4/18/2008: The day started early as our flight from New Orleans left at 6:30 a.m. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and were off. After a connection in Newark, NJ, we were in Boston. A quick shuttle from the airport and we arrived at the Hilton Back Bay. We decided to arrive a day earlier than last year… part of my plan to make this more of a vacation than a race. The plan worked. Getting around the exposition was considerably easier. I picked up my race packet and we did a little shopping. After a dinner at Legal Seafood, we were done for the night.
4/19/2008: We ate breakfast at the hotel and headed back to the exposition in order to do a little more shopping – still easy browsing as the rush of marathoners wouldn’t be arriving until later in the day. After dropping our purchases back in the room we started our Trolley tour of Boston. We did the Trolley tour last year (on Tuesday after the race), but the weather was so bad and I was so sore, we never got off the Trolley. For this year, I bought a two-day Trolley pass, so our plan was to start our sight seeing on Saturday and finish up on Tuesday. We spend some time at Faneuil Hall Market Place and walked a lot of the Freedom Trail. We decided to call it a day and headed back to the hotel. After a little break, we went back to Legal Seafood (my wife’s favorite). They were much busier than Friday night. Although I made reservations, we had to wait 45 minutes to get seated.
4/20/2008: I have two goals for this day – watch the USA Women’s Olympic Trials and rest. The Trials were awesome. I have to admit I didn’t know most of the runners – primarily Deena Kastor and Joan Benoit. I recognized a few other names from various Runners World articles, but I would be hard pressed to put a face with the name. The course was a multiple loop arrangement with one 8-mile loop and three 6-mile loops so we were able to see the runners several times (we were standing about ¼ mile from the finish line). As the runners came by the first time, there was one lady way out in front. I know who she is now, but I didn’t at the time, nor did anyone we were standing with. One spectator let Mitzie and I know she was from California (that really helped to narrow it down). I was curious to see if she could hold on. Laps two and three were much the same - except at the end of lap three; Deena had closed the gap and was charging hard. I couldn’t wait to see who came down the street in front the next time they passed us. A quick 30+ minutes passed and then came the tell tale sign the leader was coming – multiple police motorcycles. A few seconds later and I could see it was Deena way out in front… she had caught (and passed) her. After watching Magdalena lead the entire race, I was worried she had crashed and wouldn’t make the Team. Then we saw her well into second place, earning a spot on the USA Olympic Team. Blake Russell came in third, rounding out the Team. We walked back to the hotel and I began my preparations for the next day – laying out my clothes, getting my take-out bag ready, etc. I got to bed around 8:30 p.m.
4/21/2008: Race day. I woke up around 4:00 a.m. and looked out our window. The Hilton Back Bay is across the street from the Sheraton and our room looked down on the Sheraton’s flag poles. It was too dark to determine much about the weather, but the flags were laying down – a good sign. The previous year the wind was howling and the flags were just a whippin’. I left the room at about 5:30 a.m. to begin the approximately 1-mile walk to the buses that would take us to the starting area. I left the hotel with another runner (her first Boston). Someone told her the buses were 3+ miles away and suggested she take the subway. I assured her they were not nearly that far so we were off. We didn’t make the first round of buses and had to wait a few minutes for the second round of buses to load and head to Hopkinton. The ride seems to take forever but we eventually got there. I walked to the big tent they have set up at the Athlete’s Village and staked out my spot. I laid out my Mylar blanket, put on my disposable parka and took a brief nap.
At about 9:20 a.m., I took off a few of my layers, put on some fresh socks and headed to the starting line. Last year I used the bag drop process and found it to be a disorganized mess. I stood for 45 minutes in the wind and cold and I had no intention to make that mistake again. I decided to just "donate" the extra layers I wore at the Athlete’s Village. My plan this year was to have Mitzie meet me at the family area and bring dry clothes with her. About half way to the starting line there was a mini village where there were banks of portable toilets. At that point, the start was about 20 minutes away, but I decided to risk missing the start and get in line. Good decision. I still made the start and would have run into trouble had I not made one more pit stop.
<I made it to my corral and had to wait a few minutes for the start. The clouds began to break and the sun was coming out – perfect weather. I decided to enjoy the race this year and pay attention to the experience. I had two goals: run the entire course – no walking and be able to complete our sightseeing on Tuesday (lots of walking). I had already qualified for Boston’09 at Rocket City, so that wasn’t a consideration. I was amazed at how much I missed the year before. Because of the conditions I guess I was in survival mode, but I found myself running the course with absolutely no recollection of going through it the year before. All I remembered was the start, the Wellesley College part (quite deafening), and the misery at the finish.
Well, almost 3 ½ hours from the start, I crossed the finish line. I didn’t stop to walk once, I even ran through the water stops and I wasn’t terribly sore, so finishing our tour the next day looked promising (we did)! I ran with my cell phone, and after receiving my Finisher’s Medal, I called Mitzie to let her know I was heading to the reunion area. We arrived there the same time and I put on my dry clothes and we headed back to the hotel. I’ll be back next year, and my plan (as of now) is to spend the next few months working on my 5k/10k speed and then train to run a fast Boston. I don’t have any intention to run another marathon between now and then, so if I want to be back in 2010, my best chance is to run fast enough at Boston ’09 to qualify. I hope to see some fellow Pacers there next year.
© Terry Lawhead 1 Finish Line 2 USA Women’s Marathon Olympic Trials Starting Corral 3 Trials Leader For Laps 1, 2, & 3 4 Trials Chase Pack 5 Joan Samuelson 6 Deena In The Lead 7 Trials 2nd Place Finisher 8 Trials 3rd Place Finisher 9 Boston Marathon Men’s Winner 10 Boston Marathon Mens’ 2nd Place 11 Boston Marathon Women’s 1st and 2nd Place 12 Lance Armstrong ¼ Mile From Finish 13 Me ¼ Mile From Finish |
