8:19s  |  26.2 miles  |  42~48°F

Today I ran the 2013 Boston Marathon.  I completed it in 3:37:59 (8:19s).  Definitely not one of my faster marathons, but at least I got to finish!

I’m actually writing this entry on Sunday, April 21, 2013, and backdating it.  I’ve just gotten around to writing it, after a tumultuous week of news surrounding the tragic events that happened about an hour and ten minutes after I finished the marathon.  So some of the information in this entry may seem futuristic relative to the publication date.

Official Stats per BAA.org

Bib No. 5653 (Wave 1, Corral 6)

Splits:

Finish:

Unofficial Stats per my Garmin 610

The day started off with relatively ideal conditions.  It was mostly cloudy but the sun was peeking out.  It was cool but not too cold, with a forecast for the race to get up to about 56 degrees — optimal for me.  I was at the runner’s village with Elizabeth Corkum, who was also running it, set to pace her friend and running teammate Cip.  They weren’t able to rendezvous at the village because of poor cell phone signal and low cell battery, but eventually found themselves in the corral.  Elizabeth’s more remarkable stories of the day are here: Ode to Boston | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

I wasn’t feeling all that great this morning, which is generally a good thing for me in terms of racing because I tend to do fairly well when I feel bad in the morning.  It was mostly a less than comfortable feeling in my digestive system but nothing that really terrified me.  I wasn’t sure how I’d race today.  I had not really put much strategy into the race this time, relying mostly on my 2011 Boston Marathon experience when I ran 3:15:16 (7:27s).  I did not think I would achieve that level of performance this year; instead, I estimated I’d finish around a 3:25.

I ended up in Corral 6 in the first wave, which started at 10am.  My impromptu strategy this time was to do a bit of research: I recalled how fast these first miles leaving Hopkinton could be, even without effort, so I decided I would run slowly out of the gate to see what that might do for my later effort.  This included slapping kids’ hands on the right side of the course, which I thought would help to slow me down a bit.  In my first miles I was mostly in the mid-7:10s without much effort, with a couple of slowdowns when I took a bathroom break during the 4th mile and stopped to loosen my laces in the 5th mile after having an intensifying tingling sensation in my left foot.  The sensation didn’t relent so I decided I’d just see if I could deal with it while running and see if it would go away.  It eventually did — I think sometime during the 10th or 11th mile.  (I wondered if hydrating myself had any impact in the tingling going away because the loosened laces didn’t seem to help!)

My pace started to slow around the 8th mile, going into 7:20s territory and then quickly moving up past 7:30s up to an 8:00 for my 15th mile.  During this time, I ticked off one of my things to do : get a kiss from a Wellesley girl or two.  I found a spot where I thought I could get kissed on both cheeks by two girls.  I got one kiss and quickly left.  It was only after then that I realized that it was more the point to kiss a Wellesley girl than by kissed by one.  Darn!  Well, maybe I’ll try next time.

Once I ran 16 miles, I saw the game change for me.  In my most recent training runs, I’d been able to get my 16-mile runs down to close to two hours, and here I was hitting that just about on the button, just a few seconds to maybe a minute slower than that pace.  But from this point I realized that’s when things will get really tough with this race (what with the Newton Hills just ahead, plus the challenging last 10K), so I wasn’t expecting myself to hold to that pace, especially since my recent training had tapered too soon quite accidentally from being trapped in an unrelenting work schedule.  Sure enough, it was after this point that my splits changed from sub-8:00s to ultra-8:00s, ultra-9:00s, and even ultra-10:00s!  (There was one notable exception on the fast and exhilarating downhill off of Heartbreak Hill when I ran a 7:53.)

As far as the Newton Hills, the first one seemed the longest.  The next two are a bit of a blur, with the downhills of these three seeming quite long.  If I’d had more energy for these hills, I might have tried to shave off some time on these downhills.  The fourth and final hill, Heartbreak Hill, indeed starts at the traffic light with a little bump, and concludes at a curve where I think there’s another traffic light.  I was crawling along but didn’t stop.  It was really fun getting some energy back on the long downhill out of Heartbreak Hill.

The Citgo sign is a welcome sight implying that you’re really close to the finish.  You see it from a bit back then you don’t … and then you do.  This second time you see it is more promising.  However, there is a highway overpass of a very steep grade at this point in the race (steep to me at this point, that is!), so that’s to be remembered.  From 2011, I remembered how hard all of the remaining hills were to me but this time they were a little less difficult except for this one.  I was really drained for a lot of this 2013 race at the end.  Crawling along in the ultra-9:00s and 10:00s, I wanted to stop but kept myself motivated enough to put one foot in front of the other and by reminding myself I’d only be running about 18-20 minutes more.

Elizabeth’s boyfriend Chris was near the end of the course, so that was also a motivator for me.  He didn’t know exactly where he’d be so that was going to be a bit of a challenge for me to pick him out, so I didn’t lose too much energy trying to find him.  He was going to be positioned near the underpass inside the last mile — this underpass below Massachusetts Avenue was across the street from our hotel, The Eliot.  In the end, I missed Chris, and I continued on toward the Hereford turn and then to Boylston.

On Boylston, I picked up my pace just a bit, with my strategy being to sprint only once I hit the last cross-street, Exeter.  I came upon an older man running in front of me whose shirt claimed he was 60 or so, and not wanting him to beat me, I made sure to pick up the pace enough to get by him.  When I hit Exeter, I turned on the gas, and I ended up robo-sprinting through the finish line.

Since it was so helpful in 2011, I did the same this year and held the hands of some volunteers while I walked the intersection to get water.  I picked up water, Gatorade, a heatsheet, medal, and other nourishment, all moaning a bit with my calves really aching.  Once I accumulated all of my stuff, I decided to rest my legs a bit by stepping each one at a time on the lower rail of a security gate, with a volunteer making sure I was okay.  I was, though I was aching.  I then made my way over to the buses to get my bag, then off to the family reunion area.  At some point I called Chris to triangulate with him.  I decided to head over to his general area on Massachusetts and Commonwealth.

The route wasn’t as direct as it could be because of the road closures, so I hacked my way a bit in our hotel’s general direction.  I ended up being near the finish so I turned down I believe Exeter and ended up very near the finish line.  I was walking along the south part of the race, right in front of Lord & Taylor.  It was in front of Lord & Taylor that I encountered a disturbing mass of people, pretty much sealed in like sardines with almost no room to move.  The sidewalk was packed with about 3-6 rows of people watching, with only about two rows of people getting by near the wall of the store — and they were hardly moving.  We would take babysteps every few seconds.  I had two thoughts around this time: 1) if a bomb went off here it wouldn’t be pretty, and 2) why are there not police officers regulating the flow of people here?  It was definitely unsafe.  Where I was ended up being I believe diagonal from each of the bombs that were to go off minutes later.

Eventually I freed myself from the pedestrian traffic and made my way along Boylston.  Lots of “Congratulations!” were uttered to me as I’d walked from the family reunion area, and they continued even to this point.  I reached Hereford and all this time I’d been looking to see if I’d see Elizabeth and Cip finishing, but given what Chris had said about their time I figured it would still be a while.  I thought about turning down the west side of Hereford but there looked to be so many people, I didn’t really want to endure navigating another mass of people.  So I kept going along Boylston until I got to Massachusetts Ave., and I saw Chris waiting for me at Commonwealth.

We talked outside the hotel there at the corner for a bit.  Chris said Elizabeth and Cip had just passed by, and sure enough soon after we got simultaneous text messages alerting us that they’d finished.  It must have been three minutes later that we heard an enormous boom.  I only remember one boom, but Chris remembered two.  I looked to the police officers there who were regulating traffic and they seemed to look at each other, but we all carried on a moment later as if that-was-that.  While it did sound like an explosion, I didn’t know the city very well so I figured it must have been loud sound on a construction site or something.  It sounded like a dump truck hitting a pothole, which is a very loud sound.  However, it sounded about ten times louder than that.

Chris went off to grab some lunch and I went up to the hotel room.  Chris had left the TV on and I was watching The Talk on CBS and nourishing myself when suddenly breaking news came out.  That sound I’d heard indeed was an explosion.  In fact, it was at the marathon.  Early reports were of limbs.  It didn’t sit well.  I first thought it must have been some tragic explosion of an oxygen tank at a medical tent.  It wasn’t long before I realized it was something else.

Eventually I got a call from Elizabeth from Cip’s phone.  Elizabeth hadn’t been able to reach Chris and since her cell phone battery was dead she had to use her friend’s phone.  She said she had just finished about three minutes prior and had to run away.  She was definitely in a state of excitation and I remained calm and asked her to remain calm.  I figured it was all over — of course I didn’t know but I didn’t doubt that.  She explained that the route back to our hotel was cut off now, so she would go to Cip’s hotel near Boston Common (the other side of the finish line from us) where she could also recharge her phone.  Chris, who’d just gotten Elizabeth a burrito, was with me before he decided he’d see if he could walk over to her hotel to get her.  He did, and meanwhile I got out messages that I was safe to those I knew who knew I was running.  I did that nearly the entire time Chris was gone, when he came back with Elizabeth.

It is about there that my story ends.  The only eerie thing for me is that I was on Boylston minutes before the explosions, but I just don’t recall how long before.  I’m guessing it was about ten minutes before.  The next eerie thing — I described as “chilling” — happened to me two days later when news got out that they had footage of one of the bombers laying down a backpack … footage taken from Lord & Taylor.  When I heard Lord & Taylor mentioned, it hit me a bit since I’d been there.  I remembered how packed it was, how some people were standing inside the glass entrance presumably out of the crowds, and how empty the store seemed despite being, I believe, open.

I ended up fixating on the news, staying in bed all day Friday from about 6:50am until the capture of the second suspect late that night.  I was interested in the news.  I don’t think I was traumatized by the events, but the last two nights (Friday and Saturday) I’ve dreamt of bombings and even a bombing at a race.  I think that must be more from the impression of the news than the actual events, but I can’t be sure.  I’ve had some other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder but I don’t really think I exhibit the condition, just more a confluence of things in my life coming together around the same time as this.  We’ll have to see how this continues to unfold.

So that was much of my 2013 Boston Marathon experience.  Wild.  Marathoners in the last five months have been through a lot.  From the cancellation of the 2012 NYC Marathon and the bad blood toward marathoners Hurricane Sandy sponsored, to the bombings of the 2013 Boston Marathon and the support its marathoners got, such an apolitical activity as marathoning seems to have become political.  I’m hoping it’s only a blip in the history of marathoning and that marathoning can get back to its normalcy.  Before the bombings, marathoning had long had a symbolic value, but after these bombings its symbolic value has increased manifold.

To see photographs from my 2013 Boston Marathon, click here.

To read an article from the Times Ledger in which I was interviewed about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, click here.

For a second article appearing in the Times Ledger, along with some photographs I provided, click here.

Here are my unofficial results per my Garmin:

I really wasn’t sure what would happen in today’s race. Four weeks ago I ran the Atlantic City Marathon in 3:15:14, a time about 10 minutes faster than I had expected. Two weeks ago, I ran the NYC Replacement Marathon in 3:38 — it was actually an ultramarathon of 26.6 miles. Between then and today’s race, I did only two runs — a half-marathon training run and a 10k training run. Based on some prior history of running NYC then Philly with little training between them, I thought there was a good chance that my Philly would end up really slow. I surprised myself.

With the hope of pulling off a 3:25, I relaxed in the beginning of the race. I only had to run 7:49s to pull off that goal, so when I shot out of the gate running around a 6:40-6:50 without much effort, I was a bit surprised and knew I needed to calm down. I remembered seeing some portajohns Saturday and the course ran past them, so I hopped off the course and into a portable toilet. I lost maybe 30-45 seconds, managing a 7:28 first mile according to Garmin (I thought it was a 7:49??). Now without the urge to pee, I was comfortable and running, without pushing myself to go too fast. I remembered the course fairly well and knew there were places I could speed up, but I decided not to.

Instead, I thought I’d hold back until the hill around Mile 8 to turn it on and work. Just before then, I’d been stalking a City Coach runner, whom I’d picked out because of his singlet. Elizabeth trains with the City Coach team so their shirts are distinctive to me. I don’t know the team but I eventually caught him and introduced myself as a friend of Elizabeth’s. His name was Jeff. We chatted a bit (he was running with a guy named Jerry, so we became “Ben and Jerry”!) and I learned he was aiming for a 3:08. I knew I wasn’t going to achieve that today but he dismissed my statement as a lack of confidence. (It wasn’t a lack of confidence; it was a realistic estimate based on my training and history … a 3:08 would have been close to my PR and I wasn’t in that kind of shape.) I ran with Jeff and Jerry before charging up the hill around Mile 8, and I weathered it really well. Around Mile 10 or 11 (near the gel station) Jeff showed up in front of me out of nowhere! I caught up to him then went past him on one of my favorite downhills of the course. It wasn’t until near the half-marathon mark that Jeff passed me then I caught him and we talked as we tried to help Elizabeth (who was in town to watch her boyfriend also race) make ourselves more visible. She wasn’t where I had expected but Jeff and I stayed running together until eventually Elizabeth emerged near the cool old stone underpass on Kelly Drive, cheering us both on.

I ran with Jeff for a bit more. We were doing sub-7:00s at this point, which made me really happy yet I didn’t know how long I’d be able to sustain it. Another guy joined us, too, given our clip. However, inside the 17th mile, something changed for me. I was right there with Jeff when I decided it would be a good time to get some gel in me. Reaching into my pocket meant that I slowed just enough for Jeff to pull in front of me, and as I wrestled a bit with getting the gel into my mouth, Jeff was 90 feet or more ahead of me. My body wasn’t responding as much now to my impulses to catch Jeff, and sure enough I managed a whopping 7:22 in this mile. Whoa! I went from running about a 7:00 to a 7:22! I figured here was the shift in my race and maybe that I’d hit the wall.

Sure enough, my body was starting to slow in the 17th mile. My times started to climb but I knew I could get all the way out to Manayunk. I was pretty confident I could get out of Manayunk. I was even confident I could finish this race, though I wasn’t sure how much I would end up slowing. I remembered that the going out on Kelly Drive is long. Did it feel as long going back toward the finish line? I couldn’t remember but I figured it would feel long. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad.

With about 4 miles to go, I had a caffeinated gel. In fact, I had two — one 2x-caffeine Tangerine PowerGel and one raspberry Clif Shot of unknown caffeine level. I’ve avoided running with much of any caffeine since a hot summer run left me with a racing heart, which made me feel really weird and knocked me out of the training run. However, I was curious if I’d get a needed boost to the finish line with the caffeine. I didn’t have the heart palpitations, yet I did have some increase in speed. Or rather, when I wanted to turn it on a bit more and get to the finish line, my body output some increase in speed.

With 2 miles to go, I talked to a guy named John. John told me a secret about his race (he was running with a buddy’s number, I believe), and he said that people were calling him by the name on his bib rather than his name. We connected a bit and encouraged each other in keeping it going to the finish. Eventually I pulled ahead of him and he wished me well. And then the speed really started to pick up for me.

A girl in fluorescent running clothes rivaled me. She sped up much too soon for the finish, which is really hard to gauge in this race. I think I caught her, only to have her eventually pull ahead of me. I was really starting to charge to find the finish, with tears welling up in my eyes in a fit of emotion. Eventually I saw the 26-mile marker, which I wasn’t confident I’d see. I knew that after seeing that, it’s about 2 minutes until the finish. I found the finish and charged ahead. And then I finished. 3:16:02 — just shy of running a 3:15. If I didn’t have the pee break, I might have run in the 3:15 range, but honestly, the having-to-pee would have drained my concentration, and that early break from running actually may have helped me out a bit.

After the race, I saw Elizabeth’s boyfriend Chris, who pulled off his first ever sub-4:00 marathon, running about a 3:57. I saw Elizabeth, too, but then I was on my way back to my hotel. I noticed a limp in my right knee had started to develop, most likely delayed onset inflammation of some sort. At worst I feared it was a cartilage tear but I’m thinking that’s not it for now, and that the inflammation will go down soon enough. My guess right now is that it’s a bit of inflammation of the IT band since the pain is a bit on the lateral (“outside”) part of the knee.

I slept a lot of the train ride back to NYC. I’m pretty happy with my accomplishment of three marathons in four weeks, even if I didn’t do them as quickly as I had originally hoped. Training for them was extremely tough for me this year. I didn’t have the luck this year of consistent stand-in gigs, so I was hacking together a work schedule among different productions, meaning my sleep was erratic and my runs couldn’t always work out. Many times I just didn’t run, too defeated by the stress of early calltimes and extremely early risings, and too wiped out at the end of the day to do anything about it. This goal makes me long a bit more for training for a single marathon again, though quite honestly I need a bit of a break from running after this experience. Running was enjoyable to an extent, but I would do whatever I could at times to delay my going for a run. I think it was my body rebelling against the goals I’d set forth for myself. I also had a book come out in this time, and the erratic nature of promoting it also wore on me, as did general life pursuits. This huge running goal is largely behind me now, thank goodness.

And I did it!

So, after a quick amount of publicity mostly via Twitter, I ran the NYC Replacement Marathon, a marathon I put together to begin and run in Central Park. Actually, it was more of an ultramarathon if you ran the course I advised. I ran my longest race ever today, running 26.65 miles in 3:38:07 (8:11s). If I go by when I finished 26.2 miles, I ran a marathon in about 3:34 (8:10s).

Here are my results per my Garmin watch:

There are two parts to this story: the organization of it, and the actual race. As for the organization of it, I blogged pretty extensively about it on my news blog, where I put the primary information:

Click here to read the organizational information for the race.
Click here to read the wrap-up for the race.

The wrap-up link contains articles that came out in the Huffington Post and Associated Press, from which the story of the NYC Replacement Marathon was picked up by countless other media outlets. I even had a documentary shot of the experience that is on YouTube, and I did an internet radio interview on the experience. Whoa! Click the wrap-up link to watch and listen.

Here I’ll talk about the race. As we started we knew there would be a lot of runners in the park. However, probably none of us knew just how many would be in the park. So many people, including so many legions of foreigners stuck in town to run the marathon, flooded Central Park and were running in both directions. Basically, there was no room for bikes as runners took up the entire expanse of the roadway.

Very quickly I realized this would be tough, not so much for the large amount of people, but for the lack of runner support. No water stations or Gatorade in particular. I ran with a couple of my NYC Replacement Marathon starters until I could tell they were going to be faster than me and I couldn’t keep up, then I caught them to tell them where the restrooms were and headed off to that building. But then I saw some portajohns and went for them.

After I was done, I was by myself in the mass of people. I ran shirtless with “NYC Replacement Marathon” written in permanent marker on my chest, and that got some verbal attention which motivated me. What demotivated me was finding that quite a few of the park’s water fountains had little pressure or no water at all! There was no way I’d manage this marathon with no water; I knew of just one that worked after having tested it the prior day, but one water fountain would mean a miserable go.

So I used part of my race to chase down water fountains and drink when I got some water from them. As my race went on, lines developed at many of these fountains, which slowed me down a bit. Also what slowed me down — quite a bit — was the finish line area of the park, which was packed with people taking photos and congregating. I passed through that area five times today, and I was brought to a near standstill as I tried to get through the people.

I finished in 3:38, and I wasn’t really sure why I’d run this “race” so slowly. I wasn’t disappointed really — just curious why it took me so long, especially after having run the Atlantic City Marathon two weeks ago in 3:15:14. Here are some factors that I believe figured into my slower time today:

1. I ran 26.65 miles, not 26.2, so the 3:38 is not a marathon time but an ultramarathon time! Remember that, Ben!

2. I had to stop at water fountains to get water rather than run through water stations. This added minutes to my time as I stood in line at times to get what turned out to be only a trickle of water.

3. The finish line area was packed with so many people, sometimes I had to stop or walk to get through the people. I couldn’t maintain a faster pace.

4. I was underhydrated over the course of this race, and had I brought Gatorade, I would probably have been better hydrated and more energized.

5. I stopped for a quick bathroom break once.

6. There were a lot of people in the park running, though I don’t recall that really interfering with my stride or time.

7. I wasn’t really out to PR, and when I realized I wasn’t running superfast, I didn’t push myself to go faster.

8. I ran a 3:15 marathon two weeks prior!

9. The Central Park course of 4 loops plus a lower loop is pretty tough considering!

Those are some of the many factors that went into my race today. Running a 3:38 makes me wonder what I’ll run in Philadelphia. I did four runs between Atlantic City and NYC, and I want to run more than that between now in Philly. However, my body took a bit of a beating today so I don’t know when I’ll want to get back out to run!

Here are my unofficial Garmin stats, or click here if it looks funky:

The weather for today’s race was perfect.  The thermometer was hovering around 50 degrees, the skies were cloudless, and there wasn’t much of a wind on the Boardwalk where this race started.  I had forgotten how small this race is, which was quite a surprise to me — this was perhaps my smallest marathon ever!  Most of the people were there for the half-marathon which was run simultaneously.

As I was in the corral, I spied the 3:15 pacer.  I also spied the 3:35 pacer.  Where was the 3:25 pacer?  I asked 3:15 (Tony) and he said some others were going to split off and unofficially run 3:25.  I figured they were the people I’d be looking for because I couldn’t imagine doing a 3:15.  Without much mental prep or really any nerves, we were off and running not much later.

The AC Marathon is largely a flat course.  Where you hear that kind of thing, if you don’t know better you tend to think it’s entirely flat without a hill to speak of.  Well, that’s not true, as there are some on ramps that have a wee bit of a hillage to them but nothing that really taxes your body overly so.  Much of the first part of the race is pretty fun as you go on a winding path that takes on some highwayesque roadway.  In fact, during your second mile you’re actually in a tunnel and I lost signal on my Garmin.  When I emerged, my second mile beeped and it was a 7:44!  I’m not sure if that was right but I had been chatting with a runner during much of my time in that warm tunnel so I might have slowed.  However, I picked up speed again and as you can see from my stats, most of my early miles were sub-7:00s or in the low 7:00s.

Chatting with some runners about pace, a couple remarked that I was much too fast for aiming for a 3:20.  I realized this, but deep down I was experimenting with my current ability.  My training this month had been lighter than a taper, and largely inconsistent — not following very well my training schedule.  I was set in running what felt good then seeing where I tanked.  It came as a bit of a surprise that these same guys who warned me about my pace started to pull ahead of me … but eventually, I overtook them all!  I was a bit perplexed by this move on my part, which I thought would surely correct but I don’t think it ever did.  I maintained my fast pace for quite some time!

I entered back onto the Boardwalk and passed the finish line.  But what happened at that moment couldn’t have been timed better: I was passing the finish line just as the first-place runners for the half-marathon were finishing in what looked like a photo-finish sprint!  Wild!  I remarked to the runner who was running near me at the time.  I eventually passed him and wished him luck.

At the point, the AC Marathon gets a bit lonely.  It’s a monotonous, lonely jog to the turnaround point for the half-marathon … but it’s an even more monotonous and lonely jog past that point if you’re doing the full marathon!  The loneliness actually wasn’t that bad.  It was nice to see a bit of encouragement here and there from people on the Boardwalk, but too much attention would have drained me a bit.  I was prepared to run from the 8-mile mark where I reentered the Boardwalk to the 15-mile mark where I thought we’d turnaround.  However, I misinterpreted the map and we didn’t run all the way down the mile 15 on boards; instead, we turned off at some point around, when was it?, mile 13-ish?, and ended up running on the street!  That was a complete surprise and a bit mysterious to me.

I completed the half-marathon in 1:32 and change — I think I was on the Boardwalk but maybe I was on the streets.  It was during this stretch on the street that I was running solo for the whole time until I got to the turnaround at mile 15.  After the turnaround a guy caught me and passed me — he was aiming for a 3:05 and I’m betting he made that time easily given his clip.  After this long stretch and turnaround, we then turn off and head into suburban neighborhood streets.  I remember this area from the map of the course, and I remembered that it would take some time to get out of this maze.

Maze it was.  I actually got so twisted up in my head that I thought maybe the route had changed, but in hindsight I think all was there.  I started to realize I was actually doing pretty good when I started to double back over the course (it’s an out and back) and saw the fitness levels of some of the people.  I’d seen the 3:15 pace group during this time, though, too, and I could tell it was getting closer to me.  I needed to keep my pace up because with a 1:32 half, I figured there was a good chance I’d do somewhere around a 3:10 …

When I got out of the maze and back onto the street where the stretch began, the distance looked very daunting.  You could only see cones for days into the horizon, and I started to feel a bit demoralized.  I quickly refuted that thinking with comments like “I will!” and I pressed onward, trying to avoid thinking about the recession of cones.  Eventually, I could see lights from a cop car, and of course eventually I reached the place where I turn back onto the Boardwalk.

My pace was started to really lag.  Here I was trying to pace myself and get enough energy into my body from gels and the like but mainly just persist.  A great time was pretty much assured but just how great wasn’t clear to me, especially as my times drew above 7:00s and into the high 8:00s.  I remembered from the half I ran in AC in 2010 that the finish takes quite a bit of time to get to once you see it (you see the pier that is also a shopping mile from more than a mile away), so you get a bit impatient to finish.  I also knew that this year’s finish was past the shopping mall rather than before it.  I kept onward.

Eventually, the finish was within range.  I saw no “Mile 26″ marker, but I did feel another runner come up near me.  He sped up — so did I.  He sped up again — so did I.  Each time he sped up, I responded and held him off.  As I went into the chute toward the finish, we were both sprinting though I felt I’d pulled ahead of him solidly.  I wanted to go faster, but my calves held me back with cramping sensations!  I held off this runner, whom I talked to after we finished.  His name was Dan.  He finished 2 seconds after me but we had the same net time — and he ended up with the higher place than me.  What a great balance of power.  Afterward, I learned he PR’d by about 8 minutes; I was so impressed!

I came in 27th place, 26th among men (only one woman finished faster than me), and 13th in my age group.  I was pretty wasted at the end of this race and moaning a bit.  I was so much sore; I was more in agony if that makes any sense.  I leaned for a while, lay down for a while, … I took my time after learning I had more leeway with my hotel checkout.  And then I headed back.

I was really happy with my 3:15:14.  I eventually realized that the 3:15 pace group didn’t pass me, and then I learned from Dan (whom I saw as I was leaving) that he was part of the 3:15 group and noticed that it was off pace so he left the group.  Apparently the 3:15 pacer finished in nearly 3:17, which made me feel very sad for him.  According to Dan, the pacer had run something like a 2:50 in Chicago earlier in the month, so I’m guessing running nearly a 3:17 was a bit of a shock.  I just hope the guys running with him weren’t upset.

For the run, I had a lot of fuel in my system.  I used Seamless Web to track down some macaroni & cheese (really just pasta was cheese on top) and some garlic bread and seasoned fries for dinner after I realized I’d missed out on registering for the pasta dinner. (Note to future self: Register early! It’s not automatic!)  I had a bag of Gu Chomps just before the race and I may have had a bag about an hour prior (I can’t recall).  During I used some PowerGels without caffeine, though at some point in the second half I opted for some 1x caffeinated ones they were passing out.  I was getting pretty sick of these things, though, wanting real food later in the race.  For this race, I probably weighed about 178 lbs.  I don’t know what I weighed after but I had a lot of liquid during the race (I’d heard the wind dries you out faster) — but I probably still dropped around 8-10 lbs. during this race I imagine.

My legs held up for this race!  The main pain I felt was soreness in the front of my hips.  I got on compression socks for the rest of the day.  I ate at Applebee’s after while I waited for the train ride back to NYC by way of Philly.  Other than being a bit tired from running a marathon, I held up pretty well.

Dear Benjamin S Hauck,

This is to notify you that your entry into the 117th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013 has been accepted, provided that the information you submitted is accurate.

A Confirmation of Acceptance card will soon be mailed to you via US Postal Service mail.

In early April 2013, an official Number Pick-up Card and Welcome Booklet regarding the B.A.A. Boston Marathon and related race week activities will be mailed to you via US Postal Service first class mail. If you do not receive your Number Pick-up Card (required to claim number) and brochure by April 9, please contact our Registration Office at registration@baa.org. Registration related inquiries may also be directed to 508-435-6905.

Note that bib numbers will not be distributed on Race Day. Your travel arrangements should take into account picking up your number at the Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston Street, on Friday, April 12 from 2:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., or Saturday, April 13 or Sunday, April 14 from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Get the best hotel rates by using the Official Lodging form from Marathon Tours and Travel. For more information, email info@marathontours.com or call 617-242-7845.

JetBlue is proud to be the Official Airline of the Boston Marathon!

Travel to Boston on JetBlue and save money with a promotional travel code available on our travel and accommodations page.

For additional tourist information, please visit www.bostonusa.com

We look forward to seeing you in April! Best of luck in your training!

Sincerely,

Boston Athletic Association

The weather wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t that bad, either. It was cloudy and about 66 degrees at the start with 78% humidity. You could feel the humidity a slight bit but the effects of it would be to-be-determined. (The effects seemed minimal.) I didn’t wear my Garmin for stats, especially since I think my net time says it all. I had a 0x-caffeine PowerGel around 8:15am, then a 2x-caffeine PowerGel 20 minutes before my race with some water. I was in a good mood for this race. I just wanted to have fun, and I decided that my strategy would be different from prior years. My recommendation to myself in prior years would be to hold off a bit on the pace on the first 1/4, then for the second 1/4 when it’s uphill gun it. This year, I decided I’d just run as fast I can could (yet still a little conservatively since I couldn’t do 100% sprinting for that distance!).

I crossed the 1/2-mile mark just about 2:40, which set me up for a 5:20 finish. I still had gas in the tank though I could tell I was slowing a little, so I just pushed myself, saving some for the very end. A guy in a green shirt who started with me and who was running for a 5:30 after running a 5:45 last year was about 50 feet ahead of me for the second half of the race, which surprised me a bit but I couldn’t catch him. (He beat his expectations; I basically met mine.) As I approached the finish line, there’s surprisingly a nice amount of distance between seeing the time on the clock and actually finishing. I saw 5:07 and thought I might end up with a 5:20, but there’s a good 10 seconds to go after that! Strange. Fortunately this year no one got in my way as I powered to the finish.

5:30′s not that fast, but it’s respectable, especially because, yet again, I didn’t train specifically for this race and I continue to say I want to. It’s really hard to balance marathon training along with it, along with a grueling, unpredictable work schedule that has me up at extraordinarily early hours. I was dreaming that maybe next year, instead of really doing marathon training, I’ll focus on doing well in the shorter races. And maybe THAT will be my marathon training. Hey, it’s an idea. Might make the races even more exciting for me, and make me a bit more proud of my results. I think I still have a body that can turn out PRs. And I want the pride of doing that! We shall see!

Below are my unoffficial Garmin stats. I forgot to turn off my watch right after the race so the end time and true distance is compromised a little bit:

The weather was quite gorgeous though I didn’t quite get to notice it as I raced to get to the start line before the corrals closed. I set out on bike this morning to the race, but just before I left I found out that (again) my Garmin 610 discharged while it was charging so I took a few minutes to see how much juice I could get into it. I got into my corral with 30 seconds to spare before they were supposed to be closed! A bit hectic but probably a good thing so I didn’t stew impatiently for the start.

Suddenly, I was off. My first mile was a fast 6:22, which was exciting to see but implied it would be hard to beat my PR for this race (6:22s back in 2009 for a 25:29). I thought my second mile would be on that pace, and while it was a 6:25 that wasn’t so bad. However, mile 3 is the toughest of this course, and sure enough I lost a lot of my speed there. I ran 7:05 (ugh!) for my 3rd mile given all the hills, but I also felt that my body was slower, too, and I couldn’t get it going much faster. That feeling, plus the large number of men who were speeding past me even at my fastest, reduced my confidence to achieve a PR (not that I really believed I could today) which almost zapped my speed. I was able to push myself a bit more in the 4th mile (6:42), with an exciting sprint at the end when I was challenged by someone who met each little nudge I tried to do past him. I have no idea if I won or he won!

I did something not so great last night and it could have spelled disaster today but fortunately didn’t. I had a senna tea last night to help me this morning and it just didn’t work before I set out. During the race I felt a little instability there but it held back. Phew! I shouldn’t try that in the future. I did that because of all the junk I’d eaten in the last few days that I was still carrying. In fact, my weight pre-race ballooned to 180 lbs.! I was 177 after the race and bike home (though some of that weight might have been from treating myself to a Slurpee on the way back) but my eating has been ravenous and reckless of late and my weight is not where I want it to be right now.

6:38s weren’t all that thrilling to have done, but in writing this I realized that’s actually pretty cool. Not counting the 5th Avenue Miles, I’ve only done 3 previous races under 6:40s. My AG percentage was at 65.32% which is pretty good for me at this time of year considering my training.

I couldn’t help but think that also a drain on today’s speed was that I ran not one but TWO marathons last week! I never have done that before! Granted, they weren’t races but marathon-distance training runs, and I did them in 3:30ish, shaving off only 7 seconds in the second run. Those 26.2-mile runs with less than a week of rest between them probably did a number on my body in ways I don’t know (a small but significant number, I should think…), and they probably were a factor in my running 6:38s and not something faster. At least that’s what I was thinking when I couldn’t muster speed in the 3rd mile.

So, woohoo!

Here are my unofficial Garmin results, which imply I ran more around 6:33s rather than 6:40s:

This morning I did a quick measure of my prior record on this course (20:03). I resolved that I wanted to run a sub-20:00, which equated to sub-6:26s. Having only run once this week (a 10-miler) and only about 29 miles last week (after two 60+-mile weeks in a row), I figured I’d have some fitness in me but I did feel flabby and weaker. The question would be about my cardiovascular health in trying to go faster.

I decided to think this way about the race:

a) the last .1 mile would need to be run in about 45 seconds, which would probably feel fast
b) I should try to manage 6:26s or lower
c) I should avoid the temptation to go too fast in the beginning of the race
d) the first mile has some long inclines from what I remembered, so plan for those
e) the last mile of the race has some steep downhills from what I remembered, so take advantage of those
f) calculate the seconds you need to shave off in light of your prior miles in order to achieve your goal
g) and cut tangents

I tried all of that.

Tangents weren’t that important in this race–I hugged the curb and generally cut diagonals where I could.

The first mile I held back on my pace (it’s downhill from the beginning and the excitement can make you push your speed, only to encounter a steep uphill around the .5-mile mark and drain you), which allowed me better push up the hill (a trick I learned in my last 10K in Central Park).

My Garmin said my first mile was run in 6:33, which was a good sign for what I thought would be my slowest mile, but my slowest mile was actually my second mile, which showed me unnoticeably “sluggisher” and unable to really push my speed much, and which had some unfriendly uphill climbs at least two, maybe three times. (I lost about 5 seconds on the second mile.)

I took advantage of the downhills, but I found that I really couldn’t push myself much. Part of it was mental, brought on by my inexperience training these last couple weeks: I was relatively afraid of what sprinting a bit would mean to the rest of my race. I only gained about 4 seconds relative to my first mile, which surprised me because I thought I would end up with considerably more seconds banked here.

I did do the math. At one point I realized I needed to shave off 18 seconds to match my record, which seemed like just an insurmountable task for me at this pace unless I could capitalize on the hills. When I saw I wasn’t shaving off these seconds on them, I realized pretty close to the end of the race I wouldn’t achieve a PR. I pushed myself as best I could to the end, not even able to do my usual sprint finish (suggesting I put my all into this race). All in all, I think this ended up being my second-fastest 5K (I haven’t run many 5K races), though I may have run faster 5Ks inside longer races in my life.

Before the race, I warmed my legs up with a jog for about 5 blocks to the race start. After getting my bib and checking my baggage, I also stretched then ran a couple sprints up a steep park hill next to the start of the race. Things seemed pretty good in my legs, and I was happy to warm them up. The humidity didn’t seem to be too much of a factor, though it was more humid-feeling than I was expecting. I don’t recall the exact weather from my 2009 PR, but I do remember it as humid and cloudy, perhaps more humid than today was.

The prior day’s caffeine intake led to a very dehydrated body and dry mouth at the beginning of the race. Knowing this would be the case ahead of time, I took in some water right out of bed. I had a 2x caffeine PowerGel just before 7am, then about 10 minutes before the race I had an uncaffeinated PowerGel for some extra help. I took in a couple cups of water before the race and I felt fine. I wasn’t affected by the caffeinated PowerGel during this race (shallow breathing, heart palpitations, etc.), so that was a good thing, and my breathing was relatively measured (though I tried to quicken it to quicken my pace at times).

Anyway, shows to go ya. This race is a good measure of my fitness level and my marathon training goals, especially relative to my banner 2009 year. It implies what kind of focus I need in my next training, both nutritionally and physically. Specifically, I think I need to work some speedwork in more. I still wrestle with doing that, especially considering that I’ve fallen in love with LSD running (“long, slow distance running”). It quickened me for the Boomer’s Run to Breathe PR, but probably not enough for these shorter races. I need to really focus on the Fifth Avenue Mile, which is another favorite race of mine and where it would be incredible if I PR’d this year. Can I do it?

(And I don’t know how I did it!)

Here are my unofficial Garmin stats. I turned off my Garmin after the finish line.

There were some wonderful components going into today’s race. First, it was extraordinarily cool–65 degrees at the start, with the 87% humidity unnoticeable. Second, I was grumpy and tired and not in a good mood to race, which historically tends to say I’ll do well. I was also rested for two days after a 16-mile run in 98-degree heat at the worst, which may have toughened me up a bit.

I started out this race with pretty low expectations. I actually thought I might just jog this one and have fun with it. However, I ended up basically at the start line and my cardiovascular fitness seemed pretty good in the first mile, so I thought that maybe I should push myself. I also tried out a new strategy I’ve figured out on my long fun: to actually get excited when my brain presents me with issues about my run. I realized that I should get excited because when I’m sedentary, I’m not presented with running challenges, so running gets me to different mental places and challenges me to get by them.

My first mile was done in 6:32, and I only lost about a second in my second mile. In my third mile, which included Harlem Hill, I told myself to slow down around the pool area so that I could build up some energy to climb Harlem Hill a bit faster. It kinda worked: I slowed myself down and a lot of people passed me, and then when I hit the hill I tried to sprint a bit up it. I didn’t overtake many people and eventually lost some steam about halfway up it, but all in all that mile was done in 7:07, which was a positive surprise. A negative surprise was the next mile, which turned into a 7:25. I think that was because I didn’t have as much fight in me during that mile, but losing about 20 seconds (which I interpreted as 30 seconds) suggested to me I wasn’t going to have much speed the rest of the way.

However, I didn’t let that happen. I challenged myself to fight, and when I saw that I was crossing the 5-mile mark at 34:45, I figured that I might be able to finish a little above 41 minutes, which I knew would be incredible. I kept up the pressure on myself hard, trying to shave off footsteps and run smartly (because extra footsteps and lost tangents could mean a lot). Toward the end a man was challenging me and pulled ahead–I don’t remember if I caught him at the end. Why? Because a tall speedy guy directly challenged me and we fought to finish before each other. I felt him and myself lock into each other as we sprinted, and he was taller and stronger than me and lost me but it was thrilling. I crossed the finish line in my typical loss-of-breath/must-lose-shirt feeling, and I saw Jono and grasped his hand. I later thanked the guy who sprinted with me, and I thought I have have PR’d.

I had … if you don’t count longer races where I probably did a faster 10K. I am thrilled to drive down my Central Park 10K time, and to think that I did it without running as much mileage yet this training period and weighing just shy of 177 lbs. this morning, which is a lot heavier than I want to be. The temperature helped and the rest helped, but apart from those two factors, I am baffled that I could accomplish this fast of time at this state of my body. Will I ever run a sub-40:00 10K? I’m curious!

Here are my unofficial results from my Garmin:

Today’s running conditions were about the same as yesterday. The humidity was lower (65% rather than 93%) but still noticeable, and the temperature was just a degree cooler. It was also just about as sunny. The course was different, though–a 5-miler focused on the lower part of the park rather than the upper part. I believe it’s a faster course taken this way. I’m not absolutely sure, though, because in yesterday’s race Harlem Hill was in the mix though in the beginning, so it was run fast and you get the downhill. The 19 seconds I shaved off today might have been eaten up by Harlem Hill were I racing it today, which might actually be true because it took about 19 seconds longer to run the first mile yesterday than it did today. Today’s first mile was a 6:36.

Not that I was happy about being that fast out of the gate. I knew that was fast, but I also was experimenting to see how my body in its current state handled that kind of fast start. Sure enough, I lost some speed about where I thought I would–after the 3rd mile, which is hillier–but I also recovered after then, especially capitalizing on the downhills. I knocked out a final sprint from a long distance today, so much so that I couldn’t sustain the sprint completely (I saw Jono splitting the runners and called his name out but he was looking the other way). Whatever the case, my goal for today–to see if I could beat yesterday’s time over the same distance–was achieved. I even slapped hands with Mary Wittenberg, President of NYRR, after I finished.

My Age Grade Percentage disturbed me a bit yesterday given how low it is, but in comparing it with my prior years when I eventually did well in marathons I’m about where I was then. That calmed my mind again, yet it also gave me a bit of a fight, not wanting this year to race in that lower tier. I think that means speedwork or other kinds of fitness to boost my cardiovascular fitness.

Here are my unofficial stats per Garmin, which didn’t shut off until a few seconds after I finished:

It was sunny, humid, and a little warm (but not too warm) for this race. It was my first time running it (a marathon qualifier), and last year when I watched some friends running it it seemed fun. There were people then dressed in colorful costumes and today was the same but not as obviously. One of the colorful standouts passed me around the 3-mile mark, and I mustered enough speed to sprint past him at the finish line.

That sprint felt very fast and strong, and my first mile was fast despite Great Hill (somewhere around 6:30-6:55), but those were about the only great things to share about my accomplishment … other than that I was able to take on the challenge I made to myself when I saw I was running past the 4-mile mark at 29:00: to finish below 36 minutes. Between, I’ve been fitter and I have lots to go. Heck, my Age Grade Percentage was only 61.3%, which makes me feel I’m only mildly more fit than when I’m inactive! But I know I need patience to get back into running shape, so I have to be careful in how I think about my racing.

I really didn’t know what to expect for today’s race so that I finished doing 7:09s (my marathon pace some time ago!) felt not that bad. Also pulling off a couple sub-7:00s felt good. The humidity was also a factor yet I pushed on through it. Perhaps the secret to my success today was focusing on my breathing rather than the other runners–I did very measured breathing throughout most of the race, and even tried to pick up its pace in that last mile, a strategy that seemed to work.

Here are my Unofficial Garmin Stats:

I didn’t really realize the weather for today’s run until after I finished. It was gorgeous! The temperature was unnoticeable–somewhere in the upper 50s to low 60s–and the skies were clear and cloudless. While I tend to run better in temperatures about 5 to 10 degrees cooler than this, there was nothing to complain about because the weather didn’t seem to play a factor in my race.

I set out this morning thinking I’d hope to do 1:38, or at least a sub-1:40. Not that fast for me but it seemed about where my training was right now. Actually, I was a little slower in training but I figured the race would by its nature pick up my pace, which it did. But also what picked it up was the downhills! A lot of this race was slightly downhill or even explicitly downhill, and I told myself early on in this race to capitalize on the downhills …

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I started this race with a low-expectations mindset. I was doing it more for the fun of it, maybe even the obligation for 9+1, so it was a low-pressure situation. I realized soon after I started I had to pee, and while I could have held it, at the first mile I saw toilets and thought, what the heck. I did the same in the Surf City Marathon at the first mile, and it only consumed about a minute of time. Sure enough, it took me maybe a minute or two.

It was after then that I thought, Heck, let’s see if I can capitalize on the downhills. I used the first time as a way to catch up on some of the time I lost, and it wasn’t long before my average pace was something that was still ahead of what I thought I could do. I told myself to keep a steady pace, but these slight downhills were telling me, Go ahead, push it while you have it.

When I entered Prospect Park, I knew that this was an unknown territory for me. I’d never run it, only biked it, and while I remembered hills, I didn’t know where they’d be and I couldn’t recall how they’d be. It was the first half of my time in the park that was the toughest–and by “toughest” I mean that it wasn’t really that tough. Most of the hills at that point were unsurprising and very low grade. The second half was awesomely downhill.

Up this this point (that is, up to the 10K mark), I’d been running with a pins-and-needles sensation in my left foot. I figured this was because my shoe was probably tied too tightly, though nothing about it seemed extraordinarily tight. Whatever the case, my foot was presumably inflamed in the shoe and it felt as if I had a thick pancake underneath the ball of my foot on top of having the sensation. Just after the 10K mark I pulled over to loosen the laces on my shoe. I set out again only to pull off again because it hadn’t seemed to help, and I loosened the laces some more. It still didn’t seem to work, and I just carried on. I ran some wonderful downhills then and really picked up my pace while I was rolling down the hills.

It wasn’t until around mile 11 that the pins-and-needles sensation cleared. I could even feel it clearly suddenly! I had forgotten about it since the 10K. We were on Ocean Parkway now, a very long stretch of flat, generally slightly downhill roadway that takes you about 5.5 miles to Coney Island. I used numerous stoplights there as motivation to pick up my pace from one to another–nothing too much, but just something to keep me engaged. I was really measuring my breathing, trying to keep up with a guy in Vibrams just ahead of me whom I didn’t want to beat me. I was doing a pretty good job, though I didn’t pass him until about mile 12.

Fortunately I looked at the course map ahead of time, so I knew not to spaz when I hit the 13th mile marker. Usually .1 mile doesn’t seem like a lot, but the map had a couple turns and I knew there would probably be a ramp uphill. There was. I got up it, and the finish was just ahead, only so far away that I could basically do the kind of sprinting I tend to do on the 72nd Street Transverse in Central Park for races that finish there. When a challenger looked as if he was trying to finish in a sprint, I kicked it up another notch and was able to finish in a clearance with no other finishers. I remember slowing down minutely just before the mat, which if I could do over I would just for the sake of discipline. I was relieved that I did so well in this race, both timewise and pacewise, not to mention given my health in the last few days, which has felt dismal in light of what I’ve consumed while I stare at a computer screen doing the copyedit of my book. I have to say, it was nice to get out, even if I was up at 4:15am on 5 hours of sleep!

I consumed 2, 1x caffeine chocolate PowerGels about 10-15 minutes before the race, then had 1, 2x caffeine tangerine PowerGel at mile 9. I had some pretty great splits in this race, and my first mile could have been one of those but I intentionally held myself back after seeing how fast I was going. That was the last time I really held myself back this race!

P.S. I saw Ming!

Dear Benjamin,

Congratulations! You are now registered for Atlantic City Marathon. Please check the event’s official website for updates: http://www.acmarathon.org

Thank you for registering for the 2012 Atlantic City Marathon. Please visit acmarathon.org for your race day information. Please email us at acmarathon@jccatlantic.org with any questions.

Here is my confirmation: