Monday, April 18, 2011
6:00am - dropped off to take train to downtown Boston.
6:45am - arrive to Boston Commons to stand in line to get on bus.
Stood in line for about an hour.
7:45am - Got on bus to take me to the starting line in Hopkinton.
There were a lot of buses.
Athlete's Village - Hopkinton, MA
Waited at the Athlete's Village for about an hour and a half before it was time to start the race, which was about how much time it took me to stand in two lines for the port-a-potties.
Elite Runners
The Kenyan's - a Kenyan has won the Boston Marathon for the past 20 years. The overall winner was a Kenyan with a race time of 2:03. Wow!
The lead pack
Me at mile 17...I am on the right in the orange shirt.
At this point in the race, I know I wasn't going to make my goal time of 3:35:00...I also knew I probably wouldn't even beat my time of 3:38:28. So I tried to relax and just enjoy the race. The crowd was amazing. There were people lining the streets the whole 26.2 miles. I wrote my name on my leg so they would cheer for me - Go, Jenny! I needed all the help I could get.
I hit the wall at mile 21. I wanted to just walk the rest of the way. Granted this is only my third marathon, but I'd never had that feeling in either of the previous marathons. I started out pretty good, but I never felt good. I think it was because I ate too much different stuff before I even started...because the race didn't start until 10:20 and I was up at 5:30, I couldn't decide what to eat. Usually I run first thing in the morning before I eat anything, but that isn't realistic when running a marathon mid-morning.
I ate a banana before I left my hotel. Then when I got to Athlete's Village I ate some protien snacks. Then I drank my energy drink. Then right before I started I had another energy drink. In hindsight, I probably should have stuck to one.
In my previous marathons, I try to take some energy supplements every 20-30 minutes while I'm running. After doing that for an hour and a half, I decided I couldn't take anything else unless I wanted to throw up. Every now and again I would take an orange slice from a kid on the side of the road, but after 20 miles I couldn't even stomach that.
Back to the awesome Boston crowd...I mentioned the kids handing out orange slices. People were handing out water bottles, candy, licorice, bananas, even chocolate! If I ever make it back to Boston, I know that I don't need to pack anything with me during the run.
Can't wait to finish.
When I finished I was physically and mentally exhausted. I told myself I do not ever want to run a marathon again! Why submit myself to such torture?
But after resting for awhile, I was feeling a lot better. What an amazing experience! I would do it again in heartbeat, even with the exact same results.
Here's my pace throughout the race
10km - 0:50:21, pace 8:06
13.1mi - 1:47:56, pace 8:14
30km - 2:37:52, pace 8:28
26.2mi - 3:53:34, pace 8:54
My goal was to maintain a 8:00 mile throughout the whole race, but each hour my pace slowed down, especially the last 5 miles, which is what all the experienced runners told me would happen. I was told over and over again to go out slow, but I couldn't resist the temptation to go for it. I figured I had nothing to lose.
My Overall Results
Overall: 14410 out of 26907 runners
Women: 4872 out of 11462 runners
Division: 3127 out of 5912 runners
The rest of the day was spent in my hotel room resting. Early the next morning 2:30am, we woke up to leave for the airport.
10:00am - Arrive in Phoenix
When we pulled into the driveway, this is what we found. Someone decorated our garage, which made me cry.
Thank you, ??? !
