16 weeks and 1081.7 miles later I arrived Boston to race the 114th Boston Maraton. This was my 3rd consecutive Boston and 4th Boston overall.Going into this marathon race I was really nervous about what I should choose for a time goal. Based on the Ft. Steilacoom 15 miler performance (1:43) earlier in my training season Tom provided that was a 3:06 marathon effort. Based on my Mercer Island half-marathon performance (1:29) and the McMillan running calculator I was projected to run a 3:08 using their methodology. I wasn’t sure if 3:06 was too aggressive so I scaled back and advertised my realistic goal as 3:08 and stretch goal as 3:06. Boston is a tough course so I wasn’t confident I could run either of those times honestly.
The taper weeks leading up to Boston went well the first week since I was back home in Iowa which was relaxing. Once I got to Beantown being around friends helped clear my head and realized everyone else is just as nervous and having fun with them prevented me from thinking about those distractions.
I arrived to Boston on Friday evening and shared a hotel room w/ 2 friends – Jody and Robyn. Note to self – arriving Friday is the way to go. I felt a huge difference this year being able to get up Sat. morning and jog a few miles and going to the expo that day instead of Sunday. That leaves Sunday for a true rest day. On Friday and Saturday I managed to get 10-12 hours of sleep each night. Felt well rested by Sunday.
Day before the Marathon Race
Nutrition
Breakfast – Oatmeal, Banana, Coffee
Snack – Energy bar
Lunch – Veggie sandwich and Mushroom soup
Dinner – Bread, Salmon, Broccoli, Spinach
I spent most of the day relaxing - no running. Robyn, Jody, and I woke up and grabbed some quick breakfast from Starbucks, and David, Robyn and I grabbed lunch before heading back to our hotels to rest and stretch before dinner. The day flew by fast.
In the evening our Seattle crew along with one of my teammates (Jeremy) from college and a few of the parents joined us for dinner at Pap-Razzi. We all had a great time sharing our race plans and offering up the last minute encouragement needed for the next day.
Bedtime: 9:30/10pm. We started calling me momma king after the weekend since I was making sure we were well rested before our race. I did not sleep well at all the night before the race. I was sharing a bed w/ Robyn and we both tossed and turned the entire night and I only had a few hour pockets were I felt that I was truly sleeping. I don’t seem to sleep well the night before the race and wasn’t too worried since previous nights were solid on sleep.
Marathon Day!
Wake up Time: 5:30am
Nutrition: Oatmeal (almonds, honey, soy milk/water), banana, and cup of coffee
Our Seattle crew took a chartered bus from the Hilton Bay area at 7:15am. If you plan on running Boston in the future this is the way to go. Under $30 and bus leaves later than BAA buses and you get comfortable seats plus a bathroom right on the bus. You can stay on the bus up until the start and it parks right at the athlete's village. We walked about ¾ mile from our hotel to catch the bus at the Hilton and arrived to the athlete’s village around 8:30am. I started drinking water liberally from about 6am up until when we arrived to the athlete’s village. Dropped our bags off at the buses around 9:20 and started a light jog down to the starting corals. I had 30 minutes to spare to do some active and dynamic stretching. The start of the race was warm enough to stand comfortably in tank and shorts and I felt flexible from the stretching and ready to run.
I was seeded in coral 5 but dropped back to coral 6 to run w/ Jody since our race pace for the half-marathon leading up to Boston was within seconds and we thought we could encourage each other through the race and keep each other on par with pace. While I was really nervous to run alongside someone for the marathon it turned out to be a great experience! It was nice having someone familiar around during the race when you start to fall out mentally and need a smile exchanged time to time to get back into it. Jody occasionally reminded me to smile and I pinched her butt at one point to let her know I was still there.
My plan going into the race was to run comfortably for the first 10K and not micro-manage my pace too much for that first few miles. I knew the first part of the race was downhill but also knew from previous races you are at the crowd’s mercy since you're pretty packed in. My strategy has always been to stick to the far right curb and run alongside there for the first 6-7 miles politely letting people know you are on their right. Suprising I know for me but Jody can contest I was really polite to the other runners! Seemed to work well and prevented me from expending energy running around people or up on the curb. I wasn’t going to look at my watch splits for the first 6 miles but I caved in and did and started trying to nail the times on my wrist that I had printed out from the Nike booth w/ goal time of 3:06 (course adjusted). The pace felt awesome so I decided to stay with it since we were off to even pacing and it wasn’t too far off goal pace. The course adjusted pace band also called for faster mile splits first 6 miles.
Got through mile 10 and still feeling great and having the pace band helped me know which miles to expect some uphill parts and they didn’t seem to bother my pacing at all. We had a cross wind for the first 10 miles but then started taking on some headwinds after that part and trying to find consistent pacing runners was a challenge for a while so I weaved behind guys I could find to make wind blocks for a short lived period. Eventually after mile 13 this guy wearing a purple tank, pink short and socks came along and he seemed to know the course by the way he was running tangents. He had a consistent pace so I signaled Jody to let her know we need to tuck behind this guy for a while. We managed to stay with him leading up to the hills.
My strategy with the hills was to maintain a steady pace going up and run controlled by quicker on the downhill parts to get momentum for the next and make up time lost on the trek upward. Overall the hills didn't seem so bad and I think it's due to the hill workouts and training Tom had us doing back in Seattle. The first hill at mile 18 seemed to be the toughest for me out of the three hill segments. When I started up the second hill I was looking ahead and noticed some guy in my lane high fiving these kids on the side and twirling around. All I thought to myself is this guy. To my surprise it was Richard Chase! I started smiling and laughing to myself once I saw that because of all people he would be just the one to stop and entertain kids in the middle of his race. He said "Oh Alicia, it's not going so well." and I tried to quickly encourage in passing. My friend from high school; Mike, was meeting me at mile 20 so that energized me at mile 19 since I knew I’d be seeing him soon. He has paced me for a few of my marathons and always seems to say the right things during a race to encourage me. Met up with him at mile 20 and he offered the praises needed and distracted me up to the top of heartbreak hill. He had shot block packages all ready for Jody and I which helped for race nutrition. I ended up taking 3 gel packets up until I saw Mike (Miles 5, 10, 15) and at mile 20 started consuming the shot blocks package. That seemed to be the perfect balance for what I needed. Up until that point I was taking water and Gatorade and about every other station and if needed sometimes 2 in a row. I never drank a lot at one stop but maybe a few sips and noticed I flew through the stations really quick this race unless I was taking a gel which requires a little more focusing and consumption.
At the crest of heartbreak hill Jody cracked me up as she looked over and asked if we were done with the hills. When I nodded she double confirmed - funny. I assured her that was it which made me realize it really is more manageable from here and time to go! I put in my headphones (I realize this is kind of frowned upon but it does the trick for me at the end of races for now…) and let the music motivate me. I can mentally manage the last 5 miles of the race because I put what’s left in the perspective of time – i.e. only 40, 30, 20 more minutes of pushing (comparing to goal time) and just keep counting down from there. For most of the race I really wanted to try and achieve a 3:06 goal but with the 5 miles to go I reset my goal and saw that I could still achieve a 3:07 goal which I would be happy with and that’s when I got super excited and realized this is happening– I’m actually doing this pace woo hoo!! The crowds at Boston get intense with energy towards the end and that helps carry you through those last miles. I focused on running controlled and made sure good running form and posture was in place (something my PT Shelly has been stressing w/ me during sessions with her) – arms controlled to the side with thumbs pointed outward and long strides without crossing over my arms and legs in front. My breathing felt really controlled and I gave each mile all I could and just kept watching each mile mark off. I know the course really well so the closer that Citgo sign got to me the more I could push since I knew I would be finished soon! With only a few miles to go I glanced at my watch and at one point I think it was 2:52 and I was getting nervous I wouldn’t hit the 3:07 goal I reset to and did not want to give up that easy so picked up as much as I could. I felt like I was kicking in the finish of a 5K or 10K with the effort I was putting forward and by this time my quads were not loving life. They felt as if needles were being stuck in the front of them but I put it out of mind and had to keep rehearsing positive things to keep the strong pace (knowing walking afterwards was going to be a challenge). The mental game those last few miles of a marathon is tough but if I keep focused I always seem to pull through. I did and was very pleased w/ my race. I wanted this to be my spring baseline to work up from. Having a good time on a tough course gives me the confidence I need to go faster on a flatter or more desirable course. Now I say bring it on for fall (CIM marathon) – this is fun!
The Results
Big watch tragedy - when I recalled the saved time on my watch the splits recorded only reported back up through mile 16! I also had two occurrences where I missed the mile marker and had to 
lump the split together. I really wanted to see how I did on those hills but remember when I looked at the watch splits on those I was pretty steady w/ 7:13-16 pacing. Really bummed since I wanted to analyze the end of my race since I was more focused on the overall time showing on my watch at that point and not micro-managing the splits per say. I’m going to grab splits from Jody’s watch for mile splits 17-21 and after that point we separated so shall remain a mystery what those precise ending miles were…
Mile 1: 7:01:13
Mile 2: 6:56:07
Mile 3: 6:59:36
Mile 4: 6:52:92
Mile 5: 7:19:39
Mile 6: 6:58:09
Mile 7: 7:01:64
Mile 8 and Mile 9: 14:20:48 (est. 7:10/mile)
Mile 10: 7:13:14
Mile 11: 7:12:32
Mile 12: 6:59:48
Mile 13 and Mile 14: 14:13:45
Mile 15: 7:24:06
Mile 16: 7:01:90
Splits from Jody's watch since we were running w/ each other up to Mile 21
Mile 17 - 6:59
Mile 18 - 7:29
Mile 19 - 7:18
Mile 20 - 7:18
Mile 21-26.2: No watch splits were recorded :(
Actual BAA Results
5K - 21:35
10K - 23:39
15K - 1:05:47
20K - 1:27:59
Half - 1:32:47
25K - 1:50:18
30K - 2:13:14
35K - 2:36:17
40K - 2:58:18
First Half – 1:32:47, Second Half – 1:35:27
Pace - 7:10
Official Time - 3:07:34
Overall 2253
Overall Female 164
Division (18-39) 139
Total Marathon Finishers 22, 540 (26, 790 official entrants - does not include volunteer/charity runners which would make it more like 30K runners total, this was the 2nd highest entry year outside of the 100th marathon in 1996)
Total Female Finishers 11, 328 (record number of women entered - Rock on ladies!)
Elite Recap - Robert Chauiyot of Kenya set a course record of 2:05:52 while Teyba Erkesso of Ethiopa ran the third fastest time with 2:26:11. Robert walked away with $150K for the victory + $25K for the course record. Teyba walked away with $150K for her victory. Pays to be a fast runner! Ryan Hall ran the fastest time for an American with 2:08:41 which would have won him the title at any previous Boston marathon. His time now puts him at the top for American male marathoners. Our other amazing amercian runner Meb; with his recent comeback, finished right behind Ryan with a time of 2:09:26.
P.S. Ryan Hall was staying in our Hotel (Fairmont) and boy is he skinny! On Monday I see him walking around the hotel lobby more gracefully than any of us were and he was sporting some pink sunglasses - ha!
