Back in Boston

My phone alarm wakes me up at 5 am.  I have all my clothes set aside for the day.  I plug the coffee maker in, and go to the bathroom.  In some hotel rooms the morning of a marathon, I have tried to get keep the light off, and get dressed in the bathroom.  But our room at the Boston Park Plaza is small, and a throwback to the 1940's.  It's like an aging Hollywood starlet - classy, but the elegance is at the expense of modern conveniences. So, Laura gets to share this early morning ritual with me, and then go back to sleep before taking the Boston Mass Transit to mile 17 to watch the race.

I always try to eat something as early as possible when I wake up before a race.  That might not be as necessary, because Boston has a 10 am start, as opposed to the typical 8 am, or even 7 am start.  I get a bagel, and go to grab my coffee.  Then I realize that I did not have the coffee put placed all the way under the coffee maker.  So only one-quarter of the coffee is making it into the pot.  Luckily, the coffee setup is on a tray, so we don't have a mess all over the room.  later, as I am putting my race gea together, I bang the side of my ankle against the hotel furniture.  It isn't bade enought to damage any tendonds, but it really stings and will eventually leave a bruise.
I make sure that I have my race bib,, and my shoes with the timing chip tied in, along with gobs of other gear for before during and after the race. Here is my checklist:
Ball Cap made of wicking material
Bondi-band for ears, if needed.
Lycra gloves for race
Race-ready shorts
Running socks
Saucony Pro Grid Ride with Yankzees laces
Addidas long-sleeve top
5 energy gels (Gu Tri-Berry and Power-Gel Raspberry Cream) I take one 15 minutes before race, then 1 every 45 minutes up till 3 hours.
Garmin 103 GPS watch. It's an old model without the bells and whistles, but it uses the same satellites, and keeps the pace fine.
Pre-race/during
Cotton Long sleeve shirt
Mizuno Wave Rider 900s (Wait, this might be the pair I ran my first marathon in, maybe I should have them bronzed!)
Work gloves
Old Jeans (throwaway)
Flannel shirt (throwaway)
Wind shirt
Knit Cap
PostRace
Short sleeve shirt
New Balance Wind Pants
I am really a creature of habit when it comes to marathons. I have a pair of Race-Ready shorts that I have worn in 10 marathons, and probably 5 half-marathons.  Even though they are 5 years old, I guess they are not too worn, because I don't wear them on many training runs.  I am wearing a long sleeve shirt (the finishers shirt from the 2009 Boston Marathon), lycra gloves and a cap.  The forecast is 40 degrees and sunny at the start, with a slight tailwind.  I have an old Turkey Trot long sleeve cotton shirt that I can wear for a few miles until I warm up.  The real layers of clothes are those that I will wear on the bus ride and the 2+ hour wait in the athletes village in Hopkinton.  For other races, I have brought torn/stained sweatshirts and warmup pants, and thrown them away at the start.  For Boston, they have volunteers with bags and containers collecting the clothes to donate them to a homeless shelter.  I figure that they get so many sweatpants and hoodies. So, instead I wear old jeans that I have used for painting, and a quilted flannel shirt.  I also donate an old pair of running shoes that I was looking to donate to Share Your Soles (I have several more pairs at home that they will get).  So instead of wearing bags around my race shoes to keep my feet dry from the grass, I just change my shoes and socks.


I kiss Laura good-bye and leave my hotel room. I go down to the ornate lobby of the Park Plaza. It is swarming with runners, including what looks like a group with its own bus. I go next door to the Au Bon Pain (which opened at midnight to accommodate the runners), and get my second bagel and coffee. I take it back to the hotel lobby, and sit down. Just like last year, a conversation develops between myself and the guy next to me. He looks close to my age, sounds like he is from the Northeast, but probably not Boston if he is staying here. He tells me that he is running for a charity, Team Whole in the Wall. The have camps for kids with terminally ill cancer. His wife arranged for him to run Boston for his 50th birthday, so I am guessing they made a sizeable donation towards his quota. He says that he has run the Chicago Marathon for St. Judes, and others such as Team in Training for Leukemia. He sounds really proud of that, as he should be. I tell him about my past affiliation with the Arthritis foundation, and we discuss my qualifying time. His best marathon time is 3:42, and he needs 3:35 to qualify at age 50. He says his stock response to "What will it take for you to qualify for Boston?" is "Ten years and a sex-change operation."  I tell him that I got down from a 3:42 to a 336, and then to a 3:29 with the F.I.R.S.T program "Run Less, Run Faster" . I told him how my running partner, Dale was poised to run a 3:35 or 3:40, and qualify either at his low 50 or upper 50's age group. I tell him he is a good candidate to use this program to qualify: His time is just 7 minutes away; he has a good running base of multiple marathons; and, maybe most important, he runs with a purpose – to help others through charity fundraising. I get his name, and promise to call his room after the race to let him know the name of the program.


I get a text message from Doug that he is getting on the subway near the convention center . Two-three stops, and he will be at the bus pickup site at Boston Commons. I grab my coffee, and walk a block to the Boston Gardens. This horticultural garden is the backdrop for many movies set in Boston’s back Bay area, such as “Fever Pitch”. It’s swan boats are the log of the Park Plaza . I cross the street from the Gardens, and go into Boston Commons, where I did my last pre-race run 2 days ago. It’s inspiring that this site has been around since the early 1600’s and the site of many famous events in the formation of our nation. At the far side of the park, there are dozens of school b uses. I meet Doug, and we get in line. The busses leave as soon as they fill up, and we only have to wait for one busload. It is probably 6:30 by the time we pull away from the curb. As we make it our way to the highway, police wave our convoy of qualifiers through red lights and intersections. Talk about rock-star treatment! We get to Hopkinton, and the route the driver takes is a little more convoluted that I remember last year. It must be later and more congested already, because we park behind the school grounds that host 25,000+ for the morning, and we have a longer walk, but we are here, and we have a good two hours plus before its time to go to the starting line. We find a spot in one of the tents, and stake out a spot. Doug has a plastic sheet, and I lay out a couple of garbage bags, which I crumple up newspapers for insulation. We pass the time taking a few pictures, and I send a few texts to my running partners, Bill and Dale. They have been a boost all through my training, and I hope my trip here inspires Dale to qualify, because knowing Bill had run Boston gave me the confidence that I had trained with a Boston qualifier.

I make one of my first trips to the bathroom, and already there is a slight wait for the porta-potties. I skip the coffee, but have some Gatorade and a few bites of a bagel. There is a lot to absorb here, there is an announcer playing music, exhibitors have booths with giveaways. It’s has sort of a “Run-apollooza’ festival atmosphere. Only, we are going to take the whole show on the road to Boston, and finish it up on the streets there.

I get a text from someone in the running club, and its bad news. Cindy says she has thrown up multiple times already. I feel terrible for her because she has been trying to qualify a few times. Just as I go out to look for her, I see Frogger, our token ex-hippie from our running club, a repeat qualifier from last year like myself. We start looking for our mutual friend in intestinal distress. We find the group that she came with, the Yankee Woods runners. She is not with them right now, so that probably means she is in the bathroom again,. The nucleus of this group is here, Mel Diab, the owner of premier specialty running store in Chicago’s south suburbs, Running for Kicks. Mel has organized many popular races, like the Palos Turkey Trot, and the Palos Bank Half Marathon. He has outfitted and trained may runners, and is was fitting to see him reap the well-deserved rewards of his commitment to running by qualifying for Boston last year, and to see him return this year.

I have a feeling that Cindy will still try to run the marathon even though she is sick. Rather than try to talk her out of it, I think of a fallback option. Her good friend Melanie has been spending the weekend in Boston with us, and is waiting at mile 6 with a friend who dropped her off in her car. Melanie plans to run the last 20 miles of the race as a training run. I tell her that she should either run it with Cindy, if she insists, or get her a ride to the finish with her friend.