Boston Marathon Race Report

Monday’s Boston Marathon went down in history as one of the hottest and toughest in the 125 year history of the race. The field as a whole was the fastest ever after the improved entry process allowed the fastest qualifiers into the race first. With my 2:51:03 qualifying time from Miami a year ago I was given bib number 1154, the 1054^th number assigned to the amateurs in order of qualifying time.

I arrived at the Athlete’s Village early, around 7:15am to be safe and in doing so actually got to drive right up to Hopkinton High School to be dropped off by my mom. Despite my early arrival there were already hundreds of other runners milling about preparing for the race. It was by no means “hot” at 7:15, but I was perfectly comfortable in just a short sleeved shirt. Around 8:45 I got up from the spot I had secured in the shade for some water. In the sun the heat hit me like a ton of bricks and by the time I had made my way down to my corral at 9:30 the temperature had officially reached 80 degrees at the start.

At the start I walked into another Clemson runner who lives in the same apartment complex as me. He told me that he had been hoping to go under 2:40 and still wanted to run a fast time despite the heat. I had no intention of going out very fast at all but my hopes of beating him seemed to be dashed by hearing about some of his training. My workouts had been pointing towards a 2:45 for me in good conditions, but that was before an untimely foot injury 12 days before the race that left me unable to run until race day. Under good conditions, though, I would have likely still been able to go under 2:50. With the extreme heat I made my goal to simply finish running down Boylston Street.

The gun sounded and we were off! 30 seconds later I crossed the actual start line and moved along in the swarm of people. My first mile came by in 6:21 followed by the second in 6:14. Two more sub-6:30 miles followed but I already knew it was going to be a long day. My HR was already above 180, and in mile 5 it would hit its highest point of the day at 192 bpm. My sustainable half-marathon HR is 182 and I was running well above that already. To add to the chaos, the first aid station at mile 2 was well before there was any conceivable separation between athletes. Ordinarily that wouldn’t matter as I’m sure very few would take much water 2 miles into a marathon when there is water for every mile thereafter, but this year everybody knew they badly needed to hydrate as much as they possibly could.

Heading through Ashland, Framingham, and Natick was probably the most fun I’ve had during a race as there were thousands lining the streets in the town centers and many little kids wanting high-fives as I ran by. Seeing as I was already off the pace for going under my PR I enjoyed every second of it and gave as many people high-fives as I possibly could. I kept a steady pace in the upper-6s for each mile through mile 12. At the infamous Wellesley College I briefly stopped to give a good friend of mine a kiss and a hug and then stopped again, for maybe 2 seconds, to kiss another one of the Wellesley women. I’m pretty sure I high-fived almost all of the rest of them as well.

I hit halfway in downtown Wellesley in 1:29:13 and almost immediately felt my motivation, ability, and will to keep going hard fade away. I took a brief walking break through the aid station shortly after the 14 mile mark, and a much longer one just a mile later. I knew I had to get to the finish though, so I rolled down the top of my tri kit and kept running. Through the Newton hills I averaged just over 8 minute miles with a few intermittent walk breaks when I felt my legs cramping up. The final 10 miles felt like eternity but midway through them I hit the top of Heartbreak Hill and powered down the other side high-fiving most of the Boston College students who were out lining the course. Miles 22 and 23 dropped back below 8 minutes but I felt like I was flying, and is probably a contributing factor to why my quads hurt more than usual after the race.

The final 5k was a struggle in the heat and I couldn’t prevent my legs from cramping several times but I eventually rounded the final turn onto Boylston Street and “kicked” my way to the finish with a final half mile well under 7 minute pace! My final time was 3:17:09, 1:49 faster than my first marathon time, but I had survived the heat to run the second half about 3 minutes better here than I had run for the second half of my first marathon.

After the finish I ran into a different Clemson runner who graduated a year or two ago. He had similarly struggled to the finish in 3:13. Finally, after picking up my clothes bag, I met another runner I knew from races back home in Connecticut – a 2:45 finisher in Boston last year, who had made his way to a 3:13 in the heat. After having passed the Clemson runner I was with at the start around mile 22, I found out that he wilted in over 5 minutes behind me in 3:22. Needless to say, the heat seriously impacted everyone’s times!

Next up is the USAT Collegiate National Championship on Saturday. It will be a challenge to race hard again just 5 days after the hardest marathon I’ve endured, but nonetheless I plan on doing my best. More importantly, my Clemson team is looking strong in its quest for our first ever top-10 coed team finish! Go Tri Tigers!