Back in the fall, running the B2B (Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge) seemed like a challenging and fun adventure. More than that though, it was simply an excuse to go to Big Sur - a place I've wanted to visit for 10 years. When I trained myself into a stress fracture in December/January, I considered it a long shot that I would be able to run Big Sur after Boston...but thankfully I was able to toe the line.
The days before the Big Sur Marathon were awesome. San Francisco for 3 days, and Big Sur for 5 - with two notable highlights being a daylong bike throughout San Fran (including a ride across the Golden Gate bridge), and a kick ass 6 mile trail run in Big Sur. Without getting into too much detail - the trip exceeded my high expectations.
An interesting and stupid note: the trail run was 3.5 miles up, 2.5 down. By no means an easy run, but made even more difficult thanks to a turned ankle a half mile in. Eli was able to avoid the loose rock hidden behind a fallen tree, but I was not so lucky. With three days until my 2nd marathon in a two week period, I was lucky to avoid anything more serious.
The morning of the race I woke up at 3AM to catch a 3:30 bus to the starting line (FUN!). When I woke up I grabbed my Garmin (plugged in all night) and it immediately read 'low batter'...I'm not happy with the charger on the FR210 - it's a low quality POS. It ended up shutting off around mile 10 of the marathon - so sorry, but no mile by mile splits.
The starting area was very crowded, cold, and damp. I was shivering way too much for my liking - wasting precious energy, but time passed quickly and before I knew it I was on the starting line. The first few miles are fairly downhill before leveling out, with the forest on both sides. After ~3 miles I was out of the forest and running with 'mountains' to the right, farmland to the left, and the ocean just a bit past the farms. The further along we went, the less farmland between the runners and the ocean. So far it was easy running and I was running between a 7:30 - 8:00 minute pace.
There was a very solid hill around mile 8, but from looking at the elevation profile prior to the race, I knew that the real challenge lay ahead. Climbing over 500 feet over the course of two miles and peaking at Hurricane Point miles 11 and 12 loomed large.
With my Garmin dead at mile 10, I ran to Hurricane Point based on effort and unaware of my pace. It was a solid effort made even more difficult because Hurricane Point has it's name for a reason - the wind was brutal. But I kept the leg turnover going without worrying about hitting a certain pace, and when I finally started the descent I was able to open it up a little bit and hit the half in 1:43:43.
The day before the marathon, I got word that an old friend had a family art gallery along Highway 1, so Elizabeth and I went to check out the Hawthorne Gallery and met ended up meeting my buddy's younger sister. She happened to be running the marathon as part of relay team to raise money, and we all figured to meet up after the race for a beer. But quite randomly I happened to be running at almost the same pace as her team, and I was able to finally run with someone from mile ~16-22. My legs felt pretty banged up, but shooting the breeze with a new pal was a welcome reprieve from focusing either on sore quads or how my feet felt like brittle rocks.
From mile 22 to the finish I was feeling pretty good, with random spurts where my calf and quad would spasm and threaten to seize up. Luckily, I'm slightly more experienced with the distance now, and I could tell that I was unlikely to hit the wall - so I held my pace. I had been passed by another runner wearing a Boston Marathon jersey earlier in the race, and he was about 150 yards ahead of me with a mile to go. So in the spirit of competition, I made it my goal to pass him. I ended up making up that ground and putting 11 seconds on him in the meantime.
The last mile or so I finished extremely strong, and I'm happy with my finishing time of 3:28:35. Even better - I was barely sore the following day.
My hope is that the two marathons serve as additional building blocks to a solid aerobic foundation. I feel like I haven't been getting faster for the past year+, and it's about time I start setting some respectable PRs. We'll see this summer.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Boston Marathon Recap
...I've had something written (deleted, re-written, etc.) about this for awhile and debated on whether I should keep it or not. I don't want this post to seem like I have been impacted more than those who were truly affected - so this is simply my "race report" for what it is.
Starting a marathon dodging and weaving people is pretty annoying. Especially when those people are dumbly sprinting at the START of a marathon. But that's a small price to pay for being able to run 26.2 miles with spectators cheering you on 99% of the time.
I passed both CSU cheering spots feeling great, and even able to make a lame joke that, "I thought I had already passed Wellesley college!" That was the Newton Hills, and I imagine my horrible joke got a pity-laugh.
Around mile 23 I passed Kathleen & Steve feeling good and I was glad to see friendly faces. Well into the city, I went under Mass Ave wondering if my legs would get wobbly on the small uphill as they did last year, but they didn't and I held my form well - ready for the finish. I kept an eye out for Elizabeth, Mike, Katherine, Mary and Annie - hoping that my mind was sharp enough to catch them in a crowd. Just as I was turning onto Hereford I heard, "Uncle Patrick!" I immediately smiled and waved to the Bugbees of Boston holding up the (hopefully annual) cheering sign from Mary & Annie.
At that point I assumed I had somehow missed Elizabeth, and so I hugged the corner and turned onto Boylston. Seeing the finish line and feeling strong I gave a few high fives before settling in for the finish until I heard "PATRICK!" and saw Elizabeth leaning over the fence with a big smile waving toward me. After returning the smile and the wave, I continued on and crossed the finish line in a just a few more strides.
I ran a time of 3:23:54. After months of almost entirely cross training to recover from an injury I kept an even pace. I didn't cramp. I didn't crash. And I didn't slow. I finished at around 2:15 in the afternoon and the bombs exploded around 2:50. It frightens me and amazes me how very easily I could've had a bad race and slowed enough...
I was about two blocks away with Elizabeth, Mike, Katherine and the girls when we heard the explosions. Groups of people came from the side streets. I walked back onto Boylston to ask the baggage check if my cousin's bag had been picked up yet. It hadn't, but he was ok. I asked a news truck if they knew what happened, and they said that they think that bomb(s) went off. I looked down Boylston and saw the smoke, then looked back at Elizabeth who was still standing at the barrier. I was torn as to what to do, but Elizabeth put out her arms as if to say, "what are you doing? get back here." We ended up going to Elizabeth's work on Beacon to get online and let people know we were ok. Then we walked across the Mass Ave bridge to get picked up by Kathleen and head back to our place where we met up with Doug & Kristin and we all sat around watching the news.
The next day I went for an easy jog at the Harvard track, and the day after that I went to the Marathon Sports in Cambridge for the weekly 4-mile Half Marathon Training Run. I took Thursday off, and then was inside that Friday.
I received a phone call from my Aunt in early morning telling me to wake up and make sure my doors were locked as "they are throwing bombs out their car window." That felt so over the top I thought it couldn't be true. But living just over a mile from the boat in Watertown, we could hear just about everything. We heard the gunshots in the afternoon along with the flash grenades - then heard them again, seconds later, on the TV. A short while later it was unconfirmed that the one idiot who survived might be going to Mt Auburn Hospital. So Elizabeth and I put on running shoes and ran there. We weren't the only ones with this idea, as the streets were crowded with cops, news trucks, and people who were gathering around. He ended up somewhere else, but it was a worthwhile experience as everyone seemed to be in a similar state of mind.
It was an exhausting and sad week, but seeing those injured maintain positive attitudes, and the overwhelmingly positive response from the city and country has been encouraging. Hopefully, out of this tragedy people can maintain the positive vibes, but the cynic in me expects people to go back to staring at their phones and nearly hitting runners on a regular basis.
Starting a marathon dodging and weaving people is pretty annoying. Especially when those people are dumbly sprinting at the START of a marathon. But that's a small price to pay for being able to run 26.2 miles with spectators cheering you on 99% of the time.
I passed both CSU cheering spots feeling great, and even able to make a lame joke that, "I thought I had already passed Wellesley college!" That was the Newton Hills, and I imagine my horrible joke got a pity-laugh.
Around mile 23 I passed Kathleen & Steve feeling good and I was glad to see friendly faces. Well into the city, I went under Mass Ave wondering if my legs would get wobbly on the small uphill as they did last year, but they didn't and I held my form well - ready for the finish. I kept an eye out for Elizabeth, Mike, Katherine, Mary and Annie - hoping that my mind was sharp enough to catch them in a crowd. Just as I was turning onto Hereford I heard, "Uncle Patrick!" I immediately smiled and waved to the Bugbees of Boston holding up the (hopefully annual) cheering sign from Mary & Annie.
At that point I assumed I had somehow missed Elizabeth, and so I hugged the corner and turned onto Boylston. Seeing the finish line and feeling strong I gave a few high fives before settling in for the finish until I heard "PATRICK!" and saw Elizabeth leaning over the fence with a big smile waving toward me. After returning the smile and the wave, I continued on and crossed the finish line in a just a few more strides.
I ran a time of 3:23:54. After months of almost entirely cross training to recover from an injury I kept an even pace. I didn't cramp. I didn't crash. And I didn't slow. I finished at around 2:15 in the afternoon and the bombs exploded around 2:50. It frightens me and amazes me how very easily I could've had a bad race and slowed enough...
I was about two blocks away with Elizabeth, Mike, Katherine and the girls when we heard the explosions. Groups of people came from the side streets. I walked back onto Boylston to ask the baggage check if my cousin's bag had been picked up yet. It hadn't, but he was ok. I asked a news truck if they knew what happened, and they said that they think that bomb(s) went off. I looked down Boylston and saw the smoke, then looked back at Elizabeth who was still standing at the barrier. I was torn as to what to do, but Elizabeth put out her arms as if to say, "what are you doing? get back here." We ended up going to Elizabeth's work on Beacon to get online and let people know we were ok. Then we walked across the Mass Ave bridge to get picked up by Kathleen and head back to our place where we met up with Doug & Kristin and we all sat around watching the news.
The next day I went for an easy jog at the Harvard track, and the day after that I went to the Marathon Sports in Cambridge for the weekly 4-mile Half Marathon Training Run. I took Thursday off, and then was inside that Friday.
I received a phone call from my Aunt in early morning telling me to wake up and make sure my doors were locked as "they are throwing bombs out their car window." That felt so over the top I thought it couldn't be true. But living just over a mile from the boat in Watertown, we could hear just about everything. We heard the gunshots in the afternoon along with the flash grenades - then heard them again, seconds later, on the TV. A short while later it was unconfirmed that the one idiot who survived might be going to Mt Auburn Hospital. So Elizabeth and I put on running shoes and ran there. We weren't the only ones with this idea, as the streets were crowded with cops, news trucks, and people who were gathering around. He ended up somewhere else, but it was a worthwhile experience as everyone seemed to be in a similar state of mind.
It was an exhausting and sad week, but seeing those injured maintain positive attitudes, and the overwhelmingly positive response from the city and country has been encouraging. Hopefully, out of this tragedy people can maintain the positive vibes, but the cynic in me expects people to go back to staring at their phones and nearly hitting runners on a regular basis.
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