BOSTON MARATHON - Day 4

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, ??? !