“I’m never doing that again” how many times have I said that after a marathon? Fourteen including this last Boston.
The weekend was a great time, from the train ride to hotel room to the great restaurant for dinner; we really did enjoy ourselves in Boston this year.
Sunday morning outside our hotel on Boylston Street we got to watch the BAA 5k, the Middle School kids doing 200 meters, the high schoolers running the 1600 and then the professional men and women’s mile. It was great fun being a spectator for a change.
Monday morning John walked me down to the Boston Commons to catch the bus to Hopkinton. One hour and ten minutes to travel 26.2 miles to the start. This is the first time in 5 Bostons that I have been alone going to the start, none of my running friends were doing Boston this year, I missed hanging out with them.
Off the bus and into the line for the porta-poti, that’s always my first stop. This year there seemed to be and extra heavy smell of Ben-Gay in the village, maybe we’re all getting older, I know I am.
The start this year was 10:40 for me, I was suppose to be in the front of my wave, corral number one, but it was a real mess at the start trying to accommodate too many runners, 25,000+ the roads in Hopkinton are just not large enough to handle this many runners.
The gun went off and we were on our way to Boston. The first 10k I was feeling great and keeping my pace even. At mile seven I get to see my fans, Pat, Carol George and John all waving and screaming for me. I always try to smile when I get to mile 7 so they think I’m having fun. After leaving my fans at mile 7 all I can think about is getting to mile 14 and seeing everyone again. This year Steve and Glenn were there also so I really had to smile.
As I reached mile 15+ I started to feel leg cramps again which has happened to me the last few marathons, we are thinking it may be nutrition along the way and may have to experiment with some new products in the future. The cramps were getting so bad after the Newton Hills I wanted to stop but I told myself I and not stopping and I am not walking, so I shuffled my way to Boston.
I finished the race in 4:10:12 not one of my best times, one of my worst but I felt I gave it all I had that day.
No matter what my time is John is always happy to see me and gives me a positive spin on the day.
Now it was time put on my medal and get some MEAT!
-Scoobie
woohoo, it was a blast seeing you out there again … could have been worse, at 15k MPN almost had to give last year’s winner mouth-to-mouth (yuk) and would have if she spoke enough English … (and for a leg cramp or something) not sure, she collapsed 50 feet past us … we had to prep for Ryan and the male wave so I sent the bicycle cop who was there to keep an eye on me, after her, and she was taken off by ambulance
we had a great time catching up with you and your fans, and watching you in Wellesley … great job powering through and getting some MEAT
Scoobie,
Great performance and account. Glad you had your “peeps” by the roadside, even if not in the throng. I hope you keep running Boston until we all get there 🙂