"Lemmings. They look like lemmings. Well lemmings are cute." - Lisa Prolman (my wife) on watching a video tape of the start of the 2005 Boston Marathon.
I survived the 2004 Boston Marathon rather well. It was a joy to be greeted by Jim Plaza and John Stifler at the end of the marathon. Then came the joyful and care free shuffle through the finishers area, where very nice people asked me if I needed a wheel chair, a bottle of water or last rites. I got my water, my medal, gave up my chip with out falling down, then off to the buses to recover my plastic duffle bag with all my extra clothes, some money and car keys. Volunteers with wheelchairs flocked around me like Paparazzi around Madonna as I marched towards Stuart Street. On the Greenline train to Riverside I listened to two wounded runners say that they would never return to run the fabled Boston Marathon. It was at that moment that I decided that I would definitely be coming back to run in the 2005 Boston Marathon. It was just too much fun.
I decided to spare my family the ordeal of looking for me from a road side vantage in Newton this year so I hopped a ride with Harriers on their chartered bus. This sounded like a good deal and it was. For a reasonable fee of $30.00 you can ride in a chartered bus to Hopkinton with 50 or so other runners. This is a magic bus of people who totally get it. There is no need to explain why you are here, you are among kin on this bus. SMAC, Empire One, and Harriers were all aboard. If you run even a handful of local races the faces on this bus will be familiar to you.
Another aspect of the bus is the fact that you get to immediately share your experience of the Marathon with other runners while the you wait to collect every one at the end. The bus ride home matches any return from a field trip that you may have experienced as a grade school student.
This year’s Boston Marathon was warmer than most runners would have liked, but the conditions were much better than the inferno that the runners had to endure in 2004. According to the B.A.A. website the temperatures for the marathon were 70 at the start, 70 in the middle, and 69 at the end. For the first miles out of Hopkinton the runners were protected from the sun by the tall trees that line the very narrow roads.
Much of Boston is about hyperbole, but it is a big deal to many of the people who will do any thing to be apart of it. A pair of bandit runners carried a large pirate flag as they ran the start of the course. I thought these odd fellows brave to be carrying their banner on such a quest, but apparently their destination was a biker bar two miles from the start.
Running a marathon well is about pacing, as is the case in most races. The challenge of a marathon is that you must decide your pace early while you are full of energy and enthusiasm. It is a hard task slow down when people are streaming by you at a pace that you could easily maintain. The question is how long can you maintain your pace?. Ten, fifteen, or even 18 miles is not enough (see the previous issue’s story on the Hartford Marathon). You must run 26.2 miles. Ten miles into a marathon you will know if you went out too fast; you should feel like you still have a full tank at this point. If half way you are feeling fatigued, it is too late. You went out too fast. You need to slow down now to recover before that wall hits you like windshield against a bug. That is the challenge of a marathon, you often will not know if your pace right until it is too late to do any thing about it.
At the Expo the day before the marathon I heard some great advice during a panel discussion with Grete Waitz, Jen Rhines, Todd Williams, and Amby Burfoot. The topic was "How to Run Your Best Marathon". The advice came down to this, "pace your self as evenly as possible with a goal of an even or negative split between the first half and second half of the marathon." The second bit of useful advice was to plan to run slower in the 70 degrees predicted than you would have if the temperatures had been an ideal 52 F. I took the advice that Tom Derderian wrote in the 2004 BAA Program to forget about running even timed splits and instead to concentrate on running with even effort. With Derderian’s race plan you will run faster down hill than you will up hill. It kind of makes sense.
A half million people line the marathon course, and they are enthusiastic. In Framingham the crowds along the course are large and loud. The runners are moving with no protection from the sun. There is a great deal of activity around the train Depot. Moving out of Framingham the crowds thin for the first time. 10K occurs at the Framingham Train Depot.
Natick and the runners pass Lake Cochituit. There are not so many spectators here but the runners never feel unappreciated. Before the 12 mile mark a 10 foot plus Addidas banner warns of the screaming Wellesley students a half mile up the road. Welcome to the Wellesley Scream tunnel. You hear it before you get there. A roar, then a long piercing chorus of young women screaming their lungs out for the runners. This is the part of the course where you feel like one of the Beetles.
The half marathon marker, 13.1 miles. Now the simple question, did you go out at the pace that you planned to run? A little slower, a little faster? A lot faster, not good. I am on pace at this point, and I feel good. Mile 14 and I am feeling a little sluggish in the legs.
During the Hartford Marathon in October I picked up the pace when I felt I was slowing down. That turned out to be a very bad game plan. This time I dropped my pace by about thirty seconds and tried to use the hills going in to Newton Lower Falls to regroup and regain my stride. I was not in trouble, but I was not sure.
Mile 16 begins the climb out of Newton Lower Falls across I-95 towards Woodland Country Club. The Boston Globe called this one mile rise "Hell’s Mile". Hyperbole, but more people call it quits here than anywhere else. I am feeling good coming in to Newton.
Around the Fire Station on Commonwealth Ave and the first of the Hills that lead to Heart Break Hill. I feel great here. This is where I grew up. I truly feel I have come home and I am looking for family and old friends who may in the crowds that line Comm. Ave. The crowds from here on will be huge, loud and unescapable. Past Brae Burn Country Club near mile 18 ( I was a caddy there, 30 years ago) and I climbing fresh. Just before Newton City Hall my father and two cousins call from the sidelines. I wave and sprint off. Over Heart Break Hill and it is cool running in to Brookline. The heat of the day is now making it hard for me to take in water and Gatorade. Around me runners are dropping unexpectedly. The Citgo sign is visible one or two miles before Kenmore Square. It does not seem to get closer for a while, but eventually Fenway Park appears before you and then it is a hop over a short bump of hill in to Kenmore Square.
Real confusion, despair, and euphoria are all possible at this point. The end of the marathon is one mile away. Back on Comm. Ave. to Hereford Street then you are there on Boylston Street. A clear view of the finish line is before you at Copley Square and there are bleachers filled with screaming fans. I cross the line and the marathon is over. The are no familiar faces here this year, but I know that the Harriers bus in not too far away. I hope it is. I try not to fall down while volunteers remove my chip and put a medal around my neck.
I make my way to the Radison Hotel where I hope to find the bus. It is there, and I change in to dry clothes and soon I am reliving the run with other runners for the next three hours while we wait for everyone to get to back to the bus.
The Boston Marathon is not generous with post race food, but we are in Boston. Unfortunately having just run a marathon I am not really into food. You know, Hartford has really great food. I got a potato there.
We talk about our run, our lives and what is next on our running agenda’s. As I sip my Kenya AA and eat a large chocolate chip cookie I watch runners coming from Copley square displaying the post marathon shuffle limp. Runners may not be smiling during the race, but most are smiling now. Over the next few days I will suffer from Post Marathon Tourett’s syndrome. This syndrome causes runners to swear inappropriately when ever they try to get up, sit down, or move suddenly. Fortunately it fades by the weekend.
Links about the Boston Marathon : http://www.baa.org,/ http://www.boston.com/marathon/course/video.shtml
http://www.jeffpalm.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=citgo
What is next? I will be reporting on the where abouts of Sugarloaf Mountain Athletic Club president Donna Utakis as she runs the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile Run.
(This is my account of the 2005 Boston Marathon. It was written for my running club's newsletter)
