Bill Gasparrini's Boston Marathon Race report- 

Qualifying was definitely the hardest part of the Boston Marathon.  That involved four months of training with long runs and then trying as hard as possible for 3:45 in New Orleans with cramping legs the whole second half and a strong need to walk repeatedly or rest after 14 miles or so.  The trip to Boston with my brother Joe and sister Laura and her husband and son Paul and Joseph was fun, but the expo was so crowded with people that it was not really possible to even walk around comfortably.  It was nerve racking the last few days before the race because of the warning e-mails from BAA (Boston Athletic Association), suggesting we'd be hit with a Nor' Easter during the race.  That is the equivalent of a Winter hurricane in the North East, and they said we'd have 20 to 30 miles per hour head winds the whole race with gusts up to 50 mph and 3 to 5 inches of rain during the race, and cold weather with wind chill down to 25 degrees.  They expected some parts of the course to be flooded and since it is a one-way course we'd be headed into the wind all day.  They advised wearing lots of warm clothes in layers, even mittens, jackets, and face masks.  That meant shopping and it was hard to find that stuff because the winter season was really over already.  Getting the right outfit together and planning for the morning hours of waiting for the race to start was the second hardest part of the marathon (after qualifying).  I wore two long sleeved under armor shirts, a rain jacket with ventilation to stay cool, and tights.  I carried gloves and mittens, hats including a water proof baseball cap and two kinds of hats to cover my ears, and three pairs of dry socks in case of my feet getting wet.  The night before the race we watched CNN and Jim Cantore was near Boston giving grim predictions about severe weather.  In fact, the storm was as bad as predicted in New York and in CT where my mom lives.  Her basement flooded and when I got back from the trip we had to throw out dozens of garbage bags full of ruined and wet things from her house.  It really was the worst storm in 50 years she lived in that house.

    We did not shut the drapes in our hotel room the night before the race.  Although we were near Boston our room had a wall of windows looking out on a wooded area.  All night it was pouring down rain and the wind was howling, bending some trees over and even breaking some branches or trees.  I actually slept OK, but my brother was up all night, looking out at the storm.  My Aunt Vin told me she stayed up late praying that the weather wouldn't be too bad for the race.  I had bought a cheap folding chair, cheap umbrella, and cheap poncho that I planned to throw away at the race start.  I was lucky that I could load right on the bus when I got there and at the race start I could see the field was muddy so I stayed on the parking lot, sitting in my chair, covered with my poncho, and holding up my umbrella.  I had brought dry socks and running shoes for the race.  Just before it started I met a girl who also had brought dry shoes.  She offered to hold my poncho out like a tent while I sat in my chair and changed my socks and shoes.  Then I did the same for her.  We loaded our wet shoes in our numbered gear bags and turned them in to the volunteers so we could pick them up after the race.  That worked out great.  I walked to the race start still wearing my poncho and carrying my umbrella.  They had rest rooms there with no real waiting lines.  I had enough salt tabs and gus for the whole race.  Just as the race was about to start it actually stopped raining and I threw away my poncho and umbrella.  I didn't need the gloves or hat most of the time, but when I needed them I wore them.  The rest of the time I kept them in my jacket pockets.  I was never too cold or too hot, and it barely drizzled  during the race.  Most of  the time it was cloudy and cool but not actually raining.  My feet never got wet and I didn't get any blisters.  I was not planning to rush, since it was not a race where I was trying to qualify, and I just wanted to enjoy it.  Initially I had hoped to make nine minute miles and to finish under four hours.  Then with the weather predictions I revised that to a five hour goal time.  Joe and Laura and Joseph and Paul waited at the nine mile mark (and again at the finish) with dry sneakers and socks for me.  As I ran for the first 9 miles I kept looking forward to seeing them and it was great to have a goal like that.  We had driven part of the course the day before in pouring rain and picked out meeting spots.  I did not need the dry sneakers at the nine mile mark.  I stopped to visit with them for a minute there and had a drink and some salt tabs.  About fifty feet after I left them I realized I had handed Laura my GPS and didn't get it back.  I tried to run back to get it but in the first ten seconds about 50 people bumped into me so I gave up on that idea and ran the rest of the way without it.  Although I always carry it in races and training runs I really didn't miss it that much.  Since everyone near me was about my same pace it was easy to just pace myself off the crowd.  I never noticed myself passing many people but I must have, because I started out at number 16,605 and finished at number 11 thousand and something.  We had water handed to us every mile and gatorade and I always took one or both.  The volunteers were great.

   The whole race itself was really pleasant for me.  It was partly downhill at first, and when I got to the uphill parts they didn't seem that bad.  After New Orleans I only had seven weeks to get ready for Boston and I did all of my long training runs going up and down Mount Biloxi for hill repeats so I was really ready for "heartbreak hill."  It was not heartbreaking at all.  I never saw Phillip although I looked for him at the start.  I figured he'd be in my corral and near the front of it, but I couldn't find him there.  I had a few brief conversations with runners in the corral and next to me on the race, but never found a running partner or group that stuck together for a long time like we had in New Orleans with the pace group.  Of course the most amazing part of the whole race was the fan support.  It was sparse on the first half but really thick from then on.  In many places fans were lined up two or three people thick on each side of the road.  With 23,000 runners there was just about always someone running within two or three feet of you in front, in back and on each side.  Usually the runners were 6 to ten people thick across the road.  As we got about five hundred yards from Wellesely college near the 17 mile mark we could hear the crowd cheering like a massive roaring sound.  When we got there hundreds of college coeds were lined up along the barricades with signs saying "Free Kiss" or "Please kiss me."  Many runners obliged them but I didn't feel like slowing down there.  In other places we could run for a mile or more past a constant stream of people with their hands sticking out over the barricades to give runners a high five.  Again I did not want to do that.  Near mile 24 it struck me that I had never heard so much cheering for so long and that it was a great experience to have that many fans shouting.  It was like the end of the iron man race but it lasted much longer and it produced a great second wind experience or runner's high.  It felt like the cheering crowds were helping to carry us along.  We had clocks at every five k mark and at the halfway point, so I could see all along that I was doing OK.  When I got to about 18 miles I realized that if I kept up at least a ten minute pace the rest of the time I could make it in under 4 hours and meet my original goal, so I tried to keep up a steady pace.  At the end the clock said 3:57, and I knew it took me about two minutes to get to the starting line.  I was thrilled.  I later learned my official finish time was 3:55 something, and I averaged 8:59.  The winner was the same Kenyan as last year and he took about seven minutes longer that last year because of the bad weather.  By that standard I figured I nearly matched my qualifying time from New Orleans.  Paul met me first at the finish line and had more warm clothes for me.  Joe and Joseph and Laura showed up right after Paul.  It was really helpful to have their support all weekend for the marathon.  I couldn't be more pleased with the way it all went.  The threats of bad weather were worrisome before the storm but ended up just making it a better adventure when the weather turned out to be not quite as bad as predicted.  I am certainly looking forward to doing Boston again next year and New York in November.