Boston Day 1: Travel/Expo/Race Prep
See previous post for background on my plans to run the ‘double Boston’.
I felt a bit silly waiting to board my flight. Traveling across the country to run in a race just seemed a little over the top for me. It’s not like I have a huge history of running road marathons and was fulfilling a lifelong dream. I was a relative newcomer to the sport, and had only run one previous marathon, but here I was going to Boston. I felt kind of like a trespasser. Would it be worth it? The time, money, stress, hassle?? So many people thrive on qualifying for and running Boston. I could only hope that I would catch some of that fever, and decided to make the absolute best of this trip that was my 40th birthday present.
Sailing on a sea of clouds
I arrived late Saturday night, leaving all day Sunday to drive downtown for the packet pickup and shopping at the expo. I got very frustrated trying to drive where I wanted to go, but soon realized I had plenty of time and decided not to fight it. Turned out to be a good call, because even though I made several wrong turns and covered way more ground than I needed to, I got very familiar with the area and that knowledge served me well in the coming days.
I parked and walked a few blocks taking in some sights:
My first view of Boylston Street, the most famous road in marathoning.
The street was already closed off and race preparations in full swing.
Finish line structure.
Bunch of 'posers'.
Ancient and modern buildings were scattered around side-by-side.
What, no Nike swoosh or Adidas stripes??
The race expo was nuts. Super crowded and tough to even walk around. It was big, but at the same time felt very cramped. Not quite as massive as I had imagined. I spent a lot of time buying T-shirts for the family and a few other things. I also got the obligatory jacket. Not sure how much use it will get, but it’s pretty much mandatory for your first time at least.
2010
Not sorry to have missed the 1994 edition...
I was happy to get some Sennheiser headphones. The new generation Adidas-branded ones are sweet. I had used the previous generation for a year, but they had just broken a week ago so the 30% off deal at the expo was a nice find. They’ve improved the design and lightened them up.
After shopping I lugged my huge bag of stuff back to the car and headed for the hotel to get ready for the big day. I stayed in Wakefield which was a bit of a drive at 20 miles or so, but had easy access to the city right down I-93.
The loot!
The soggy weather was clearing and things were shaping up for race day. I planned on starting my run between 4 and 5 in the morning and knew I would be needing a few more clothes for the predicted 38 degree temps. Other than water refills, I had to be totally self-sufficient for the run out to Hopkington and back. I wanted to take as little as I possibly could, while at the same time having everything I would need. I settled on a strategy of disposable layers. I would wear the clothing I wanted to run the actual marathon in as my base layer, and everything else on top of that would be expendable.
I made a trip to Wal-Mart and snagged a beanie for 50 cents, a clearance-rack flannel shirt for a couple of bucks, a pair of $1 gloves, a package of black tube socks, and some scissors. Normally I would carry all of my food/gels/bloks in a small waist pack, but didn’t want to do that for this run. Instead I brought a very old bike jersey with me from home and also wore my trail running shorts – lots of pockets and options for carrying everything. I cut the toes off of the tube socks and had instant disposable arm and calf sleeves that I could easily shed once the day warmed up. I also packed a garbage bag to wear while waiting for the start because I knew I would get chilled from sweating on the run out there. Water would be carried in two old waterbottles with duct tape hand-holds. My shoes were La Sportiva Wildcats. The same pair I ran Leadville with last year. They are comfortable for long distances and I had used a razor knife to remove the hard plastic heel counter to keep it from aggravating my injury. Lighting my way in the pre-dawn hours would be a single AA Buzz Lightyear flashlight. Pure utility!
The gear!
These bottles worked great! I just used them on the way out and then tossed them for the actual race.
Yeah, yeah, so the lid is up.
Two sharpie tattoos from my daughters completed my ensemble. I think I nailed the perfect hobo-thug look I was going for.
Natalie age 11
Jessica age 7
Stay tuned for my BUM (that’s Boston Ultra-Marathon) race report…
Done and Done
Out in 4:30’ish, back in 3:47. What a day! Too cool for words, really. I’m sure I’ll find some, though!
Bahstun x2
In about 14 hours from now I’ll be crossing the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
A few hours after that, and I’ll be crossing the starting line.
If all goes well, I’ll be crossing the finish line again (for the last time) in a few more hours.
I’m calling this: Plan “B” a.k.a. notsoB<->Boston
I know it’s a strange rationalization, but I’m injured – therefore I’ll be running twice as far.
This achilles/bursitis/heel spur/whateverthehellitis has been dogging me for 16 long months now. It was mostly under control through the winter, but has flared up again in a big way in the last couple of weeks. No small coincidence that it lines up with when I started throwing in some faster efforts into my training. Now it’s to the point that to run fast on it is pretty much impossible. My goal was to come to Boston and try to run as fast as I can – that goal is long gone. I didn’t want to come here to jog the marathon. Instead, I’m going to do the “double Boston”. That’s 52.4 miles of getting my money’s worth.
I can still run, and I’m in very good shape and feeling strong. Just a bit limited in the speed department. The motion of rolling forward and springing off my forefoot while pulling my heel off the ground is excruciating. But I can jog. Somewhat. There is still plenty of discomfort, and it sucks to have to dial it back, but I’m going to make the best of it and bag a cool adventure in the process.
I’ll start in downtown at the finish line 05:00 tomorrow morning. I’ll run the course in reverse out to Hopkington and then join up with the other 26,000 runners for the trip back to Boston. Should be fun! I’m just going to take it easy, soak up the atmosphere (500,000 screaming spectators!), shoot some photos, and slap some fives. The soggy weather is clearing up and things are looking good.
If you’re interested in checking my progress, here are a few details:
There are two official starting waves in Hopkington. One goes at 10:00, the other at 10:30. Though my qualifying time put me in the first wave, I’m going to sit that one out and head back to Boston with the 10:30 group. Their pace will be more to my liking under the circumstances. I’m aiming to make the return trip in under 4 hours if things go ok, but that’s a VERY BIG IF…
Starting at 5:00 Eastern time (that’s 7:00 Monday morning for the bulk of my family and friends), you can track me via my phone’s GPS signal here: Instamapper
Assuming my phone battery holds up. I’ve set it to transmit my location every 5 minutes so just hit refresh on your browser to see where I’m at if it’s been a while since you last checked. I just sent my coordinates to the site from my hotel, so you can see where I’m staying today about 20 miles north of town. Also, don’t worry if there’s no movement between 9:30 and 10:30 (EDT) tomorrow as I’ll hopefully be hanging out at the start getting refueled for the return. Check out the satellite imagery via the dropdown list as well, should be pretty nice unlike the images for where I live that haven’t been updated for 10+ years. You can even see the start line painted on the road.
My bib number is 7078. You can use that to track me on the official website (for the ‘real’ race only) here.
If you check either of those sites today, you won’t see much going on. The Boston Marathon site is supposed to change tomorrow morning and have a way to track people from the home page. The Instamapper site won’t update again until I’m off and running.
Here is a course map so you can see where I’ll be headed. Starting on the right side, running to the left, and then back to the right.
I survived shopping at the expo today, and driving around downtown Boston. In the process, I turned a 25 minute drive into 90. Ouch. At one point I counted TEN streets in one intersection!!
Tomorrow should be a piece of cake.
The Scene Begins 