Boston Marathon 2004

Wake up around 5:50 in Newton Hills at the Park Inn. Shower, doublecheck my gearcheck bag to make sure i have everything i need. Make sure Jason is awake and ready, then we wake up Tim to drive us to the green line station. Catch the Green Line into Boston, get off at the boylston street stop right by Boston Common. They have buses set up to drive the runners out to Hopkinton for the start. The course starts in the quiet town of Hopkinton and is pretty much a straight shot into downtown boston through the suburbs of the city (if the Chicago marathon were like this, it would be the equivalent of starting in Schaumburg, Wheaton or Naperville and running to Grant Park). Apparently in the past they've had problems with everyone showing up at the buses at the last minute and then have worse problems when most of the 20,000 runners all show up in hopkinton at the same time and it's a logistical mess. This year they recommend boarding early if your bib # is higher. Jason is bib #4053 (rec boarding time: 7:30-8:00). I am bib #3107 (rec time: 8:00-8:30). We are super early, so we go ahead and board the school buses around 7:10 or so. The ride out is pretty boring, Jason just talked to some lady sitting next to him and I had some quiet foreign kid next to me who looked like a hobbit. I wasn't even sure he looked ready to run a marathon. I shouldn't make fun of him though, he probably beat me. We arrive at the bus drop off, Hopkinton High School. I make my first bathroom stop of the day. They have everyone stationed in what is called "athlete village", which is really just the athletic fields for the highschool. There's a stage, several tents, LOTS of port-a-johns, and virtually no shade. It's already around 60-65 degrees and there's not a cloud in the sky. J and I find a spot in the grass and proceed to waste time for several hours. There's a man on the PA announcer who is incredibly annoying, and he keeps making announcements about lost people needing to go to the information booth, and then he adds these stupid comments for each one -- "John Smith, from San Diego, please go to the information booth . . . San Diego?!! It's only 7am there! He's not even awake yet!" The joke gets old by the 2nd time, and is downright obnoxious by the 15th. Jason and I take turns heading to the bathroom, my last trip (of 4) taking 40 minutes to wait in line. It's fun to people watch here, there were 2 guys dressed as Flash and Superman, they ran the marathon like that. Everyone was taking pictures with them. I saw a group of girls with a marker, so I went over to talk to them and had them write "KYLE" down my arms for me. Thanks girls. So around now they announce everyone in Corrals 1-9 please head to the starting area. Jason's in corral 4, I'm in corral 3. We check our bags on the buses, and head over to the starting area in downtown hopkinton, finally finding a place in the shade in the front yard of the Hopkinton Public Library building. I also see several guys I trained with through Fleet Feet in Chicago and chat with them for awhile. It was then that i broke the promise to my mother that I wouldn't pee in anyone's yard, I snuck around to the side of the library to handle that. Sorry Mom, at least it wasn't really someone's house. Joking around with the fleet feet guys I commented that "i've been paying attention to bib numbers, and I'm convinced the most attractive girls are in corral 11." One of the guys, Jeff, noticed I wasn't wearing any socks. Normally running w/o them doesn't bother my feet, I figured if i can do without them that's just one more mental edge I have over everyone else -- I'm that much lighter than the next guy. So about 15 minutes before the start i get into the corral, near the back so i can wait for jason to catch me before we cross the start line so our chip times will be the same. I start talking to a guy who says they ran out of shuttle buses from Boston Common and had to charter buses from the city to get all of the runners out to the starting line. He says he got out here 15 minutes ago and was panicked he was going to miss the start along with a ton of other runners. Conversely, i have been sitting here for about 3 hours in the sun. He's thinking I'm lucky for getting here well ahead of schedule, I'm thinking he's lucky for not having to be drained so much before the start. So now we're about 2 minutes from the start (noon), the sun is directly overhead, and it's now 83 degrees in Hopkinton. In training, i think the warmest run i had was one evening it was almost 70. This isn't going to be good...

J and I cross the start line 2:06 after the elite athletes. We are going out in pretty relaxed pace, around 7:15-7:30 per mile. The first several miles of the course are downhill, and it's easy to get excited and go too fast too early. I read something the day before the race that if you see someone going out too hard to "take their license plate number, you'll be seeing them again around mile 20". The start is very crowded, it's hard to get any sort of pace running. I keep telling jason to slow down. Around mile 2 we hear a guy running to our left start talking loudly, saying "Here I am, at mile 2, and everyone seems to have taken the heat into consideration, we are all going out very relaxed and at a nice pace." We look over and see a guy with a radio giving a TV report back to the ESPN2 broadcast. Then I realize it's Frank Shorter, gold medalist in the '72 Olympic Marathon in Munich & the greatest American Marathoner. I've never met the guy, but I yell at him and wave, then Jason and I keep going. About a mile later I mention that it was "probably a bad idea to have passed the smartest runner in the field". Once we're outside of Hopkinton we start heading towards Ashland. There's a bar on the left side that looks similar to the Penny Road Pub if you ever been there. There's a bunch of bikers cheering on the marathoners there and several drunk women dancing on top of a van. We go through the 5k in 23:00, perfect pace. Running on hot days such as this it's recommended to start taking water & gatorade from the aid stations before you think you need it. Once you're thirsty, it's probably too late. We start taking water around mile 4. Drinking water from a cup while running is an art, and on my first several tries i end up coughing up mouthfuls of water. Eventually i'll get this down, i think. I think this is about where I first hear someone yell "go Kyle!" having read my name from my arm. This helps quite a bit, when the spectators single you out and cheer for you individually. For the rest of the race, every time a woman cheers for me by name it sounds like my mother's voice, so that helps even more.

Tim is supposed to jump in the race with us in Framingham, around mile 6 or 7 after Ashland. Not much to report in this area of the race, everything was going smoothly. We pass mile 6 and haven't seen Tim yet, so we're hoping he didn't miss us. Went through the 2nd 5k in 23:19, all is good. Right around here we spot Tim on the right side of the road, he jumps in and asks how we're doing. Not having already run 7 miles, we have to caution him to slow down a few times. There's a few minor uphills here, and we're getting closer to the more populated areas so there's more people on the course. I think this is about where i look down on my feet and notice a small red spot on my left foot where my 4th toe is. Looks like running without socks has broken open the skin on my toe. I don't notice any pain or discomfort from this, mostly because my leg muscles and lower back are going to be in too much pain for a cut like that to even register. Third 5k goes by in 23:09, pace is still perfect. Just about here jason says he needs to slow down a bit because he's worried the pace is going to be too fast. The heat is getting pretty bad now. He tells Tim and I to keep going. We run about another mile or so and my stomach is starting to cramp up pretty badly. We stop on the side of the road and i stretch for a minute or so, and then Jason catches back up to us. My stomach has decided to stop accepting gatorade without a fight, so at most of the water stations the rest of the way I take the water and walk for 50 yards or so while drinking it to not upset the cramps any more.

Now it's time for one of the better parts of the course, running through Wellesley, home of the all-girls Wellesley College. Virtually the entire school comes out to watch the runners go by, and it's a pure noise tunnel to run through. It's hard to go through here without your adrenaline boosting and picking up the pace. We run along the side of the road returning the 'fives' to all of the outstretched hands here. Tim sees a girl holding a sign that says "HUG ME!" and stops to give her a hug. I'd have done the same, but after 12 miles in 85 degree heat your mind doesn't work as fast as it normally does. I don't think i realized she was holding a sign until a good 10 yards after passing her. We run past the restaurant in Wellesley we had dinner at the night before, "Pappa Razzi". Great pasta. We hit the 20k mark, this split was slower due to stretching and slowing down, 27:23. We also go by the halfway mark, 13.1 miles in 1:42:something. I'm starting to feel a good deal of pain in my legs and lower back at this point, and I think I may have actually stopped sweating already, a big sign of dehydration. I continue the slow pace we've settled in, along w/ drinking water and occasionally gatorade at the aid stations every mile. The "Newton Hills" are approaching soon, that's not going to be fun.

I've had a packet of PowerGel in my running shorts pocket from the start, i figure it's probably a good time to take it. Vanilla PowerGel is just about one of the greatest inventions ever. I feel great for about 5 minutes after downing this, it's like having a shot of sugar. This 5k is covered in 30:17, still slower. My memories of the rest of the marathon aren't nearly as clear as the first 15 miles or so, I think I'm losing my mind at this point. The Red Sox & Yankees played at Fenway today, and the game has just finished. Somewhere around here I find out that the Red Sox won 5-4. Good, I hate the Yankees. This makes me feel better for another 2 minutes or so. Once you're in the "hurtbox" as I was at this point, your mind grasps onto anything that can distract it from running. There's a PowerGel stand passing out packets, I take 2 more vanilla ones. These come in handy. The Newton Hills have arrived, miles 16-21 culminating with the long climb up "Heartbreak Hill" on mile 21. The hills aren't that bad by themselves, but throw in the 16 miles you've already run and the heat, and they take their toll. I think in my beat up shape I still did better on the hills than most of those around us, Tim and Jason helped quite a bit to get me up those hills without walking or stopping to stretch. 30k goes by, this 3.1 miles was run in 29:20.

We finally get to the top of Heartbreak Hill and I can't continue without stopping to use the port-a-john. Jason decides to go it alone for the last 5 miles of the race and Tim stays to wait for me. I don't recommend to anyone ever having to use a bathroom when your muscles have no energy in them. I hurt more after that stop by trying to get something out than I did beforehand. I stop to stretch before running again and a man tells me he's with a local paper and wants to know if he can interview me. He walks with Tim and I for about 50 yards or so while I tell him how bad the heat is and how much I'm looking forward to the finish line. I give him my name, tell him I'm from Elmhurst, IL, and he tells me what paper he's from. I make a note to remember what paper it was so I could try to find the paper the next day and see if I made the article. About 30 seconds later I couldn't have told you the newspaper name for the life of me.

The last 5 miles of the marathon are mostly downhill. This hurts quite a bit as it takes more muscle balance and strength to run downhill than uphill, your muscles actually fight against it in your natural running motion. 35K goes by, this split was my slowest by far -- 34:57, ouch! Running into Boston would've been a lot more fun if I wasn't in so much pain. There's thousands of people, you run by a bunch of drunks from Boston College, you run near Fenway where the Red Sox faithful are out and cheering (in a good mood today having beaten the yankees), and the city pretty much rocks. I stagger through another 5k, this one a bit faster than the last 32:07. I get to the 1 mile to go point and decide "to hell with it" and start picking up the pace quite a bit. This probably drove a lot of the people around me nuts. There's nothing worse than running a marathon and seeing some idiot decide to kick it in the last mile or so, in this case I was the idiot. I was tired of the pain in my legs, the growing blood spot on my shoe, my lower back being sore, and my stomach fighting with me for 15 miles, so i blocked it all out and tried as best i could to hammer the last mile. The roaring crowds help to block out the pain, my last mile was the fastest of all 26, I think i came close to breaking 7 minutes on that one. Final finish time was 3:54:14, my 2nd half of the race was 30 minutes slower than the first half.

Find Tim, find jason, find the fleet feet guys & their suite. Get a complimentary leg massage. Drink a beer. Call my parents to tell them I'm still alive. Go back to the hotel, shower, go back to downtown boston. Have a great seafood dinner and some clam chowdah. Drink some more beer. Get back to the hotel around 12:30 or so. Sleep.