After two years of hard work, it
was finally time to head to Boston. Beantown.
Bahston. BOSTON.
Back in June 2010, I started training for the Outer Banks Marathon with
the goal of qualifying for Boston
(3:40:59 or faster at the time). My time
for OBX was 3:41:35; yep, missed BQ by 36 measly seconds. I didn’t know this at the time, but it was
actually a great thing I missed it. I
decided last minute to run the Charleston Riverfront Marathon in January of
2011 and finished in 3:34:08, a BQ with plenty of time to spare! See, Boston
fills up fast, so even if you run a qualifying time you still might not get
in. To run the 2012 Boston Marathon, you
had to be under the qualifying time by about 1:37, so if I had squeezed in at
OBX, I probably wouldn’t have run Charleston
and wouldn’t have made the cut!
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| Qualifying at the Charleston Riverfront Marathon |
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Anyways, it was time to celebrate
all that hard work and run the Boston Marathon.
We got up there Friday afternoon so we’d have time to explore the expo,
have all day Saturday to have fun in Boston, and then rest up on Sunday.
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| Picking up my bib at the expo |
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We started Saturday with a run with Bart
Yasso and the Runner’s World crew. It
was pretty cool; they had breakfast and free books waiting for everyone after
the run. On Sunday, we spent the day
listening to running seminars – How to Run Your Best Boston, Boston Legends,
Alberto Salazar’s 14 Minutes, and Salazar and Dick Beardsley’s 30th
Anniversary of the Duel in the Sun. I am
so, so, so glad Jason and I went to these on Sunday, as we got to hear some
great stories and got to meet Kathrine Switzer and Alberto Salazar and got to
say hey to Dick B. again. After this, it
was time to fuel up and rest up for the BIG day.
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| Boston Legends |
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| Me and Kathrine Switzer |
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| Citgo sign marks one-mile to go! |
Monday. Patriot’s Day. Boston Marathon Day. Oh
yea, temps to reach 90-degrees day.
Going into the race, I wasn’t too worried about the weather, as I have
run a couple of long distance races in warm weather and have done fine. I also knew my training had gone well and
that I was in the best marathon shape I’ve ever been in. My plan was just to adjust my pace some and
finish feeling good. No problem, right?
Yea, so about that; things often don't go as planned. My friend, Kristin, and I had decided before
the race to start together and keep each other in check for the first 5K so
neither one of us went crazy with the masses.
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| Kristin and me hanging out in the Athletes' Village prerace |
We kept an even pace through mile 7 and then I unexpectedly starting
feeling bad so I had to back off - mile 7 of a 26.2 mile race and I was feeling
bad. Not good, not good at all. I started setting small goals and wanted to
just make it to the half mark and hear the Wellesley girls. Reading their signs took my mind off how bad
I felt for a few minutes.
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| Halfway there! |
By the half
mark, I was really struggling and wasn’t sure why. I was taking in fluids and my legs felt fine,
but my body just didn’t want to go. I
knew I would see Jason at 17, so I made that my next goal, just make it 4 more
miles. In those 4 miles, I got one of
the treasured freezie pops, just to realize mine wasn’t cut open. I wanted to cry – over a freezie pop. Seriously.
As soon as I saw Jason, I started crying. I felt so bad and was just so happy to see
him and have his comfort. It was hard
for me to leave him, but I had less than 10 miles to go and still thought I
could finish in around 4 hours. Well, my
body had other ideas. It decided it
really hated that I was still moving me and steered me to the curb at mile 20
so I could start dry heaving in the middle of the water stop. A nice EMT came and got me and took me to the
medical tent across the street to check me out.
DEHYDRATION. I think that was the
word of the day. He wanted me to pull
out because my blood pressure was low and my pulse was high and wasn’t coming
down. He asked me what I wanted to do,
and I said without hesitation, “I’m going to finish this race.” (Duh, it’s the Boston Marathon and my first
one!) I’m sure he loved that. After learning that there was a medical tent
at every mile from there on out, off I went.
Oh yea, did I mention that I did a 34 minute mile? Thank you medical tent pit stop! The last 10K was BRUTAL. I kept thinking about my family and friends tracking me; I knew they were worried and I had no way of telling them I was still out there having a hard time, but hanging on! If I moved faster than a slow jog, my body
started to shutdown, so I had to do a slow shuffle and had to stop at every
medical tent. I had my name written
across my stomach, which was awesome at the beginning of the race, but not so
much at the end. The Boston College
students, who were hardcore, decided to yell at me like I was their best
friend. I wanted to crawl under a rock I
was so upset about how the race was going.
I also wanted to scrub my name off my stomach so people would stop
making noise in my direction! I know
they were trying to help, which is awesome, but at the time I wanted the BC
kids to leave me alone!
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| Trying to ignore the BC kids |
I wanted to run
down Boylston Street,
so I made the left turn running, which was a bad mistake. I decided that in order to run across the
finish line, I would have to walk. It
was hard for me to walk because I could see the finish line and there were so
many cheering people, but my body just didn’t want to go.
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| Praying my body would make it one more tenth |
It seemed like 20 million hours later, but I
FINALLY crossed the finish line. Just
like at mile 20, my body went on autopilot and went straight to the medical
tent. I did find out how to get bumped
into the front of the line – sit down and throw up right in front of the
entrance. That’ll get you right in!
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| I did it! I'm a tough cookie! |
So, Boston was a huge disaster for me (1:56 first
half; 3:31 second half – I qualified with a 3:34). All I can figure out is that I started with a low level of electrolytes and couldn't take in enough to replace what I was losing. Despite how it went, I still love the race
and am so thankful that God blessed me with the experience. I also learned some important things about myself
that I hope I can apply to the rest of my life, especially the fact that I have a
whole new level of willpower and determination to dig into that I didn’t even
know I had. I’m proud of myself for
working my butt off to get to Boston; I’m proud of myself for training super
hard and showing up at the start line healthy; I’m proud of myself for
finishing when all I wanted to do was quit; I’m proud of myself for running one
of the hottest Boston Marathons ever when almost 5000 people didn’t even start!
I owe a ton of thanks to all the
people who logged so many miles with me to help me get to and through Boston – Dam 5 AM’ers,
LRC, and UCRR. Also, a big thanks to my
family for loving me, supporting me, and putting up with my twisted priorities
and to Jason for giving me so much love and support, tracking down a fan in the
hotel, and bringing me over a pound of mac and cheese post-Boston! Going
into the race, one of my goals was to do the best I could and give God the
glory, so thanks be to God!
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| The sign J made for me - should have read "Finish, Katie!" |
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“Don’t concern yourself with
being the fastest.
Your only goal in
life should always be to
maximize your God-given talents and
never settle for
anything less.”
- 26 Miles to Boston by Michael
Connelly
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| J and I enjoying Boston - Fenway! |
