Saturday, April 23, 2011

Boston Marathon

Leading up to Boston I watched the weather and was uber aware of each ache. Race morning was crisp, cold, windy but sunny.  The sun meant for a great race and the wind was a fortunate tail-wind which would lend to Boston being the faster marathon setting a world record time. (The course doesn't qualify for a world record)
Jason and Chrissy waiting at the Westin for the arrival of our bus
I was incredibly fortunate with an opportunity to ride in the coach bus with the Alzheimer's charity group. The bus not only had a bathroom on it, but we were allowed to stay on the bus until the last minute.  I didn't have to sit in the mud in Athlete's Village, stand in the port-a-potty lines or deal with the terribly cold wind.
Athlete's Village
The race started and I heeded (or so I thought) all the advice to go out slow.  I held myself back at the beginning and was running strong.  Around mile 11 I ran into Tall Mom and was so excited to meet her.  It was sunny and for me quite hot.  I sipped the water at most water stations and dumped the rest on my head.  Going downhill at mile 18, I no longer felt I was holding myself back and my arms were incredibly tired.  I tried to maintain for a little while but when my BQ pace slipped by, I gave myself permission to walk some.  I felt the wall hitting me, falling on me brick by brick. From mile 19 through the finish I struggled and ran/walked to the finish. I've never been so happy to finish a race.  

My final time was 3:54:45 and I finished in 14729 place, 5053 out of females and 973 in my age group. My bib number was in the 17K's and that means that I finished about 3K above compared to the people I started with. A number of people I talked to did worse that the qualifying time by 10-15 minutes so I fit right in.

While I am disappointed that I didn't finish with a 3:45, qualifying and running Boston is a great accomplishment and I will always have that.  Thanks everyone for the kind words and support. 
Relaxing on the Boston Common post marathon

9 comments:

RunningLaur said...

Congrats on your Boston finish!!

Marci said...

Congratulations!!

Jim ... 50after40 said...

So cool you got to stay on the bus at the start ... I'm jealous! It was a great day, sorry the pace wasn't what you had hoped, but the experience was amazing!

LookingUpAgain said...

Congrats on your race! You got to run Boston! How amazing :)

Anonymous said...

I was thinking of you- congratulations!

Adrienne said...

Congrats Christina! I was following you on my phone and cheering you on at the 10K, half, 30k and finish line all from here in Phoenix. So so happy for you.

Anonymous said...

What an amazing accomplishment. Super Job.

Lindsay said...

Congrats on your Boston finish! While it'd be great to have another goal-met marathon, sometimes you just have to appreciate it as a Victory Lap for making it to the big day. (And at least you didn't bomb it with a 4:14 like I did last year haha)

Black Knight said...

Silly Black Knight, 3'41'14" was the time at the 40° km, I read (and wrote) the wrong time. I beg your pardon.
Anyway you ran a great race. Congrats.