Boston Marathon

Our hotel was in Framingham so after reading all the pre-race information and discussing details, we decided Ty would drive me to the participant parking lot in Hopkinton and I would ride the bus to Athlete's Village. I initially planned for him to drop me off at 9:30 but after discussing with runners in the Boston Marathon 2024 Facebook Page, we decided to shoot for 9am. I set my alarm for 7:30 so I would have time to do yoga and get ready before we left the hotel at 8:30. I ended up waking up at 6:30 and was wide awake so I went ahead and got up. Ty got up at 7:30 and went down to breakfast. We were ready early so decided to go ahead and head out. When I stopped in to say bye to mom and Thomas, mom wanted to come with us so I told her we would wait and headed down to the gym so I could say bye to dad who was running on the treadmill down there. I forgot I needed a key card to get into that room so I sat in the lobby and ate my overnight oats as I watched the ceremony for the Boston Marathon bombing victims. I was already getting emotional watching that and thinking about how lucky I was to be in Boston and preparing to run the marathon! We stopped in to say goodbye to dad and then were off at around 8:25. I had some weird issues with getting migraines during/after 3 of my long runs during this training cycle with one of them being my 20 mile trail race at the Snake Run. I was convinced it was related to caffeine so I changed up my breakfast a little bit and had Nuun in my hotel room when I started eating my overnight oats which was less caffeine than my coffee, but did have a bit of caffeine. My 2 big goals for this race were to finish and not get a migraine. 

I bought throw away sweats to donate at the start line and had no idea the back of my sweatshirt said "You are awesome!" until I saw this picture.

I wasn't finished with my overnight oats when we arrived at the parking lot. It was taking me a long time to eat because I was so excited and it was more food than I was used to eating for breakfast. We sat in the car while I finished them and then I loaded the bus right around 9:00. While on the bus I ate a Zbar and drank some more Nuun. I arrived at Athlete's Village and immediately got in line for the porta potties. I knew there were also porta potties before entering the corrals so I wasn't worried if I didn't make it into a porta potty in time. They ended up calling for blue wave, corrals 1 & 2 when I was still about 10 people back from the front of the line. I thought about staying, but knew April would likely head to the start right when they called for it. She was also running the race and we had planned to run together if we could find each other. I figured going right away would be the best way to find her. I took my sweats off as I walked and put them in the donate bins. I continued to carry my Ziplock bag because I was still working on my Zbar and I wanted to take my inhaler 30 minutes before race start. I was walking along and saw April in front of me. I was so shocked I found her and was super pumped to walk the rest of the way with her. We stopped off at the porta potties and she saw someone with a phone out and asked her to take our picture and text it to her. I was shocked as we walked to the start area that there were spectators out cheering us on and wishing us luck. There was sunscreen zip tied to the fences and I stopped to use it. That was a saving grace because I forgot to bring sunscreen with me! It was really nice being in corral 2 because once we got to the start line we were off really quickly. We chatted a bit with a woman standing by us. She was running her 4th Boston and heard April asking me about my race plan. She was thinking we could pick the pace up at 14 miles and I told her my plan was to run conservatively through the Newton Hills and then pick it up for the last 5 downhill miles with whatever I had left. The woman told us to go with that plan. She also encouraged us to walk to the start line rather than run to it. I had never done that in a race before, but it was solid advice. We were off within about 40 seconds of the start of blue wave. Some of the volunteers were calling it smurf wave which I thought was cute.

Good luck kiss as I boarded the bus.

April saw someone with a phone out and asked her to take our picture. Then she gave her number to her so she could text it to her. She's a nut!

I was pretty certain I would be under 3:40 since I was under 3:40 at Grandma's with a terrible race and was beyond confident I would be under 4 hours. I was planning for somewhere between 3:30-3:40 as my finishing time, but main goal was to have fun. I didn't really care that much about my time. I wanted to enjoy the course and be with it enough at the end to appreciate my surroundings. I did so much reading about the course and the history and was so excited to finally see it in person! We took off and it was so packed, there really wasn't room to move around at all and we just settled in where we were. I knew the start was downhill, but I wasn't prepared for how steep the downhills were. Already in the first miles, my legs were feeling off, particularly my quads. I chalked it up to being so tightly packed and not having room to fully stride out. I figured my legs would feel better once things spread out a bit. I knew from reading race reports that things would spread out by the 5k mark. That was exactly what happened. We hit the 5k mark and had room to breathe. I did feel a bit better, but my legs still didn't feel how I expected. I pointed out the Spencer the dog statue for April as we ran through Ashland and that super steep downhill. I was immediately feeling the downhills which was unexpected. Most the race reports I'd read said your quads would be trashed from the early downhills and you'd feel it during the Newton Hills so I wasn't expecting them to already be toast. I'm wondering if that was in part due to walking so much in the days leading up to the race. I had 27,000 steps on Saturday just from walking and then spent 45 minutes standing in line the next day along with more walking. Our first miles were 8:09, 8:04, and 7:58. I thought being around marathon pace in the first miles would be perfect, but in retrospect, I wonder if I should have pulled back more at the beginning due to the heat. In my mind, the heat wasn't going to be an issue since my BQ was in Houston with 65 degrees and high humidity. What I didn't think about was that Houston started early and I was almost finished by the time I started in Boston. That meant I was running with the sun directly overhead and absolutely no shade on the entire course in Boston, compared to shade and cloud coverage in Houston. 

I was telling April facts about the course as we ran and she was naming singers whenever we heard music on the course. I was staying to the side to high five everyone as we ran by. She reminded me we wanted to be in the middle of the road to get off the slant (which I learned the hard way at Grandma's) so once things thinned out, we tried to stay more in the middle. The night before the race Ty, my dad, and I planned out where they would be on the course and I knew they'd be at the train station in Framingham. I started getting excited as we entered Framingham and I could tell when we got close to the train station because the packs of spectators got thicker. I saw Thomas before he saw me and was so excited! After we passed him, I wondered if I had missed the others or if there were staged apart so I'd have people cheering for me in more places. I came upon mom, dad, and Ty together more in the middle and ran over to high five them. I got worried about Jeremy that I'd either missed him or he wasn't ready on time and they had to leave him at the hotel. I got a bit emotional about it and could feel myself tearing up as the spectators thinned and I was certain I missed him. Then at the very end of the large spectator section I heard him yell my name and there he was! He was quite thrilled to see us. We went through the 10k a little over 50 minutes with those next miles in 7:49, 7:52, 7:57. I knew we were right where we wanted to be and I was super excited.

The first few water stops were absolute mayhem. I'm used to being a bit more spread out going through water stops and I was surprised by how many people would get their water and start walking. I quickly figured out that everyone was going for the water stops on the right side of the road because they were first so I started exclusively using the water stops on the left. April and I got separated at water stops a couple times but always found each other again quickly. I ate Gus every 4 miles like I have in the past and alternated between uncaffeinated and caffeinated. We went through miles 7 and 8 in 7:53 and 7:54. During mile 9 my quads started feeling progressively worse and I accepted the fact that I was going to have to slow down and let April go, otherwise I was going to get myself into a situation where I would have to death march to the finish like I did at Grandma's. I was hopeful that if I dropped back and rested my quads for a bit, I'd be able to rally after halfway and maybe catch back up to her so we could finish together. Mile 9 was 8:00 and I was starting to curse the downhills. I felt like they were never ending. There were some rolling hills and the only respite I got for my quads was going uphill. As I crested each hill, I would curse that I had to go back down it. The downhills were getting more and more painful. I started counting down to mile 16, knowing I would get a reprieve from the downhills on the Newton Hills. I got so focused on that, I forgot it was basically downhill from there to the finish. Miles 10-13 were 8:06, 8:12, 8:13, and 8:23. I went through the half-marathon mark in 1:47. I told myself if I stayed around 8:17 pace, I could run the 2nd half in 1:50 and still be under 3:40. I felt pretty confident with that plan.

Pretty sure I'm opening a Gu to eat in this picture and that's why my hands look weird.

People talk so much about the Wellesley scream tunnel so I was surprised that I didn't think it was any louder than other parts of the course. The entire course was nothing but spectators the entire way. It was incredible and unlike anything I had ever experienced. Miles 14, 15, and 16 were 8:20, 8:31, and 8:13. I knew I was probably not going to be under 3:40 because I could feel that a strong finish was not going to be a possibility. My quads were feeling worse and worse with each passing mile. Taking my foot off the gas hadn't brought my legs around as I had hoped it would. With the heat I started taking a cup to drink and then grabbing a 2nd cup to dump on my head. Once we hit the hills, I started taking a cup to drink, then grabbing a 2nd one to drink, and if I could taking a 3rd to pour over my head. I was surprised to be running over piles of used cups as I ran through water stops. There were also some sections I ran through and felt my shoes stick. I later realized the road was sticky from Gatorade. One of my favorite signs I saw was, "Pain is temporary, Strava is forever." Miles 17, 18, and 19 were 8:22, 8:12, and 8:41. I was off my game and realized around mile 18 that I'd forgotten to eat my mile 16 Gu. I ended up eating it at around mile 18. I decided to eat my next Gu at 20 and then try for my last one at mile 23 like planned. I felt great going up the hills and it was the best my legs felt after mile 9, but they obviously still slowed me down and wore me out. During mile 20 when I grabbed a water cup, the lady in front of me abruptly stopped and started walking. I ran into her back and stumbled. I decided, fuck it after that and walked through the water stop. That mile was 8:52. Getting a Gu down at mile 20 was a bit of a struggle because I'd just had one 2 miles before, but I got it in.

Next came Heartbreak Hill. I was tired enough that I lost track of how many hills we had gone up and wasn't sure if I was going up Heartbreak or if I still had another hill to go. I was so excited when I saw a sign hanging across the road that said, "You conquered Heartbreak Hill. Newton hearts (with a picture of a heart) you." I didn't think Heartbreak Hill was that bad, but my mile split would beg to differ. Mile 21 was 9:27. It was my first mile over 9:00 but I hadn't been watching my mile splits and had no idea. Honestly, I thought I had been over 9:00 pace for a while based on how I was feeling. I got a huge 2nd wind running up the hills and was feeling a lot better, but then I realized cresting Heartbreak Hill meant I had a very steep downhill coming my way and that was absolute torture. Mile 22 was one of the most painful of the entire race and my split speaks for how steep the downhill was that I ran an 8:59 even though I was dying. Mile 23 was 9:05 and I told myself I just had a 5k to go. At this point I was pretty miserable. I was even thinking that most sane runners would have stopped at a med tent by now, but I was determined to finish, no matter what my time was going to be. As I passed the mile splits on the course, I'd been slowly adding how much over I was on my Garmin. The more tired I got, the worse I did with weaving through people and the water stops toward the end of the race were really bad. I was hitting the mile marks on the course about a half-mile after when they were popping up on my Garmin. Mile 24 was 9:39 and my mantra became, "You are tough, you can do hard things, you can finish this race." I also kept telling myself even though I felt terrible, I didn't feel nearly as terrible as I had at Grandma's marathon and that was something! I had been able to push back down under 9:00 for my last mile at Grandma's so I told myself I could do that again. I had the benefit of knowing I was really close to sub-3:40 at Grandma's and had to push to get under. Here I knew no matter what I did, I wasn't going to make it in under. I was looking at my overall time and telling myself, just 1 hour 10 minutes to go, just 45 minutes to go, etc. When I'm doing that, it means I'm really hurting and I started that pretty far out, so that tells you how I'd been feeling. 

About to crest Heartbreak Hill.

When I could see the Citgo sign in the distance I was battling emotions. Excited because I'm almost to the last mile! But also overwhelmed because that sign looks so far away. We finally had a bit of shade on this portion of the course and I crossed the road to run in it. I'd like to say it helped me, but I'm not even sure I noticed a significant difference. The crowds during this part of the race were on point. There were different parts of the race where I felt embarrassed that there were so many people tracking me who knew I was having an awful race. Which was silly because most of them knew what a good time was for me and were just thrilled to see me finish. I started looking forward to seeing my family again because they planned to be at about mile 25.5. I was struggling to determine where they might be since my Garmin was measuring about 0.5 mile long so I watched the crowds but not too closely. I was sad for them to see me dying so I was hoping they maybe weren't able to make it there. As I took the turn on Hereford I swore I heard someone yell "Liz". Watching the video my family took, I'm certain I heard my mom yelling my name because she spaced it out as "E-liz-a-beth!" Mile 25 was 9:07 and then mile 26 was 9:23, but I was passing a lot of people, so I'm wondering if there was some uphill. I felt like the finish was uphill.

Heart for my family!

When I turned onto Boylston and saw the finish line I got so emotional. I started picturing what it would have felt like to be Des running that straightaway as she was the first American woman to win the race in 35 years. I was also emotional that I was having such a rough race because I could have finished the race with April had I been feeling normally. I wasn't quite sure where the finish line was because there were multiple mats on the ground so I ended up running all the way through the large blue uprights past the finish line. I ran the last 0.73 in 8:52 pace. My watch showed 26.73 miles! As I started walking, I saw April standing there waiting for me and almost cried. It was so sweet of her to wait on me! We walked through together and got our picture together. We picked up water, our medals, the wraps, and a snack bag. She had a drop bag since she stayed in Boston and I didn't have it in me to walk more than I needed to so I went ahead and headed to the family meeting area. I was so excited that my last name started with C so I wouldn't have to walk as far, but it was backwards and I had to walk all the way down to C. I was working on not crying and was processing all my emotions from having such a difficult race and such a slow time. By the time I made it to the family meeting area and laid down for a bit, I was able to work through my emotions and be positive for my family when they arrived. I finished in 3:45:55 which was 8:27 pace on my watch. I officially beat my virtual Boston Marathon time so there is that! I was 13,345th out of 25,530 finishers. My bib was 17,784 so I placed higher than what my qualifying time placed me. I was 4,455th out of 10,904 female finishers. I was 2,618th out of 4,649 women in my age group.

I'm so freaking proud of this picture! Here I was smiling through so much pain and living the moment rather than getting caught up in what a disappointing finishing time I would have.

I laid down in the grass for a bit while I waited on my family. I told Ty the worst part of the Houston Marathon was waiting for so long for my family in the family meeting area and I knew he would make that a priority so I wouldn't be waiting for too long. I saw Ty running toward me and he was so upset I'd had to wait on him. It had only been 20 minutes and I felt like it was a good thing because if he'd been there when I first arrived, I probably would have cried. But I had time to process everything before I saw him, so I was emotionally more regulated. I put all my stuff for after the race in my drop bag and asked him to bring it to me. Since he was carrying that, he got stopped and searched at every checkpoint which made him late getting to me. With it being so warm and having a "space blanket", I really didn't need the bag and didn't change until we got to the restaurant, so I shouldn't have had him carry it. He said we had a 1.5 mile walk to the car and I said I could do it. I'm not sure that was accurate because it seemed to take a lot longer than that. At one point I heard my mom tell my dad, "I don't want to walk anymore, but Elizabeth is and she ran a marathon, so I feel like I have to." I ended the day with over 52,000 steps! My Garmin shows 22 minutes of walking to my start corral in the morning and then 49 minutes of walking to the car after the race. I wanted a burger, fries, and a beer so we went to the same tavern we'd gone to on Saturday night in Framingham. I suddenly had severe pain in my foot where my bone spurs are and I panicked that it had turned into a stress fracture. Dad asked for ice while I was changing in the bathroom and I iced it through dinner. It was fine by the next day, thankfully, so I'm not sure why the pain kicked in so quickly when it did. It may have been in part due to all the walking! When I finished the race, I felt like after 2 rough marathons in a row, it was time to take a break from the marathon and focus on shorter distances. Now after more time to process, I want to do another marathon to prove to myself I can do it and these 2 rough marathons don't define what I am capable of. I may go for Houston in January as I was originally thinking of doing before Boston, we will see! If not then, maybe Grandma's in June of 2025.

Tuesday morning I woke up after having dreams about my rough race and felt depressed that it was all over and that it had gone the way it did. Going into the race I was so confident I was going to have a really strong race, there was no doubt in my mind. The fact that it was as rough as it was, ended up being a bit of a shock. I opened my email and saw a video one of my students sent me telling me I had won. It was just the perspective I needed. I was reminded no one cared about my time like I did and I should be thankful I got into the race and was able to experience it no matter what my time was. We flew back and arrived home around 10:30 that night and I was back to work the next day. Walking in with my "marathon legs", feeling exhausted, I saw signs my co-workers had made for me and I started crying. All day long kids from other classes walked past me and told me "congratulations," and "good job." It was all so special. One of my co-workers pulled the tracker up on her Promethean Board when I had a mile left and the kids were all cheering and chanting for me and then when I finished they all screamed. When I saw that video after the race, I cried. It was so sweet! I'm now excited to give Boston another go at some point and train specifically for downhills to see if that helps my performance. With how incredible the spectators and atmosphere was to pull me along when I was feeling rough, I'd really love to see what I could do there on a good day! I saw this quote and it really hit the nail on the head for me, "Part of chasing dreams is being vulnerable enough to fail, then finding the courage to try again."

You better believe I wore my celebration jacket on my first day back to work!