Boston Marathon 2019

I packed for every weather scenario. My suitcase contained plastic baggies for my feet, throw away sneakers for athletes village, long tights, capris, shorts, tank tops, tee shirts, long sleeve, fleece vest, light vest, light jacket, full-on waterproof/wind proof jacket, gloves, gloves with rubber gloves over the top, hand warmers, Glide, Vaseline, garbage bags, heat sheets from past marathons, blanket, long throw away pants, sweatshirt, and the list goes on. This year I was prepared or so I thought.

We left Utica at 9:45 am and decided to skip getting off at Hopkinton opting instead to exit at 13 for Newton where we stopped for lunch at Morse Tavern. We arrived at Morse for a 2pm lunch of salad with grilled salmon. The dressing was a bit spicy for eating the weekend of a marathon but it was good so I’d suffer, or not.

The drive from Newton into Boston was easy. We got back on the main roads and avoided the marathon route traffic.

The Boston Park Plaza Hotel on Arlington turned out to be the ideal location. Everyone was very accommodating, even when we asked to change rooms because the first room was so small, there were no drawers for our clothes. Dinner was right around the corner from the hotel at Da Vinci’s, 6:15 pm. We walked a bit, scoped out the area, took photos, found the restaurant, enjoyed a wonderful meal.

Sunday morning was perfect for a shake out run. There was a lot of talk about the expo being crowded, running out of celebration jackets in the smaller sizes, etc. I wanted to get to the expo as early as possible to have the opportunity of buying what I wanted in the size needed so I hurried out the door at 6:45 am for a 2 mile run to the Charles river. It was my usual stop and start kind of running, taking photos and just enjoying Boston. I found our restaurant for Sunday night (75 Chestnut), then ran to the Public Garden for a visit with my friends the ducks. I see them every year all decked out in some fancy outfits. The Gardens were beautiful with cherry blossoms bountiful on the trees. Runners and walkers everywhere.

Back at the hotel, ate an apple, bath, and waited for Ted who was working out in the Lynx Fitness Center downstairs. We left for breakfast at 8:45 am. Egg white omelet with mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and cheddar cheese, absolutely delicious oven roasted potatoes and dry rye toast. It was a bit of a fight getting a microwave in the room to nuke my sweet potato but we did get one. So back to the room to quickly heat the potato for later eating around 12:30pm. Sated and ready to start an exciting day! *In my history of 30 marathons, there has only been 1 that I have not been able to eat a sweet potato the day before. I have made it my superstitious ritual of eating 1/2 to 3/4 of a fresh sweet potato before a long run/race.

Boylston Street was only a block from the hotel. The weather was cool but not uncomfortable. Easy into the expo as we didn’t have a bag (left my purse in the hotel) so we went through the “fast lane – no bags”. We were in and now we went up, up, up the floors for bib numbers, shirts, and bags. Then we went down to the expo where I was lucky enough to snag one of the last size small jackets. YAY! I bought way too much this year: shorts, shirt, sports bra, calf sleeves, capris. All worth it. It’s Boston!

We walked back to the hotel for 12:30 pm and Ted got ready to take advantage of the nice day to go for a bike ride. It looked like a small window for riding on Monday as the rain was heading towards us from Texas. He left and I went to Maggiano’s for pasta with broccoli and grilled shrimp. I thought carbohydrate loading at lunch time might be better than at dinner. Trying to avoid that bloated feeling.

Had a Starbucks coffee, went back to the room to try on my new clothes as well as sort out my running attire for Monday. Checking the weather every hour and every hour it changed.

We went to dinner at 75 Chestnut. A very cute place off of Charles Street past the Public Garden and Boston Common. Dinner was a small Boston bib lettuce salad with strawberries and goat cheese and a small plate of garden pasta with marinara peas, mushrooms. The size was perfect given the night before a race. Nothing worse than going to bed on a full stomach when you know it’s going to be difficult to relax due to nerves.

I think I ate perfectly leading into this year’s Boston Marathon. Didn’t over stuff and balanced carbs with protein and greens. Once back to the room, I was ready to fight my demons and close my eyes at 10pm. *When we returned to the room by 8:30 pm, I drank OSMO pre-hydration drink. I think that helped Monday to avoid cramping up in the heat.

RACE DAY

Of course it was a restless night. Up about 3 times drinking water and worrying. I woke before the alarm at 5:45 am. Took a 5-Hour Energy drink to get my system moving and watched the weather as a storm moved in, violently hitting the streets of Boston at 7:15am. Ted left to go the gym again as I paced back and forth until finally deciding to start putting on all the layers of clothing. It was raining and about 57 degrees when I headed to the buses.

*5:45 am 5-Hour Energy. 6:40 am ½ bagel with small amount of peanut butter. 7:30 am Clif Bar. Left room at 7:50 am for the buses.

Running attire: Sports bra, tank top, skort, Injinji socks with calf sleeves (not compression), Koala Clip to hold phone on my back with the straps of the sports bra, my belt pouch for running fuel. Glide under sports bra. Ran in my Hoka Cliftons but wore throw away sneakers with baggies over my socks to Athlete’s Village. Covered with a sweat shirt, sweat pants, clear garbage bag, rain poncho. Carried a blanket with me, ½ bottle of water, and a banana. Had arm warmers but didn’t need them. Had gloves but didn’t need them.

We arrived at Athletes Village a little later than usual, around 9:35 am. I ate ½ my banana while on the bus at 9:15 am. The porto loo lines were long. I stood waiting for 45 minutes and ended up changing my sneakers in line. It had stopped raining and warmed up slightly. I tossed the sweatshirt and pants, all rain gear and just held onto the blanket to walk to the starting line. Only had time for that one trip to the porto loo.

It was chilly waiting for the race to start but it warmed up quick and within the first mile I was comfortable. I thought I would take a risk and go out at a pace my body wanted to run. By 8 miles the sun was shining and it warmed right up. Humidity was high and I was uncomfortable. I drank at every water station and poured water on my head, down my chest, and on my wrists. Feeling worse at 10 miles but each time I tried to slow my pace, it didn’t feel good. I just couldn’t find the right rhythm.

I ate 2 chomps at 5K point. I had a electrolyte gel (SIS Go Energy) at 5 ½ miles, took a Maurten gel at 11 miles, SIS Electrolyte with 75mg caffeine at 16, then a 25mg caffeine Clif gel at 20. Started drinking Gatorade at 13 mile water stations so it was a few sips of Gatorade then water at all water stations after 13 miles. Started walking through water stations at 13 miles. It was a struggle. I knew the hills were not going to go well. It was a walk-run fest up those hills. A lot of people were walking, asking volunteers for Advil, people were cramping, one man fell on a sign at mile 21. I don’t think anyone planned on the heat and the sun. It was supposed to start raining again around 1pm which is why I believed I could chance going out faster than at a safe pace because the tailwind (SSW/SW) plus cooling temps and rain coming into Boston would work in my favor. That didn’t happen. In fact, it didn’t start to rain until I crossed the finish line.

I tried to keep going. Just didn’t have it.

I tried to stay in the middle of the road where I wouldn’t be influenced by walkers on the side of the road but I fell to the side and walked. I asked myself why I couldn’t keep going. I felt tired all over. I walked a bit coming into Cleveland Circle and usually that is my favorite downhill portion of the course. I saw the Citgo sign and remember thinking I should be feeling happier but I knew it was still a long way to go feeling the way I did. I walked a bit more up Hereford then struggled to keep it going to the finish line where I kept thinking “Keep running. Go for under 4 hours, you can do it.” I did it. I ran 3:59:38.

My Garmin mile splits were as follows:

1 – 10 miles: 8:35, 8:29, 8:38, 8:19, 8:36, 8:29, 8:25, 8:33, 8:34, 8:45,

11 – 20 miles: 8:54, 8:49, 9:13, 9:30, 10:00, 8:55, 9:37, 10:03, 8:55, 9:45,

21 – 26 miles: 10:17, 9:29, 9:10, 9:08, 9:32, 9:38.

I BQ’d for 2020 but won’t use this time. I’ll use my CIM BQ of 3:53 to register and try to improve on that with either Wineglass in October or Indianapolis Monumental in November. I want to train hard to better seed myself for next year.

Stats: Net time was 3:59:38, Overall: 16752/26632. Gender: 6418/11970. Div(F55-59): 213/828. I’m not completely unhappy with my results as I wanted under 4 hours. Got it, not by much, but I got it.

9^th consecutive Boston Marathon. 30^th Marathon since 2010.

Some after marathon photos:

Beer offered to runners as we arrived back to our hotel

Didn’t plan on getting this little trophy! One nasty sunburn.

It was a little windy after cleaning up and heading out for a celebration with Ted. We enjoyed a glass of wine at “Eataly” (in the Prudential building) then walked around trying to find a spot that wasn’t outrageously crowded. Landed at Grill 23. I just LOVED my post race meal of Wheatberry Rissotto!