Boston Marathon - The Race

In my previous post I covered as many of the details as I could think of about what happens before the race starts. This entry is all about the actual race - the excitement, the pain, the heat, and the finish!

Goals

Going into this race I set 2 goals: finishing under 3 hours again, and enjoying the Boston atmosphere. I've said to a few people that this could well be my last marathon (yes I know we all say that), so I really wanted to enjoy the experience as much as possible, and try to draw energy from the hundreds of thousands of spectators that come out to watch on the holiday Monday that is race day.

I was actually hoping for a time of 2 hours and 55 minutes. This requires a pace of 4:09 per kilometer, 20:45 for 5K, 41:30 for 10K, and 1:27:30 at half way. When the forecast showed 30 degree heat (86F) on the day, I made the foolish decision to not change that goal. Looking back this was probably not a good choice...

The Start (0 - 5 km)

I anticipated a slow start due to the 2000 runners who would be lined up in front of me (I was in corral 3 and there was approx. 1000 runners per corral), but I knew that the first 6km was quite steep downhill so I figured once we started to move smoothly I'd easily be able to make up the lost time from a slow start.

It actually wasn't a slow start at all. It took me exactly 1 minute to cross the start line, and although it was very congested we all managed to move pretty quickly. My first kilometer was 3:57 which was a surprise. I was carrying an extra water bottle, and was frequently drinking from it, hoping to chuck it after a few kilometers to let my arms swing freely. I stayed to the left side of the road (which is a narrow street, one lane each way) for the first few kilometers, and this was good because I was able to move past quite a few people. After 1km or so there was a wooded area on the left with some bushes and quite a few runners stopped for a quick pee!

The first bit of chaos happened at mile 2 where the first water/gatorade station was setup. Boston does an amazing job of having water and gatorade stations every mile starting at mile 2. They have them on both sides of the road slightly staggered. This is key because when there are that many runners you simply can't get across to the other side of the road to get water! Well at the first water station I (like many others) was simply trying not to trip on the runners in front, and didn't see the water station coming up. So all of a sudden WHAM, we all ran into each other and slowed right down. Luckily no one around me fell or was hurt, we simply slowed down and carried on. But it was not pleasant. I couldn't even grab a water because I wasn't close enough to the left side of the road.

I finally finished my water bottle around kilometer 4, and was very relieved to chuck it. I hate running with stuff in my hands. It was around this time that a guy wearing a very bright yellow singlet came up beside me and asked if I was from Victoria. This confused me, but I later realized that my red Harriers singlet has Victoria, BC on the back, duh. Anyway, it turned out to be Geoff Courtnall (formerly of the Vancouver Canucks and other NHL teams) who is also from Victoria! I knew he had run a 3:03 at Victoria to qualify and was running Boston raising money for charity. For every minute he ran Boston under 3:10 he'd donate money to charity (full details). We chatted for a couple minutes while we flew past many runners (I definitely picked up my pace a bit to stay and talk with him!). Then he slowly pulled ahead of me and I lost sight of him. While I wished him the best of luck, I was a little surprised that he'd be going out so hard...

Coming up to 5K I was trying to slow myself down because I knew I was ahead of pace, but despite the heat things felt okay so I wasn't too concerned about being 20 seconds fast. My splits were: 3:57, 4:11, 4:04, 4:15, 3:54 for a 20:22 split (4:04 pace).

5 - 10 km

This next section is where things started to get harder. Way too early to be feeling crappy right? I was drinking water and a gatorade at every water station. It wasn't as crowded now, and the streets were a little wider too so there was more room to move which was nice. Many runners started to run almost single file along the right side of the road because it had slightly more shade from trees and small buildings.

I had some pain in my lower back as we neared 10 km, and that definitely didn't help keep my spirits up. I was also getting annoyed with my fuel belt digging into my stomach and sliding around my waist. It was a tough choice - do I wear the fuel belt to carry extra water/energy drink and hold all my gels (7)? I don't like wearing a belt, but I thought on such a hot day the belt was a good idea to have a little extra liquid and to hold the gels. But it is not comfortable at race pace, it slides around and digs in, and generally annoys me. Anyway, during a marathon these little things can really drag you down if you're not careful. I had planned on dumping the 2 fuel belt water bottles once I finished them, and then dumping the fuel belt too (and carry the remaining gels in my hand).

I knew I was going a little slower during this section, but I thought this was good to balance out the first 5K. My splits were 4:05, 4:12, 4:14, 4:20, 4:13 for a 5K time of 21:04 (4:12 pace). At this point (10K) I was exactly on my goal pace with a time of 41:26 (although looking at my results I actually crossed the official 10K line at 41:39).

10 - 15 km

If I really had any belief that I could run a 2:55 in the heat, that changed during this section. I dropped a full minute over these 5 kilometers, and basically felt like crap. My back was still aching, and I just wasn't moving well. My splits were 4:22, 4:26, 4:25, 4:18, 4:25 for a 5K time of 21:54 (4:23 pace). Way off goal pace.

I have to say that the crowds were pretty amazing. Apart from a short section just after the start there were people lining both sides of the street the whole way. In residential areas it was families camped out on their front lawns offering oranges, water (often ice cold), or spraying you with water from a super soaker or sprinkler. In commercial areas people lined the sidewalks cheering and screaming for everyone. The ice cold water cups and bottles were the nicest surprise, since most of the official water stations had been setup for hours and were serving luke warm water.

15 - 20 km

This section was no better than the last. The only good thing about it was the "Scream Tunnel" right at 20 km where thousands and thousands of girls from the Wellesley College lined the right side of the road where the college is. It is infamous. Everyone told me you have to run on the right side through Wellesley! So I did, and it was unbelievable. If I was single I would have definitely slowed down for a kiss. I high-fived almost everyone, and really enjoyed reading all the creative signs such as "Kiss Me! Don't worry, you're faster than my boyfriend", "I majored in kissing", "It's hot, but so are you!", etc. I especially enjoyed seeing an 80 year old woman at the end of the tunnel with a "Kiss Me" sign.

Apart from that there isn't much I remember. There was some nice shady sections as there was a park on the right side I think? My splits were 4:31, 4:27, 4:35, 4:26, 4:40 for a 5K time of 22:39 (4:32 pace). By now my overall pace was 4:18 and I knew before half way I would be going well over 3 hours.

20 - 25 km

Since the Boston Marathon has more of the downhills in the first half, I wanted to be slightly ahead of pace at half way. That way I could handle losing a minute or two in the Newton Hills which are from 25 - 33 km. Well when I got to half way and the clock read 1:31:23 I knew that wasn't a good sign! Marathons are hard to begin with, but the extra difficulty of trying to stay motivated, stay positive, keep pushing etc gets even harder when you aren't running well. If I had a clear mind I might have realized that a 1:31 half in the heat is very good, and a sub 3:05 finish is still possible (which is the Boston qualifying time for my age). But I was not thinking clearly, and still fixated on my goal of 2:55 which was long gone. So instead of taking some positives, it was all negative.

By now I had finished both the water bottles in my fuel belt, and chucked them. My strategy was to have 1 gel every 5 kilometers, so I had already taken 4 and only had 3 left for 25, 30, and 35. Somewhere during this section I decided to just chuck the whole belt too and carry the remaining gels in my hand. I definitely felt a little better, and managed to run a little quicker. A couple times I put some ice cubes under my hat which was nice as I was definitely over heating and feeling that extra bit more fatigued due to the heat (and maybe the fast start). Before 30 km I had also chucked my hat because I was too hot - a nice souvenir for some lucky spectator (or dog).

Somewhere in this section I saw a runner getting put on a stretcher and carried off the course. Ugh, not a good sign.

Being free of the fuel belt seemed to help my splits too, as my times were 4:28, 4:22, 4:24, 4:25, 4:39 for a 5K of 22:18 (4:27 pace), slightly faster than the previous section.

25 - 30 km

Right around mile 16 and kilometer 25 the course goes down a nice steep hill before crossing the Charles River. This is a low elevation point and the start of the Newton Hills. From here the next 8 km are definitely the toughest section of the course. People generally say there are 4 Newton Hills (see the Elevation Profile). Each one is roughly 1 km of uphill followed by roughly 1 km of gradual downhill with the 4th hill being Heartbreak Hill which is the steepest. I was prepared for these hills (many runners from the West Coast had told me that these were pretty small hills) and did a decent job of keeping up my pace. My splits might not reflect that, but I think it was a decent effort. The first 3 hills were definitely nothing serious at all, they just dragged on a bit. I kept looking at my watch wondering why it was taking so long!

30 - 35 km

The couple kilometers before reaching the summit of Heartbreak Hill (at 33 km) seemed to drag on forever. I didn't stop once and still managed to keep moving reasonably well right up the steepest section of Heartbreak Hill, and gave a little yell when I finally reached the top. There is a nice steep downhill after Heartbreak, and more gradual downhill the rest of the way until the final mile. On a good day this would have been the section to take advantage of and make up some lost time. I didn't. By this point I wasn't even looking at my watch, and I had a whole new game plan now - just finish (or "get er done" as Donald would say!).

My splits were 4:42, 4:51, 5:08, 5:17 and 4:41 for a 5K time of 24:41 (4:55 pace).

35 - 40 km

It's not good to admit it but I had definitely lost all motivation to keep trying at this point. Each kilometer was getting more painful and dragged on and on. And even though the crowds of spectators were getting louder and bigger the closer I got to the finish I couldn't find any way to get motivated to pick up the pace. In my head I had long since realized that a sub 3 hour was gone, a sub 3:05 was virtually impossible. So there really wasn't that extra incentive to dig deep. To me a 3:06 and a 3:15 were the same, and the 3:15 sounded a lot better :) I'm sure many other marathoners have reached this same conclusion!

The roads were so wide at this point that there really weren't many runners around. It felt like tons of runners were passing me (and they probably were), but I think I was actually passing more people. At one point right around 40 km a guy running right beside me face planted on the asphalt. He must have tripped on an uneven section or something. I wanted to stop and help, but in that super fatigued state I didn't want to stop moving since I felt pretty wobbly myself. There were so many spectators I'm sure someone rushed to his aid and hopefully he was able to get up and finish.

Not that you care, but my splits for this section were 5:12 (ouch), 5:12, 5:23 (double och), 4:37, and 4:58. That made for a 25:21 5K (5:04 pace). I honestly don't remember too much during this section. It was a blur, I just keep running and wishing that the turn onto Boylston would hurry up and get here.

40 - 42.2 km (Finish)

Right at 40 km I must have been running beside Geoff Courtnall since our times were 1 second apart (he had been ahead of me since before 5 km), but even with his bright yellow singlet I didn't see him. He obviously suffered in the heat too and faded to finish in 3:14:xx. I had my head down and was shuffling my way towards the finish so I guess it wasn't a surprise that I missed him.

There is a nasty little underpass around 41 km where we ran under a road and back up again. It wasn't much but it still sucked. But the good news was I could finally see the turn on to Hereford Street, which meant I was only 1 km from the finish!

Hereford is a slight uphill, but once I rounded that final left turn on to Boylston a huge grin broke out on my face, and I started to run, finally. I knew my wife was cheering on the right side of the road (the shady side), so I crossed over to that side and sprinted down the final 650 m to the finish. There were so many people that I simply couldn't scan them fast enough to spot her, so sadly I didn't see her. But I still appreciate her being there and holding up the sign:
"Chris 'Chariots of Fire' is NONSTOPPABLE".

My finishing time was 3:13:30. A nice number. Not a time that I would have chosen, but all things considered it is a time I'm proud of. The experience was something I'll never forget - the whole event, the spectators, the heat. It was definitely the most unpleasant race I've done though, and does re-affirm my plan of not running another marathon. Apparently the first thing I said to my wife when I saw her after the finish was "Don't ever let me do this again". But apart from the heat and a bit of back pain I really didn't have any major physical problems during the race. It was just too f*cking hot.

Post Race

If you want to look up any results, here is the Searchable Results Page. My bib number was 2849.

It was freakishly hot at the finish line - the pavement, the buildings, it all made for a very unpleasant feeling. We were herded down Boylston were we were given our medal, a shiny space cape, water, gatorade protein drink, a banana, and some protein bars. Eventually I made it to the bag check area and the nice volunteers gave me back my bag (very quickly, they had it ready for me before I could hobble over to the bus). I had to stop a couple times and lean up again various trucks, but eventually made it to the family meeting area. I texted my wife and lay down in the shade.

We had to walk about 2 km back to our hotel, but it actually wasn't too bad. The heat in the direct sun was still unbearable, but walking actually felt pretty good. The rest of the day I mostly napped, ate some delicious junk food, and took a couple cold showers/baths (since I was still over heating from a bit of heat stroke). By about 9pm that evening I was feeling okay enough to walk around (with medal on of course). The atmosphere out on the streets was amazing, so many people said congratulations. Anyway, that's about all I say about Boston. Will I go back and run it again? No almost certainly not. Once was enough. But it is definitely an experience I would not have wanted to miss.