Getting back to Boston

EIght or nine became three, thanks to GI issues and a very late start (no more getting out of work early, I'm afraid). That's OK, I didn't feel very good anyway.

Dyslexic tonight. Schedule read 2 X 3 miles at HMP. I thought it said 3 X 2 miles. Not a gigantic difference, I know, especially since the recovery was the same. At first I thought I'd back off and do them at MP. First one was. Second one was HMP, third one was even faster. Splits were 15:37/14:50/14:46. With warm, cool and recovery, total of 10 miles. Went pretty well considering it was well over 75 degrees when I started and probably 73 when I finished. If Patriots Day turns out unusually warm, at least I won't be completely unprepared. Unless it's sunny.

Easy 8 at the track, extended to get me over 40 miles for the week. Not OCD or anything, am I?

Four laps around the golf course loop. Weather was quite favorable -- low 50s and overcast -- except for that wind. Which was a mutha. Probably was pushing 30 mph at times. It was great running downwind, but into the wind? Wow. Wind contributed to a bit of a bonk on the final loop. But even with that "bonk", I averaged 8:18 for the entire run. Easily the fastest long run I've ever had without a bib pinned to my shirt. At least 7.5 miles were at MP. If this doesn't give me confidence for the 18th, nothing will.

Intervals tonight, cut a little short. It was hot (almost 80) and I felt a little queasy after two reps, so I bagged the last rep and jogged the recovery laps instead. Still got two 3000-meter reps at the appropriate pace, though, so I accomplished the objective of demanding a little bit from the legs.

Once around the golf course loop at Ben Geren. Warm and humid, but got through OK. Days are clicking right off...

Up to Fayetteville today to see T and go to the baseball game. While waiting for T to get out of class, did a loop around campus from his apartment -- down MLK to Frisco Trail, up the trail to Maple, down Maple to Razorback, and back to the apartment,. Very warm, very humid, very many coeds out in shorts and neon colored tanktops (apparently due to some kine of sorority thing this weekend, since all the tanktops had sororities on them). Weather was brutal, and of course plenty of hills, but got a 9:18 pace. Hogeye is this weekend. I do no envy anyone doing 26.2 in this weather over those hills, even with a very early start.

Also swung by Fleet Feet. Robbie and Lance were both there, and another guy I don't know who has run Boston three times. He had lots of tips for me, stuff to take, stuff not to take, how to handle Wellesley (his advice: stay left). Got me even more jacked up than I already was. Bought enough Roctane gels to cover me for the race, too.

Won the game 2-0, too. Afterward went to Foghorns for beer and nuclear wings. DVH came in while I was there and got a little ovation. If he'd been drinking beer, I'd have bought him one.

Very slow, very warm, very humid. Felt much harder/faster because of the humidity. But got 'er done. Into the final week now...

Errands tonight, no running.

Did 10K at the track with strides. Started off slow, gradually got faster just because it felt comfortable. It was about 15-18 degrees cooler than my Sunday night run, which helped. Did 10 X 100m strides which felt smooth. All in all a good confidence boost. Hard run tomorrow, then basically cruise into Boston.

Dress rehearsal. Three at MP, two warm/cool. Went well, even though it was almost 80 when I started. Don't think it will be 80 in Hopkinton on Monday. At least it better not be.

I probably wouldn't have run last night anyway, but huge thunderstorms took care of that. Hail, 60 mph winds, tornado sirens, the whole nine yards. Sleep was a little bit delayed. Anyway, plowed through the last day of work without any blatant malpractice, then got two easy laps of the tennis court trail at BG. Wind was howling, just like it will be in Boston on Monday. Downwind was much easier, upwind much, much harder. If the forecast of WSW holds, my BQ/PR gets a lot closer to reality. Took it very easy tonight, then stopped on the way home to get Chinese (didn't really even break a sweat). Now in nine hours, I'll be on the plane for Boston. It's finally here.

Wish I could say the trip to Boston was uneventfal; it wasn't. Lots of turbulence. I believe if the flight from FSM to Memphis had lasted 30 seconds more, I would have thrown up. And Memphis to Boston wasn't much better. Survived the flight, getting to the hotel via subway was easy, did the expo (huge and crowded), met Alison for coffee and catching up, back to the hotel, shower and go to the FE.

FE was a blast. We had a big upstairs room and it was full. It was wonderful to finally meet these imaginary friends I've been tracking on RWOL and Facebook for a year and a half now. Stayed too long, wanted to stay even longer, but I'd been awake since 2:30 a.m. and I was exhausted. Then it took another hour and a half to fall asleep once I got back to the room.

Another FE tomorrow, a short run, the carbload at Maggiano's, and then the race on Monday.

One last run before Boston. Ran from the hotel through Boston Common and Beacon Hill over to the Charles, then down the Charles for a while. Picked it up to as fast as I could go for three minutes, trying to carb-deplete for Aussie carbloading, and ran a half mile in those three minutes. Then I drained my water bottle full of Ultra Fuel. We'll see if this helps tomorrow.

I'm prepared. I've done what I can do, what I wanted to do. The weather is going to cooperate. I have a plan. Now I have to execute it. If I do, I'll be back here next year.

I have had so much fun in the 24 hours I've been here. The people is Boston have been wonderful. People encouraging me, wishing me well, asking if I'm ready to run. Met some really great people at the two FE's, people who were already my virtual friends but are now my real friends. We have this obsession in common, and that bonds us even though we'd never met until last night -- or this morning. It will be fun to share the Village experience with them tomorrow, and share the run. and the celebration afterward. I don't think I'll ever come close to forgetting this weekend. Now I just have to cap it off with a solid run. That, after all, is why I'm here.

I ran Boston. And I finished. And I kissed two coeds. Other than that, it pretty much stunk. Cramps all over the place, I cramped in places I didn't know you could cramp.

More details later...

Well, I got top 10,000 with a 12,000+ bib, so maybe I didn't stink all that much... So let's dissect this and figure out what went wrong. On one of the running boards where I hang out, they have a saying, which is not entirely family-friendly, abbreviated as BOTT. BOTT, stripped of its crude connotations, means pick a goal, commit to it, and go for it. My BOTT goal was 3:25, which would have been a 7-minute PR. BOTT is a high-risk strategy. If it pays off, it pays off big. And that's what I was going for. But if it goes wrong, you look like death warmed over at 30K. Which I did.

Plan from Greg Maclin's spreadsheet was to take it easy the first mile, like 8:07ish, then settle it around 7:50 pace for a while. And I did that: 8:08, 7:50, 7:52, 7:47. Picked it up a little in mile 5 with a nice downhill, to 7:40, then 7:51, 7:38, 7:40. Ten-K split was 48:46, less than three minutes above my 10K PR. I'm trying to monitor my body, see how I'm feeling, and so far so good.

One issue: I took a 12-ounce bottle of Gatorade on course, hoping to avoid the congestion around the early aid stations. Plan was to drink half at mile 2, the other half at mile 4. Well, I didn't. I don't remember exactly when I finished that 12-ounce bottle, but it was at least mile 6, maybe even later. Which means I started myself in the hole as far as hydration goes. I know better, but I did it anyway. Maybe I blow up anyway, but better hydration would certainly have helped. The weather was beautiful, but anything over 50 degrees is problematic for me when I'm running 26.2, even when I'm drinking more than I did.

Anyway, back to the course. I'm trying to have fun out there, high-fiving a few kids, but I'm also trying to focus, running tangents when traffic allows, working on my breathing. Mile 9 was 7:50, then 7:52. But now trouble starts to pop up, and the times show it: 8:03, 8:07. I'm hoping it's just a bad patch that I'll come out of, but not looking good, and I knew it. Next two miles: 7:58 (including those two coeds), then 8:03. Halfway split: 1:43:37. Not looking good for that 3:25 goal, but if I can hold things together and run a small positive split, I can get a PR and a BQ.

Now the calves are starting to twitch like they do in all my marathons. Never happens in training -- NEVER -- but every time in a race, and always in the same spot. Hammies don't feel too good either. I try shortening my stride, speeding up, few other things, but I'm deteriorating and I know it. Thought at this point is hold pace as long as I can, maybe the downhill going into Newton will snap me out of it.

Mile 14 split was 7:56, then I missed the next mile marker (which in itself is a bad sign), so I got a two-mile split for miles 15-16 of 16:16. Uh oh. And the cramps aren't coming now, they're here. But they're moving around. A calf will tighten, then loosen, then a hamstring, then my right foot, then the other calf, then some toes... That went on for the rest of the race. Going uphill actually seemed to help; maybe the slope stretched the calves a bit. And the walk monster is starting to creep in when the cramps hit. Miles 17-20: 8:27, 8:41, 8:29, 8:43. The 30K split was 2:29:37, so 8.9K took 47 minutes.

Then came HBH: 9:13. I made sure I didn't walk up HBH, but I sure wasn't running very fast. Mile 22 with the big downhill went a little better, 8:22, but I'm still hurting big time. I'm still hoping at this point that I can squeeze in under 3:35, which would at least be a nominal BQ if not good enough to get in for 2012, but every time I try to speed up, the cramps get worse. Pretty much walking through water stations (and guzzling Gatorade and water) at this point. Mile 23, I'm about to die: 9:50; 24 had a little downhill and I managed 9:06, then 9:02 for 25. The little dip under Mass Avenue got me, and mile 26 was 9:23. But after mile 23, I know BQ is gone. I just want to finish without walking any more.

Right on Hereford, left on Boylston. Normally I have a little surge in the final half-mile, but not this time. My "surge" on Boylston is to get back to what I should have been running anyway, 8:00 pace. Finish time 3:38:06.

I kept expecting one of those medical volunteers in the chute to bodyslam me into a wheelchair, and I don't think I would have objected a bit. Not sure how I kept moving down Boylston to the blankets and the food and the fluids, but I was drinking everything I could get my hands on. It took me about five minutes to get my sweatpants on after I retrieved my bag from the bus, it seemed; the legs did not want to move. Brain wasn't working too well either; navigating to Jury's to meet some friends was a laborious process.

How did I screw it up? I think 3:25 was too optimistic, and I think I let myself dehydrate very quickly; the Gatorade bottle strategy was a fail, and I definitely should have hit more water stops than I did. If I'd targeted 3:30, though, I might have pulled that off, or at least faded a lot less. But I'm still fairly new at this stuff; Boston was only my fifth marathon. Now I just have to figure out somewhere to requalify, if not for 2012, maybe 2013. The OCD in me says try something like Newport or VCM, the medical professional in me says "you moron, you just beat hell out of yourself for 218 minutes and you want to do it again in six weeks????"

But even with a 10-mile death march, I wouldn't have traded this weekend for anything. Throughout my three-year obsession, I imagined what Boston would be like. I was wrong. It was better than I expected.

It's been about 55 hours now since I crossed the starting line in Hopkinton. A lot has changed in those two days. I'm now a Boston Finisher. And I will always be a Boston Finisher. And I made an incredible number of friends in those three days. So yeah, I guess dreams do come true -- even if a little slower than I had hoped.

Easy 3 at the track before the thunderstorm arrived. Legs were a little stiff, not horrible, no worse than many recovery runs in the last cycle.

Speaking of a thunderstorm, there was one in Rogers last night when I arrived for my date with Vicky. In spite of the weather, it went very well (although it kinda ruined any chance for a moonlight stroll, which might have been fun). We'll be going out again soon. There's a little different vibe going here, and I like it. I think our goals for a relationship are similar, which helps. We're on the same page there.

Progression run at Ben Geren today, with the last 1.4 at MP. Overall average just a smidge over 9:00. Legs are not bad for a week out from a hard marathon. I'm pretty pleased.

Starting to analyze my training, not my tactics, to see what was lacking. I have some ideas I'll expound upon in my next entry.

Eight miles at the track tonight, around the outside lanes this time. Worked out to 29 laps for 8 miles. A young woman was walking her dog around the inside and remarked that she wished she had my energy. She was maybe 24, maybe not that old. I told her I was 50; I also told her I ran 26.2 10 days ago, and that four years ago, I couldn't get around the block without stopping. Within a few minutes, she and the dog were both running, and I was encouraging them. She asked if I had any tips. I said do what you're doing, start slow and build up slow.

As I mentioned in the last entry, before tornado warnings and all sorts of climatic fun, I was analyzing my training. I think I need more lower body strengthening to protect against cramps. I also think I needed more MP miles. I tweaked Hudson just a bit too much. So the goal from Sacramento is to correct that. I'm gonna have to get in some health club this summer, to have access to good weights as well as treadmill and/or indoor track for summer running.

Warmed up at the track tonight with 5K at 8:40ish. Then 11 laps at MP. Then hammer down, two laps at sub-7 pace. Felt really comfortable. Legs are mostly back, I think. Finished April with 135 miles, with about 20% of that on one memorable day. We'll see how much the legs are back at Bentonville next Saturday.