Boston marathon with Superwes.
My cold finally eased off!
Rocky the homeless waif joined us at 6:15 to get the shuttle to the
"athlete's village".
What a zoo! We enjoyed pre-race LD cookies there. Not so much the 20 minute porta-potty lines.
The start featured a flyover by F15s, then a 3 min.
shuffle to the mat,
and Supe and I were off. The plan was to have fun and enjoy the day. We ran an an easy first 5mi, and a steady pace for the whole easier first half, saving legs for the dreaded hills from mi 15-20, and a faster final 5.
Among the total zoo we found Harper after we stopped for a pee break.
There was time to take pictures, and Wes kept us right on pace.
I lost my gel flask, so I had to grab orange slices and fill my bottle with Gatorade. Crowds were insane , kids high- fiving, college girls blowing kisses and screaming.
In the second half I cranked it up on the flats to keep on sched after
slower climbs, and Wes fell back a bit. I saw Bash and gave her a kiss, (ruining her photo op to her horror).
I ran my HR up the surprisingly feeble hills and finished Heartbreak right on target. My legs felt great so I put the hammer down, and passed loads of folks who went out too hard.
I had my 3 fastest splits here and had to rein it in when my HR got too high, unlike previous marathons when my legs were pooched by the end.
I ended up with a negative split in 3:17:58, a few minutes ahead of
the plan, and I felt like my legs wanted to keep going for miles.
I guess few people have a good second half for Boston, from what I hear.
The well-paced first half (Thanks SW) definitely helped make it feel easier.
The finish process was long, slow, packed and cold, but certainly an
experience. It was fun to run the first part with SW, and to see our
buddies Crash, Rocky and Harper, who all had great races.