Greg's Running Blog

It’s been over two three weeks and I still haven’t posted up my proper race report of the Boston Marathon. I’m such a slacker. Quite honestly I have written more blog posts in the last two weeks than in the last 4 months so being 2 weeks late with a race report, when there was so much more to write about is perfectly acceptable in my opinion. In the last installment I wrote about race day morning and everything that happened until the gun went off at 10:00AM. So I’m going to pick it up right there and write about the actual race, the next 3+ hours of my life that were the true story of the weekend.

The gun went off promptly at 10:00AM but it was a rather underwhelming moment as I was still at a complete stand still and it wasn’t for another minute until we finally started into a slow jog and another 36 seconds until we actually crossed the start line. Once we crossed the starting line people started moving along and the first mile, with a steep 130 ft drop felt downright slow but I could not have gone any faster even if I wanted to. The whole place was elbow to elbow and I was just glad no one trampled me and I didn’t trample anyone either. I have never experienced running with the crowd, certainly not to this level.

Right after the start you saw a bunch of guys stopping in the woods and taking care of business. I’m pretty sure that the trees grow as big as they grow because they get plenty of fluids on Patriot’s Day every year. I don’t know how those guys schedule their potty breaks or water intake but I never had to stop during a marathon for any kind of break before because nature called. I usually stop drinking two hours before the race start and I don’t start up drinking again until 30 minutes before the gun goes. This way everything that I drank two hours prior the race has plenty of time to come out before the start and everything I drink 30 minutes before the race will never make it to my kidneys as I’d be sweating my ass off by the time it processes through my stomach.

The first mile was 7:06 which was way off my target pace. So what was my target pace? Well, with my Achilles issues that I had been fighting since January my training didn’t go exactly as planned and I ran a total of 47 miles between the Cowtown Marathon, a 3:20 pacing job and training run, and Boston. I did a lot of swimming and biking to keep up my cardio fitness but I seriously lacked in running. The longest run I did in the last 6 weeks prior Boston was 4 miles instead of the scheduled 2 20 mile long runs that I was supposed to have. So you would think that I’d throttle back on my expectations and run Boston as a fun run and just run it for the experience and enjoy it. Well, I’m one of those type -A personality guys who lose all self control when they have a bib on their shirt and go balls to the wall all out. My Physical Therapist, whom I visited 11 times in the last 7 weeks said I should probably not even run Boston but knowing that I wouldn’t listen to that advice at least run it easy and enjoy it. Well I didn’t listen. I printed up a pace band well in advance and I knew that I was going to shoot for the moon in Boston and try to break 3 hours. Boston is generally a tough course and people tend to run about 2 minutes slower than they would on a flat fast course but I knew I had to go for it. So I stapled the pace band, with weighed mile spits depending on elevation changes of the course, on my wrist and went for the sub-3 hour marathon.

After the first mile I was 16 seconds behind but I knew that I could make that up later and I wasn’t too worried about the pace, I enjoyed the run and tried to keep it easy and pay attention to the Achilles and try to soak in the experience. After the wooded toilet break area the roads started getting lined with people and the cheering was on! I run in a shirt with my name printed on the front and I have never heard my name getting called as much in 3 hours as I did in Boston. It was just unbeliveable how strong the crowd support was from the get go and it didn’t get any less as the run progressed. I failed to realize that there was no water stop at mile 1 and I was kind of anticipating one and it didn’t dawn on me that there wouldn’t be one until we got to mile 2.

Mile 2 was 6:37 which was 10 seconds faster than planned so I was already back to only being down by 6 seconds. Things were looking good and feeling good. I was giving high fives to the little kids lining the road, waving and smiling and feeling pretty good. Little did I know that things would be different in about 17 miles.

Mile 3 was 6:46, I was 4 seconds off the pace again and things were still pretty congested. I thought it’s still better to run with the crowd and conserve energy than trying to dodge people and getting worn out. I was 10 seconds off my target time and still felt pretty decent. What really started to amaze me was the depth of the field. Running downhill you could see hundreds of yards ahead of you and you could see a sea of people running in front of you. Thousands of runners running at or faster than my pace. It was a very humbling experience to see this many fast runners around me and feeling like an “also ran”. This was uncharted territory for me, with the small races I’ve been running I would usually be by myself and pretty close to the front by now. Boston was different.

Mile 4 came in at 6:38 which was pretty much right on the money for my target pace. I felt good about it and I finally thought that things were moving along. The race was still super crowded, the water stations were busy as hell but the pace was right on. The water stations were very impressive and very organized and quite amazing, just like the rest of the BAA organization. Every mile, shortly after the mile marker you would have a table with volunteers on the right side of the road with Gatorade first and water second. Then about 50 yards down the road there would be another table with volunteers on the left side. The Gatorade would be in cups with Gatorade logo, the water was in cups with the water sponsor’s logo. It took me until mile 15 to make that realization as all the cups were green though. But I never missed a cup, I got water where I wanted to and the cups were filled with plenty of water not just an oz in the bottom. The volunteer support was just truly amazing.

I also took my first gel at mile 4. My nutrition plan for the race was very simple and tried. One gel pack every 4 miles up to mile 20 with water at every water station up to mile 24. This setup worked for me before at Tyler, TX and at Dallas White Rock although I was ready to change plans if I felt the need just like I did in Tyler when I switched to Gatorade at mile 17 and stopped taking gels. With the water stops being so accurately placed this plan worked amazingly well.

Mile 5 was 6:56 which was 3 seconds slower than anticipated. I was 15 seconds behind in pace for a sub-3 and I was contemplating that maybe I should forget about a sub-3 and just try to run a 3:01 which is the pace I was on at this time. The left Achilles felt a bit of tension by now and I felt that the extra 3 seconds per mile would probably help me out. I also knew that my pace band was set up to allow for a slight fade so I felt that I might still snag a sub-3 if I didn’t fade at all.

Mile 6 came in at 6:49, another 4 seconds off pace. At this point I mentally gave up the sub-3 goal completely and started concentrating on hitting a 3:01 or 3:02. I figured if I’m 4 seconds behind on every split I’ll be OK and it will still be a sub 7 minute average pace and a huge PR by over 2 minutes. 2 minutes might not sound like a lot, especially on a marathon but I can assure you, non runners, that it is! It is a huge difference!

Mile 7 was 6:51, another 5 seconds were added to my running tally of being off pace. The road finally opened up a bit and we already dropped 300 ft of net elevation in the past 7 miles and my quads were starting to feel it. The next 8 miles would actually be equal amounts of uphill and downhill running, to my legs they felt like a constant rollers not unlike Tyler, TX.

Mile 8 was 6:55, a plus 3 second split. This is where my heart rate finally started creeping up and it went up to 82% of Heart Rate Reserve. I had ran all my previous marathons with an 81% HRR average and I bonked hard in Fort Worth where I was running 82% of HRR for the first half of the race. I was getting a bit concerned but I tried to stick with the pace.

Mile 9 was 6:54, I was losing 6 seconds on this split. I was trying to keep equal effort over the rollers vs. trying to keep equal pace. When I look at my heart rate chart it looks relatively flat throughout the rollers while my pace closely follows the elevation profile of the course. I knew that this was the right strategy so I tried to stick with it.

Mile 10 was 6:59, 7 seconds off sub-3 pace. Heart rate stabilized at 82% of HRR and I was still running strong. I felt my right heel hurting a bit, like a chronic insertion point Achilles tendinitis which was totally different from the left Achilles’ acute pain that was further up. The pain was pretty strong but by mile 12 it subdued and I could keep running with it.

Mile 11 was 7:01, I was 9 seconds off sub-3 pace by now. This was my first mile split slower than 7 minutes. I knew that a sub-3 was completely gone but I was still hopeful that a 3:03 would still be possible. As long as I would stick with the pace I was running I could snag that sub 7 minute pace average.

Mile 12 was 6:42 which was right on the money for the sub-3 pace for this mile. I really picked it up on this mile, I figured my heart rate was 82% HRR and maybe it was time to push it a bit more and try to see if I can hang on for dear life. Knowing that the sub-3 was out of the question I thought if I was going to blow up at least blow up in a big way. I ran through the Wellesley College scream tunnel which was just as loud as they said it would be. This part of the course had brand new fresh asphalt and it felt good under my legs, the girls were screaming their heads off and you could hear them from half a mile away. The right side of the course was lined with girls screaming and waiting to be kissed by runners while the left was lined with photographers ready to preserve the moment forever. I did not really have time to smooch the Wellesley girls plus I was expecting to kiss my wife at mile 21 later on the course instead.

The Wellesley girls gave me such a boost and there was a small uphill section right after the scream tunnel where I decided to push up hard and forget about even effort. I turned to a guy on my right and asked him if this was Hearbreak Hill. He said “I don’t think so!”. Neither did I but he just wasn’t quite in the mood for smalltalk at this point. This was the first time in the entire race where I actually said anything to anyone. There I was running with thousands around me yet running all by myself. Marathon running is an experiment of one.

Mile 13 came in at  6:55 which was only 3 seconds slower than the sub-3 target pace. I felt that a 3:03 was genuinely possible. I pushed harder and my heart rate showed it. I crossed the half mat at 1:30:03 which would lead the untrained eye to believe that a 3:00:06 would be possible but Boston is a sinister course with four very rough hills coming in the second half.

Mile 14 was 6:48 which was actually 2 seconds faster than the sub-3 pace needed. But my heart rate raced to 86% of HRR which is well into lactate threshold territory for me. I was an hour and 36 minutes into the race and I knew I had another hour and 16 or so minutes to go so I kind of realized that maybe I should throttle back and not run this heart rate this early and hold my horses. The fear of bonking went out the window, I was going full steam at this point.

Mile 15 was 7:03. I really throttled it back, my heart rate went back to 84% HRR which was a less unreasonable heart rate than 86% HRR. However, my time was 9 seconds slower than the pace band.

Mile 16 was 6:48 instead of the prescribed 6:36. The wheels were falling off and I started to regret deeply the early push at mile 12 and second surge at mile 14. I had serious doubts whether it was a bright idea to push that early. I was getting so out of it that I forgot to take my gel at mile 16 so I drank Gatorade instead and took my gel at mile 17.

Mile 17 is where you start hitting the hills and hitting them hard. And for mile 17 I was not off 6,7 or even 10 seconds from the sub-3 pace I was off by 20 seconds. The hills were killing me and killing my time. I ran 7:28 instead of the 7:08 and this was only hill 1 of the 4 that were coming.

Mile 18 had the second hill, a shorter but steeper hill than the first one right after the first 90 degree turn in the course. You turn and BAM! It just hits you in the face. My pace was slowing down substantially and I hit a 7:21 average on it which was 14 seconds slow.

Mile 19 was supposed to be a bit of recovery before the final push for the last two hills and I ran 7:08 instead of 6:45. I just didn’t have the energy to let myself loose on the downhill part and really push for it, my quads were toast, my hams started to fatigue and I knew that I had 2 more hills and 7 more miles to go.

Mile 20 had a pretty steep hill in it and I quite honestly don’t remember much of it or how I managed to climb it but I started contemplating walking at this point. The only thing that held me back from walking was the fear of not being able to start up again

Mile 21, the oh-so-famous Hearbreak Hill. I ran the Miracle Match Marathon which has three very steep hills past 20 miles, plenty of rolling hills in the second half of the marathon. I thought I was prepared for Hearbreak Hill and how it would have nothing to teach me. I was wrong. Heartbreak Hill isn’t called Hearbreak Hill for nothing. By this point I’ve seen plenty of walkers amongst the runners, these are sub-3 hour capable runners at this point I’m running with, mind you. I was very close to stopping myself and just walk it in. My entire body craved the stopping. I ws ready to check out. And then out of nowhere a familiar face appeared and helped me run.

A fellow Texan who I met at the Cowtown Marathon Expo and bumped into at the Boston starting coral patted me on the back and said “Hang in there, you got this!”. He was shooting for a sub-3 himself the last time I talked with him which was about two and a half hour earlier at the starting line. I said “No, I don’t have it!” to which he replied  “Yes you do!”. So I decided to just suck it up and run up Hearbreak Hill with him and try to hang on for dear life. My cadence was hitting 99 going up the hill, my stride length was gone so I had to short step it and step it fast to keep up with him. My heart rate ran all the way to 89% HRR which is above my lactate threshold training zone level but I climbed up Heartbreak Hill and I did not stop. As we passed the crest of the hill I looked at my watch and I said “Well, sub-3 is out of the question” to which he replied “No it isn’t!” to which I said “Yes, it is!”. These were the last words I spoke to anyone during the race and I didn’t catch him until we were in the finishing chute. He finished 30 seconds ahead of me.

Mile 21 was 7:41 instead of 7:19, 22 seconds off pace.

After Hearbreak Hill I knew that we were getting close to where my wife was supposed to be which was at the end of one of the green tram lines. I kept looking on both sides of the street which were still filled with a never ending sea of spectators. Trying to spot my wife was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And I’m positive that the experience felt the same way from her perspective as well. I was trying to see my daughter’s stroller with no luck. I eased up on my running and I was running slower than I should have and could have on purpose with hopes of spotting my family. By the time the mile marker came up I knew that I missed them. This part of the course runs by a cemetery one one side, the tram tracks with a fence on the other side so the amount of cheering and the number of spectators dwindles. It’s the only quiet part of the course where you can have a bit of time all by yourself without hearing your name chanted by drunk frat boys repeatedly until you flick a wave in their direction.

Mile 22 was 7:18, I was really getting off pace, I gave up 33 seconds on this single mile. I can blame it partially on slowing down for trying to find my family but in all honestly I’m glad I didn’t because had I seen them I probably would have stopped and that would have cost me far more than 35 seconds.

At mile 23, I really tried to pick up the pace and as we turned onto Beacon Street the cheering and the mass of spectators was back on again. I truly felt like a champion and I just wish I could have sucked in a bit more of it instead of feeling totally wasted. Mile 23 was 7:20, +31 seconds.

Mile 24 was uneventfully painful at 7:14, +16 seconds. I could see the Citgo sign in the distance but it felt like an eternity to get there. The overpass at the Massachusetts turnpike felt like another Heartbreak hill and I used female rabbit to pull me up. She was kicking my ass at this point but I tried to hang with her going over the bridge and hanging on for dear life. I was also trying to do math in my head whether I could still sneak under 3:05. The 3:03 plan was out the window when I ran past Heartbreak Hill, the new goal was to just get under 3:05 so I can beat my Boston Qualifying time by 10 minutes and hopefully guarantee myself a registration slot for next year so I could come back and do this all over again. Unlike in Tyler where as soon as I finished and I knew I qualified for Boston but felt that it did not matter because I would never ever run another marathon in my life again this time I Was already shooting for a target time so I could come back and run Boston again.

I ran 7:24 on Mile 25 and I only had 8 minutes and 38 seconds left to cover the last 1.2 miles. I thought as long as I run 8 minute pace I would have it. But as you can tell I wasn’t very good with math with 25 miles in my legs and I actually needed to run 7:11/mile pace to make it under 3:05. When I turned onto Boylston street I looked at my watch and I saw it say 3:02:35. I had 2:25 left to cover a third of a mile straight down to the finish. I almost cried. That finish line might as well could have been a mile away. I felt that there was simply no way I was going to cover that distance in that amount of time. But I also figured that even if can’t get under 3:05 at least I can try to beat my PR of 3:05:28. So I picked it up for the final sprint and I really kicked it in high gear. I was going as fast as I could as strong as I could, looked at the clock as it kept going higher and higher and finally I raised my arms, I was in the finishing chute, I stopped my watch and it read 3:04:49.9. My official finishing time was 3:04:50. I got under 3:05 and I got a new marathon PR!

I was on cloud nine and I still haven’t come down from it. It’s been two three weeks now but I’m still getting goose bumps every time I think about Boston. I was a Boston marathon finisher and re-qualifier. I did it! Despite the injuries and setbacks I still managed to have a really good run in Boston and an amazing experience.

That’s right! I’m proud to present not one, not two, three or for but five new fresh personal best times from this weekend. Well they aren’t all mine but they’re very close to my heart so I feel the need to talk about them all.

The first four happened at our local 5K, the Aledo Advocats Run, Walk or Crawl event which is a small 5K race that benefits local children and families in need. My son kind of swore off running another 5K after he ran his first one at the Cowtown 5K at the end of February claiming it was too long of a distance. He has done several 1 mile and 1K runs before but the 5K was just a bit too much. But when they announced at school that the kids who are running the 5K this weekend would get their water bottles and t-shirts last Friday he got all excited and wanted to do it. It’s all about the cotton T-shirt, my friends!

Since my wife ran the Susan G. Komen 5K three weeks ago in 38:10 she felt like she would be OK running another 5K so she was game. I am coming off my Boston marathon and I knew that if I was going to enter the race I’d race it with full force so I decided to run it with a stroller and my daughter in it to slow me down and keep me reasonable and not injuring my Achilles which is still recovering.

I also told my co-worker about the race who also ran Boston and was in town for the weekend. He never ran a 5K race before so it was kind of interesting for me to see what he thought about running such a short race.

My running buddy, Todd won the last three years at this event and he was going to run this year again. Had I not had the stroller with me I knew I would have given him a run for his money but with the stroller I knew that was out of the question.

We all showed up at the start, bumped into my co-worker who was doing strides in the marking lot as he was warming up, I said hi to Todd and wished him good luck. They had a kid’s 1K event before the 5K and my wife was seriously contemplating whether she and my son should have signed up for that one. I think they made the right decision by running the 5K. The race is a small event, only 338 finishers so the start was pretty friendly and a completely different experience for my wife and son who ran massive 5K events for their first race. They were calling out people to only line up in the front if they would run a 6:30/mile pace or faster. Without hesitation I lined right up but I felt rather uncomfortable with the big stroller at the start, I was wondering what people around me were thinking. I don’t think they knew that I would not be the one holding them up.

The race started and we were off. I started a bit slow and waited until the small kids got their 100 yard dash in before they ran out of juice to pass them then I passed the female leader and I found myself in 4th position. We were running into the wind and I could really feel it hitting me and the stroller. Then we took a turn and we finally got a relief from the wind but only for a small period of time until we turned around and headed back again. I hit the first mile in 6:07 and I felt it was a bit too fast but I wasn’t completely wasted. The 3rd place guy was pretty far away, the 5th place runner was nowhere in sight so I essentially settled into the notion that I would finish 4th overall and I quit pushing so hard.

Then we hit an uphill section and I could really feel the pain of pushing the stroller up the h ill but I was actually gaining on the 3rd place runner so I figured that if I can gain on him on the uphill I’m most definitely going to run past him on the downhill. So that is exactly what happened. I blew past him on the downhill section after the second turnaround and kept on motoring at a steady pace. I ran a 6:27 for the second mile and I felt pretty good about it with the hill behind me. The lead guy, a 14 year old kid and my buddy Todd were so far out that I knew there was no point trying to catch them so I held back once more and kept cruising. I had a lady offering me to hold the stroller and push it back to the finish but I told her that it was a matter of principle and I would push it all the way. Then at the turn after mile two where we ran another dogleg they asked if I wanted to drop the stroller until I came back from the dogleg but I declined the offer once again. I was on a mission and I was going to run the race with the stroller for the entire run.

In the dogleg I saw Todd still being in second place and I thought this was it, his winning streak will finally be over. I saw the clock at the 3 mile mark just roll over 19 minutes as I ran by and I pushed the pace a bit faster and ran 5:55/mile pace to the finish. I finished in 19:38, 3rd overall, a new PR for me for the “stroller assisted” 5K. This was my first run with the stroller other than I ran 3 easy miles the night before around the neighborhood to get a feel for it. It’s definitely pretty rough to run with the stroller and I respect all the moms and dads who do it every day out on the trail.

After I recovered in the finish I went back out to find my family and cheer them on. I found my wife at the 3 mile mark and I ran her in for a 36:40 which was an awesome PR for her. Her first words were that she needs more training, words that filled me with joy. She’s definitely a runner now! My son ran a very slow 48 minute 5K at Cowtown so I thought he was behind my wife and I was just about to head out to get him when my wife told me that he was actually way ahead of her and he already finished. He ran a 35:19, which I am very proud of. He finished 9th in the 6-8 year old age group and he was the fastest 6 year old of them all. I’m one proud daddy. So that’s 3 PRs for my family in one race but I promised you a total of 5 PRs.

My co-worker, who never ran a 5K before and ran Boston with me 2 weeks ago wanted to break 22 minutes. He ran 22:03 and won his age group and finished 10th overall. He was very pleased with the run and he said that while a 5K is much much shorter than a marathon it is definitely a painful experience. I nodded in total agreement. A 5K is a lot more painful than a marathon for me but it’s over in 18 minutes. I think he’ll be back for running more 5Ks. So that’s the 4th PR for the weekend.

The last PR came from my training buddy, Daniel in Oklahoma City at the OKC Memorial Marathon on Sunday. He ran a 3:04 marathon at Cowtown and after I ran a 3:04 in Boston I felt we were even again and we should be good to go for some friendly competition in the summer 5K races and in the fall marathon season. Well that equality lasted 2 weeks. He ran an incredible 2:57 marathon in OKC and I’m officially the slowest amongst my running buddies again by a long shot. Granted, Daniel is 10 years younger than me but I’ll be training very diligently to try to play catch-up with him.

It was a fantastic weekend on all fronts with lots of meaningful PRs for me so I’m pretty happy with how the weekend went. If I could have worked a bit more in the backyard on Sunday instead of being stuck inside due to the nasty rain/hail that we got again it would have been an even better weekend.

It’s been a week since I ran the Boston Marathon and I’m still on cloud nine and I’m still having a runner’s high! I’ve been sharing my experience with everyone I know and everyone who’d listen as it was an amazing long weekend. I already posted about Saturday and Sunday and finally Monday rolled around and it was Marathon Day. Patriot’s Day is an official state holiday in Massachusetts but the people in Boston just call it Marathon Day instead of Patriot’s Day because that is what it’s all about. 25,000 or so runners lining up in Hopkinton to run to Boylston Street in Boston to gather their finisher medals and reflective heat blankets. That is what Patriot’s Day is all about.

I slept really well from Saturday to Sunday but from Sunday to Monday my night was nowhere near that good. I woke up to a nightmare around 1:30; I had a dream that I was at the start line in Hopkinton and the gun was already fired but I was still wearing my sweats and I wasn’t ready to go and I had to wait for all the people to run past me and I was dead last to start the Boston marathon and the sweeper bus was ready to pick me up right out of the gates. It was a terrible nightmare and I don’t remember sleeping much after that. I set the alarm to 4:30 as me and my new found Texas buddy Doug, who I was supposed to run with on Saturday night, decided to split a cab to Boston Commons where the buses were supposed to pick us up to take us to Hopkinton. I put all my clothes and gear out in the bathroom the night before so I would not wake the family while getting ready. My gear included the following:

• Polar RS800cx Heart Rate Monitor and GPS
• Energy Bars, Bagel, Oatmeal and 5 Clif Gel Packs
• Hat, singlet, racing short and socks
• Nipple Guards and BodyGlide
• Bib holder, HydraPouch and bib
• Under Armour ColdGear hooded long sleeve and tights
• XXL sweats for throwaway clothing
• Pace Band, RoadID and stapler
• Shoes
• Old cellphone to go in bag

It sure sounds like a lot of things to arrange and prepare but this is pretty much what I do before every single marathon. This is my comfort zone and I need all this crap to make sure I won’t have a hick-up or any issue while running.

I heated some water in the coffee maker and made a bowl of instant oatmeal for breakfast then took care of the usual stuff before leaving the house, got dressed, packed my green bag and headed downstairs to the hote lobby to meet Doug. Just as I got there Doug was calling me and he was standing right next to me. There were two other runners in the lobby and a van outside that was going to take us to Boston Commons for $5. So we went with it, all of us got in and we were off. We were there by 5:45 and since I only had two one dollar bills and a $20 Doug paid for my ride. And since it was so cold on the surface we decided to wait down at the subway on a bench until 6AM rolled around when I was supposed to meet with my co-worker who was also running Boston.

Me and my co-worker spent the entire weekend in Boston at the same time yet we never saw each other. He had his family, I had my family and our paths just couldn’t cross and I realized just how futile it was to try to find him at 6AM on the corner of Boylston and Treemont, the busiest intersection in town where all the buses departed from. So I stuck with Doug and we found a bunch of Canadian guys at the bus line and we had a pretty good time sharing stories during the 30 mile bus ride to Hopkinton. Running is a fantastic force that can bring together strangers on a bus or on the subway. We all had our own cross to bear, our own injuries to talk about, our own Boston Qualifying stories and it was fascinating to hear how other people got to where they got and what it took for them to make it to the 115th Boston Marathon.

Once to bus got to Hopkinton we entered the runner’s village which was basically the football field behind the school which was lined with port-a-potties on the perimeter, a huge tent in the middle, a jumbotron on one end and a ton of runners sitting down or curled up waiting for race time. They handed out some Gatorade Pro Forumla G1, chewy Powerbars, bagels, coffee and water. Since we were more than two hours away from the race start time I had some water, I already ate my bagel on the bus and tried a chewy Powerbar. Note to self: don’t try to eat the chewy Powebar in sub-50 weather, they turn int o a sticky brick. I tossed the thing and stuck with my own crunchy bar that I brough along for the ride. Morning carb loading was done and I was ready to go.

The runner’s village was the place where I noticed this thing was really happening. Sure, the bib pickup was nice and amazingly organized, the expo was huge and busy, the pasta dinner was fantastic the night before but it was at the runner’s village where I realized that this is it. I’m about to run Boston and when the rubber meets the road it’s just another 26.2 mile run on city streets and roads to the finish line. While I was surrounded by thousands of runners, runner’s village was a lonely place. I told Doug that I had to go into a port-a-potty to remove my ColdGear and put on my singlet and shorts under the baggy XXL clothes. So I did and by the time I finished Doug was gone. Later he told me that he missed his corral in New York and he was so nervous about missing it again that he had to bolt to make sure he made it. So I was at the runner’s village all by myself sitting on the curb of the school parking lot shivering in the cold. As friendly and talkative the runners were at the dinner and on the bus to Hopkinton they all shut down and got their game face on at the runner’s village. The wait at runner’s village was probably the worst part of the entire event and I’d like to spend as little time there next time as possible.

Adidas was providing massages but I have no idea who in their right mind would want to get their legs worked over before a race by a complete stranger. The Gatorade tent ran out of the G1 pre-race formula long before the wave 2 and 3 people started showing up and their tents were standing there empty and lonely. The port-a-potties started to get busier but the two times I went for one I never had to stand in line which is quite a feat when you consider there were over 24,000 runners at the start. I put on my nipple guards, attached my bib, put my RoadID  and stapled my pace band onto my wrist. I was ready to go. I found the bus that would take my bag to the finish and dropped it off. I saw plenty of runners applying BodyGlide to parts of their body I can’t really mention and I even saw a guy brushing his teeth which totally cracked me up. The pre-race rituals can be really funny.

Once I was free of all my auxiliary accessories and items that were no longer needed I took the walk from the runner’s village to the start line. It’s a nice little walk downhill on a narrow street lined with temporary fence to keep runners out of people’s yards. Runners were a lot more friendly as we got closer to the start. The corrals were closely guarded by volunteers to make sure that only people with the corresponding bib numbers would enter each corral. I went to the very front past the starting line to watch the elite women warm up with some strides then I watched them start their race at 9:32AM. I had another 28 more minutes to kill. I was still wearing my baggy XXL clothes and someone asked if I had someone I knew running the race and I was spectating/cheering them on. I pulled my zipper down and flashed them with my bright red bib and told them I was running the race. It was kind of funny how the baggy clothes made me look more like a spectator than an actual runner. Once the women were off I went back to my corral and got the the front of it.

As I was standing in the corral I saw a familiar face right next to me but I couldn’t quite place him. I met so many great runners and heard so many great stories over the weekend I had a hard time remembering who was who and where I saw them last time. Then he started talking to me and the first thing he mentioned was that he ran the Cowtown half marathon in 1:22. I immediately remembered him. He visited with me at the Cowtown Marathon Expo when I was manning the pacing booth and he told me how he wanted to run a New York Marathon qualifying time of 1:23 or less at the half. He was happy to say he did. So I naturally asked him if he was shooting for a sub-3 goal at Boston to which he replied with yes. I told him I had similar goals so I hoped to see him out on the course. Little did I know he’d play an integral part in my run later.

Once there was only 15 minutes to the start I took off my baggy clothes and threw them in the donation bags. The volunteers told us they collect an incredible amount of clothes for the homeless at the Boston Marathon. I hope my XXL sweats will keep someone warm in the cold Boston spring. When I shed and threw my baggy clothes away I felt like I finally threw away the last piece of my obese history and it was a pretty emotional moment for me. The pants were so big that my sister actually had to hem the legs to fit me. They don’t make size 42 sweats with a 30 in inseam. That set of seats really represented just how fat I used to be, you could have fit two of my new me under it. I drank the Gatorade G1 and shivered for the next 10 minutes wishing I had left my baggy sweats on longer. Then the elite filed was announced, none of which I could see, the national anthem played and we were off to run Boston.

The family on the USS Constitution

I wrote about our first Day in Boston the other day so today I’m writing about Sunday, the day before the Boston Marathon. Since my plan of running with fellow Texan Doug Saturday night went out the window, ironically he couldn’t run on the treadmill Saturday night either, by the time he got to the gym it was closed, I knew I had to put in a run Sunday morning. I was going to run an easy 3 mile run before the family woke so I could knock it out bright and early.

I slept really well, which is very important as usually no one can sleep well the night before a big race so the night before the night before the race is the one that is supposed to be perfect. With the kids going down early we hit the sack fairly early too so I had a good night’s sleep and felt great waking up and heading out for a run. I got dressed quietly, wore my Tyler Marathon, the race I qualified at, finisher’s shirt and headed out to the seaport. I took a right turn and ended up running down in an area that looked like warehouses and fish delivery stations which wasn’t very appealing so after 0.75 miles I turned back and after passing the hotel I kept running towards downtown.

I crossed over the water on Seaport Blvd and ran by the site of the Boston Tea Party. The scenery was much better than the other way. Then I turned onto Atlantic Ave and ran down to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. At this point I knew I had to turn back around and while my heart would have kept on running down the streets of Boston at a leisurely pace and enjoy the scenery my brain told me to turn around and go back to the Hotel, 3.7 miles is plenty of running a day before the Boston Marathon. So I ran back to the hotel, showered and got ready for dinner.

Once the rest of the family got their act together we went for the breakfast buffet at the hotel and my carb loading extravaganza has started. I ate pancakes with maple syrup, a bagel, some yogurt with granola and fruit, some more fruit and some scrambled eggs. I was way overeating but I figured I had to get the carbs plus I wanted to get my money’s worth from the $20 breakfast buffet. The food was great and I knew I had a long day of family festivities ahead of me.

We decided to walk to the Aquarium from the Federal Reserve Bank instead of taking two more T lines. Walking in the city with the family was nice and it made up for the fact that I stopped my run at 3.7 miles. Once we got to the aquarium the place was packed. We had a long line and while it was moving at a fairly decent pace it still took us almost an hour in line to finally get in. Once we were in we saw some penguins, fish, jellyfish and the biggest tortoise I’ve ever seen in my life swimming in the ginormous saltwater tank in the middle of the place. My kids got to play with a shark jaw and touch sea stars and stingrays in the petting tanks. We had a great time.

After the Aquarium we stopped at our favorite restaurant, Panera Bread. We usually eat lunch at the Fort Worth location once a week with the family and I love their black bean soup and their new Thai Salad as well as any of their sandwiches. Since I had such a heavy breakfast I went with a plain toasted bagel for the carbs and a chicken noodle soup to get some sodium in my system. It was a great lunch. After lunch we hopped on the tour bus again and rode out to the USS Constitution where my son got in trouble with me for disappearing on us. He kept running out of sight and scared the crap out of me. The USS Constitution is the oldest ship at the US Navy still in “operation”. I put the word operation in quotes because I don’t see the Navy deploying the USS Constitution on a mission any time soon. We opted for the self guided upper deck only tour as we were short on time and snapped some good photos on deck.

Once we were done with the ship we headed back to Boston Commons on the tour bus again and I realized that we left the Boston Marathon Dinner tickets at the hotel. So while the family enjoyed some quality time at the park and playground I rushed back to the hotel, dropped of the camera and backpack, no backpacks were allowed at the dinner, and picked up the forsaken tickets that I forgot to buy the day before and had to go back to buy them and now forgot to take with us. All in all it worked out OK and we made it to the City Hall Plaza. I was supposed to meet with some Hungarian runners at 6:00PM but once we got there I realized it would be a challenge.

The place was huge and it was full of people. The line to enter was never ending and made this morning’s line at the Aquarium seem like nothing. I was wondering whether we’d even make it into the place let alone meet my friends. I called my Hungarian friend and he told me that they were already inside and the line, while looks daunting, will be a non-issue and we’d be inside eating dinner in no time. He said 10 minutes is all it took them but my wife said there is no way we’d be eating in an hour. I started my stopwatch and we had a platefull of food in our hands in 16 minutes. Incredible!

So far the entire organization by the BAA has been incredible. The expo, the bib and packet pickup and the dinner were all super smooth events and I couldn’t really tell that this was a race and event put on for 26,000+ people. They clearly had this thing down to a science. The dinner was two different types of pasta, a pasta salad, regular salad and ungodly amounts of various soft drinks and beer. Since we were with small children they escorted us into a smaller area that was alcohol free and enclosed. My friends were seated on the patio area which was much cooler given the brutal wind and cold temperatures. This was the second time I was grateful that my family was with me and got me a nice spot, the first being the Adidas checkout line at the expo. The food tasted excellent and the unlimited refills definitely filled me up. I might have had a bit much but I figured by next morning I’d feel fine.

I did manage to meet with the Hungarian guy and his wife and we had a nice chat and talk about their experience so far and what their expectations were. He ran the Paris Marathon before and he said the pasta dinner in Paris was pathetic and didn’t even compare to how awesome Boston’s was. He had a great experience so far and we hoped the next day would not be any different. After the short visit we parted ways as it was getting late and we really needed to get the kids home and get ready for next day’s race. We walked back to the Red Line and took it back to the hotel. We did not walk the Freedom Trail at all but it sure felt like we did, my feet were getting really tired by the time we got back to the hotel.

Update:
Race Day Morning

Me and Chris from Polar

Last Monday I ran the 115th Boston Marathon. But for me it wasn’t just a race it was an entire event packed family vacation. There is so much to write about that I will break my story up into several segments.

Our journey started with an AirTran flight out of DFW and into Atlanta and after a two hour layover finally into Boston. This already upset me for several reasons.

1. The original airline schedule, when I booked the flight in November, only showed a 30 minute layover but since then they changed their schedule which meant us missing the earlier Atlanta to Boston flight and having to wait 2+ hours.
2. AirTran charges $20 for each checked bak plus an additional $49 for each oversize bag. Anything over 61″ of the sum of dimensions is considered oversize. On American Airlines the size limit is 62″. My bags were 63″ so I paid $138 extra each way to get two suitcases from Dallas to Boston, the same suitcases that have traveled to and from Europe a dozen times at no cost before. It’s my bad for not checking the new, very carefully chosen, luggage limitations but it sure left a bitter taste in my mouth and left a close to $280 hole in my wallet.

Regardless, I sucked it up, paid the fees, waited the wait and we were on our way to Beantown. The first sign that it was no ordinary trip came in Atlanta where I saw several runners already waiting for the Boston flight. I could tell they were runners because one of them wore a 2006 Boston jacket while the other, an older guy in his 60s, had a marathon finisher shirt on and a marathon cap from another event. We started talking about Boston and whether we were ready to run it. I asked the older guy when they were returning and he said Tuesday, the same day we were so we parted ways saying we’d probably see each other coming back.

Once we landed in Boston we took a short cab ride to the hotel, grabbed a quick pasta dinner at Salvatore’s at the Seaport then hit the sack.

Next morning we grabbed a quick breakfast from the hotel’s Café and this is where I met Doug, another marathoner from Texas who was also planning on running his first Boston Marathon and he also had his entire family with him. I asked how his training went and if he was going to race Boston for a PR or hold back and enjoy the event. He said he had no plans on running a PR but he wanted to run a BQ time. I asked if he was going to run that night as a last run before Monday’s race or if he was going to run Sunday morning. He said Saturday night was the plan, we exchanged phone numbers and we were planning on running a quick 3 mile run after the kids went down to bed. We also decided that we’d share a cab to the bus pickup on Monday morning.

After we parted ways with Doug I told my wife that we needed to head to Boylston Street so I could get my bib and race packet at the Expo. This was the moment where it dawned on me that I left my bib pickup sheet in Texas. I was hoping that they’d have a solution for guys like me. We took the Silver Line, the Red Line and the Green Line of the “T” until we finally made it to Boylston street and the first thing we saw was the huge scaffolding of the finish line going up. The official finish line was already painted in the BAA signature blue/yellow combo and I realized things were getting really real. This race was going to happen. By this point we’ve seen a ton of people on the subway in Boston Marathon jackets and I couldn’t wait to buy mine. We stopped for a short photo shoot at the finish line where we bumped into the same runner who I chatted with in Atlanta. It runs out he’s from DFW. Such a small world we live in.

We went to the expo just down the street and the place blew me away. It was the biggest expo I’ve ever seen. I’m not a big fan of expos. They’re OK for the most part but it’s usually the same old crap that I’ve seen at the running store and in on-line ads and chances are I don’t need any of it. I had four goals at the expo:

• Pick up my bib# and packet
• Meet with Chris Zoller from Polar
• Buy the Boston Marathon Jacket and get the free poster.
• Buy a ticket for my wife for the pasta party

First step was already problematic without the race number pickup sheet so I had to stand in a special line to get a new pick-up form. The whole thing took less than 5 minutes and I was on my way to the bib and packet pickup which was also very quick and painless. The whole process felt like it was a well oiled machine and it truly amazed me just how smooth everything went despite the 26,000+ registered runners. The race packet was plain and simple, the cutest thing in it was a BAA cowbell that I gave to my son and I instructed him to use it if he gets lost in the mass of people. There was also a Boston Marathon 26.2 bumper sticker which I will probably not use, the long sleeve Boston shirt, couple of food samples and the thick official program booklet. All in all it was a nice packet in a nice bag which was meant to be used as your bag drop bag on race day.

After I took care of the official and most important business of packet pickup we went to the expo room. I quickly realized that it was way too crowded and way to busy for me to have any chance at browsing  with a 6 year old son who I had a tough time keeping near me, a 3 year old daughter whining in a stroller and a wife who hated the whole thing and wanted to get out of there. Luckily we found a big screen TV that played historical moments from previous Boston races and it kept my kids occupied for a while so I also got to enjoy it. Watching some of the footage made me teary eyed and it was an amazing feeling to know that I would be part of this history soon myself. They also played a course review video which included a drive-by of the entire course with commentaries from elite runners and Boston veterans. Watching the video the course did not look too bad and it did not look very downhill either. It was a great video, very well done.

After the video I found the Polar booth and finally met Chris Zoller, Polar’s Customer Experience Manager. I am a Polar Ambassador and I’ve been in contact with Chris for 9+ months but this was the first time I finally met him in person. He’s just as awesome and nice in person as he is over twitter, e-mail or over the phone. We had a quick chat, snapped some photos and we had to part ways. He was busy with people asking about Polar heart rate monitors and I was busy with my family having a complete meltdown. I wish I had more time to visit but I had to take what I could get. Hopefully next time I’ll get a longer visit in with the Polar guys and gals.

The next item on the agenda was the Boston Jacket. There is nothing special about this jacket. It’s a plain Adidas jacket, this year it’s pretty obnoxious green/white/black, but what it represents makes it a coveted garment. I had to have one even if Adidas dropped the ball this year and the order from China got screwed up. You see, the jacket was supposed to have fully embroidered logos front and back just like prior years but this year it ended up being silk screened. I knew this long before, people have been pissed off about the whole jacket situation ever since they hit the shelves a month ago. Adidas lowered the price by $10 but they weren’t going to throw out 10,000+ jackets and they had no time to order in a batch of embroidered ones in time for Boston. I still wanted the jacket. It’s a status symbol. It is a sign to the rest of the world that you are a Boston Marathoner. While I was in town anywhere you looked the streets were full of Boston Jackets from various years and various colors but they all represented the same thing; someone who ran our about to run the Boston Marathon or maybe both. It was a public display of marathoning and strangers would come up to you and wish you good luck on Monday’s race as long as you wore the jacket. You would get approving nods from fellow runners on the subway. You felt like you were part of this enormous fraternity of runners. It was an incredible feeling that lasted throughout my entire stay in Boston. I don’t think there is any other place on the face of the Earth where you would be treated this way only because you are a runner.

So I went to the Adidas floor at the expo, got the jacket and thanks to my daughter being in a stroller we got a speedy checkout. The other item we picked up was the Boston Marathon poster. It’s a pretty ordinary poster until you look at it closely. From the distance it’s a so-so poster, not something I’d pay money for but since it’s free I’d take it. But if you look at it up close there is a layer of screen print on it that has every single registered runner’s name on it. It took me a while to find my name but I’m on it. I also looked for my co-worker’s name who was also running Boston and found his one too. The poster is pretty cool and a must have souvenir for any of the Boston runners. I picked up a couple extra ones for the family, I’m sure my dad wants one.

After the expo we were going to head out and go sightseeing and take a bus tour around the city to see what we should try to visit the next day. As we left the expo we stopped at the oldest fire station in the city and took some photos of the bright red trucks. I used to be a volunteer firefighter for 2.5 years in my town so shiny red trucks are still kind of close to my heart. I kind of wish we had more time but the family was impatient so we went and waited for a tour bus at a hotel and once we got on it we went around town with it.

It was nice to finally sit down and not have to worry about where my kids are or wondering whether all this walking and standing is good for my feet or not. While on the bus I realized that I forgot to buy the ticket for the pasta dinner. A lot of places told me that I should probably skip the official dinner but I wanted to get the whole experience, good or bad plus I had other plans with the pasta dinner, namely to meet some runners from Hungary. So I had to go back and buy the ticket. With ticket in hand we stopped at the Boston Commons park area and let the kids play on the playground until it was time to head back to the hotel. We had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant and I ate a juicy burger Beantown style which meant bacon, cheese, egg and beans on top of the patty. It was an awesome burger! I haven’t eaten anything this unhealthy in a long long time so I felt I could afford a binge before the marathon.

I was supposed to run with Doug but he called me and said that he would do the treadmill instead and I would be on my own. Given that I just had a heavy dinner I didn’t really feel like going for a run myself so I shelved the idea and went to bed instead. So this is how my Saturday in Boston went. I took care of business and I was good and ready for the big race on Monday.

Update:
Day 2 Recap
Race Day Morning

It is almost as if I completely abandoned my trusty blog for Dailymile, Twitter and Facebook in the recent months but what better time to rejuvenate it than now? Last Monday I completed another chapter in my fat to fit transformation by becoming a Boston Marathon Finisher.

In October of 2009, when I set out to transform my body from the obese blob that it had become over the years to the fit physique that I currently have I had no idea that the journey would make me run over 2,000 miles and send me to the 115th Boston Marathon to complete this prestigious race with the best of the best. It has been an amazing journey lined with amazing successes and experiences, new friendships that will last forever and a totally new appreciation of life in general.

So to recap my story in the last 18 months I lost 80 lbs, a third of my body weight, trained my ass off to qualify for Boston which I did on 10/10/10 in Tyler, TX then managed to register in time for the 2011 Boston Marathon and finally ran the 115th Boston Marathon last Monday. Between the Tyler Rose Marathon and Boston Marathon I completed four other marathons, ran two as full race efforts (3:05:28, 3:06:00), one as a training run (3:21:40) and one as an official pacer (3:19:44).

My training had been non-stop and by the end of January it has taken its toll on me. I got injured. In mid-January I went on a ski trip with my son to Colorado and after I returned my legs were never the same. I started having issues with my Achilles and by the end of January I was missing runs from my intense Pfitzinger 18/70 (18 weeks, 70 miles per week) plan. I still ran a 3:21 marathon at the end of January as a training run and after taking more time off to recover from it I completed a 3:20 pacer job at the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, TX at the end of February which was the last thing I did before I had to succumb to the pain of a full blown Achilles Tendinitis.

I spent most of March at the physical therapist doing eccentric calf raises and one legged balancing acts on a rubber hemisphere or in the pool at the Y and on my bike to maintain as much of my aerobic base as I could. I ran a total of 9 miles, 3×3, in March and I was in pain. In April I managed to run 25 miles in 4 mile sessions and I was pain free by the last two runs as long as I kept the pace slow, around 8 minutes per mile. Just as great as my training cycle started it went downhill and my hopes of running at Boston, let alone running a good time, were quickly diminishing. But the last two pain free 4 mile runs gave me hope. Every friend I talked with and even the folks at physical therapy said I should not run Boston but if I do I should go to Boston and just enjoy it. I earned the right to be there and I should not worry about my time and concentrate on running a smart race which will leave me uninjured. But considering my type-A personality I could not do that. I had to leave it all on the course and on Monday I did! I ran a new PR by 38 seconds with a strong kick at the finish and crossed the finish line in 3:04:50 and squeezed under my Boston Qualifying time bracket by 10 minutes 10 seconds for 2012 which I think is pretty much a guaranteed spot to run Boston in 2012.

I will post more about the trip and the race details in the coming days as I can manage to write it; there is so much to write about and so little time to do so, so you will just have to wait.

Update:
Read Part 1 here.
Read Part 2 here.
Read Part 3 here.

I watched the New York City Marathon on the big screen at my local running store with some fellow runners and it was an awesome experience. I ran an easy 5 mile run before the race started and I was feeling pretty good sitting down and enjoying the show.

The race started and we saw the elite women running at a blistering pace. Well it was a blistering pace for us, lowly amateur runners but in reality the pace at the NYC Marathon was pretty slow this year. There were no course records broken despite ideal running conditions and there was a huge lead pack in both men’s and women’s races at the half way point which is a clear indicator of a slow starting pace.

What I noticed during the race was just how much the camera angle would affect the perceived pace of the runners. When they showed them from the front they all looked like they were jogging at an easy pace. And honestly it is not far from the truth. To those guys/ladies, running 5 minute per mile pace probably feels pretty easy. But as soon as the camera showed them from the side you could see the tremendous length of their strides and just how long their reach was. They looked like gazelles, a truly amazing sight for anyone to see. Their form just seemed truly incredible and effortless. I could not get enough of it. Made me feel like a total slow poke, which is the truth when I compare myself to these elites.

The race didn’t really get interesting until the second half when tactics and surges started to develop and the lead pack started to fall apart. I greatly enjoyed the women’s battle for first where US marathon debutante Shalane Flanagan ended up with the shorter end of the stick and finished second. I was watching the race in the company of former marathoner and Olympian Kyle Heffner who qualified for the 1980 Olympic Marathon team with a 2:10:55. It was a true shame he could not go to the Olympics as the US boycotted the 1980 Moscow games. He shared some great insight about marathon racing strategy and how had Shalane had some more experience with the distance she very well could have won the race.

The men’s race’s big event was when Haile Gebrselassi, arguably the worlds best long distance runner, dropped out of the race at mile 16 on the Queensboro Bridge. He stopped running and he was out of the race. At that point we did not know that this would be the last time to see him run in a race as an hour after the marathon finish he announced his retirement from running. Haile was such a nice and genuine guy, it broke my heart to see him fighting back the tears as he announced his retirement.

The two other men that most people were following were Jared the Subway guy who allegedly ran over 550 miles to train for the NYC Marathon and Edison Pena, the Chilean miner who ran a daily dose of 6 miles in in the mine while trapped underground and decided to run New York City Marathon as a publicity stunt.

As Dennis Miller would say, now, I don’t want to get off on a rant here, but.. well, here is my brutally honest as usual take on Pena and Jared:

Jared never wanted to run a marathon. He is not a runner. He did it because of his binding contract to Subway and because the corporate monkeys told him to. I an interview in March this is what he said:

Any plans for doing other races?
I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out what this whole runner’s high is all about. Maybe next I’ll train for the national ping-pong tournament. I might have a shot at winning that one. I’m joking, of course.

Just a week before New York this is what he said:

Do you think you’ll do more marathons?
Jared: I love to run but I don’t see myself doing more marathons. I will continue to run, doing 5 or 6 mile runs because they don’t leave me so exhausted {as the long training runs} where the day is shot. Before this year, I had never run a mile in my life. I am excited to do this once, but I’m not sure if I like the long distance.

These words are obviously not a runner’s sentiments. These are words someone who’s forced into doing something against their will would say. Now mind you that it’s not a sub 4 hour marathon or a marathon at any pace that makes you a runner. It’s the constant pursuit of getting better and striving for improvement and running with that in mind. I think Jared absolutely lacks that commitment and hence he’s not a runner.

As for his training, he and the corporate PR engine behind him, they half assed it. He ran 3 times a week, one easy run, one “tempo” and one long run. That’s it. He never built up the endurance for a marathon. Not on that schedule. He is a Subway ambassador and this was his job for the last 5 months; to get ready to run New York and promote Subway along the way. He had no 40 hour work week outside of it. He had all the resources he wanted. Hell, he met Meb Keflezighi and got pointers, whatever good it did for someone like Jared.

So Jared put in a half assed training effort and got a half assed marathon result. I think it was to be totally expected. Last year almost half a million people completed a marathon. Out of that, about 278 thousand were men. Of those 278 thousand, 78.1% of them ran the marathon under 5 hours. That puts Jared smack in the bottom 20% of marathon finishers times. If that’s not abysmal I don’t know what is. But quite honestly for the people who are inspired by Jared it does not matter whether he ran a 5:13 or a 3:40. It would have been all the same. Jared is a marathoner and that is all that matters to them. Never mind that the average 32 year old guy who finishes a marathon does so under 4:18.

As for the Chilean runner, I’m not at all surprised that he finished with both knees iced and barely hobbling it in for a 5:40. Running 6 miles a day every day, if it’s true, is not a bad mileage base. It’s 42 miles a week which is right about the same weekly mileage I averaged for my marathon cycle. But the lack of any kind of run longer than 6 miles will only get you so far. A 6 mile run does not prepare you for a 26.2 mile run. His publicity stunt was probably just as stupid as Jared’s but at least he has the excuse of not getting the training and support that Jared received.

I guess I’m a glass half empty guy and all I see is two pathetically failed publicity stunts but in the case of Pena, as someone told me today, he should just be happy to have a glass, regardless of where the water level lies. He survived that terrible ordeal living under ground and barely escaping death. Running a marathon somehow does not come into my mind when I think trapped miners.

Feel free to agree or disagree with my assessment of these two celebrity runners, as Dennis Miller would say: of course that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

I’m not sure if any of you noticed but today I have changed my blog title. What used to read “Greg’s Weight Loss Blog – My Transformation From Fat To Fit In 9 Months” now reads “Greg’s Running Blog – My Transformation from fat to fit and running”. Yup, it’s official; my blog is no longer about weight loss. It’s about running.

I hope I won’t loses many readers over it, I’ll still blog about diet and exercise and personal fitness, the title change is really an indication as to where I am in my life now and how I feel. I no longer feel that my main concern is weight loss, I’m more into running now. The fact that I’m maintaining my weight is just a side effect not the cause any more. And with that I think it’s time to open a new chapter in my life. That is all for today, short and sweet.

As you know by now, the 115th Boston Marathon registration opened at 9:00AM on November 18th and promptly closed at 5:03PM on November 18th, a mere 8 hours after it opened. This unprecedented pace of registration, last year it took 8 weeks to fill the 20,000 spots, took the whole running community by surprise and opened up a can of worms, uproars, discussions about qualifying standards and questions about charity running and sponsor spots that require no qualifications to be met. Today BAA Executive Director Guy Morse gave a statement about the registration situation in a video newscast.

If you watch the video, it pretty much states the obvious facts and offers no consolation for the people who were left out and it provides no resolution for future races. It does promise a review of the qualifying and registration process for 2012 but it certainly makes no promises as to what would improve, if anything.

Since I ran a Boston Qualifying time and managed to register as 127th registrant by being glued to the computer yesterday morning and clicking the buttons in prompt order I’m one of the fortunate ones who will get a chance at running Boston in 2011. But what could be, and more importantly what should be, done to make the qualification and registration more equal and make everyone else happy. The biggest contention seem to have been around charity/corporate entries without qualifications.

The Boston Marathon field is limited to 25,000 runners. Of the 25,000 runners approximately 20,000 are what I would call legitimate qualifiers who met the qualifying time requirements and registered through the BAA open registration on November 18th. The remaining 5,000 consist about 1,500 charity slots and 3,500 corporate sponsor slots.

The sponsor entries are distributed amongst companies that foot the bill for the event, towns that the course runs through and other similar entities. These entrants require no qualification but they still need to pay for their entry fee of $130. The charity entries consist of entries given to non-profit organizations which provide entries into the Boston Marathon for a donation pledge in return. Chicago, NYC, London and other marathons do the same thing as well to help charities raise money. Runners who enter through the program are not held to a qualifying standard.

Things have gotten pretty heated on message boards, facebook and blogs between runners who qualified for Boston and runners who did not but would run it via one of the above two programs. Legitimate qualifiers who got shot out feel that the charity runners are taking their well deserved spots and there should be no “charity cases” at Boston.

My opinion is that people have to look at it from a different perspective. Instead of thinking of Boston being open to 25,000 entrants 5,000 of which get “stolen” from legitimate qualifiers, I’d rather look at it as Boston field is limited to 20,000 legitimate entrants and there are 5,000 extra spots awarded to corporate sponsors and charities. So the spots that are used by charities are not taken from qualifying runners, they were never there for the taking to begin with. They were always meant to be for charities/corporations. I think looking at it in such light makes it a lot more reasonable.

I think there is a legitimate need to have corporate sponsor spots at Boston. Companies forking over hundreds of thousands of dollars to make the Boston Marathon happen deserve something. If anything we should thank them that they enable such a great event to happen instead of dissing them. It’s not unlike people flying in first class on an airplane. I appreciate that there are people on first class, they allow me to buy a cheap ticket on coach.

I also think that charity sponsorship falls well within the realm of Boston. Most races I ran so far, big or small, were for some sort of cause. Making Boston a partially charity event allows it to be for lots of causes. And people who enter through a charity have to raise several thousand dollars for their charities to be able to run Boston. It is a win-win situation for everyone. Boston gets a couple extra runners and those extra runners collect tremendous amounts of money for some great causes.

I happened to talk with several people tonight at my local running store’s fall fashion evening about running, heart rate based training and marathon training in general. One girl said her goal is to finish a marathon in December and she will never run the distance ever again after that. She is training with our training group and she just wants to run the marathon distance once so she can have it under her belt and call herself a marathoner. Her A goal is a sub 5hr finish, B goal is to finish with no walking and C goal is just to finish. After that she will turn back into a recreational fitness runner who will run three times a week for general fitness and an occasional 5K but she will not train specifically for a race. I find nothing wrong with it but I would certainly not think of her as a Boston marathoner if she decided to run Boston on a charity entry.

Another person I talked with was the regional Adidas rep. She was carrying an Adidas BAA Marathon bag and we talked about Boston a bit. I asked her if she gets a Boston entry from Adidas. She said she did but she has to pay the $130 entry fee just like everyone else. And then she promptly added that she does have a Boston Qualifying time of 3:2x so she could run it as a regular entrant as well as long as she was quick enough on the trigger to register. To me there is no difference in my perception of her whether she runs Boston as a corporate sponsored entrant or a regular entrant or actually whether she runs it at all. To me she’s a 3:20 marathoner which is impressive all by itself regardless.

Having said all this, I would not want to run Boston on a corporate or charity sponsorship. Why? Because I personally think it would take away from the accomplishment tremendously. I think it’s a lot different to say “I qualified for Boston and I ran it” than “I completed Boston even though I didn’t really qualify for it”. I think the Boston prestige and allure comes from the fact that you have to qualify to get in. The Boston Marathon is just as much about the journey to Boston as it is about the destination. Completing Boston a non-qualified way might impress your average cubicle dweller just like completing a 5-6hr marathon would. But other runners, I for sure, would think that maybe those people should stick with 5K and 10K fun runs instead. Boston, or any marathon for that matter, is not for everyone and certainly no one is entitled to running it. It is a prestigious race and it should be treated as such. Buying your way in, regardless of how great of a cause you collected the money for, is not something that sits well with me. But if someone wants to run it like that, who am I to stop them if the rules allow it?

I actually admire people who feel no shame in hitting up their friends and family for money to be able to run a race. I would feel uncomfortable putting out a fundraiser sheet at my workplace for my son’s school. But that is just how I feel about fund raising in general.