Boston Marathon 2012 Race Report - It's getting hot in here, so bring on the Wellesley girls !

Cliff notes: 1:48:34/1:45:47 = 3:34:21 for a ~ 3 min. neg. split in a very warm race that started in the high 70s and reached high 80s. While I started with #7681 with a 3:15:14 qualifying time, I finished 3636 overall with 3:34...this gives an idea of how bad the conditions were. If you are not interested in reading a novel, just scroll down and enjoy the pictures, most of which were taken while running during the race.

Pre-Race Weekend
I flew on Friday from California and spent the weekend in Boston to recover from the jet lag. I spent a lot of time with my friend and former student Pok, who drove me around and treated me like royalty. On Saturday morning I went to the expo to pick up my bib and bag. I took a few pictures and watched the video of the course.

I also ran into Stevie Ray Lopez at the Adidas shop. We chatted for a while, and it was fun seeing a familiar face in this mass of humanity. 

With SRL at the Adidas shop

In the afternoon, Pok drove me around and we visited the finish line.

We also found some interesting statues near the finish line, which were the perfect allegory for the race to come - those who started as tortoises might finish ahead of many hares...

We then drove the course on Saturday afternoon, to get a better idea of what to expect. Some warning signs were already posted:

Heat Warning Signs on the course

 After dinner with Pok, I had a few beers with Tony, Steve, his wife Gina, Rachel, and Holly but went back early since I got tired from the jet lag. On Sunday, I had brunch with Pok, chilled in my room in the afternoon and had dinner with Steve B., his wife, and other virtual friends from RWOL.

Pre-Race Strategy

Early during the weekend, the weather forecast for the race turned out to be bad - start in the mid 70s, quickly climbing into 80s with no cloud cover. Once the forecast stabilized, I threw the towel on the idea of trying to get a time close to my "A"-goal time (3:05). I ran Chicago in 2008 when it reached temperatures in the 80s, and I have a horrific recollection of the late stages of the race, when I death marched and experienced chills and dizziness, the early signs of heat exhaustion/stroke. I did not want to repeat the experience, so I decided to back off. With my family waiting for me, I got scared of the heat, and thought that it would be too stupid to die or finish in the medical tent trying to run a time that would probably not even be a PR. But backing off by how much? I also did not want to stay for over 4 hours on the course, baking under the sun. Ultimately I decided to pace by heart rate and to try to stay around 160 bpm, given that my marathon pace HR is around 164. Who knew what pace that would correspond to...

Pre-Race morning

After less than optimal sleep I met friends from the 3:20 thread at the Soldiers and Sailors monument in Boston Commons.

We then boarded the bus for the ride to Hopkinton, and hung around under the tent at Athlete Village. Ron (ESG) brought a tarp, and we stayed there under the shade, relaxing before the start. 

Local Carboloading

Walter (NACN), me, James (FB), and Ron (ESG)

 Since I was in corral 8, I got separated from the group once they started to call wave 1. Just before checking my bag in the bus, I made the last minute decision to take my camera with me. I wasn't going to try for a fast run, so why not try to take as many pictures as I could? I made a last port-a-john stop on my way to the corrals, and then walked what seemed to be a long walk to my corral. It really felt hot in the start corral, baking under the sun and surrounded by so many people. Just standing, my heart rate was 10-20 bpm higher than normal in decent temperatures.

Baking under the sun in corral 8

The Race

And off we started. Miles 1-4 were probably the most difficult for me. I tried to stay close to 160 bpm, but I saw most people in corrals 8-9 flying by and passing me. I scratched my head thinking that many of these people were starting too fast for the conditions and would pay the price later on. 

Flying down -- too fast - the downhill at the start

 It was also depressing to see my pace slip after the early downhills and I had problems finding a good rhythm in the early rollers. I only started to feel comfortable at maybe mile 4-5, and only after starting to douse myself with water at every aid station, or whenever a spectator would give me a cup of water.
Shortly after mile 4, I saw this guy juggling - after looking on Twitter, I found that his name is Thomas Gounley and he made it all the way juggling in 3:52 !

The Meat House Joggler

 Miles 5 and 6 sights and autoportrait:

Starting from mile 7 I really started to feel better - the topography of the course was more gentle, and I started to pass people who were walking and who had numbers in the 3000-6000's. I got into a groove, "feeling" the correct pace-effort without having to look at my HR monitor. Someone had a stereo blasting Nelly "It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes", which made me chuckle. I high-fived a few kids on the road.

At mile 8 or 9 I felt an emotional surge. I usually experience these only during marathon races, and in the past only during the later parts of the race. These are usually associated with thinking of a member of my family, and they push me to the edge of crying while at the same time having emotions of joy, and with difficulties to breathe at the end of the episode. These only last for a few seconds, but I got worried that because I experienced it so early in the course, it meant that I would blow up early on. Fortunately it wouldn't be the case.

Passing Mile 9

Some interesting sights in these miles, like passing the Team Hoyt:

The Hoyt team...Respect.

 At mile 10 or 11 I got passed by a few runners from wave 2, but continued to stay truth to my heart rate strategy. Interestingly the pace seemed to accelerate while keeping the heart rate around 160. It also felt slightly less hot during that part of the race. The thermometer might not have shown it, but maybe I got better at cooling myself down. 

Passing Mile 10 in Natick

Misting Station in Natick

Around Mile 11 - notice the runners like #8239 who passed me earlier and are now walking

Before mile 12, I heard a loud noise further down the road and knew I was approaching Wellesley College and the scream tunnel.

When I reached the scream tunnel, I got amazed to see all the students lining up with all sorts of funny signs:

 This was my slowest mile (8:22) but probably the most fun, as I kissed and hugged 10 or 12 students (I lost count). I got pictures for only four of them but that segment contributed to making me feel way better about the race and I started to really soak the atmosphere.

I went faster the next mile (7:53), either because of the visual stimulation of the scream tunnel or because of the kissing breaks (much more fun than Galloway walking breaks....). I cruised down the next couple of miles, knowing that the Newton hills would be coming soon.  

Reaching the Half after Wellesley College

Passing Mile 15

Water Station before Mile 14

 I felt relieved when I reached mile 16 and the first of the Newton hills, as I knew I was in good shape to attack them. I continued to douse myself every half mile but kept a consistent pace on these hills.

Mile 16 marker in Newton

First of the four Newton Hills

I encouraged the spectators to give me support by pumping up my arms while going through the hills. Many of them responded by chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A" - looking at my shirt (and easier than to pronounce my name, I guess !). Mile 16 and 17 went well, with the strong support from the crowds and the regular hosing.

Passing Mile 17 in Newton

Refreshing fire hydrant in Newton

 At that point a lot of people were walking the hills or death marching, and unfortunately, also saw a few who were aided by medical staff, who obviously paid the price for their overenthusiastic start. 

Passing Mile 18 - Everyone here seems to be in trouble....

After mile 18, I unfortunately could no longer take pictures, as the camera battery died. I tried several times to resuscitate it, but with no success.

I had a blast going through those hills, passing many walkers and plugging in at a regular pace. I wasn't sandbagging the pace, since the HR climbed in the 165-170 on the hills, but my strategy of reducing my effort early on paid dividends on these hills. At Mile 21, I finally reached heartbreak hill. At the bottom of the hill, I dedicated the climb to Flo, who currently climbs her own mountain and fights her own battle with disease. My pace dipped to 8:15, as I tried to stay relaxed, passed a large number of runners who were walking or shuffling, but I really had to zigzag to avoid some of the runners who would suddenly stop in the middle of the hill.  

After cresting Heartbreak hill, I reached Boston College, where the kids got crazy seeing my USA jersey. I high-5'ed countless number of students, and stopped doing it when my left hand started to hurt and when I almost lost my wedding ring. I looked for beer as I thought they would offer me some but could not find any. Mile 22 was the fastest, aided by the generous downhill. Then the pace stabilized since it got flat and I started to feel some muscle fatigue on the left quad and IT band. At that point I felt that there was no point pushing too hard, since I would not break 3:30 anyway, and this would only make recovery harder. So I decide to enjoy the crowds even more, and ran most of the time close to the spectators, encouraging them to chant "U-S-A" by raising my arms, and high 5'ing entire rows of spectators. Many of them responded and were also offering wet towels, ice, or water.  Around mile 23, I had another emotional surge, thinking of my boys at home. It did not last long, but made me feel like crying again. I then saw the Citgo sign far in sight and that it meant that the end was getting closer.

Despite the muscle fatigue that I started to feel, I smiled ecstatically during the last two miles, knowing that I was on my way to finishing my first Boston. Before turning into Boylston, I removed my visor and sunglasses to get better finish pictures. I encouraged spectators for support by raising my arms during the entire segment on Boylston. I ran faster without even thinking about it and felt like a rock star, the spectators chanting "U-S-A" when they were seeing my jersey. 

One of my best finishes ever, not for reaching a particular finish time, but for the emotions associated with it. Four years ago in 2008 I finished my first marathon, and while at the expo, I saw several runners wearing the Boston Marathon jacket. At the time, I thought this would never happen to me and that running Boston was out of reach. This was not my best time by far, but certainly one of my best race experiences. 

Here are the splits and HR data- thanks for reading.

              Mile       Pace         Heart Rate

1	8:04	158
2	8:08	161
3	8:19	159
4	8:10	160
5	8:19	163
6	8:17	159
7	8:17	157
8	8:17	159
9	8:12	158
10	8:12	160
11	8:06	160
12	7:59	156
13	8:22	159
14	7:53	161
15	8:02	160
16	7:49	158
17	8:02	162
18	8:00	162
19	8:06	159
20	8:11	158
21	8:15	163
22	7:48	163
23	8:02	158
24	8:05	159
25	8:01	158
26	7:59	162
27	(+0.49) 7:13	172

Skagit Flats Marathon: 3:15:14...close but no BQ-5 cigar !

 

The decision

Last February I was training for the Napa Valley Marathon in hope of qualifying for the Boston Marathon when the BAA threw me a curve ball by announcing the new registration procedures. Basically if you did not have a qualifying time lower than 5 minutes, your hopes of registering would be slim. I qualified at Napa Valley, with a time of 3:18:52 (race report), but with a little bit more than one minute of cushion, this meant that my hopes of registering for 2012 would have be to be revised. So I decided to sign up for a marathon that would take place the week-end before the registration week, on 9/11. I chose Skagit Flats in Washington Sate, because the course is flat, the weather usually good, and staying on the left coast meant less travel and no jet lag.

The training

I trained throughout the summer using a training plan from McMillan and averaged about 60mpw. Most of my weeks were above 60 miles, with one down week at 43 when I was vacationing in Hawaii. The cycle did not go smoothly initially. I dragged a minor foot injury throughout the training cycle. This problem started in June after a race and an interval workout using Saucony Kinvaras, and the issue progressively moved from the foot to the right ankle. It did not prevent my training, but I felt limited on some of the runs because of this. This issue was somehow offset by the great weather we had during the summer, with temps usually in the upper 50s and low 60s in contrast to most of the country. During August, I started to feel the benefit of the training. My tempo pace dropped by 5-10s, and I had a great steady-state workout late August when I ran a 14 miler with 9 miles at steady state closed to 7:05. My fast finish long runs averaged about 7:24-7:25 min/mi, which meant that this was the pace that I would shoot for.

Pre-race

I flew to Seattle on Friday, and drove to Burlington 80 miles north. The weather for the race was not optimal - high temps around 80s, but these usually do not come until the afternoon, so high 60's-low 70's would be expected during the race. I checked in on Friday night at the hotel, and stocked up on banana and gatorade. The next morning I drove the course to get a feeling of it, and to also run 20 minutes on it, so that I have a better idea of what to expect for the temperatures. The course was nice, bucolic and rural and completely flat. Not much spectators to expect, but that's OK. However it would likely be a warm day as there was no shade on the course, since the race was run on country roads in open fields. 

In the afternoon I went to packet pick-up, and talked to Terry Sentinella the race director. Great guy, who just ran Badwater this year. On the parking lot, I spotted some marathon maniacs car - including this one, who apparently belonged to Bob Dolphin, an 80+ year old man who keeps on running marathons ! After packet pick-up, I spent the afternoon at the hotel trying to get as much rest as possible. 

No doubt, I am in Maniacs country...

 I woke up around 5am, drank one last carboforce bottle and ate a muffin, showered, checked out of the hotel and headed to the high school for the start of the race. I hung around school, used the facilities in the locker room and took a picture in front of the school bell. 

For this race I decided to wear a USA singlet as a modest tribute to the victims of 9/11. 

45 minutes before the start, at the high school bell...

 Near the start, I met Stevie Ray Lopez and Luv Pre from the forum, it was nice to talk just before the start. I dumped my sweater 5 minutes before the start, and at 8am sharp we were up and running.

 

The race

The first few miles went well. However after mile 3 I started to have issues sustaining my goal pace of 7:25. It was an out and back course, and once the course reached open fields, I faced a significant head wind on the roads going west. I felt I had to work harder to maintain 7:27-7:28 than what I used to do in training because of the 5-10 mph headwind. The HR data showed that since I averaged ~ 167 for the early miles, and in training I would hit these paces at 160-164. So I definitely had to put more work than expected on the first half... but I kept thinking that things would be easier on the way back because of the tail wind. A few pictures of the course are posted here, which were taken the day before when I drove the course, but the weather conditions were identical.

Mile ~2/24 (Pulver Road)

Mile ~2.5/23.5 ?

 Past mile 6 we lost the half marathoners who turned around, and the crowd got definitely more spread out. Around mile 6 I saw Betsy (EatDrinkRunWoman), who was directing traffic, but she did not see me. 

Near Mile 9/17 (D'Arcy Road)

At about mile 11 I saw Bob Dolphin, 80+ years old who, having started at 5am was on his way back and was running marathon #400+ ! Inspirational...I ended up passing him around mile 15, encouraging him when I passed him.  

Mile 13 was the turnaround, and at that point I benefited from the tailwind. Unfortunately, I could now feel the heat, as I was no longer cooled by the head wind and the temperatures were ~ 70+ with no trees, no shade, and no cloud cover whatsoever.  

At the turnaround, mile 13

I saw SRL and Luv Pre on my way back, they were probably 5-7 minutes behind me at that point - I appreciated the shout-out from Stevie, especially since he can pronounce my name correctly ! 

I was able to pick up the pace a little bit but I felt that if I pushed too hard, I might have bonked or cramped. Whenever I slowed down at the aid stations, I could feel my hamstring tightening up, which told me that I was close to the limit. After mile 14-16 I started to pass many runners - probably 15-20 and did not get passed by anyone. I saw several of them death marching, probably because they started too fast or succumbed to the heat. I dumped water over my head at every water station, which I think helped cool me down. 

Miles 18-21 were around farms, and I got some companions around there, a few flies that kept flying around me probably smelling the GU and wanting some....Around mile 20 I saw EDRW again, and her significant other Weegee, who ran a few seconds with me and got me sprayed with mist and refreshed. They gave me a mental boost by encouraging me.

At Mile 21, feeling good but not great

I was planning to try and run harder after mile 22, but I felt that I was already to close to max effort by that time and got scared to blow up with the heat or cramp up. I picked up the pace significantly in miles 25-26 (7:11, 7:07) but at that point it was too late to regain the time lost in the first half because of the head wind. Interestingly I felt limited during the last 2 miles not by the legs but by the breathing, which became harder and harder, almost to the point of a side stitch, and I felt out of breath when trying to accelerate in the last 1.2 miles. 

I saw the clock in the last 0.1 mile, entering the stadium and realized I couldn't beat 3:15 by then. I still ran as fast as possible on the track, trying to get as much time on the clock as possible, despite knowing that 3:15 was out of reach:

At the finish, trying to garner as much time as possible...

One thing that got me during the race is that my Garmin measured short, and I estimated my time based on the Garmin splits, so by the time I figured I was off-pace it was too late. I am not sure I could have run much faster anyway...

I still negative split the course - based on my calculations, the "real" first 13.1 miles took 1:38:00, the last 1:37:14. Overall I am really happy with the effort. I think I was in shape for sub-3:15, but the conditions weren't optimal for racing. I did not blow up in the second half, compared to many runners I passed after mile 14, which is a great satisfaction. Despite not reaching my A-goal, I was extremely satisfied with the race and being able to beat my personal best by 3min 40s. Here are the detailed splits and HR data:

 Mile      Time              Heart Rate

1            07:23.7            189

2            07:27.1            174

3            07:23.1            165

4            07:27.3            167

5            07:28.4            167

6            07:27.0            166

7            07:27.0            167

8            07:27.9            166

9            07:24.8            167

10          07:28.8            167

11          07:29.1            166

12          07:26.0            165

13          07:21.6            164

14          07:24.5            166

15          07:27.4            165

16          07:27.8            164

17          07:31.3            167

18          07:24.1            173

19          07:24.3            168

20          07:24.2            170

21          07:25.9            171

22          07:22.0            172

23          07:26.3            171

24          07:20.7            173

25          07:17.4            175

26          07:11.4            177

0.35     (6:51 pace)        179

After the race, really happy with the 3min40s PR...