Sunday morning I dropped G off at day care then Erin came
over to dye my hair. The original plan
was blue but when I had the whole shoe dilemma a few weeks ago I switched to
purple. Gotta color coordinate! The color wasn’t too drastic but it was
definitely purple. I loved it.
I packed, did some laundry, changed my sheets, and cleaned
my house like a maniac until my dad picked me up. We waited for my mom to get home then we were
off to Boston!
It was a last minute decision to book rooms at the Hilton
Back Bay and I am so happy we did.
Because the expo was in the Seaport District this year I didn’t get to
really see Boston on Friday. After we
checked into our rooms and made a quick stop to Happy Hour in the Executive
Lounge, we made our way down Boylston towards the finish line. I was so excited to see the Hereford/Boylston
street corner although I’m not sure my parents quite understood. We stopped by the Adidas Run Base so say hi
to Steve then continued on past the memorials in honor of the bombings and took
a ton of pictures from the finish line.
Eeeeee!
I went back to the hotel to relax and lay everything out for
the morning while my parents grabbed a drink at the bar. I talked to Joe and decided we would take the
buses to Hopkinton together. He was
staying right across the street so the plan was to meet in his hotel lobby at
7:15am. Up until this point I hadn’t
really looked at any of the maps or bus schedules and I still hadn’t paid any
attention to the course. The excitement
was there but I was still kind of in denial I guess.
That night I could barely sleep. I was up about an hour before my alarm and
stayed in bed reading all of the texts, emails, Facebook messages and Instagram
comments from you guys. Friends and
family that have supported me this whole journey sent their last minute well
wishes. People that I haven’t talked to
in years and barely knew said they would be tracking me. It is truly incredible the effect that the
Boston Marathon has to even those who know absolutely nothing about the sport.
I got ready, braided my purple hair, put on my tattoo from
Eric, packed some snacks, threw on Uncle John’s poncho and ventured across the
street to meet Joe. We snapped a couple
pictures and parted ways with my parents.
They were headed to VIP at the Westin Copley Place thanks to Matt for
hooking them up last minute.
Joe and I were off to the Boston Commons to catch one of the
buses to Hopkinton. We walked the length
of the Prudential Center before we had to go outside. That first step out the door was like a scene
out of a cartoon. Wind was gusting. We were brought to a standstill with our
ponchos blowing everywhere and Joe’s yelling at me, “This isn’t that bad, Jen!”
It was bad. I was
scared. I was thinking that I wouldn’t
even be able to walk 26.2 miles with that wind.
Luckily we rounded a corner and the buildings blocked some of the wind
until we got to the Commons. The rain
started coming down steadily. I knew I
made the right decision to bring dry socks and shoes to change into before the
start because my current throwaway socks and shoes were already drenched.
When we got on the bus, Joe said to get comfortable because
we were about an hour away from Hopkinton.
The ride actually went by pretty fast and it was nice having Joe with me. I wasn’t really
nervous about the race itself but I was definitely worried about how my body
would respond in those conditions. I had
kind of accepted the fact that we were going to battle and Mother Nature wasn’t
going to let up. I was trying to remain
positive and remind myself that I was running the freaking Boston Marathon.
When our bus got to Hopkinton, Joe and I split up. He went to meet his team and I headed to a
porta potty line. I waited about 15
minutes in line then found a spot under one of the tents in the Athletes’
Village. It was a MESS. The grass fields had completely turned to
mud. I had enough time to pull out my
cell phone and see a few pictures my mom sent from VIP before Wave 2 was
called.
It seemed like about a mile walk from the Athletes’ Village
to the corrals. At about the halfway
point a bunch of people were sitting down along the side of a parking lot
changing their shoes so I asked someone if they had run before and if this was
a good spot to do it. It had turned to a
light mist at this point so I took advantage and switched into my racing shoes
and tucked away my cell phone, GU Chews, Hot Hands, 2 extra pairs of glove,
extra headband and extra neck warmer.
I continued on towards the start, the street lined with
police officers and volunteers collecting throwaway clothes.
There are 8 corrals and I was in 8 so I was
the back of Wave 2.
In my
HoustonMarathon and
Miami Marathon race reports I talked about the calmness I felt at
the start.
I didn’t really feel this in
Boston.
I knew that the next 4 hours
were going to suck and there was nothing I could so about it.
The good thing was that everything from the
time I left the hotel to the time I started the race went by really quick so I
didn’t have much time to think.
I wasn’t
standing in the corral for more than 10 minutes before Wave 2 went off.
6 minutes later I crossed the start line at
10:31am.
Mile 1- 8:17
Mile 2- 8:06
Mile 3- 7:54
Right after I took off my poncho and crossed the start line,
Mother Nature unleashed her first big downpour.
Part of me wanted to scream, the other part of me heard Joe in the back
of my head saying, “This isn’t that bad,
Jen!” I tucked my head down and got
to work. I was warned about all the
downhill running in the first few miles so I held back to what I felt was a
very comfortable pace. The first 3
miles went by really fast and it wasn’t until I went over the 5k mat that I
looked at my watch—but only to see how far behind the clock I was.
Mile 4- 7:54
Mile 5- 8:07
Mile 6- 7:43
The rain continued on and off, never really stopping. So far my raincoat was holding up but I
already soaked through my first pair of gloves.
It was too soon to change them because I only had 2 dry pairs left so I
started to panic and question my clothing choices.
Mile 7- 7:43
Mile 8- 7:45
Mile 9- 7:57
I kept cruising along, not paying attention to my
watch. I started counting down to the
each of the 5k mats. I knew that runner
tracking was set up to send notifications every 3.1 miles so I was taking it
one mat at a time trying to stay at a steady pace and convince myself that all
I had to do was get to the next mat.
Mile 10- 7:54
The next major downpour came around mile 10 just when I was
starting to get used to running in the rain.
I remember thinking that the wind wasn’t really a factor yet then BAM we
got hit with a strong headwind and burst of heavy rain. I wasn’t cold at this point—just
uncomfortable.
Mile 11- 7:58
Mile 12- 7:57
Mile 13- 7:43
The rain slowed down with just enough time to switch neck
warmers and change into my second pair of gloves. Minutes later another downpour soaked them
and I now had only one dry pair remaining with more than halfway to go. I got a boost at mile 12.5 running through he
tunnel of screaming Wellesley College girls.
That was insane! I went through
the half in 1:44:26, which is just under 8:00 per mile. Honestly I was prepared to run 7:40-7:45
pace. I averaged 7:58 in Miami. I know I was only halfway but I was happy to
be running this well in these conditions.
Mile 14- 7:46
Mile 15- 7:48
Mile 16- 7:50
Mile 17- 8:22
Mile 18- 8:01
Mile 19- 7:51
After the half all I could think about was getting to the
next 5k mats (15.5 & 18.6) and then getting to the Mile 19 clock. My friend Trask was volunteering there and I
was dying to see a familiar face. I was
starting to get sick of running, my hands were freezing and I wasn’t paying
attention to anything on the course so I had no idea where I was. I did notice all the fire trucks along the
course and I was looking for Cambridge—even though I didn’t think Nathan was
working. I got to Trask and gave her a
big hug! That was definitely a highlight
as it felt so alone out there. Unlike
other marathons I’ve run, it seemed like everyone—including myself—had their
heads down blocking the wind and the rain.
No one was really talking or communicating. We were all quiet and dismal.
Mile 20- 8:05
Mile 21- 8:39
After passing Trask I realized I still had 7 miles to
go. I physically was feeling great. Mentally I was losing steam. I got to 20 and even though I didn’t exactly
know along the course where it was, I still knew Heartbreak Hill was
coming. It wasn’t until halfway up it
that I turned to another runner and asked, “Is
this Heartbreak Hill?” Maybe I was
delusional at this point but I didn’t think it was that bad. I know I slowed down but I was passing a ton
of runners and feeling very strong.
(Thanks Greg!!) The worst part of
Heartbreak Hill was going down it. This
was the first time I started to feel some cramping—right inner thigh and on and
off both hamstrings.
Mile 22- 8:40
This is where things got BAD. We had faced a few big downpours but nothing
prepared me for the “car wash effect” at mile 22. It came so hard and so fast I feel like I got
sprayed with a fire hose. Buckets were
dumping from the sky and in seconds soaked through every layer I was wearing. My last pair of gloves and my extra headband
that I was just about to switch into were both drenched. My socks went from wet to sloshy and my shoes
became so much heavier. I was
MISERABLE. I thought to myself I’m not going to make it. I can’t
do this.
Mile 23- 9:18
Mile 24- 10:01
Mile 25- 11:48
Mile 26- 11:27
I honestly do not know how I got to Boylston Street from
there. I was so cold. My teeth were chattering. My last GU made me nauseous. I couldn’t feel my hands. I was crying.
I was walking. I tried to run. I saw the Citgo sign symbolizing one mile to
go and I wasn’t even excited. I wanted
to be DONE.
Then it happened. I
saw a street sign for Hereford Street. Right on Hereford, left on Boylston. I picked up my pace only to cramp up and
remind me that I needed to control myself that last half mile. One last major downpour on Hereford had
everyone around me screaming. I made the
left on Boylston and could see the finish line.
I had my eyes on the grandstands because I knew that’s where my parents
were waiting for me. Best feeling in the
world. Right after I saw them, my friend
Kima’s daughter was jumping up and down in the stands cheering for me. A few steps later I was crossing the finish
line as a Boston Marathon finisher.
26.2 miles – 3:42:23
Average pace – 8:29
I continued on and made all the stops getting my medal, heat
blanket, water and snacks. I stopped and
asked for directions to the Prudential Center because my brain wasn’t working. It wasn’t until I got inside the Pru that I
was able to turn my cell phone on and call my parents. I found them in the mall and we slowly walked
back to the hotel together where I showered in the fitness center. My parents had an awesome time in VIP eating
lunch, breakfast, drinking mimosas and Sam Adams Boston 26.2 Brew while
watching the race on TV from couches with their feet up. I totally wished I was there.
As for my race, I have no regrets. There is nothing I would have done
differently other than I probably should have worn different gloves. I gave Boston my all and I left everything I
had out on the course. I’m happy with
the way I paced myself. I don’t think
going out any slower would have made a difference in the last few miles.
With my time of 3:42 I did not qualify. My 3:28 in Miami was outside the window to
count for 2019. I can say with 100%
certainty that I will not run another marathon to qualify however I have an in
to Boston *if I want it* next year.
Right now it’s hard to say what I am going to do.
Do I want to give that course one more shot? I guess I can never say never…
