The 2017 Boston Marathon weekend was full of fun,
excitement, and so much pain but ended up in great joy and this will recap my
exciting weekend adventure. Before I get
into that I am beyond blessed for all the support I received from so many
people before and after this race.
Running for most of my life was always this solitude thing I did trying
to continually hit splits and end up disappointed if I didn’t run to my
potential. To finish my race and have so
many people reach out to me I can’t express in words how it made me feel. I am so lucky to have such an amazing support
crew for my running career and I will continue to give back to all of you in
any way I can to thank you.
Kelly and I decided many months ago it would be a great idea
to bring my daughter Chloe on this adventure to the Boston Marathon so she can
meet family along the way! Welp bringing
a 3 month with you on an 8 hour car ride to Boston and all the stuff you need
to bring for her is quite overwhelming (Duh!).
Our car was literally packed with stuff, we made many sketchy stops
along the way for diaper and outfit changes but we made it! I arrived in Boston around 2pm on Sunday and
it was a million degrees out and I was already stressing a bit. Still hadn’t gotten my packet, wanted to get
in a shake-out run, and still hadn’t checked into hotel. Ugh, not how I wanted to feel 20 hours out
from my race. Finally got my packet and
went for a shakeout run around 4pm(Why?), it was about 85 degrees out and I
felt absolutely terrible the entire time.
Awesome, grabbed dinner at an authentic Boston Restaurant, Cheesecake
Factory and then got to bed earlyish.
My 2017 Boston at least had me less stressed in the morning
since I had done it before, and I had a bunch of teammates all running too
which helped so much race morning. Thom,
Chris and I grabbed a Falls Road bus together and off we went. We got to the village and had a meetup spot
which was so helpful for my usual pre-race anxiety. Having 10 of us hanging around together just
talking and joking around kept my mind off the race and kept me focused to the
fun of why I do this(Running is fun). We
also got a pretty awesome team photo that I know I’ll love for many years to
come. Finally off we went, Conrad and I
linked up and headed to Wave 1 Corral 1.
Which has it perks because the bathroom line was so short, and then we
saw some people warming up in a circle and said “Hey let’s do that”. Jogged around for a bit and then followed
Graham’s advice and got in the back of Corral 1 with Conrad and let everyone
else cram to the front to get as close to the line as they could. I finally started feeling relaxed about 5
minutes out and thought maybe this could be my day and then the gun went off.
I’ll start by saying, Yes it was a warm day but you will
find no excuses for my performance from the heat in here. I could have PR’ed today and will not use 74
degrees and no shade as an excuse for blowing up in Newton, there are plenty of
reasons I can point to. As we started
off Conrad, Jason and I grouped up and started passing people by the dozens. I very much forgot how downhill the first
couple of miles are, and the pace just felt easy, we settled into 5:45 for the
first mile alright cool. A couple more 5:45’s
and Conrad and I were through the 5k in 17:52(same as Chicago in 2015!), I felt
much better though. Our 4th
mile ended up dropping to 5:31 and I bid Conrad adieu and started dropping back
a bit. It was warmer out and I was
taking in so much fluid, so I tried to focus on that. Four cups about each aid station, 1 Gatorade,
1 water to drink and 2 to pour on me.
Around 5 miles Wayne Blas my old co-worker pulls up alongside me. I was like what are you doing back here and he
informed me that he was perfectly on pace and what was I doing? To be quite honest I had no clue, I didn’t
have a Marathon Pace anymore I was just running. So I hopped on with him and we ran 5-10
together coming through 10 in 57:47 or so.
Until I let him go and went back to running my race.
I took my first GU and had about 4 chewable salt tablets by
mile 10(so clutch I had these, definitely helped me with cramping), at this
point I was just finding packs of runners and leeching on to them which is
something I rarely do. Hopped onto a
pack around mile 10 and just stuck to the back of them from 10-12 until we hit
the Co-ed’s at Wellesley. I decided it
was time to ditch my hat, I hate wearing a hat, and so I tossed it up to the
young co-eds and let them fight for the honor of catching it. (Editor’s note: No one caught it and they
were most likely completely grossed out by it).
So much energy here and I rolled through the half in 1:16 (which if you
asked me before the race that would have been perfect, but why did it feel
terrible. Oh because I ran a bunch of 5:45’s
for the first 5 miles then a bunch of 6’s for the next 8 and still haven’t
settled into a pace. I was quite woke,
but alas onward I went knowing the last of my downhill miles were in front of
me.
Around 14 my usual left hamstring tendonitis started acting
up and I started cramping up. No big
deal I have these salt tablets for the cramping, oops dropped those on the
ground, and I have this Advil I brought with me on the run for my
hamstring. Oh wait that was in the
pocket in my hat I threw to the girls.
FML. I had one burst of energy as
we rolled downhill around 15 but for the most part miles 14-20 I was in the
darkest of places. The first Newton hill
decimated me and I reacted with nothing as runners gearing up for this part of
the race just destroyed me. My splits
kept creeping higher and higher, my hamstring was torn up. It was Chicago all over again. As I reached 20 I had mentally thrown in the
towel, I came across at 2:00:02, 2 seconds slower than Chicago and I still had
to crest Heartbreak Hill. I was done,
2:45 would be a miracle at this point I thought. My 21st mile was 6:48 and as I hit
Brookline I thought of what I would tell people and what excuses I would
use. Hamstring was hurt, it was hot, and
training went poorly. Then all of a
sudden the narrative changed.
We have all been there staring at a friend’s Marathon splits
seeing them consistently stay even paced or even get faster dreading the moment
that they hit the wall and their splits go up 20-30 seconds for the next
5k. We know that usually at that point
there is no coming back from that.
Rarely does someone have a bad 1-2 5k’s in a row and turn it around and with
the mental state I was in on Monday I doubted I would buck the trend. But in Brookline it all changed, I saw this
pretty hilarious sign and got a pretty loud cheer as I passed through a group
of Boston College kids and then in that moment I took my hands and tried to get
the crowd to make some noise. “Are you
not entertained?”, I wish I shouted. And
instantly they all reacted to me and I felt a surge of energy. I started dropping my pace from 6:40 down to
6:20, and then to sub 6:00. Every time I
felt down or about to let up I either did the Hulk Hogan hand to the ear or
raised the roof and got tons of energy back.
I was doing what you were always told, use the crowd’s energy to get you
to the finish line and it was working. Miles 16-21 were all 6:20 and above
while miles 22-26 were all 6:20 and under with a sub 6 in there. I had changed the Chicago narrative, instead
of giving up and quitting and throwing in the towel I turned it around. My second ever sub 2:40 marathon was within
grasp, maybe even a sub 2:39. I was
passing people left and right from mile 21 on, no one passed me (first time
ever) and I must have caught 50-70 people.
As I turned onto Boylston I was tired but I was so proud of myself. I kept raising the roof and getting people to
cheer. I had entered the darkest of
places, had given up but then I didn’t quit.
I think a lot of that toughness came from JFK and HAT. Two days when I have suffered like never before
but never quit once. I crossed the line
in 2:39:18 and watched as several runners who I have never beaten before come
in after me. I missed my pre-race goal
Sub 2:37:53 and Top 150 but when I found out I was 171st place
overall I knew that I had run tough on a day when lots of people suffered. 2:39 normally barely cracks top 500.
Splits (pace per mile) for the day
5k – 5:46
10k – 5:45
15k – 5:53
20k – 6:02
25k – 6:05
30k – 6:21
35k – 6:32
40k – 6:10
It’s a very different post-race recap I am writing today if
I continued to let my pace climb upwards after 35k.
As I said earlier, I don’t blame the heat or my hamstring or
any of that for not running a PR in Boston.
I wrote that I felt a little unprepared and I meant it and the reason I
said it was because I did no Marathon Specific pace work.
That Strava link is the perfect example of someone who never
was able to get comfortable into a pace.
The entire day I just ran what I thought was comfortable at the time having
no idea how long I could hold it, I didn’t care I was just running. Specificity is preached as key for Marathons
and looking back I know I could have used some on this day. That said I am proud of myself and more than
that I am proud of my Falls Road Teammates.
We had good and bad days all over the place but every single person was
a champion and crossed the Boston Marathon finish line. Some people suffered a lot, but so many
teammates were out there looking out for each other. Offering words of encouragement, and trying
to get others to run with them or just making sure they were ok. That is why in the end Falls Road Racing Team
is more than a team but a family. And
while we were all running in Boston hundreds of our friends/family were home giving us
time out of their lives to support us by watching our dots go across a map or
writing encouraging messages to us on social media or via text. I no longer ever feel like I am doing this
running thing alone, and on top of that I had my sister, wife, mom and my baby
girl all greet me at the finish line.
Despite not being able to really stand, there was no better feeling then
holding my daughter after finishing the Boston Marathon. She will remember none of this but I will
never forget.
Below as always are some fun pictures of my journey, I hope
you enjoyed.
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