Well for those who know me and the way I write my run reports, prepare yourself for a long one...
Well, since you've all been clamoring for it it's about time to recount the trials and tribulations of this year's Boston Marathon. First, I took on the new role as Reston Runner banner bearer (try to say that fast three times) as well as team coordinator. I love this kind of stuff and I've done if for Chicago a couple times so I figured what I have to lose. I knew most of the people heading up to beantown this year and was looking forward to getting together with everyone.
I flew up Saturday morning and unbeknownced to me I was on the same flight as a fellow similarly paced Reston Runner in Todd Katz. This would be his first and my second BM. We exchanged our usual pleasantries which were laced with, "How are we going to manage? Have you seen the weather forecast?! We both ran the Philadelphia Marathon this past fall and although I got a minor PR there, I was upset because I thought for late November in Philly it should be a little cooler than 70 degrees. Similarly, Todd was frustrated by the heat in Philly and required medical attention after the race, so a hot Boston was not what we wanted either. As a son of a meteorologist, I was hoping for the best (40s and fog) but preparing (mentally that is) for the worst (80s and sun). I really don't know whether one can prepare physically unless they run consistently in the Rift Valley of Kenya where its common to be 90 degrees at 8,000ft elevation. Anybody who knows me knows that for whatever reason, whether it is my northern European descent or my dread of DC summers, knows that I like it cold. The colder the better! Ideal marathon conditions for me would be mid 30s and overcast. That's probably why at most races and RR training runs you'll see both Chuck Moeser and myself shirtless. My reason is that I'm hot; Chuck's is that he likes to proudly display his body. Back to Boston.
The expo was great. I got to meet my sponsor Amino Vital (why they decided to sponsor a slow guy like me I'll never know). They gave me a bunch of drink supplies and a coolmax hat that I wore proudly on race day. I just finished reading Dick Beardsley's new book (Duel in the Sun) about arguably the greatest Boston Marathon ever run when he and Alberto Salazar dueled through similar conditions in 1982, so I was thrilled to meet and actually get to talk to him for a bit. I had him sign the official Adidas race poster. For those of you who don't know. If you look real closely every entrants name is on that poster-pretty cool! This was followed by a chance to meet the former world record holder in the marathon Khalid Khannouchi who signed my race bib. Lastly, I got to hear Alan Culpepper talk about the Trials race in which he won and his upcoming preparations for the heat and hills of Athens this summer. He will certainly have his hands full because Athens has about 5 times the hills as Boston. I have to say as expos go Boston is the best followed closely by Chicago.
By this time it was time for me to stroll over to the 4PM meet up for RunWasingtonians and Reston Runners at the finish line. It was nice to see some familiar faces. It made carrying the Reston Runners banner all day worth it. I managed to run into Dave Wild from DC. I seem to see that guy everywhere nowadays. I got to spend time with my favorite Dutchman and Army Officer, Theo Haast and Jim Ashworth, respectively. Theo is in the process of moving to Atlanta so I hope everybody wishes him well. After we rested a little bit from walking around all day the day before the marathon (not a bright idea), we headed over to the pre-race dinner as the BAA likes to call it. I guess they've been scared into calling it that now since everyone in the U.S. seems to think the answer to the nation's weight problem is to outlaw carbohydrates. Under Atkin's pressure, the BAA renamed the event from the pasta dinner. There Jim Ashworth, Theo Haast, and I met up with Jim Nagle and listened to him describe his most recent occasion he misplaced something. This time it was his race goodie bag. I have to admit the quality of the pasta dinner is quite poor. Like Todd, I'd rather call it fuel than food, but since I already paid for it with the $95 entry fee I mine as well eat it and make the best of it. The cheesecake and the beer had to be the highlights. I made plans to meet up with Ashworth in the morning since we were both staying out by the airport.
After a good 7-8 hours of sleep I met up with Aswhorth and headed over to the Commons for the bus. We managed to pick the longest line but it turned out great because we met up with another Reston Runner Fred Streb. I really like Fred and he's accomplished what I've always hoped. He ran a 2:59:52 at Chicago back in 2002. That's what I'll be shooting for come this fall in Chicago. Who's with me? I'll be organizing teams for that too (details later). Our bus ride took over an hour and half thanks to traffic and the police stopping our bus so that all the VIPs and press could make their way into Hopkinton first. It was great once we got to the Village. Thanks go out to Leslie Stansfield who took the banner from the night before and had a great location marked off for all of us inside the big tent. I was able to rest about an hour and chit chat with everyone. A lot of folks asked me and I asked back, "what's your plan with the weather and all?" I knew walking up to the start line that I was going to be in trouble. I was sweating well before I even stepped into the corral and then it became even worse. At least I had this drunken college kid slamming bloody mary's that kept bringing me water. Although Fred was in the corral ahead of me we made plans to run with one another. Originally I had planned to run even 7's throughout for hopefully a 3:03 marathon. With the weather I knew this was out. Fred and I agreed to run together. We thought if we ease the pace off :15 to :30 a mile we'd be OK. Wrong! We should have gone with :30 to :60, more on that later.
I managed to hook up with Fred with 200-300 meters of the start. We virtually ran 25 of the 26.2 miles with 10 ft. of one another. I've never done that before and I'm glad I did. We both helped each other out a lot throughout the run. In looking back at the race I like to break it up into three chunks. In the first which I would say was through 9 miles I felt great. Nice and loose, my breathing was very relaxed. Fred and I seemed quite comfortable. The pace almost seemed too easy. With six marathons under me belt I thought I knew what a good conservative pace should be.
Around 10-12 miles my right ITB and left calf (old and new injuries, respectively) began to flare-up. The ITB was getting tight and I think that's because I was favoring my left calf which I strained at the St. Patty's 10K. Anybody wants to give me advice for that I'd be much appreciative. I was able to run pretty well despite this. I was drinking Gatorade at every official stop as well as dumping two cups of water over my head at every stop. Even with that I began to take popsicles and water from anyone offering. I have to admit, no race, I repeat no race, has more supportive and knowledgeable supporters. Around 13 miles my pain went away because I was at my favorite part of the course, where else, the girls of Wellesley. They were out in all their glory and the early signs of pain and fatigue faded, that is, temporarily. Around 13-14 miles both Fred and I simultaneously told each other, there's no way we are going to be able to carry this pace (we were averaging about 7:20ish). I attempted to keep it up and Fred fell back a little bit. Around 17 miles I knew I couldn't and Fred caught up and went ahead of me for a little. At least I had one pick me up in the hills of Newton. I managed to see my wife and son after I crested the first hill around mile 17. It was funny, in the Newton hills it was the downhills that were hurting where going uphill it was no problem. I guess I share one thing in common with Grete Waitz who had that same problem in 1982. From 17-20 I slowed but not by that much. So I would call this second chunk from 10-17 the realization time. I was running around 7:30-7:40. Once I finished the hills I was done, right there at mile 21 Fred began to pull away a bit and I stopped sweating. No matter how much I took it wasn't enough. I could feel my skin get dry and hot. I knew I was in trouble. It was this third chunk from 21 to the finish that was simply be called survival. From then on I walked/ran the rest of the way. I'm not proud but I wasn't going to putt myself in the hospital. With my IT flaring up it doesn't respond well to a slow jog so I would run somewhere around 7:30 pace for ¾ of a mile and then walk a ¼. I did this for over 5 miles. Fred and I were leap frogging each other here. I felt both literally and figuratively like I was back on the C&O Canal for the JFK50. I managed to muster enough strength to run the last mile although I desperately wanted to walk down Boylston Street. A fan handed me a little American flag with which I ran the rest of the way. I managed to finish (3:26:29) within seconds of Fred and I felt so bad I couldn't find him and thank him after we finished. After walking for a few minutes I began to cramp really bad. A medical worker through me in a wheelchair and took me to the medical tent. I didn't really think I needed this but once I got there I felt very light headed. They want to give me an IV but I was afraid I was going to miss my wife and son and the reunite area and they had to catch a flight back in a couple hours. I managed to talk them out of the IV. I decided to drink a little Gatorade (thankfully this time it was a different flavor). In 15 minutes I felt much better.
In conclusion, I thought it was hot last year when I ran a 3:23. That time I didn't really have any time ambitions, I just wanted to experience Boston for the first time. I came in this time wanting to run a good time but the conditions certainly prevented that. The 3:26 this year took much more effort and I have to say this was the worst marathon I've ever run. I don't mean necessarily by time, but by how I felt. It became a death march toward the end. The only thing that made this great was the 6 and 7 deep fans throughout most of the race. If it would have been any other marathon I would have simply packed it in. I kept pushing because, hey...This is Boston! A horrible Boston is better than just about anything else. One thing I will take away from this experience is now I know I can run just about any race. If this was the second hottest Boston on record in its 108 year history I pretty much know that when I'm back next year it has to be better! And oh yes, I will be back next year..and the next...and the next.
Although I was the team manager I have yet to have the team results from the BAA. As soon as I get them I'll pass them on.
As for the post-race activities, I'd stayed Monday night with Ashworth at his hotel so we mustered up enough strength to head out to the official post race party. It was a blast. They had two rooms. Downstairs it was dark and quiet where they had all the results posted up on the wall and they were showing the official race coverage on a big screen. We then managed to go upstairs and have some interesting conversations with some ladies and listen to a pseudo Blues Brother's band Duke and the Driver's. We were sitting there on the balcony when all of a sudden KC was sitting next to us. We shared our war stories and she caught us up on how the rest of the club did. At least this year she didn't suffer from hypotranemia. As far as I know everyone in the club finished the race and that's awesome. Way to go!
Now that I've had a few days recover I will look back on this experince fondly. I can always tell people I was there when it was that HOT!
Lastly, I have to get a few shouts out for a some folks. Chuck is awesome. He placed 4th in the Veterans category with a stellar sub 3 performace and how about Aaron Schwartzbard. He ran a sub 3 two days after the Bull Run 50! I don't even know how that is possible. Also, in looking at the results I noticed that for virtually the enture race I was right around RunWashington's own J.J. Wind. He must have curtailed is guteral sounds because I didn't see or hear him. That's a first! J Finally, I would like to thank Chris Bohnert and all the very helpful folks at Amino Vital for their support, and the hat!
Kevin Kunkel, Bib #3867
Go Reston Runners!