Boston Part Two!

See, here's the problem with splitting one entry into two is that there were things I forgot to put in the first part. I'll just backtrack a little bit to cover the official pictures I own now that I didn't have before.

So back in the Athlete's Village, they have tons of official photographers wandering around and one was stationed with an official backdrop. Since you're never sure how many actual pictures you'll get out on the course, I decided, why the heck not pose with the official background:


This one I didn't go looking for but had one of those wandering photographers stop me:


Remember the START sign outside the Athlete's Village? Well, they had an official guy standing there on my way out. So again, why the heck not? He took this one:


and then told me, "Wait, let's do another one. Stand on the other side and point at the sign." It felt incredibly weird, awkward, and faked but actually turned out okay.


Finally, the sign in Hopkinton. Some day, I will get my picture taken next to the sign. Perhaps the third times the charm, now that I've decided I'll have to do Boston again (but not in the near future).


So where was I at the end of part one? Oh, yes! Standing in the starting corral. This is the official picture from the start of Wave One. Tonya and I were standing just on the other side of the white building on the right.


Starting in corral 7 was quite different from being in corral 1 where I could start running and be at my pace pretty much instantly. It took us 4 minutes to get to the starting line once the gun went off. Then it was go time! I took my zip-up hoodie off pretty much right away and tossed it in an already started pile from other people. The road felt much more congested than I remembered it being before but nothing horrible, just a little weaving as things got sorted out, which caused a pace a little slower than desired for that first mile. This is a cool picture of the start of what I assume is Wave One but Wave Two looked much the same.


So we're finally to the race part of my race report!

27,000 runners is a lot of people. So each wave is probably about 9,000 but you're surrounded by people doing about the same pace so it doesn't get strung out. The start is very downhill. I forgot how sharp it was. I stretched out a little bit but spent much of the first several miles trying to hold back and not go faster than 8 minute miles, since I knew I wouldn't be able to hold a faster pace for too terribly long. I kept my ears open during the early stages, hearing what kind of goal time the people around me were talking about or what kind of a pace they reported as they crossed mile markers. My A goal was a 3:30, even though I knew it was probably a stretch so the thought was to go out, see what was comfortable, and hang on while I could. B goal was going under 3:50 (a number chosen solely on the fact that the girl with the same number the year before had run a 3:50 and, by golly, I could beat that easy). I saw lots of cool people/shirts in the beginning. I passed a woman who was due with her first baby in July which makes me sad, now, because I'm sure she wasn't able to finish. Ahead of me I saw an Afton 50K shirt and made my way up to the guy so we could chat a bit. I never saw him pass me again but if he stayed on pace than he would have. The race is so big that you are ALWAYS passing people and ALWAYS being passed at the same time which makes for never a dull or lonely moment.

I tried to strike a balance between enjoying the race and not wasting energy. If I found myself on the edge of the road, I would high five the kids there, but I didn't go out of my way to get to them. Don't get me wrong, though, I still greatly enjoyed myself and tried to take it all in. Lots of fabulous, cheering crowds. Several bands including one accordion band, a circle of Native American drummers, and one not very good Elvis, but who am I to judge? This is a random little news video but it gives you a good idea of the crowds out in the towns on the way (make it past the few second intro and ignore the "Wellesley Scream Tunnel" title since that's not what it is. )Look at how deep with people the sidewalks are!

After a while, I was hearing lots of cheers along the lines of "love your mask!" This was happening super often and seemed to be getting closer to me so that I started getting excited for the person to catch up so I could see what everyone was cheering about, since I generally refuse to look behind me. She finally got up next to me and it turned out to be a girl in this orange/red masquerade feathered mask. I feel as though I spent a lot of time running near her and we did a lot of back and forth so I was super excited to find that she was in one of my pictures. Not only so I could show people who I was talking about but it also means that I was able to look up her bib number and the ability to look her up and make sure she finished.


I did actually look behind me somewhere in the middle miles. I was gaining on this group of three people in maybe their 20s running together - a girl and two guys. One of the guys was holding up a sign attached to a stout stick he had clearly nabbed out of the woods in the beginning. I remember wondering why he chose such a heavy looking branch rather than something lighter . . . The girl was laughing frequently as people cheered for them and I was dying to see what the sign said but the guy never spun it around - it was always facing forward. So I had no choice but to pass them and look back to see. Sadly, nothing too exciting, just a "Go Jen!" on a white sign. Still, it was super impressive for the guy to lug it the whole way and to stick by her during it. I wonder if she was able to finish - I never saw them go by me again.

I was able to see Team Hoyt for the first time, too, in the later miles. I ran by them and gave the son a thumbs up which was probably rather obnoxiously right in his face, but I hope not. Anyway, it was very neat to finally see them and say hi/good job. I found out later that this was to be their last Boston and last marathon but since they were among those not allowed to finish, they are going back next year.

Now, when the race started, it was a nice temperature. It got warm fairly quickly, though, and soon I was getting rather concerned. Logically I knew it couldn't be terribly hot (high 50s maybe?) but when you're coming from 30s, it sure feels hotter than it is, especially with the sun out. I started dumping water on myself at water stations and getting concerned about being overheated (just when I was thinking I was going to have some problems, though, we got a breeze and things cooled off). Thus some of the pictures where I look rather like a drowned rat . . .


My other favorite thing about that picture is how I'm all by myself. There isn't even a shadow of someone near me. Just me and the tree shadow. I can't tell you where this is on the course - for once I don't remember it at all. It had to be in that first half, though, since I'm looking rather wet.

If I could pick something about the race that wasn't how I remember it, it would be the Wellesley girls. I remember hearing them from a half mile out last time. This year, I didn't hear them at all until we got right there. Maybe it was a wind direction thing, though, since I could hear them behind me for ages once we went by. Before the race, I had decided to be calm through here. Last time, I got too excited and ran too fast and then you really feel that burst of speed a few minutes later as it drains on you. However, once you get there, you can't help but go to the side and high five every single one of them with a big grin. They love to see happy runners and I got told so many times that I was awesome or gorgeous or fabulous and how can you not love that? Here's a video of a guy running through it. A minute and a half of screaming girls. This must be a speedier guy, though, since there doesn't seem to be many people around him and there aren't many people high fiveing the girls.

You can see a timing mat in that video - we ran over several of them and each time, I would name off (in my head, that is) as many people as I could think of that I knew were tracking me online. Thanks for the support, everyone!


Around half way, I made the conscious decision to slow down. I could tell that I wasn't going to run a 3:30 - my pace was starting to fall off if I didn't concentrate on it and I figured I could either push hard until I blew up somewhere around mile 17 and then drag myself in or I could settle into a slightly slower and more comfortable pace and have more fun. I went with the latter. My splits for the first ten miles were lovely: 8:10 (all that weaving), 8:02, 8:03, 7:53 (oops), 8:04, 8:00, 7:58, 8:03, 7:54, 8:06. The next two were 8:18 and 8:14.


So in 2009, my knee was giving out at the start of the hills (miles 16-22) and I still had a long way to go. I don't think I ran a single step of Heartbreak Hill part from my knee hurting and part from freaking out that my knee hurt so much. This year I didn't walk a single step. I ran the entire way up, which I'm actually quite proud of and it felt pretty awesome to be doing it. On my way up, I got one of my favorite specifically for me cheers of the day, too. People along the way had been cheering for Northwoods or Minnesota back and forth, depending what caught their eye from my jersey. Well, somewhere up Heartbreak, there was this girl about my age by the side of the road who suddenly busts out with a very loud, very enthusiastic and, now that I think on it, probably drunk, "MINNESOTA IS AWESOME!" She yelled it with such happy and enthusiastic force that I was rather taken aback and couldn't do much more than wave at her.

Another random picture time. Somewhere in Boston proper, I believe.


As you enter into Boston, the crowds just get larger and louder. Running by Boston College is quite similar to running through Wellesley, except dominated by rather drunk college kids. I was in the middle of the road at this point, having determined that my knee was getting angry with me for running on the right hand side of the road the whole way (my left leg is just enough longer than my right to get pissy at things like this). The hollering crowds were making me crazy happy, though. I was feeling good still and loving being able to take notice of things this time. Part way through the Boston College gauntlet, I said (in fact, I'm pretty sure this was out loud) "Oh, screw it" and bee-lined straight over the fence line and started high-fiveing every hand I could find. They especially love a happy runner at this point in the race so it was a great time and felt awesome. Then, not thirty second after I finished going through Boston College, I beelined it on over to the other side of the road (where there were less runners and less spectators) and eventually threw up the gel I had eaten ten minutes ago, much to the alarm of the cop standing nearby. I guess suddenly spiking my heart rate was not such a grand idea . . . I waited until I was sure I was done, giving a thumbs up to the cop asking if I was okay. Sadly, I had already tucked my gel bag/carrier/thingy into my back pocket which left me with nothing to wipe my mouth with. So I did what any normal person would do . . . I tried a pine cone sitting by the train tracks. Yeah, that doesn't work so well. So I ambled on my way, after decided that picking up the discarded sponge from the elite runner was a bad idea. Actually, first I shot out of there and on my way before realizing I better slow it up for a bit and make sure it nothing else wanted to come up, which made for a couple of way-slower-than-I-wanted miles since this happened almost at the end of a mile mark. I'm going to go ahead and blame my two minutes on this section here (I really would have preferred to be under 3:50) but you know what? It was completely worth it because it's pretty great to feel awesome at at point and enjoy some excited high fives.

We follow along some trail track for quite a ways - it makes for one lonely side of the road and one side PACKED with spectators . I found myself racing a (slow moving) train at one point, which was fun. I won, by the way.

One missing picture this year is my Citgo sign picture. It's perhaps one of the stranger things about Boston - a giant Citgo sign that you run by and that marks one mile left. You can see it for about a mile beforehand since it's quite large and they have a photographer stationed right after it to get your picture with the sign in the background. Sadly, this was a photographer I actually saw (I had a tendency to not even notice them) but I was blocked by two guys at just the wrong angles in front of me. I took a picture of it myself on the walk back afterward because I'm a dork.


I remembered from 2009 that when we pass under a bridge, it's about half a mile left so I went with that. I was passing loads of people at this point, determined to finish super strong. There was a girl who went by me with a shirt that said "Never Give Up" on the back. It must have said the same on the front because I could hear people cheering for her that way. Well, we turned that right turn on Hereford and headed up the hill and she looked as though she was too far ahead of me to catch back up but by golly, I was going to try.

That left turn onto Bolyston is something amazing. It makes me so sad and angry to know that that turn was stolen from over 5600 runners. I found the energy to blow by Never Give Up girl and just kept right on a truckin. I felt like I was flying down that last two blocks.


Coming across the finish line, my arms went up. I didn't plan it or think about how to cross the line, I was just so happy to feel good and to have really enjoyed the majority of my time out there. Final time: 3:52:04.


So once I finished, I got about twenty feet to walk at a normal pace - which was good because the sudden sprint at the end demanded some walking and not a sudden stop and stand. Unfortunately, that's what you get after about twenty feet. Shoulder to shoulder shuffling for what feels like forever before you get a bottle of water. And then forever more before you get your blanket. Another long shuffle to your medal.


I sat down on a large photographer hard case after my picture was taken before rejoining the stream of people and slowly making my way to the food/gatorade tents. I sat down again next to the gatorade tent for a bit again before rejoining the fray. What feels like forever later, the crowd starts thinning as you turn various ways for the exit or to some of the clothes buses. I sat down again on a wheelchair. Now, some of you have seen me immediately after a hard longer race and what I do is shake, sometimes pretty hard. I've found that the best thing to do is just submit to the crazy shaking and let my body shake itself out. Usually it's just my legs and I forget it is perhaps alarming looking to people who aren't me. I sat in the wheelchair for a minute until the person holding it decided she needed to start pushing me to the med tent. I was having none of that so I got up and shook my way to the bus to get my clothes. So there I was, standing in the short line, waiting to get my bag from the bus when some random runner pulled me to the start of the line, got my clothes, and asked if I needed help putting them on. No, no, I assured him I was fine and brought the bag to the back of the bus in front of our bus. I set the bag on the ground and looked at it for a minute. Dug out my pants, hitched a pant leg up to put it on, and then stood there and looked at it for another minute. At which point, another guy interrupted my shaking and helped me get my pants on - thanks random guy! I then decided it was a good idea to sit down against the bus tire.


I was just over two blocks straight down the chute from the finish line at this point. I was quickly joined by a couple other runners, so it was lucky that I got the best spot, leaning against the bus tire.


Lots of people were walking by. I had no desire to start moving yet so I texted my friends waiting that I was done and would be out in a bit and then took a couple artsy shots of people walking by and a sad lost glove. Keep in mind that these are the thinned out crowds - no longer nearly as crowded as half a block earlier.


It seemed like as good a time as any to make a phone call - not too loud and sitting was fairly comfortable, so I called Lisa to report on the race. Toward the end of our conversation, I heard a loud bang coming from the finish area. While I was definitely alarmed and stood up to see what was going on, my first thought went to "cannon," as it sounded just like a cannon to me. As I was processing that cannons and Patriot's Day made sense, there was a second bang that was louder than the first (since the second blast was actually a block further away, I'm guessing this is because it was quieter around me and I was listening/paying attention instead of talking). When I saw smoke rising over the Finish Line banner, I told Lisa I needed to go and find my friends.

People around me weren't panicked. We were confused. You could see people jumping to the worst conclusion even as the theories I was hearing said aloud were along the lines of "gas explosion" and "transformer burst" now that we had figured out (slowly, in our post-marathon addled brains) that it didn't make sense to have cannons at the finish line after 4 hours. At some point, a guy in a yellow jacket went HOLLERING down the sidewalk towards the finish. Something was kind of creepy about it and we all just watched him go by but nothing was really reaching us two blocks down so we kind of communally shrugged him off.

I decided it was time to find my friends, so I picked up my bag and called my parents as I wandered out of the official finish area. My dad picked up (I had forgotten that my mom was working) and I told him about my race and mentioned that he might want to turn the tv on, though I didn't think there would be anything on the Minnesota news about it.

As I hung up, the first emergency vehicles were starting to shoot down the block I was heading for. In fact, they Family Meeting Area I was heading to was on the road the volunteers were aggressively clearing. I decided to head that way anyway, since that's where I was supposed to meet my friends (turns out they had also been told to move and decided once they got out of the street and on the sidewalk that they were staying put until physically moved). There were crying runners around, but that's pretty normal. I stopped at an AT&T booth and gave my mom a quick call at work. Once I hung up, I saw my friends about twenty feet away. By this point, there had been several emergency vehicles and the family meeting area was destroyed/useless since they kept clearing us out of the roads. I remember being still fairly confused at this point, though the volunteers were stressed and panicky and my friends very much wanted to get out of there. I can't remember if my friends had an idea of what was going on or if I found out once I was on the phone with Kyle. I know he first told me that people had lost limbs and I suddenly remembered that Tonya had never passed me and I didn't know if she was okay and I made Kyle look her up to make sure she had finished before I would hang up. Happily she had finished - I think I would have tried to make my way to the finish area had she not.

My friends managed to make me leave, though I didn't want to go at all. I wanted to stay with my runners and make sure things were okay. I remember stopping at least once to help some poor mother who was freaking out because her phone was dying and her daughter hadn't finished and she didn't know what to do. We had decided to not take the subway, which was fine since the subway was shut down. Commence the 5ish mile walk back to my friend's house in Cambridge.

I have never received so many texts in my life. It was constant. I would answer one and three more would come in and it wasn't as though I could just ignore one and move on to the next. I didn't get many actual calls and was super confused when I got my voicemail tone without the phone ringing first. Turns out most calls couldn't go through. I sat down to answer a call from work when one of my friends realized she hadn't taken a post-run picture and demanded a smile:


Happily, the subway was open once got a little ways away. We walked a bit more and then hopped on, so we only had to walk 2, 2.5ish miles.

In general I'm sad and I'm angry. I'm not too freaked out anymore (though I was for a bit, it's SO EASY for me to loose 20 minutes in a road marathon and then I'm in front of the blasts or one of the 5,600 people robbed of a finish with no phone and no way to contact the panicked friends and family waiting to hear from me). I know it's hard for some of my trail friends to understand but Boston is something sacred. It's something I knew I was going to do since I heard about it, since when 13 miles was a long way, let alone 26. It was a dream of mine to be able to run through Wellesley, to run past the Citgo sign, to run down Bolyston, to earn my unicorn. The first time I walked into packet pickup in 2009, I got teary. Boston is sacred. I hurt for those runners who had their finishes stolen, who had their crowds silenced and kept running confusedly until running into a backlog of stopped runners. Worse are the spectators, the ones who were injured, who had their lives stolen, their limbs stolen, they were MY spectators. They were cheering for ME. They were there for ME. That's what's special about Boston - every person there is screaming their heads off for you.

Boston was going to be my last road marathon for a while and this was going to be my last Boston in the foreseeable future. Instead, I found myself trying to figure out how I could get to Boston in 2014. I can't do it without giving up on my main goal for the year, so it's not going to happen but I know now I have to go back some time.

Boston Part One!

In an effort to get this up, I bring you the first part of my Boston report, which doesn't actually include any of the race - that's part Two! The spacing on some of this seems to be weird, but I'm not going to worry about that right now.

Warning - this is a picture heavy Boston report! I flew into Boston Friday night and so Saturday was Expo time! Step one is to get your race packet. Well, actually step one is to show your packet-pick up card and photo ID and THEN get your packet.

Once you're eagerly clutching your precious packet in your happy hands, you make your way over to the shirt table where you get your bag and selected shirt size. Part of the awesome thing about Boston? You first are handed the shirt size you think will fit. Then you head wherever you find space, try it on, and exchange it for a different size if you want.


Then you get herded into the actual Expo - beginning with a large section of official Boston gear. First thing's first, though. Picture time with my bib number! The smiley face on the bag is how they know you picked up your shirt. Too bad I don't look excited at all . . . It's so fun to be surrounded by lots and lots of runners. It's one of my favorite things about any race weekend but with 27,000 people in one race, plus their generally active family/friends/spectators, that's a whole lot of runners.


So, same as last time, the Expo is really the same as any expo except so very crazy crowded. And then there's the part where you get to meet Kathrine Switzer. She was super awesome again - spending so much time with each person that she started getting in trouble from whoever was keeping an eye on her line because it was getting too long. Luckily, I was towards the front :) She gives everyone a hug, asks your name and how you are and truly wants to know how you are. She finds a connection with each person.


I had her sign my book a second time, which seemed to amuse her (different page, though!), and I also had her sign my race number.


I don't think she necessarily signed it upside down on purpose but we giggled about it when she was done and decided that meant I could look down at it for inspiration while I was running, if need be. After that it was lots of general expo wandering. I had some gift certificate money to spend, so I had a blast picking out Boston gear. I even managed to hold back and save some, which allowed me to buy a running pack for Cedar on sale later (not at the expo - in a store that gave you 20% for showing them your bib number). I wandered around for a while looking for a companion to my bright pink Boston shorts from last time or maybe a Boston skirt but no luck. I settled for a black pair of Boston shorts with blue/yellow trim, since I did actually need another pair.

Over the weekend, I stayed with my friend from high school and I had two other high school friends who live near-ish by come over to watch the race and hang out. It was great to be with them for a couple days - thanks so much for coming, guys! Sunday, we headed back into Boston (my friend lives in Cambridge, about 5 miles from the race finish). There were several pictures that I didn't even think to take my first time and I needed to make sure they happened. Pictures like me at the finish banner:


Or of me me kneeling (on my bad knee, silly girl) on the Finish Line.


Close up of the part of the finish line the the person taking the previous picture would have been standing on.


Okay, enough of that! Time to get ready to run which means obsessively laying everything out the night before. No, I didn't run in Vibrams, those were for afterward. Not that I remembered to change into them . . .


So, Boston starts in three waves. I was in Wave Two, starting at 10:20. However, this meant I had to catch the buses between 6:30-7. Everyone gathers in Boston Commons and ques in giant lines waiting for the massive numbers of buses. Enough buses to bring 27,000 people from Boston to Hopkinton. I feel as though this picture doesn't quite do it justice in terms of the crazy number of people waiting for buses. There is a line 4-5 people wide going as far down as the picture goes and winding around.


The key was to move to the middle lines rather than getting off the subway and immediately joining the first line right there. Step one here, though, is to hit the port-a-potty line because the bus ride is 45 minutes to over an hour and you don't want to be stuck on there and really needing a bathroom. As I was waiting in line, the volunteer in my line was waving to the loaded buses driving by.


This made me really happy so I had to take a picture of him. I waved at him as our bus drove away, too. Since I got on a bus more toward the front of the line, this meant I was able to choose my seat and also get the window. My seat partner was a great guy here with a training group from Illinois who were seated in front and also kitty corner from us. He said I look a ton like his daughter, which is why he sat next to me.


We actually spent a lot of the ride talking about skiing - he's a super speedy age grouper. We took pictures of each other with our bags (I blacked out his name here so if you want to freakishly stalk him, you have to work at it at least a little) so we would remember names post-race. I looked him up when I got back to internet and made sure he finished when he wanted and was safe. He did and was.

After driving for a while (this is why you get on an early bus, those horror stories out there about 1.5+ hour bus rides with traffic jams and runners jumping out the back to pee are always from people who get on a late bus) and then driving slowly through part of Hopkinton, we're dropped off at the school and a parking lot full of the buses that came before us. Get off the bus and follow everyone into the Athlete's Village.


This is not actually the start line, mind you, just the entrance to the Village. There you sit for a couple hours. Well, first I hightailed it to the bathrooms after the bus ride (shockingly short lines at first) and THEN I sat down. This is why people recommend that you bring a garbage bag - so you can sit/lay on the ground without getting a wet butt. Or an inflatable air mattress, like some people do. I settled for a garbage bag, though. I spread mine out and settled down for a bit. The group next to me was from Iceland and one of the guys had a crazy low number in the 100-somethings. Yikes. After laying down for a bit, and eating a half peanut butter and jelly sandwich, it didn't take too long for me to get a little antsy. So then it was time to jump in the ever growing bathroom line again.

Towards the front of the line, I watched DUFF MAN (he put a nice red cape on, as well) and a hotdog getting dressed.


Both with lower numbers in the 4,000s so these were definitely not charity runners. It was fun to see.

I decided to head to the starting area a little early. So - change from my keeper warmup gear (to be worn at the finish) to my throw warm-up gear (to be worn to the start line and then tossed), exit the Athlete's Village, find the bus to put my bag in (which included my camera since I didn't want to carry it or stop for pictures so only official pictures from here until the finish), and start the .7 mile walk to the start line. It was a constant crowd of people heading down and some of the houses had people out just watching the show. Fence lined the whole way with collection bags for your discarded gear at regular intervals - they gather everything you toss off and donate it. Last time, I had two friends to walk to the start with so it was a little strange walking there on my own since I'm also used to being at big races with at least one other person. I knew I'd run into Tonya in the corral but I didn't expect to see her before then. When we finally got to the starting area, Wave One was lined up and they were doing some announcements so it was back to a bathroom line for me. Which took maybe a little longer than normal since I let a couple Wave One guys who were in line behind me go in front of me.

Oh! While waiting for Wave One to go (NO jet fly over! I was so bummed! That's half the reason I headed over early), I saw a woman wearing this running dress. It was so cute. I loved it! And now I kind of want one - she said it's super comfy and it would eliminate the rubbing raw that I always get on my lower back from shorts. Anyway. Sidetrack finished . . .

Wave One was off and it was time to boogie into my corral (7!) for Wave Two. I took off my toss pants before heading over but decided to keep the zip up hoodie on until I started running. As I entered the corral and headed to the front, I was looking around for Tonya and just maybe was talking out loud along the lines of, "Tonya should be around here somewhere" when she said hi! It was nice to wait for the start next to a friend.

Up next - the actual RACE part of my race report!

5 days!

Okay, I'm good and exited now. I'm checking the weather sites as though they actually mean anything (currently 55 with a high chance of rain and a headwind) and packing one of everything just in case. Or rather, planning on packing one of everything since I haven't actually started packing yet . . . At least I don't have to worry about single digits, snow, mud, and river crossings like some of my friends this weekend. Not that I don't also wish I was able to head to Zumbro, too . . .

I don't have too much of a plan for the race itself. I don't even know what a reasonable goal really is right now. I feel as though I'm in good shape but I don't know about good road marathon shape. And I had those 10 days of sick in March. So . . . under normalish weather conditions (no raging heat, no brutal head wind the entire way) anything under 3:50 sounds good with a preference to rock it out and see something 20 minutes faster than that. If we get not normalish weather, then it will probably become time to just have fun and enjoy.

Now, my old shoes were getting rather flat feeling and once I checked my shiny mileage spreadsheet I saw that they did, in fact, have probably a good 350 miles on them (I got them before I started using the spreadsheet, so I'm not positive on the exact mileage), so I decided on getting new shoes this last weekend. Since they're the same brand/model as usual, I'm not too concerned about switched to new shoes so close to a race. I've been on a couple of test runs and the problem area from my previous pair don't seem to exist on the new ones, so I'll probably wear them Monday. Granted, the runs were nothing too long but what I was worried about was a tight and sharp part of the heel that needed a couple weeks to bend back/soften up on the old pair and made itself apparent from the first three mile run that rubbed my heel off. I might wear my old shoes to walk around in this weekend and that way I have them with me if I change my mind. Though really, I'm checking a bag that will be probably mostly empty (since all race clothing will be on my carry on) so I could always just pack them, too.

If you don't know, I'm an over-packer for short trips. Especially for races. I want to have everything with me that I might possibly want. Now, come a longer trip and I'll probably have the exact same amount of stuff, so I'm not a heavy packer for those! It's New England in the spring - we don't really know what the weather will be like. So my racing jersey, t-shirt, and long sleeve. My roll down sleeves. Shorts, half tights, skirt. Boston has a .7 mile walk from where you drop your bag to the starting line so not only do you want clothes to put on when you finish, you ALSO want clothes to wear to the start that you can just toss (they have loads of collection points and donate everything that gets dumped to charity). Last time I found a zip up hoodie at Savers and it was great because I could keep in on for the first mile but still have my number showing and then toss it when I warmed up, so I'm planning on doing the same thing again. If it's even chilly enough to not toss it right at the start. Is it going to be 70? 50 with rain? Who knows! I've seen both predictions today!

Alright, I work a half day Friday. Then I take the Skyline Shuttle to the Cities (yay for not stressing about driving in gross weather or making a friend or sister worry about emergency snow parking with my car), fly out Friday night, arrive crazy late in Boston. I plan to sleep in late Saturday, spend too much time at the expo, and then hang out with friends until Monday. I may or may not update again before then, depending on how fast I pack tomorrow (ha! I'm a slow packer!) and what kind of time I have over the weekend.

If you want to track me, you can get texts or emails by going here. My bib number is 15438. Looks like it sends out at 10K, half marathon, 30k, and finish.

Human Race 8K

I ran the Human Race last weekend (the 24th, not the 31st). Though, it's not the Human Race now, as it's been renamed to Irish Run, complete with a bright green race shirt but hey, more shirts for being visible on a bike is always good, right? This was a short little 8K down in the Cities. I'm on the Austin-Jarrow racing team and we do the USATF team circuit - most of the races of which are in the Cities. The bad part is it's a long way to drive for short races but the good part is there's always lots of teammates running with you and they're generally a fun time.

The Irish Run changed it's start/finish this year to be right behind Macalester. It was also fun to have a race covering roads I ran in college - I knew exactly where I was at all times and knew what the road crossings meant in terms of distance to the finish, which really helps. We do about a mile down Summit and then turn around and head back up, past the start and just over a mile the other direction before turning around Billy Mitchell Law School and finishing where we started. I didn't think I would like the change but I really did. You end with a nice three block downhill, which is always a good finish.

It took a long time for my Short Race head to get in the game so perhaps two miles of warmup was not enough. Around two miles in the race, I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw my friend Rudy going by me. An awesome guy but he should not be passing me! Crap. My second mile split was no good either, but I generally try to not freak out about mile splits one way or the other and just use them as a guide. About a half mile later, I passed Rudy back and finally got some groove going and was running the 7 minute miles I should have been doing for mile 2. I wish the race had been at least a 10K and I could have done so much better! It was great fun to pass so many people on the way back, though, since it felt like the entire race was passing me in the beginning.

I came across the finish in what I thought was a few seconds slower than last year and was a bit bummed about it. But then I was rather hyper and ready for more running! On the way back to Duluth, I remembered that it took me a few seconds to cross the starting line and low and behold, I actually ran two seconds faster than last year! Granted, I wanted to run about thirty seconds faster than last year since last year was grossly hot but since I really haven't been doing any sort of speed training (so much for marathon specific track workouts . . .) I'm happy with it. Stupid second mile time. Good thing there were footsteps right behind me on the last stretch to help push out those two seconds! I didn't realize she was so close, though, until I saw the pictures! I did manage to drop her in the last block :) I like to think I'm a hard person to beat coming into the finish. Unless your name is Marcus . . .

So, here I am now, 13 days to Boston! Soon I can start stalking the weather predictions. Of course, I'll be bringing every possible racing gear anyway, so I don't know why I bother. I have my seat booked on a shuttle down to the Cities and back (it'll be nice to not have to drive, even if it gets me back to Duluth a little later Tuesday than I would like), my tickets are bought, my friend is going to host me. All that's left is obsessive list making to make sure I don't forget anything. And trying to figure out if airport security will let me fly with a sealed bottle of Boost . . .

Boston number details!

Ooof. Take over a full week off due to sickness and concern about it lingering on forever and ever if I didn't rest and you come up with some pretty dismal March mileage so far . . . Let's talk about silly happy things. Like how I have my number and wave/corral assignment for Boston!

I am number 15438. Wave 2, corral 7.

Numbers are assigned by speed, so I have something like the 15,438 fastest qualifying time. I think. The elite runners all get their names on their bibs and I'm guessing they don't start the bibs with number 1 and I'm not sure where they start numbering at.

For the 2009 Boston, my qualifying time was two minutes slower and my number was 14800 - wave 2 corral 1 (pretty cool to start at the front of the race). So the race has definitely gotten speedier. From last year to this year, the website told me that the cut-off between Wave 1 and Wave 2 is 37 seconds faster and the cut-off between 2 and 3 is 23 seconds faster. My original goal for running Boston again was to get into Wave 1, but I since decided that probably wasn't going to happen and started to worry about being in Wave 3 so Wave 2 is just fine.

Less than 4 weeks away now! Have I mentioned how it's really strange to be excited but not have it be my big focus for the year? Basically since I started running in 6th grade and heard about this Boston Marathon thing, it was a goal to someday make it there. I was worried that I was maybe over-hyping it in my head but that ended up not being the case at all. Despite it being a horrible race for me, it was still an amazing experience and I left determined to go back and show the race what's-what. So, I'm heading back, now. I'm in good shape, for sure, though I'm not sure what kind of speedy-road-marathon-shape I'm in since I haven't really been focused on super marathon training. Guess I'll find out, huh?

Skiing!

So after all of that whining about wanting to run when I was sick - what do I do on Saturday?

Well, I plan a long run. A loop course that involves the ability to shortcut home early in multiple places in case my post-sick body isn't interested in too long of a run. I planned with a friend for the afternoon so I could sleep in and also do some skiing in the morning with my husband. When I woke up at 6 to let dogs outside (okay, the husband let the dogs out and I woke up and checked out the window) and saw it was sleeting, not snowing, and sadly figured there wouldn't be any skiing in the morning. Back to bed only to wake up later to snow! Yay!

So I'm eating breakfast when my friend calls to say that she's okay with ditching the run. She's not training for anything yet and doesn't feel motivated to run long through gross roads. We decided to make a decision after my ski and husband and I headed for the Spirit Mountain ski trails, which I've never skied before. I actually enjoyed the weather, kind of foggy so you felt all by yourself, snowing in small (and sometimes sharp) flakes. The trails seemed great (though too hilly for my husband's liking) however, the conditions weren't stellar for skiing and the course wasn't well groomed. The poor husband had two inches of snow stuck to the bottom of his skis at all times and had a miserable, slow time of it. For what it's worth, though, my awesome shiny brand new skis did great!

*Sidetrack* I don't think I related that story here but basically, I've been skiing on skis that are too short for me pretty much since I've been skiing (because I wanted skis the same length as my skate skis so I could control them better). I finally got sick of pushing downhill and bought my first ever pair of brand new skis on a nice sale from a spectacular ski store (Itasca Trail Sports) in Grand Rapids. These skis have already been worth buying! It's so great to actually glide! *end sidetrack*

Now, driving to Spirit Mountain gave me a good preview of the road because we took sideroads there instead of the highway as my Jeep was about to hit 100,000 miles and I needed to make sure I was somewhere I could pull over a take a picture! Where there has been traffic, it was wet and slippery. Where there hadn't been much traffic, it was several inches of cold wet slush. The top of the hill (where the vast majority of my loop run was planned) was split pea soup fog. You couldn't even see half a block up by Spirit. Between that and the fact that I had to stop and hack the insides of my lungs out a few times while skiing, I decided that trying to run long just wasn't a good plan. So after Spirit, I dropped the husband off and headed up to Piedmont to do a quick loop there before lunch.

At Piedmont it was more raining than snowing and the tracks leaned more towards icy instead of the sticky I just came from but I managed to do both black diamond mini loops without any real threat of falling. I had fun doing a lap and got absolutely soaked in the process. Luckily, it was quite warm out so it didn't really matter. I almost headed out for another loop but was rather hungry.

Now, at Spirit the parking lot was packed to the brim and overflowing and yet, we only saw three people while we were out there (and two were skiing together). At Piedmont the parking lot was full but not overflowing and I didn't see a single other person out there. Goes to remind me to not be turned away if it looks as though the trails are going to be busy. There's a lot of room out there.

I came in for lunch and watched the rain get heavier and wetter and more gross and tried to rouse the motivation to go ski more in it. I figured if I were skipping my long run, then I definitely had to get out and do one more ski. Happily, as I was finally changing back into ski clothes, the rain changed back to snow.

This time I headed to Snowflake - they had free skiing on Saturday and I wanted to take advantage of it since I haven't skied out there since 7th or 8th grade and hardly remembered it. I brought along both pairs of skis and boots, just in case. When I got there, I strapped on my classic skis, skied up the main hill and didn't see any obvious classic tracks. I decided that meant I was fated to skate ski and so I turned around, skied back down the hill, and switched my boots and skis. Of course, once I got going on the trail proper, there were classic tracks but that's just fine. It was great to skate again.

Now, I haven't been skate skiing in . . . well, not at all last year and I don't think the year before either. So it's been a while. The problem with skate skiing is that there's not really a 'rest' mode of it. In classic, you can just go slow if you get tired. In skate skiing, I think slower might actually be harder. The 5K loop was exhausting! I was skiing a block and then stopping to break and marvel over the different muscles being used admire how beautiful the trails were and what a nice day out it was and then continuing on. I did get better as the ski went on and my muscles remembered how to ignore their own complaining. I skied past someone I know and when she asked how I was, I responded "Exhausted!" and explained I hadn't skated in ages. I then promptly skied back to the car after finishing the loop and switched back to my classic skis again since apparently I wasn't all that exhausted in the end.

By this point, it was REALLY SNOWING. As in, boulders falling down from the sky. It was absolutely gorgeous and I wish I had a camera. Without a hat, I was quickly becoming the Abominable Snow Sam. Of course, when each snowflake is literally a couple inches across, it doesn't take long for that to build up and I was quickly feeling as though I was back country skiing, even though I was in the tracks. When I started slipping out of the tracks because there was so much snow in them, I decided it was time to turn around and head back.

The point of all this being - I seemed to have skipped my long run for a day of skiing. And it was quite an enjoyable trade!

***Coming soon (tomorrow? Thursday?) to a blog near you: Sam gets her Boston race number and gets excited. ****

Sicky sickling

So there's not too much to blog about right now seeing as how I haven't run since last Thursday and last Thursday's run I made it just over 2 miles. I've been sick with the variety of sick that you don't run with - namely a deep (and painful!) lung cough and some dizzy/heaviness/weak fatigued muscles. For a couple of days, I did little but sleep (14 hours on Monday) and sit around watching Netflixed episodes of Sherlock and Doctor Who. But! The cough is practically gone, I've been able to be at work since Wednesday, and there is no more dizzy so I will be running tomorrow! Yay! My running log has been sad and empty in March.

The Boston website tells me 36 days to race day. My plane tickets are bought (though I might move some times around since there's no fee for doing so) and I have a friend to stay with and two more friends coming to hang out. Of course, I haven't completely decided on my goal for the race, yet. I would like to at least beat my last Boston time by an hour . . . Beyond that, I'm not too sure. Perhaps it's time to lay out a hard road long run and see what kind of speed my legs are interested in. Or, I'll just show up and start out and see how long I can hang on. I'll keep you all posted on that!

Star fish and palm trees!

A coworker of mine mocked my excitement for heading "south" for a trip in the winter. Apparently Kentucky doesn't constitute far enough south - "Yeah, watch out for those starfish and palm trees" she said. Rather sarcastically said, in my opinion :) So Starfish and Palm Trees became my rallying cry for the weekend! And we saw both! Granted, the star fish were on a billboard and the palm trees were the light up kind outside of a bar we drove by but the details aren't important . . .

It's about a twelve hour drive from Duluth to Louisville so we left late afternoon Thursday and after a nasty drive through some gross snow, time for sleep! Step 1: Freeze for about an hour under super thin blankets. Step 2: Get up and rummage through various drawers for an extra blanket that MUST be stowed somewhere. Step 3: Eye up Andrea's bed to see if she beat me to the extra blanket. Nope. Step 4: Determine the heat is off. Turn on heat in room. Step 5: An hour later, roast for the rest of the night since there is no temperature control aside from "heat on." On the bright side, I had a delicious hotel Belgian waffle for breakfast! Then on to the rest of the drive down to Louisville. Good company makes long rides go fast and I'd go for a long trip with the same group of people any day.

Louisville was warm when we arrived. Sort of. We didn't need jackets, anyway. We sent the other Minnesota van to pick up all the race packets and met them at the free pasta feed. Hardly anyone was there (okay, we were the ONLY people there for a while) so it was super low key and also delicious. After some threats from the other van to withhold our packets, it was back to the hotel to start obsessing about what to wear in the morning. The weather called for 29ish at the start, potentially warming up to 50. Come morning, I decided on my Northwoods T, running sleeves, and half tights. However, since I'm indecisive about dressing myself, I also stuffed a long sleeve and a tank top in my drop bag and brought a bag with of other clothes, just in case. This ended up to be good because after seeing the other Minnesota runners clad in shorts, I was convinced I'd be too hot in half tights and changed to . . . my running skirt! First race in my skirt!

We got to the start rather early, but that ended up being okay - allowing me to wander from van to building, trying to decide on what to wear. It also gave me the chance to exchange my shirt! I hate, hate, hate choosing a size for a race shirt ahead of time (I think I've mentioned this before). Since I actually love to wear my race shirts around and want them to fit me, it matters to me. My general rule of thumb is, if it's gender specific, then I want a medium, if it's uni-sex, then a small. The website seemed to indicate uni-sex so a small I ordered. Not so. My shirt was TINY! Crisis averted, though, I was able to change my shirt for a men's medium, which not only meant a good fit but also loose sleeves instead of tight sleeves so, happy.


So here is the Minnesota crew is at the start. All in shorts. Notice everyone else in hoodies, pants, hats, etc . . . Granted, my hands were frozen for the first couple of miles and I really should have worn my mittens for the first section. After that, though, I was quite comfortable. I kept my arm warmers on until mile.... ummmmmm...20ish? I actually have no idea. I could look it up, but I like that I didn't really know where I was mileage wise most of the time, so I'm not going to look.

The course was three different loops. First a 6ish mile loop, back to the start, then over to another loop, and then a long stem with a lollipop at the end. I knew where 2 miles to go was and I knew the tiny loop at the end of the stem was 3 miles (so they say, anyway. I don't actually believe them) before heading back along the stem and into the finish.

I'm happy with how I did here. It was a long course (33 miles) and a tough course and I finished in 5th woman and 6:57. I was in 3rd for women for the longest time but I let that 3 mile loop slow me down way too much. I felt strong at the end, though, and could hear runners coming up behind me during the last 3 or 4 miles and was determined to not let them get me. They didn't. My stomach mostly behaved for the race. It did start feeling a little oozy several times but I took an s-cap each time and it calmed back down. During that 3 mile loop section, I did start getting certifiably nauseous but started sucking on a ginger chew and it went away. I LOVE my ginger chews! I even had to eat a gel around one since it was past food time and I didn't want to quick chew what was left of the ginger but still really needed to eat. My knee was also fine during the race, though it was a bit pissed the following week from the sudden jump in long run mileage.

The course was very runnable, which was nice. Mostly single track but not technical so that you could blast downhills - lots of fun! The trail was canted quite a bit in places and, of course, mostly in the direction that does not agree with my minor leg length descrepencies but that ended up not being a problem. There was also a long section in that second loop that was ATV trail width with even footing and nothing too steep so that there was a lot of sustained running at a decent pace. I'm happy that it both felt good and didn't seem to make my wheels come off later.

I decided during this race some of what I already discovered at Wild Duluth last year. The reason my ultra times are so much slower then they ought to be (compared to my road times/who I keep up with on roads) is my muscles. I'm actually incredibly weak in a lot of places and I think the combination of distance and trails really brings that out. So my renewed big goal for the year is to focus on this. I have a routine that I do after every run and a longer one that I mostly do on days I don't run. I'll keep adding to these as I get stronger and as I find exercise that I like and that work. I am determined to go into September knowing that I did everything possible to have a super strong body. If you have a favorite move, feel free to share it with me be it core work, upper body, legs, whatever.

Here I am immediately post race:

I hardly even look tired. To me this indicates a couple of things. First off, I definitely could have gone harder and maybe should have but I'm okay with going conservative in Feburary. Second, I'm already getting stronger. Now, ignore the mud on the hand holding my finisher heart. I certainly did not take a nose dive less than a minute from the finish on the only stuck up tiny corner of rock to be found.

For a February race, I am pleased. I do have a lot more detail I could share about the race but it's been over a week and I refuse to let a race blog entry hold back other entries again!

Heat Wave! In Kentucky, anyway.

Things I need to pack for a 50K in Kentucky this weekend: shorts, running skirt?, t-shirt.

Things I don't need to pack: wool running socks, bun toasters, ice breakers running pants.

Awesome.

Don't get me wrong, I love winter and I enjoy running in the cold but I'm excited for some single track that isn't snow and/or ice covered. Though, word on the street is that it might be super muddy but at least it'll be warm. It'll also be nice to run without ten pounds of clothing on me. The high on Saturday fluctuates from the mid 40s to lower 50s so it's not going to be crazy hot but it'll definitely feel like a heat wave. Of course, with a starting temperature in the 30s, I'll still be bringing a wide variety of clothing to choose from come race morning :) Half the reason for having a drop bag is in case I want to switch up the layers I have on!

After twisting funny when landing in a mud hole this summer, resulting in a slightly torn meniscus, I'm feeling a bit paranoid about mud. However, a quick check on the race website updates me that the trail is wet but only a few muddy areas. Fabulous!

Flagging is pink, so I'm well used to looking for pink ribbons with the NMTC series!

I don't really feel like I have a race this weekend. I suspect it'll start to sink in when we start driving down there tomorrow. Or maybe if I get off my butt and go pack instead of writing a quick blog update . . .

Not quite frozen gizzard

It's only January and I already have two races done and another planned in just over two weeks. Crazy!

Last weekend was the Freeze Yer Gizzard Blizzard Run in International Falls. I think I've mentioned that I've wanted to do this race since high school but just hadn't gotten up there yet. They have a 5K and a 10K and they start them an hour apart so that it's feasible to do both.

The weather forecast had been promising super cold weather (below zero and then wind chill) but that got pushed off a couple of days and race morning was actually quite pleasant: 14 degrees when I checked the temperature to decide what to wear! As per usual, I brought every possible thing I might want to race in but I did an okay job of figuring out the layers. Spot on, actually, since I was warm but not too hot. Go me! The temperatures did drop by the second race but still, MUCH warmer than I originally thought. The main problem came with the two or three inches of snow that fell Friday/Friday night and hadn't really gotten plowed or packed down by race morning. Though, they DID make an effort to sand the shoulders we'd be running on. It didn't help at all, but the effort was nice. I did my warmup outside and quickly realized that it would not be a good racing day. Ah well, still fun, right?

Not so right. The 5K was very little fun, actually. The footing was just so horrible that there wasn't much rhythm to be found. Not much else to say, really! I found a good pace for a while and then lost my decent footing and slowed way down. I didn't really race at all and stayed content with just hanging out. I don't think I got too frustrated, just didn't try to fight the footing or push the pace. There seemed to be a lot of people in the race and they all seemed to be bopping by me then, though I managed to fight back and pass SOME people, at least. There was even a woman right in front of me heading into the finish and while I did speed up some, I decided it wasn't worth hurting myself to beat her since I still had another race coming. Of course, she ended up being third woman leaving me with fourth . . . but I did still get third in my age group so I guess I can't complain too much. I'm not telling you my time, though. If you want so bad to know, you can look it up! Let's just say that my 10K pace was faster. In fact, my marathon pace is generally faster. So. Moving on... :)

I finished the 5K and didn't hang around the finish much, just cheering for a couple friends who finished close by. Then I moved quickly back inside to keep moving and keep warm. I went with a group back to the cafeteria where the main area was (we're all contained in a community college, which is SUPER nice since it's nice and warm and spacious). I took off my top layers so they could dry out a bit but decided not to actually change layers since I wasn't too wet. Before I knew it, it was time to head back outside for the 10K start.

Brrrr. It sure seemed much colder this time around. And more windy. Suddenly, this didn't seem like a stellar idea, but there we were anyway. The first part was so much colder than I remember the 5K being. The wind was strong from our sides and had gotten much stronger since the 5K. My right hand was frozen. The temperature had also dropped some, but before long I had my jacket zipped part way down and everything was quite comfy, even after we turned back into the wind.

Overall, I really enjoyed the 10K so maybe I was just finally warmed up The footing seemed a TON better or else I had finally gotten a good hang of how to get through it. There was still loose snow but it was more packed or more of a type to get a grip on, I'm not sure. There were a decent number of people in the 10K (101 as it turns out. 201 in the 5K) but I was generally on my own for the race. I saw a one mile marker and then nothing until mile 4 and then nothing again until the end (though others saw regular mile markers, so I just missed them). For once, I actually kind of liked not knowing exactly where I was at. I hadn't taken a real good look at the map so I knew I was somewhere around halfway on the stretch I found mile 4 at and it was nice to find out I was further along than I thought. The last couple of miles were a bit less lonely as I had been steadily gaining on the woman in front of me and I passed her somewhere between miles 4 and 5.

Another thing that helped a lot in the 10K, especially by the last mile and a half, was that the 10Kers were not content to run down the coned off shoulder with had a few inches of gross loose snow the way the 5Kers were. No, no, instead they seemed to creep into the traffic lane and hey, if the people in front of me are doing it, it must be okay, right? There was about a mile stretch where we were moving back and forth from road to crappy shoulder when cars came by. By the last part, though, the road had two lanes coming our direction and the runners stayed in the lane the whole time. It was sooooooooo fabulous to have something solid to run on. I remember looking at the shoulder we had run on for the 5K and being both amused that EVERY runner was ignoring it and annoyed that we had to run through it for the 5K. And happy that the traffic seemed to hold no malice towards these runners forcing them over a lane. I was really feeling good at this point and was able to bring it in strong, despite being all by my lonesome. 3rd woman overall, 3rd in my age group (man, wasn't I supposed to leave some speedies behind when I turned 30?).

I hung around for a while at the finish this time but of course, at that point, I'm ready for more running! And getting cold FAST so I opted for warming down inside the community college. It's set up as a circle so four laps of the college is just over a mile. A mile of circles and weaving through crowds was about what I could handle, though, so I called it a day after that.

So I'm glad I went - it was a good race and I'd do it again. I saw a friend from high school (well, she went to International Falls but we were similar speeds all through middle/high school so became friend) and promptly spilled hot cider all over her . . . I also saw two other friends I wasn't expecting so that was fun, too. All in all, I recommend the trip. And remember - if you're heading up there, you might as well do both races!