It has been over a week since I ran the Boston Marathon 2008.
The race started out really well good temperature, I felt good, well rested, had a good breakfast. Tricia dropped me off near the start. I only had to wait ~1.5 hrs until my wave. At 20 minutes before my wave start I went to the corrales. I was way back with the non-qualified runners. The gun must have gone off at some point because we all started walking towards the start line. Eventually I made it across the start line and began running. My splits show that my timing chip crossed the start some 9 minutes after the wave start.
I kept my head and settled into a 8:45 minute pace early on. I held that pace until Mile 12 and then slowed to my goal pace of a 9 minute mile. At about mile 13 my knees started to hurt but not too bad. At the half way I was thinking I had it in the bag. I thought I’d be able to run my goal pace. By mile 16 that all changed. I got acquainted with the hills and my legs began to ache. Both my knees and quads were in real pain now. By mile 18 I knew the race had changed for me. At that point I just wanted to finish. I finally made it to the finish about an hour after my goal time of 3hrs 50min.
Thinking back on my preparation and what happened I am not sure whether better training could have prevented the knee pain. I’ve experienced that pain twice now half way through a marathon. It might be a symptom of carrying around 20 pounds too many. Since my enjoyment level ended at about the half way mark maybe half marathons are the event for me.
Rika and the family were waiting somewhere past the halfway mark. Rika’s cousin ran out and handed me some power gel. I went back to where the girls were and Addy gave me a huge hug. I later found out she flipped out when I promptly left her on the side line.
I am so thankful to have such a supportinve family and great friends. Tricia came to Boston for the weekend which meant alot to us since Rika’s grandmother had pass away and she supported me during the marathon.
Thank you to everyone who supported me. In particular thanks to Rika who got stuck with two kids when I was on my runs.
