Boston Marathon trip recap - round 2

This is the second year in a row that I have traveled to Boston to run the oldest annual marathon in the world, and I have to say this experience was twice as good as the last. The 113th Boston Marathon is in the record books, with 22,898 participants finishing the race – the second highest total ever, after the 100th anniversary race in 1996. I was extremely pleased with my race results. I finished 88th overall (1st Tennessean) in a time of 2:34:01, which was a personal record by 18 seconds. The Boston Experience: Like last year, I stayed with my friend “Foldy” in the “North End” of downtown Boston. His place is a short walk from Boston’s “TD Banknorth” Garden arena and surrounded by several hundred Italian restaurants. Also like last year, we went to a Red Sox game, except this year we upgraded and watched the game from behind home plate. An addition to this year’s trip, we watched game 1 of the Boston Celtics/Chicago Bulls playoff game in the lower level, which was awesome. The game went to OT and we were on our feet cheering most of the game. Even though the plan was to go up there to run a race, we stayed relaxed and had fun. The night before the race, we ate at an amazing Italian restaurant. The sea bass w/ sun dried tomatoes and capers entrée I had ranks up there in the top five best-tasting meals I have ever had.

Race Day: I, my brother, and my friend Tracy Brooks woke up at 6 a.m., grabbed our running gear and to the bus pickup location less than a mile away. Since the race starts 26 miles away in Covington, school buses shuttle us out there. We get to Covington around 8:30 a.m. and do our final preparations. I then made my way over to corral one and meet up with the crew of Knoxville Track Club runners I trained with over the winter that want to run the same pace, and we go over our game plan one last time. The race started at 10:30 a.m., the weather was overcast, and temperatures were in the 50s, which was nice. The only problem was the 10+ mph head wind we encountered the ENTIRE race since we never strayed from since the race route ran into it the entire race. I ran with three other Knoxville Track Club runners for the first 15 miles or so. We planned on going out at a 5:53 per mile pace and we were only slightly ahead of that pace at the half marathon mark (1:16:35). Due to the wind, it was crucial to draft off each other and other runners around us. The wind took its toll on a large percentage of the runners that day, and the same was the case for many on our team. The crowd support was amazing though as usual, and there were many times that I would throw my arms up in the air to get them to cheer louder (especially when we ran through the all-girl gauntlet went we ran through Wellesley College. I still felt good through the half marathon and said that I was going to run 2:34 today, which I did exactly. My fellow Knoxville runners started fading as we hit the hills, so I found a few other runners who were still running strong and we pushed through the hills (including Heartbreak Hill). That mile happened to be my slowest mile (6:07), but I made up for it the next mile with my fastest mile of the day (5:38). After that mile, the lone guy from the pack that I was still running with asked how I felt, and I responded sarcastically with, “well we did just run a 5:38 mile.” So we kept up a fast pace and kept switching drafting positions to deal with the wind. By the last two miles, I knew I was going to get a new PR and I just cruised on in to the finish. Note: I ate five Gu's, took one electrolyte tablet, and alternated drinking water and gatorade at each water station to stay hydrated.Other race notes/results:

Our Knoxville Track Club team placed 10th out of 60 open male teams, which was impressive. My brother also ran a personal record marathon time by 10 minutes (2:47:39), securing the third fastest time on our team.The post race party was also fun. We went to a four-story bar near the basketball arena, watched the hockey and basketball playoff games, and met up with other marathon runners and support crowd we knew. Looking back at the experience, I cannot see how this year can be topped. Well there is always next year for round three … I have to keep the streak going.