Well it’s been three days since the Marathon, and I am pleased to report, all is well…and the Theatre should be happy to announce they had six out of six runners finish!
Over this past weekend, The B.A.A. did everything they could to discourage people from running what would be the hottest Boston Marathon in 36 years… since I’m only 33 I don’t remember what that one was like. This past October, I did complete the Chicago Marathon and it was almost 90 when we finished… the difference… the course and the time of year. You hear people say all the time “Chicago is flat”… I don’t care what the terrain is… 26 miles is 26 miles… and let’s not forget the .2… That “POINT TWO”, THAT’S THE WORST… The point at which you can see the finish line, but you are still not quite there… I’m not going to lie… IT SUCKS!
The B.A.A. did everything they could think of to get runners to defer… we were offered, entry into next year, with no fund-raising requirement, we were told, “if you have never completed a marathon before, don’t run”… even if you have completed a marathon, but never in this type of heat, “don’t run”… I was bombarded with texts, e-mails, phone calls… “nice knowing you”… “do you really think this is a good idea?”… “we promise we won’t give you any S@#$, if you don’t run”… “Please don’t run”…
Have you met us? We were running!
Don’t get me wrong, this decision was not made lightly, there were lots of e-mails that went around between the runners and the staff of the theatre, lots of opinions weighed, there would be no hard feelings if anyone decided to defer as the B.A.A. was basically pleading for us to do so…until race day, we really weren’t sure who we would see at the starting line….
10:50am, Monday morning, Hopkinton, Ma… off we go! Covered in sunblock, carrying as little as possible, wearing as little as possible, we were off! One mile at a time…
One of the things about Boston’s course is the first seven miles are basically “downhill”… You always need to make sure you don’t “go out too fast”, On a day like this you need to make sure you are NEVER going too fast… Rick and I planned to stay together for the duration, which would hopefully be the entire 26.2… running with someone can be difficult, in a sea of 20,000+ you can go into a water stop and never see that person again, and really only be minutes away from each other for hours.
You will read through this over and over “one mile at a time” The first few went by pretty quick, we were watching our pace, slowing down when we were going “too fast” and making sure to stay hydrated… Until that third water stop… No water, no Gatorade, No NOTHING, just a bunch of volunteers raking up used cups and breaking down the tables… At this point I’m thinking to myself, we are never going to finish if they are already running out of water… Luckily it was just that one stop.
Along the route, residents were out in droves, cups of water, ice, oranges, twizzlers… hoses. Everyone was looking out for us, the electronic signs you see out on the highway, “GO SLOW, HOT HOT HOT!” Medics everywhere. It was amazing to see the support, Cooling stations set up at fire stations, looking ahead you would see that everyone was running off to the side of the road, what the? Ah a little tunnel of water spray to run through, I think we will!
Mile 7, the end of the downhill and the beginning of “downhill”… this seems to be where everyone started to lose it. The sun was high and it was hot. Oh and the watch that was keeping us paced, yeah that stopped working… stupid watch. So now we were “running blind” in more ways than one way…no clue what we are pacing at and sunblock stinging the crap out of our eyes.
Some where around mile 12… almost to the half and my feet are killing me. Now it is way too early to start complaining about “aches and pains” so I keep it to myself, Rick finally says to me, his feet are burning… Oh thank God, I thought it was me. The ground was radiating so much heat, our feet felt like they were on fire.
Right before you get to the official half way point you run by Wellesley College… These girls have got signs that say Kiss me… I’m a Biology major, I’m from Texas, I’m a Senior… anything you can think of… They are an entertaining group of ladies! And people actually do stop and kiss them… I’ll tell you if one of them said kiss me I have a bag of ice, I would have considered stopping!
13.1… official check point and if you were tracking us, you got a text… Mario got a phone call, I never thought I would be making phone calls during a marathon, but what else was I going to do, it felt like we would be running for days, I decided it was probably a good idea to check in. We’ve been running blind for 5 miles and I wanted to know where everyone was. I was told, “you’re doing great, they’re not too far ahead of you” I assumed this was a lie to make us feel better, 13.1 to go…
Crossing over 128… yes, we were walking… whatever, we’re over it. A guy who has a number in the 8,000 (which means he qualified) looks at me and says, “have you ever seen this many people walking in a race?” Ha ha – well, there was this one time in Chicago… I knew when he told us he had started taking walk breaks at mile two, that we were doing about as well as anyone else out there that wasn’t from the equator.
Ah the fire station… Mile 18, the place where we were going to see some loved ones, and the bottom of those hills… Rick and I took a picture at the bottom and at the top… we definitely look at little better at the bottom. The ladies from the theatre were waiting at the top… Lucky for us, because we never would have known how awful we actually looked if they weren’t there to capture it on film… remind me to get them back some day.
“It’s all down hill from here” My rear…(you know the word I would prefer to use)
Once you get to the top of the hills, you level off and then in a mile or so head down into BC… these kids are great! They seemed a little more subdued than last year, maybe it was the heat, but they sure do get you pumped back up, only 5 or so miles left… almost to Cleveland Circle, we got this ( I hope)…
The last few miles were kind of a blur, we plugged along, some walking some “running”, at this point Vaseline was a must… dumping water down your back all day and running in wet clothes gets a little uncomfortable. The medical tents were packed, runners down everywhere… hey at least we were still upright!
Slow and steady, Rick and I were doing well, kept communication throughout the race, walked when we needed to… re blocked when we needed to… Rick made me eat a couple bites of a power bar, I choked down a little bit of goo at one point (that stuff is NASTY)… we had a good system, keep an eye on one another and we will get through this, ONE MILE AT A TIME!
“Right on Hereford, left on Boylston” Our system was going great until we started to make those turns… That’s when Rick’s crazy wife jumped out with flip-flops on and started to run with us… This nut was doing an 8 minute mile in flip-flops and I thought I was going to die!!!! Finally we ran into the next set of people we knew and she decided to stay with them! I asked Rick if she was trying to kill us… he responded “seriously”
Ah, the POINT TWO! You remember when I started this I told you… THIS PART SUCKS! But it’s also one of the greatest feelings in the world. As it gets closer you realize you are almost finished, THERE IS NO WAY YOU’RE NOT FINISHING…you have covered the 26 and IT’S ALMOST OVER! There were people being wheeled over the finish line, but not us! We finished and we finished upright!
To all of the people who supported us along the way, through fund-raising, mental support, physical support, ice support, twizzler support etc., and to the B.A.A. for the warnings, the option to defer, and when we chose not to – keeping us safe along the way! Without all of you we may not have made that trek to Hopkinton on Monday, I’m not going to lie, there were one or two house parties we passed on the way that I thought “I could stop here and someone will come and pick me up at some point” But then what fun would that have been!
Thank you Stoneham Theatre for the opportunity of a lifetime!
And a GREAT BIG THANK YOU to Rick Corapi for keeping me safe and as sane a possible for that 5 hours, 19 minutes and 22 seconds of our journey… Now if we could just find someone to keep me sane during my normal day-to-day we would really be accomplishing something! Until next time! (which will not be 2013, so if anyone is interested the theatre will be looking for runners, you can do it… just remember take it ONE MILE AT A TIME!).
XO, M
