April 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

I promised some folks a race recap from Boston on Monday and I finally getting around to doing it. Hopefully I won’t start to babble, because that’s usually what happens on these things so I am going to try and keep it nice and to the point.

This was my second time running Boston. When I ran it in 2017, I was nursing hamstring tendonitis in both legs and had very limited training, so I took it easy and enjoyed the race. I remember very little about the course itself, other than the fact that the crowds were amazing, Heart Break Hill did not live up to its reputation, and, despite not giving it an all out effort, the final miles of the course very much did live up to their reputation as being one of the toughest finishes to a marathon. Nothing changed this time around.
I really didn’t have a clear goal going into the race, other than wanting to give it a strong effort. I did not believe I had done an adequate job training to pull off a PR, but it would be nice to get a BQ (I had technically run a BQ time in 2017 under the old standards, but not by enough of a cushion to gain entry in 2018). I decide that I would set my sights on 3:45 as a goal, which would be a BQ with 5 minutes to spare.

Leading up to the race, the marathon Gods seemed to be conspiring against me. Several weeks out, I received a summons for Grand Jury duty…on April 15th. I had to submit a petition to the judge to get dismissed on that one. Then two weeks beforehand I received an e-mail from the third party website I used to book my hotel telling me that the hotel had been over-booked and they were offering me a room in Cambridge, which is not even close to the key location I had booked. Fortunately, my husband and I had suspicions about the legitimacy of the site and we booked a back up that had a 48 hour cancellation policy. It actually worked out to be a very nice location a bit off the hustle and bustle and we enjoyed staying there. Our flight to Boston on Friday was delayed due to some confusion with paper work and we sat on the tarmac in Cincinnati for several hours, causing us to miss the Expo on Friday, thus having to endure the crowds on Saturday morning. And then there was the weather. The weather forecast had been all over the map, ranging from cold, rainy and windy conditions similar to those in 2018 to thunderstorms. It was changing every minute, so we would just have to wait until race day and see. And pretty much pack everything I own. I am kind of a superstitious person, so all of this chaos before the race even started had me thinking that either one of two things was going to happen. The race was going to be a total bust or it was going to be epic. You saw the results. Turns out it was neither. But I’ll get into that later.

For those that have never run the Boston Marathon, the experience of the entire weekend is something that’s difficult to describe. There is an energy buzzing around the town that you just can’t escape. That might be part of the reason that so many people crap out in the final stages of the race. The whole weekend is just exhausting. It’s really hard to keep yourself from the excitement. Despite trying to take it easy, Garmin tells me that we walked 8-10 miles on both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday morning, I met Lisa, aka Beerrunner, from MFP in Boston Common for a shakeout run. We ran down Commonwealth avenue and along the Charles River with thousands of other runners doing the same.


Since I met Lisa on MFP, I have referred to her as my “fitness twin”. We are the same age and became friends because we both did the P90X video series. Most of our PRs are very close in time and we both enjoy trail running and running with our spotted dogs. We hit it off instantly and had a great run together. It turns out that we were both going to the Red Sox game that afternoon to relax and also had plans to go to the same restaurant for dinner, the Friendly Toast, because we both prefer to eat pancakes as our pre-race meal (For the record, this place has the best gluten free pancakes). I actually ran into Lisa at the restaurant as we both ate the same pre-race meal of pancakes and home fries. Carb loading at its finest. I saved an extra pancake for breakfast and headed back to the hotel around 5PM to get my stuff ready for the morning and call it a day.

On race morning, Lisa and I had planned to meet at 7:45 at the subway station by Boston Common to catch the busses out to Hopkinton together. Our loading time was 8-8:45. Our start time was 10:50. I woke up slightly before my alarm went off at 6AM and checked out the window. It had been raining but was not currently. I turned on the news. Thunderstorms were on their way. I hopped through the shower to help me wake up and by the time I was finished it was pouring outside. I had brought a spare pair of throw away shoes, but the bags that they gave us to take on the bus out to Hopkinton were too small to fit my shoes in. This was going to be miserable. I had a rain poncho, a long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of cheap gloves that I put on. Our hotel offered a shuttle to the Commons, which we decided to take to avoid walking to the subway stop in the rain. The also had some rain ponchos laid out so I grabbed one. Several people in the lobby had trash bags around their shoes, which I thought was a good idea. We took the shuttle to the commons and went down into the subway station to stay dry. I used the poncho to make some wraps for my shoes.


By the time we had gotten to the athlete’s village, the rain had stopped. They had large tents set up there and plenty of porta potties. After waiting in line for the bathrooms then finding a spot under the tents to prepare our gear, it was time to head down to the start. Lisa and I were in different corrals, so we told each other good luck and were on our way. My plan was to try and run the first 20 or so miles at an 8:30 pace, but knowing that the first several miles are down hill, I knew I might be a little fast. I was averaging about an 8:25 through the first 10K. I had settled into the pace and it felt pretty good. I was going to try and hold it there. Around mile 13 or 14 is when I started to feel the heat. The sun was out now and it was lifting all of the water from the pavement. This was my biggest concern heading into the day. April races can be tough because I had spent the majority of my training in freezing or near freezing weather. We had very few opportunities to prepare for this kind of weather. I tried to drink as much water as I could at the water stops, but I knew at this point the heat was going to be an issue.

Around mile 15, I stopped briefly at an aid station to fill up my 10 oz hand held (this is the only water I carry). My Garmin beeped to pause. Crap! I don’t usually use the auto pause function unless I am running with the dog, which I had been doing the previous week and I had forgotten to turn it off. Now I had no way of knowing what my time was if I stopped at all. I knew that my husband would be waiting at mile 17 and I planned to have a quick break there and eat a gel. I was really glad to see him. I had just started to feel some fatigue and dehydration and I was heading into the hills of Newton. Seeing him was definitely the charge I needed. I took the hills in Newton pretty well. It felt good to me to be running uphill after so much downhill pounding on the quads. I train on hills so they don’t usually seem so bad. I was definitely passing a lot of people, but I knew my pace was still slower than what my average pace needed to be. I was also very hot and very thirsty. When I made it over Heart Break Hill, I estimated that at my current pace I was just under a 3:45. I had stopped twice quickly, so maybe add about 45 second to my watch time. I needed to keep moving. After Heart Break Hill, the course goes downhill and past a graveyard. I remember from the course preview video at the expo that this is referred to as the ”Haunted Mile” because it is where the course catches up with you. So true. I remember it from last time too. You are now at mile 21-22, you made it through the hills and you think you are almost home, but your legs feel like lead. The video at the expo has little clips from many elite athletes like Ryan Hall and Des Linden giving their perspective on the various parts of the course. I think it is Des that says this part of the course is so tough because everything hurts. I remember hearing her say that and feeling surprised because the elite runners never look tired or fatigued. But I guess they feel it to. She says in the video that you need to dig deep and pull from the energy of the crowd. The crowd from here on out is great. They are cheering you on and encouraging you because they know how much you need it here. At this point, I was feeling like dying and I knew I could not stomach a gel so I was relying on Gatorade at all of the stops. I stopped at mile 23 to drink an extra cup of Gatorade and a young girl came up behind me and asked me if I was from Cincinnati because she recognized my running club shirt. Turns out she lived near by me and she said she was not going to make her goal and was taking it easy. I walked for about a minute with her. At this point I needed the break and I was pretty sure I was no longer on pace to hit my 3:45 goal. But I knew that I was still in a position to hit a BQ, so I told her good luck and carried on. The last two miles were definitely a challenge, but they always are, aren’t they? I drew my motivation from the video, knowing that everyone is hurting yet they keep on going. I kept running until I crossed the finish line on Boylston Street (that street is sooo long…). My Garmin time said 3:44:26, but I knew that wasn’t my actual time. I estimated that I was stopped in the course for about a total of three minutes and figured my time was closer to 3:47-3:48. I got my medal and made my way through the shoot, stopping to get me goody bag, mylar blanket and pose for a picture. I made my way to meet my husband at our agreed upon spot. When he told me my time was 3:46:37 I was very pleased. I had just finished my second Boston Marathon and this time I knew that I gave it everything that I had.

11.5km - Introducing some new people in town to the North West Bush Trails. One lady is practicing for Canadian Death Race - Marathon distance not the full ultra and other similar events where these will be great training aids for her. It meant that I was going a bit slower than my normal pace but that is fine - I think of it as an Easy Run even though the Rolling Hills hide lots of net Elevation gain. Added one Hill repeat just after the 6km mark on the steepest hill ( called Parachute ) just for her net benefit.

04/01 09.00 km -09.00km -131.00km - YTD 179.90km
04/06 11.00 km -20.00km -120.00km - YTD 190.90km
04/07 5.00 km -25.00km -115.00km - YTD 195.90km
04/09 11.50 km -36.50km -103.50km - YTD 207.40km
04/13 15.00 km -51.50km - 88.50km - YTD 222.40km
04/14 6.00 km -57.50km - 82.50km - YTD 228.40km
04/19 11.50 km -69.00km - 71.00km - YTD 239.90km

Elise4270 wrote: »

@katharmonic mmm! Caramel eggs, caramel turtles, caramel core Ben and Jerry's, caramel right out of the jar! Haha!

And do you pronounce it care-a-mel? Or Carmel? Cuz we have a disagreement in these parts. I insist the "a" is pronounced. Carmel is a place.

I have a friend named Carmel - when she meets new people quite often they add the extra "A" to her name resulting in Caramel, even though they just heard it clearly pronounced.

lporter229 wrote: »

BTW, I finished 13600 out of 26632 overall.
4594 out of 11970 Females
488 out of 1832 F 45-49

Starting bib was 20895, which means I "passed" roughly 7300 people.

7300 / 26.2 = 278.6 passes per mile Well done

@lporter229 - Great race report on a fantastic race! Congratulations! Hope you are recovering well!
@Elise4270 - pretty sure the way you (and I) pronounce caramel is the right way! Carmel is definitely a place along the California coast and very pretty

No run for me as today was museum day. We took Hobbes to a local doggy daycare to hang out while we went to Albuquerque for the day. We stopped at the Sandia Peak Tramway 1st to have lunch at the top but the restaurant was closed so we didn't spend the $$ to go up. We spent most of the day in one museum with a short break for lunch. I would have like to get to the Natural History Museum (dinosaurs!) but DH was very interested in the National Museum of Nuclear History. It was interesting but overwhelming. Tomorrow I will get out for a short walk/run on the trail again before we head to Flagstaff on our way home.

Two weeks since my last run. I wonder if I'll remember how.

I was going to run after work today but plans changed. Our older son called me at work this morning asking if he and his little brother could go to the gun range. Well sure, but only if I could join them! I left work just after noon, gathered up the guns and ammo and we went out to the range for trap shooting. Both boys are, or were, top shooters on their high school trap shooting team so I fully expected to get beat, and I did, but I didn't mind at all. My older boy had one season when was second in the state in the high school league and the younger boy is a pretty great shot himself. There are now over 13,000 kids in the high school trap shooting league in Minnesota so it's pretty hard to get into the top 10. After we were done shooting my younger son went to work and my older boy and I went to the brewery.

Tomorrow I'm heading to the lake to get our sailboat ready to put in the water. I plan on running along the lake shore beforehand before it gets too warm (all of 73 F!). I haven't decided how far I'll go. I'm kind of thinking somewhere around 5 miles. I'm still anxious about the run, worried I'll still have achilles pain.

Tomorrow night I need to start packing for Oregon.

Cara-mel here

Awesome race report @lporter229!

Well we just had someone come look at the house, and it all sounds very promising, but until we have an offer... At least they loved the place.

I did 6k this morning. Felt great after 2 longer runs. Going out again tomorrow, not sure yet what distance, I think I'll just see how I feel tomorrow.