The less than thrilling recap

It has been over a week and in case you were wondering, I did run and finish the Boston Marathon. I've been hesitant to write my race recap entry, because I'm not satisfied with just having finished this year. I know how that finishing is important. I know because I've seen teammates this season who were unable to make it to the start line and watch them transform into the greatest cheering squad ever. I saw how frustrating it can be to start and not finish after one of my teammates had her foot literally break during the race and was forced to drop out despite the incredible amount of hardwork she put into preparing for this year's race. I believe it was in the Marathon Mama's recap that I read what best summarizes what I learned about marathons this year. To paraphrase, marathons s**k because effort in does not always equal results out. To an engineer this equation does not compute. Despite the fact that I battled some injuries off and on, I had a good training season this year compared to others, but the efforts don't compute into time finished, or how I felt during.

On top of these initial thoughts I feel that this blog has somehow become a running narrative of my injuries instead of a way to memorialize all of the great things I learned and experienced during my 5th year training for DFMC. So, since I can't seem to move onto the positive until I expel the race recap baggage, here goes nothing . . .with my race recap

Transportation logistics were not anything I had to worry about in previous Boston Marathons as I likely walked my butt out my front door and 1/4 mile down the street to the DFMC refuge at the church in years past. This year was different. I learned Saturday that Dave had to leave earlier for school than usual (no Patriots Day for Springfield College) and therefore he was afraid he wouldn't have enough time to drop me off at Hopkinton State park and still be able get to school on time. Not getting to school on time meant loss of 10% of grade, so not good. I was afraid if I drove myself to Hopkinton State Park the parking would fill up too soon and I would be stranded with no place to park and not enough time to take the official buses from Boston. And the option of driving into Boston to take the buses in seemed less than desirable since I drive a standard and didn't see myself being in any position to drive myself home after the race. Luckily I ran into Steph and her mom at the Pasta Party the night before and made arrangements to meet at Steph's mom house to be dropped off at the park with Sean and Steph. Thanks Pat!

This year's experience at the DFMC refuge was a bit different as I had met many teammates during this year's training unlike in past years where I hardly knew anyone. I tend to be shy in large groups so I always felt a bit awkward waiting at the church. So far, so good. I was hoping to start the race with Janel and Eileen who were going to run 10:00 min miles or so, but I lost them after the team photo and was on my own.

While enroute to the starting corrals we ran into Tedy's team taking their team photo. It was cool to see Tedy Bruschi taking time with the runners. We walked the rest of the way down Price St with Tedy's team only to reach a barricade. Problem? What problem? We had a New England Patriot to open the barricade and we were on our way.

Despite losing Janel and Eileen I was able to stick with my 10:00 min mile plan through 5K, 10K, 15K and then the wheels started to come off. My right knee started to hurt around mile 3 but it was intermittent. By 15K or so, I decided a conversion to a 4:1 run walk was in order. This kept me going until about 20K, losing only about a half a minute a mile, but things were not looking good it seemed that when I stopped to walk my knee hurt more. Uh-oh Somewhere around this point I decided to take a break to recycle some gatorade and that's when the real trouble set in. My knee REALLY didn't like stopping. It locked up and I had a hard time getting going again. I literally parked my butt on the sidewalk and stretched. I limped probably for 20 yards or so and it seemed things warmed up so I could walk without pain. For the first time ever I considered dropping out of a marathon. But my parents were at mile 17 and up until mile 10 or 11 I was running exactly the race I wanted to run, even if it was more painful than I anticipated. So at this point I had to decide. Do what in retrospect would've been the smart thing or push on. With the all the stubborness in my soul (and there is a lot) I decided come hell or high water I was getting to the DFMC cheering zone to see my parents and then I would reassess. I did a little running from here until about mile 15. Running past the Wellesley scream tunnel and through some of the downhills after Wellesley Center.

I stopped and took a photo with my parents and ate a pretzel. I knew stopping was a bad idea and that I was likely to have a recurrence of the 20K knee lock incident and the major limping. It was and I did. I turned at one point to see if my parents were following me to see if I'd drop out. They were but hid so I didn't see and again I decided to go on. I walked pretty much the rest of the race except for running by the Patient Partner cheering section where my parents had repositioned. I was smart and waved only as I ran by. And of course, I ran the whole length of Boylston.

As I walked up the Newton Hills I knew I was not going to reach my goal of finishing in a time beginning with a 4. By mile 18 I was already trending at an 11:15 average pace per my Garmin. My goals at this point (1) to try to finish under 5:30 this would result in a 10 min PR and (2) stay ahead of Valerie Bertinelli. Well Val passed me on Heartbreak. But I did finish in 5:27 a 13 minute marathon PR and a 15 minute Boston PR. BUT . . .I hadn't trained for those other races (yes, I know I'm an idiot) so if you are keeping score at home . . .hundreds of training miles in = 13 minutes out.

Spent Tuesday at the Newton Wellesley injury clinic to be diagnosed with full on IT Band syndrome. So now running for me for several weeks. Lots of Aleve, Ice, and some PT.

Things following the marathon that made me realize just how much I was hurting during the race:

1.) I never saw the lake in Natick or really was aware of it. Every other time I've run Boston I've marveled at how big it seems and how long we are going to be running by it. It completely was not part of my awareness raceday and I didn't even realize I had missed it until reading someone else's recap.

2.) The 128 overpass seemed short. Because my parents were on the other side maybe, or my mind was on a vacation in pain land and didn't have room to curse the damn bridge who knows.

3.) Can you say marathonfoto? Check it out . . .Stone 22978. Never have I taken such awful pictures. Even the ones I was aware were being taken and "smiled" for I have a pain grimace in. And I thought I was hiding it so well.

4.) WBZ finish line video . . .I had the strangest running gait coming down Boylston. But I ran damn it.

5.) The fact that I'm doped up on Aleve per NWH clinc orders and it still hurts to extend my leg.

That's all for now. Coming soon to this blog now that I got all this out of my system: a fundraising status update and gratitude and a list of all the positive things DFMC meant to me this season.