Okay, finally ready to talk about it…
2016 Boston Marathon Report
I thought I did all the right things leading up to Monday. Taper seemed to go well, ran a total of 21 miles the week before, short runs Monday – Friday with a mix of easy and a little bit of faster paced to keep the legs firing. Last run was three miles on Friday. Hit the expo Saturday and picked up my bib. Swung through again quickly on Sunday to meet Tri and pick up his gear bag. It was great to meet one of my 10K thread idols. Met him outside the convention center and he hopped in the car, we circled the block chatting for a few minutes, wished each other luck and then he was off. Exactly what I expected…great guy with a confident, positive attitude about what we were trying to do the next day. I spent the rest of the day at my kids’ lax games, bottle of water in my hand constantly, carb-loaded burrito for lunch, my usual pre-race salmon and sweet potato dinner. I was in bed at 9:30, asleep by 10, slept pretty solid until 6am. All according to plan.
Morning routine went well: ate a banana, two slices of wheat toast with peanut butter, a small glass of chocolate milk, tall glass of water. Followed up with a solid performance in the bathroom. I wanted to get to the Common by 8 to drop off Tri’s bag and catch the bus so left the house at 7:30. The ride in was easy, wife dropped me off at 7:50. I figured the bag check would be somewhere close to where the bus pick up was but couldn’t spot it so I asked a volunteer. Unfortunately I’d been dropped off on the north side of the Common, where the busses were, and the bag check was ¾ mile away, not far from the finish line. Not a big deal since I wasn’t all that pressed for time. When I got there though there was a LONG line to get through a security check to unload the bag. There were runners who were in earlier waves than I was who were freaking out. I had plenty of time with my 11:25 Wave 4 start time so not a problem at all for me. Got the bag checked, walked back the bus loading zone and was on the road at around 9:15. Arrived in Hopkinton at 10 and made my way to the MGH private tent and hung out there for an hour before heading to the corral. Ate another banana and drank a 16oz Gatorade during this time.
Goal for the race was sub 3:30, and I figured to get there I needed to run the first 16 in 7:45 – 7:50 pace, knowing I’d give up some on the hills from 17 – 21. I was in the 7th corral or Wave 4, so back of the pack. Temp at the start when I last checked around 11:15 was 73 degrees. Gun went off and it took 5 or 6 minutes for me to cross the start line. The first couple of miles were jam packed and I tried to resist doing the zig-zag routine to fight my way through, knowing it was a waste of energy. I stayed in my lane for the most part, and stopped quickly a mile or so in to take a quick leak in the woods. Like any run I ever do I didn’t feel great the first couple of miles, but confident I’d settle into a groove. First two miles were around 8:00 pace.
Miles 3 -5 the crowd thinned a bit and I picked up the pace a little, 7:50 for this stretch. But I still didn’t feel good, never clicked into a rhythm like I usually do. It felt too hard but I was still hopeful I’d push through it and get in a comfortable groove. I’d brought 5 Honey Stinger gels with me and my plan was to take one every 5 miles. I tried to take one at 5 but couldn’t get it down, gagged on it. I wasn’t too concerned because I’d eaten plenty before. My wife and kids were meeting me at 10 and she would have a gel opened and ready to hand off to me there, so I decided to wait.
Miles 6-10 (7:49/7:54/8:02/8:00/8:16) is where I started to realize it wasn’t going to go well. I tried to stick to my planned pace but I felt very lethargic. I found my family, they handed me the gel, a small bottle of water, and a cooling towel Tri had given me that they had soaking in an ice bath. I felt like crap but was not feeling overwhelmed by the heat. I was warm but I can’t pin how I felt on the temp. Wife asked how I felt and I replied “like hell” and I continued on my way. She later told me I looked “grey” and she was worried about me. I got the gel down this time and hoped that would give me a boost.
The next three miles were 8:47/8:13/8:28, reached the half at 1:46:39. Not a disastrous time for the half if I didn’t feel so bad, but I knew it was going to get much worse. From the start I’d been hitting all of the water stops from mile 3 on, alternating water and Gatorade. My thirst at this point was unquenchable, couldn’t get to the next stop fast enough. At one point I made the mistake of squeezing water from the cooling towel into my mouth. Pretty sure there’s a chemical component to whatever it is that keeps the water in the towel cool, it tasted like acid…not a great surprise.
Miles 14-16, the last “easy” stretch before the hills, were 8:49/9:07/8:54. At this point I was doing the math, had long abandoned my A goal of 3:30, and kicked my B goal of 3:40 to the curb. I was walking every water stop and having a really hard time convincing myself to start running again. And I had the hills to look forward to. Wanted to quit. #### me.
Miles 17 – 21 were 9:44/10:29/9:38/10:56/11:51, an utter train wreck. My legs were cramping all over the place: hammies, quads, calves. I had a couple of very brief, like 30 seconds, severe headaches around 15 minutes apart that kind of freaked me out. I told myself if it happened again I was stopping. Was kind of hoping it did to give me an out! But nope, didn’t get another and the death march continued. I did a lot of walking over these 5 miles. The crowds were frigging awesome, they were the whole day. They were easily 4 times as large and energetic compared to what they were in the rain the year before. I wish I could have fed off it and enjoyed them more. But they did keep me moving onward.
So I made it to BC/the top of Heartbreak, hopes for even my most modest of goals crushed, and started the last 5 miles home. At this point the weather had changed, it was in the 50s with a cool and pretty strong headwind. It was a relief but I really was beyond help by this time. And again, oddly I never really felt too hot. I did realize though that I still had a chance to beat last years’ time (3:57) so that became my focus. I knew I had some family waiting for me at Mile 23 so getting there became my short term goal. For the miles through the hills and those after I was double and triple fisting the water stops, couldn’t get enough. I skipped the one soon before I got to where I knew my family would be, knowing they’d have a cold bottle of water waiting. When I got there my SIL was there with my nieces and two daughters, wife had gone to the finish line with my son. My SIL tried to hand me one of Tri’s towels, which I didn’t need and waved off…I asked her for a water, and got a panicked look and a very meek “sorry…” in response. I think I muttered “are you ####### kidding me?” and shuffled along. At that moment I felt like my world was ending. A little speed bump at that stage was totally amplified. I felt horrible afterwards for being such a #####, but damn, remembering the towel but forgetting a ####### beverage? My wife later told me she had specifically told her to have a water ready for me. Anyway, not my best moment, made them all feel very bad thinking they let me down, and I apologized afterwards. We’ve had some laughs about it since though. I asked my 4th grade daughter to get me some milk the Sunday night and she came back with a facecloth.
Last 5 miles + were 9:56/9:38/9:24/9:39/9:30/8:53. As disappointed as I am overall looking back I’m kind of proud of this last 5 mile stretch. So damn slow but I got everything out of myself that I had. Coming down the home stretch I thought I could get into the 3:55s for a whopping two minute PR but ended up at 3:56:04. There was no elation of any kind at the end, just relief that it was over. I grabbed two bottles of water, got wrapped in foil and got my medal. My team had an after-race thing at the Boston Sports Club in Copley so I headed in what I thought was that direction.
The next thirty minutes are a blur. It’s not a difficult walk to get where I needed to go, 5 minutes maybe, and I know the area. But there were so many people, and security checks, and rerouting of traffic that I got confused somewhere along the way. I was having a lot of trouble with my legs, I was cold and I got really agitated. I ended up sitting down in some grass for a bit to try to get myself together. I remember a lady coming over and tapping me on the shoulder and asking if I was okay and I snapped out of it and realized I was ####### crying!
I told her thank you I was fine, and I stood up and kind of got my #### together. I got my phone out and saw that I missed a call from my wife, called her back and told her I was lost. Really I was just a block and a half from where she was waiting to meet me, and she guided me over the phone to where she and my son were waiting near the Marriot. We went in to the BSC, where the humiliation would continue.
It’s a nice set up they have for the MGH team, they have PTs there to stretch runners and masseuses to do their thing, a buffet, etc. We got in there and got me on the waiting list for a massage. It was a ten minute wait so limped in to have the PT stretch me out in the meantime. I asked them for a couple of chocolate milks, which they brought to me and I pounded quickly. I laid down on a table to get stretched but I was shivering so much that they called that off and wrapped me head to toe in warm blankets, hot wet towel around my head. A doctor came in and asked me some basic questions like do I know where I am/what’s my name to make sure I wasn’t completely out of my mind, passed those tests. He also asked when the last time I urinated was and I told him mile one, but I’d taken copious amounts of fluids the entire race, two bottles of water immediately after, two chocolate milks since I got here and had zero inclination to take a piss. He told me they needed to get me pissing and brought over two 16 oz Gatorades and that I should drink them as quickly as I could manage. I stayed there a half hour all wrapped up and got the Gatorades down. I still wasn’t warming up so they came up with an awesome plan to put me in an office chair (they didn’t have a wheel chair) still wrapped up like a mummy, roll me through the gym where there were all kinds of hot chicks working out, put me on the elevator, and wheel me into the sauna downstairs in the men’s locker room. My son tagged along and thought the whole spectacle was hilarious, mocked me the entire way. Twenty minutes in the sauna did the trick, I finally felt warm and took a quick shower before we finally got out of there. I weighed myself when I got home around 6:00pm and despite having run a marathon and not eaten anything solid since 10:00am I’d gained 2 lbs! I kept drinking and the damn finally broke at 8:00pm, and I was pissing like a madman all night. I also woke up in the middle of the night and thought I’d pissed the bed but the sheets, comforter and shirt I had on were just drenched with sweat. All of that retained fluid was finding its way out.
I know it didn’t go well for a lot of runners but I think this was going to be an off day no matter what the weather. My HS buddy who was petrified by the heat after running in the hot one 3 years ago had a great day, ran a 3:37. I’d beaten him in the October HM by 3 min and he had a rough training cycle due to some injuries. And go figure…he said he felt great the whole time. He only drank two 16 oz bottles of water the whole way, one his Mom gave him at mile 8 and another his sister gave him at 17. He must have nailed whatever fuel/hydration plan he followed the day before and morning of. And I obviously screwed mine up somehow.
And that’s the long-### sob story that was my much anticipated 2016 Boston Marathon where I thought I'd obliterate my PR as a launching pad to trying to get a BQ in the fall. I swore the entire race I’d never do another Marathon again but four days later I’m already coming around a little bit. But for now I'm going to see about getting under 20 min in a 5K sometime soon.
x. 
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