Race Report: 2018 Boston Marathon

On Monday, April 16th, I ran the Boston Marathon.  This was my seventh consecutive Boston Marathon and my eighth overall.  I was planning to race-walk it this year, but the weather conditions made me reconsider.

Finding an affordable hotel gets more difficult every year.  I starting looking right after last year’s race, and most of the hotels near Boston Common and the finish line were already booked.  This year, I stayed at The Bostonian, which is right next to Faneuil Hall Marketplace.  It was close to T stations on three different lines, and it was also within walking distance of several good restaurants.

I was originally planning to fly to Boston on Saturday.  Thursday morning, Deb asked me if I could change my flight to Friday.  We were forecast to get 6-12 inches of snow Saturday morning.  That’s unusual for April, even in Minnesota.  I called Delta, and they let me switch to a Friday afternoon flight without having to pay a change fee.  Next, I called the hotel to see if I could check in a day early.  Surprisingly, they had a room, even on the busiest weekend of the year.

I arrived around 5:00 and took a train into town.  By the time I checked in at The Bostonian, it was too late to go to the expo, but I had all day Saturday for that.  I was close to the North End, so I walked over to Regina’s Pizzeria for dinner.  On my way back, I stopped at Mike’s Pastries to get some cannoli for dessert and breakfast.  This was my eighth trip to Boston, but I had never been there before.

Saturday was the nicest day of the weekend.  It was quite literally the calm before the storm.  For the people doing the Boston 5K, it was a great day for running.  Unfortunately, the marathon wasn’t until Monday.

In the morning, I walked over to the Seaport World Trade Center, where the expo was held.  In addition to picking up my race packet, I bought a celebration jacket.  I’ve wanted to buy one of these, but every year they have different colors, and I was hoping they would return to the traditional blue and yellow of the BAA logo.  This year’s jacket was red and silver.  I don’t know how many more years I’ll be able to qualify for this race, so I decided to stop waiting and finally buy a jacket.

Most years I’ve been on a tight schedule, so I couldn’t spend much time at the expo.  Arriving in Boston a day early meant I could take my time and browse all of the booths.  I resisted the temptation to buy a stuffed unicorn or a headband with a unicorn horn.  Yes, they really had those.

After getting back to the hotel, I did a race-walking workout on one of the hotel’s treadmills.  It was a nice day for walking outside, but it’s hard to do a quality workout on the sidewalks of a downtown area.  After showering and changing clothes, I did more walking around Boston Common.

At 3:00, I stopped by Beantown Pub for a happy hour gathering of a group called Boston Squeakers for Life.  A “squeaker” is someone who has qualified for Boston, but doesn’t know if their qualifying time will be good enough to actually get into the race.  In recent years, the number of qualified runners who have tried to register has exceeded the number of available slots.  When this happens, some of the “squeakers” don’t get in.  This year, the cut-off was more than three minutes.

I was in this category when I registered for the 2017 race.  This year, I was able to register during the first week, so I knew I was in.  Still, I know what it’s like to register for the race during the second week and not know if I got in until the cut-off time was announced.  Everyone in this group has known that feeling at least once, so it’s our common bond.  After the happy hour, some of us stayed there for dinner.

Sunday morning, a cold front went through, bringing temperatures in the 30s and intermittent drizzle.  It wasn’t a nice day to be outside, but I would much rather have raced on Sunday than Monday.  What was coming was much worse.

I spent the morning at the hotel, doing some walking on the treadmill and organizing my clothes for the race.  Then I walked down to the finish line on Boylston Street.  The street is blocked off to traffic so people can take pictures.

 At noon, Marathon Maniacs were meeting there for a group photo.  I don’t always do group photos, but this one is one stop shopping for seeing people I know.  The turnout was surprisingly low this year.  It was cold and drizzly, and that may have kept people indoors.

I had lunch with two friends at a nearby pub.  We walked to Boston Common after lunch.  Then we went to an afternoon gathering of the 50sub4 club at Solas Irish Pub.  In December, I finished my second circuit of sub 4 hour marathons in all 50 states.  It was nice to celebrate again.

One of the other runners there bought a pair of rubber gloves to wear over his running gloves.  When I asked where I could get a pair, he recommended CVS.  I went by a CVS (actually three) on my way back to the hotel, so I bought some.  I normally wear polypro gloves, but in heavy rain, they won’t keep my hands dry.

I had dinner with a few other friends at Durgin Park, which serves traditional New England style food.  This is a Boston tradition.  I eat there every time I’m in Boston.  The portions were larger than I remembered.  Perhaps that’s because I’m usually there for lunch.

I went to bed early and slept well for at least an hour.  Then a strange noise woke me up.  At first, I wondered if I made a mistake setting the alarm on the clock radio.  I turned on the light and looked at the clock.  That’s not where the sound was coming from.  I got out of bed to try to find the source of the noise.  Then the noise was replaced by a repeating message.  It was tough to make out at first, because I was wearing ear plugs, and I wasn’t fully awake.

The message was saying something about an emergency in the building.  Then it said if the message was followed by a tone it meant my floor should evacuate.  All other floors should await further instructions.  The message repeated a few times.  Then it went silent. There was never a tone.  There were no further instructions.

I concluded it was a false alarm of some sort.  I later learned it was an overly sensitive smoke detector in a room that had a fireplace.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I was now wide awake.  It took me hours to get back to sleep.  After that, my sleep was restless.  It was basically a series of short naps.  At 5:30, I got up, took a hot shower, and started getting dressed.

Every Boston Marathon is a unique experience.  One of the things that makes each year different is the weather.  This year we had temperatures in the low 40s with all-day rain, and strong winds.  It was only light rain in the early morning, but kept getting stronger throughout the day.  Sustained wind speeds were 25-30 mph, with gusts that were much stronger.  Making matters worse, we had to run directly into the wind.  You know it’s going to be bad when the forecast includes phrases like “watch for flooding” and “damaging winds.”

I wanted to try for a race-walking PR in this race, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen in these conditions.  Instead of walking, I opted to run.  Running gave me a better chance of staying warm, and it also meant less time on the course.

I dressed in layers, with a waterproof layer on top.  My base layer included tights, a polypro shirt, a singlet to pin my bib to, polypro gloves, a winter hat, and a waterproof cap that fit tightly over it.  That would have kept me warm enough if it was merely cold and drizzly.  For strong winds and heavy rain, I needed to be waterproof.

I packed a plastic rain poncho, which I was going to wear in the Athletes’ Village and then discard.  Instead, I wore it for the whole race.  Over my tights, I had a pair of waterproof wind pants.  I was also planning to discard those before the race started, but made a last minute decision to keep them on for the race.  I had never run in them before, and they didn’t fit well, but they were my best protection against the rain and wind.  Finally, I wore rubber gloves over my polypro running gloves.

I knew I risked being overdressed by wearing so many layers.  The waterproof outer layers could easily have trapped too much heat and moisture.  I was more willing to risk being too hot than too cold.  My body doesn’t handle cold wet conditions well.  On Sunday, I often felt intolerably cold with the strong winds and a little bit of light drizzle.  I couldn’t imagine how that wind would feel in a heavy rain.  To make matters worse, we had to run directly into the wind for the whole race.

To get to the start, I needed to take a bus.  The buses left from Boston Common, which was only about a mile from my hotel.  I was originally planning to walk to Boston Common, but The Bostonian had free shuttles for runners.  Since it was raining, I decided to use the shuttle service.

I was in the second wave, which didn’t start until 10:25, but we were supposed to be on a bus sometime between 7:00 and 7:45.  I usually get there on the early side.  This time, I wanted to get there on the later side, so I wouldn’t have as long a wait at the Athletes’ Village in Hopkinton.  I waited until 7:00 before leaving my hotel room to go down to the lobby.  There was a shuttle there ready to leave.  I was on it immediately.  We were dropped off next to Tremont Street, so we still had to walk through the park to get to Charles Street, where the buses were loading.  It was raining, but only lightly.  Even with the walk across the park, I was on a bus by 7:20, which was earlier than I planned.

It took at least an hour to reach the Athletes’ Village in Hopkinton.  That’s because the buses have to use a route that avoids the roads that are blocked off for the race.  The Athletes’ Village is on the grounds of Hopkinton High School.  They set up at least three large tents, so runners could stay dry during the long wait.

I wanted to get inside one of the tents right away, before it became standing room only.  I knew I needed to make a bathroom stop, so I did that first.  I needed to get into a line before they got any longer.

It took about half an hour to work my way through the bathroom line.  As I was waiting in line, I noticed snow on the ground near the outside of the tent.  I can only assume that freezing rain during the night was causing ice crystals to slide down the sides of the tent, forming piles of snow all around the tent.  Yeah, this race had every kind of cold.  I was able to mostly stay dry, but my wrists, ankles and feet were getting wet.  Every now and then a gust of wind would make me shiver.

Next, I made my way into the tent.  I had to walk through some mud to get there.  It was crowded under the tent, but I found a small patch of ground where I could spread out a space blanket and sit down.  I had to wait about 45 minutes before it was time to walk to the start.  It was still cold under the tent, but we were sheltered from the wind and rain.  While I was waiting, the rain outside briefly turned into a downpour.  By the time I left the tent, it was back to only light rain.  I knew the rain was going to get heavier throughout the morning and afternoon, so I felt lucky to be able to start the race before the rain picked up again.

Leaving the tent without walking through deep mud puddles was a challenge.  My shoes got a little bit muddy, but the rain would eventually wash that all away.

On the way to the start corrals, we went by a parking lot with more port-o-potties.  I found one with a relatively short line and made one last bathroom stop before lining up for the race.

We were advised to pin our race bibs to our outermost layer.  I didn’t want to pin it to my plastic rain poncho, so I pinned it to my singlet.  My race bib was still visible through the rain poncho, but I thought there might be a slight risk that the timing chip wouldn’t be detected if it was covered up.  When I crossed the starting line, I lifted the front of my rain poncho, so my race bib was exposed.  I did the same thing every time I crossed a timing mat.  That probably wasn’t necessary, but I wasn’t taking any chances.  Finishing a marathon in these conditions was going to be grueling, and didn’t want to risk enduring the cold rain and wind and then not get an official time.

The first 15 miles are mostly downhill. The grade is most noticeably in the first two miles.  I tried to hold back as I started running downhill.  It’s deceptively easy, and I was surrounded by fast runners, so it was almost impossible to not go out too fast.

About halfway through the first mile, there’s a short rise.  Running uphill felt tiring, but I knew it would help me warm up.

Near the end of the first mile, I saw a spectator holding a sign that read 25.3 miles (to go).  I have no doubt that the distance was accurate.  Boston Marathon spectators know their race.

The aid stations were spaced a mile apart, starting just past the second mile marker.  I didn’t feel like I needed fluid yet, but I thought it would be a good idea so drink some Gatorade.  I didn’t eat breakfast, so I needed to take in calories during the race.  Each aid station had a few tables on the right, followed about a block later by a few tables on the left.  At two miles, I skipped the tables on the right to avoid the congestion.  When I tried to get to a table with Gatorade on the left, I kept bumping into runners who were running between me and the aid station.  By the time I got over to the tables, I was past the Gatorade and was handed a glass of water.  I took a sip and dumped the rest.  That wasn’t what I needed.

Within a few miles I started to feel out of breath, even when I wasn’t going uphill.  I realized I must have started much too fast.  It’s easy to do that when all the runners around you had qualifying times in the low 3:20s.  I tried to run my own race, but it’s easy for the crowd around you to distort your sense of pace.

I was wearing sunglasses with clear lenses.  Normally, I wear those for UV protection.  In this race, I was wearing them mostly to protect my eyes from the rain.  The wind was driving the rain right into us.  Already, my glasses were covered with drops.  They were also fogging up a little.  That made it difficult to see, so I rarely looked at my watch.

Even seeing the runners around me took some effort.  I almost collided with a runner who abruptly moved left and cut in front of me.  He was trying to avoid a large puddle that filled the right hand side of the road.  I was right on the edge of this puddle and might not have seen it if not for this runner.  After that, I tried to stay in the center of the road, where there were fewer large puddles.

At four miles, I finally peeled back the rubber glove so I could see my watch.  I had to squint to read it through all the drops on my lenses.  I ran the first four miles in 33:00, which is an average pace of 8:15 per mile.  That would have been an unsustainable pace even without the headwind.  In these conditions, it was insane.  I tried to back off a little.

By now, my hands no longer left cold.  Wearing the rubber gloves over my running gloves was working.

I skipped the aid station at three miles, but drank Gatorade at four miles.  After that, I drank Gatorade after every even mile.  I still didn’t feel like I needed much liquid, but I wanted to keep taking in calories.

Early in the race, I noticed there were signs for each kilometer, in addition to signs for each mile.  At 7K, I also noticed that there was a gap in the double yellow line in the middle of the road, and “7 K” was painted there. I wondered if that’s there all year.  At 8K, I noticed there was a BAA unicorn painted above the “8.”  The miles were also marked that way.

At eight miles, I checked my watch again.  My time was 1:06:57.  I slowed down a little, but not enough.  I was still averaging roughly 8:30 per mile.  Even without the wind, that pace would destroy me.  I worked harder to ignore the other runners so I could slow down.

As I untethered myself from the runners around me, I drifted back through the pack.  I often had nobody directly in front of me, so I had to work harder to fight the headwinds.  It got more and more tiring.

I reached an aid station with gels.  I don’t generally bother with gels during a race, but I wasn’t drinking as much Gatorade as I normally do.  I needed to take in enough calories.  In addition to the energy I was expending to run, I was also burning extra calories to maintain my body temperature.  Taking in extra calories was essential.  The first volunteer I passed had what looked like a raspberry gel.  As I grabbed a gel packet from another volunteer, I heard her say, “caffeine.”  This gel had a coffee flavor.  That’s not my favorite flavor, but I ate in anyway.

By the time I got to mile 10, my hands were getting cold again.  It was raining harder now.  I had no regrets about wearing the rain poncho, wind pants, and rubber gloves.  I needed them all.

Around 20K, I reached the Wellesley Scream Tunnel.  There have been years when I could hear the women of Wellesley College from a mile away.  The sound didn’t carry as far in the rain and wind, but when I was running right past them, it was still loud enough to make my ears ring.

I checked my watch for the last time at the halfway mark.  By now, I was no longer paying any attention to my pace.  I just wanted to know, so I could compare my first and second half splits.  I did the first half in 1:51:50.  I knew I would slow down in the second half.  I already felt like I was running out of gas.  The wind was wearing me down.

I usually get a psychological lift from knowing I’m more than half done.  At 14 miles, I start counting down the remaining miles.  With 12 miles to go, it still didn’t seem like a manageable distance.  I needed to break the course down into segments.  I set an intermediate goal of getting to the Charles River.  Until then, it was downhill.

The last half mile before the river is noticeably downhill.  I wasn’t trying to speed up, but for the first time, I started passing other runners.

Just before 16 miles, I crossed the river and entered Newton.  Here, I began to climb the first of four hills.  The first one is long, but very gradual.

I looked forward to this part of the course.  The hills are like old friends.  They tell me where I am on the course.

I reached another aid station with gels.  This time I paid close attention to what the volunteer was saying.  She said, “no caffeine – razz.”    This one was a raspberry gel.  That was much more to my liking.

In the middle of the hill, we crossed a bridge over I95.  On the bridge, the wind felt stronger than ever.  It was much more tiring there.  After the bridge, I was still going uphill, but it felt much easier.

After the first hill, we had a gradual descent.  That let me recover.  Then I made the right turn onto Commonwealth Avenue.  We were already two thirds of the way through the course, but this is the first turn.

After the turn, I began climbing the second of the four hills in Newton.  This one is shorter, but the grade is more noticeable.  After the turn, I was no longer going directly into the wind.  Eventually, the road would curve to the left, and it would be a direct headwind again.  For the moment, however, I felt some relief.  The running felt easier, even going uphill.

The wind wasn’t quite as bad, but the rain got worse.  It was raining hard now.  The drops hitting my poncho made a surprising amount of noise.  I continued to lift the front of my rain poncho each time I crossed a timing mat.  Each time I did that, the front of my shirt got wet.  I was getting colder as a result.

About halfway up this hill, I started to notice an usual amount of soreness in one of my glutes.  It didn’t seem like an injury.  I suspect it was because I was not only working hard, but my muscles were getting cold and stiff.

Besides the hills, I could look forward to seeing other friends.  I knew four people who were volunteering here, minding the large digital clocks.  I saw one friend at 30K, two more at 19 miles, and one at 21 miles.

On the third hill, I noticed soreness in one of my quads.  Again, I think it was partially the result of muscles getting cold.

The last of the four hills is the famous Heartbreak Hill.  I was running out of gas, so this hill was tougher than usual.  Still, I was almost to Boston College.  From there, there’s a downhill trend.  I recovered somewhat on the first descent after Boston College.

Now I was passing people left and right.  I doubt if I was going faster.  I think they were all slowing down.  The wind was wearing them down.

With about four miles to go, we made the familiar left turn at Cleveland Circle.  Coming around that corner, I really felt the wind pick up.  It was gusting stronger than ever, and we were going right into it.

Around 23 miles, someone in the crowd was offering a Snickers bar. It was still in the wrapper, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to unwrap it.  My hands were getting numb.  Then I saw people handing out bananas that were already mostly peeled.  I stopped to walk briefly, so I could eat a banana.  I had already eaten three gels by now.  I was fueling like I was running an ultra.

A small hill before the 23 mile marker made me want to walk the rest of the way.  I knew that would take too long, and I would get too cold.  I had to force myself to keep running.  After 23, the road turned downhill again.  That helped me keep going.

Between 23 and 24 miles, I was looking for the big Citgo sign near Fenway Park.  I got all the way to 24 miles without seeing it.  The sky was too gray from the heavy rain.

As I got to 24 miles, I congratulated myself for running the first of the three miles that I wanted to walk.  Then the sky opened up and it rained harder than ever.  It just never got any easier.  Here’s a video taken by a spectator that shows the conditions on this part of the course.

 

Now both of my quads were feeling sore.  This was the inevitable result of running so hard earlier in the race.  It was catching up to me.

I eventually saw the Citgo sign when I was only a few blocks away from it.  I was almost to 25 miles. The wind was getting even stronger, and I was climbing another small hill as I crossed a bridge.  How much tougher could it get?

At 25 miles, I looked at the digital clock. It read, “4:07.”  That didn’t mean much to me.  I didn’t know if that was the time since the first wave started or the time since my wave started.  At short time later, I reached the one mile to go sign.  The clock there read, “4:09.”  I still didn’t know how to interpret that.

As I pressed on through the last mile, I eventually made the right turn onto Hereford.  On many parts of the course, the crowds seemed somewhat subdued.  Here, they were unusually loud.  I think people who are normally watching along Boylston moved around the corner to Hereford to get out of the wind.

After making the final turn onto Boylston, I could see the finish line, but it was still a few blocks away.  The runners around me were accelerating to put on a strong finish.  I couldn’t do that.  As I got close enough to see the clock, it read “3:53.”  That was from the start of the second wave.  My corral didn’t cross the starting line until about four minutes later.  I finished in 3:50:18.  I still couldn’t believe I broke four hours in that awful headwind.  I slowed down by seven minutes in the second half, but I expected it to be a lot more.

The first volunteers I passed after crossing the finish line were handing out bottles of water.  I didn’t even want to see water.  Next, there were a few volunteers with cups of Gatorade.  I wasn’t thirsty, but persuaded myself to drink a small cup of Gatorade.

In the next block, I got my finisher medal.  This is my eighth unicorn, but it’s the one I had to work hardest to earn.

The next volunteer wrapped me in one of those silver reflective ponchos I affectionately call “baked potato wraps.”  Even with all the other layers I was wearing, I needed it to stay warm.

I kept moving to get my post-race snacks, which were in a plastic bag with handles.  My hands were barely functioning, so I was glad they made it easy to carry.  I had to work my way through the crowd of runners retrieving gear bags to make it to the exit.  Then I was right next to Arlington Station.  I wasn’t up to walking back to my hotel in the cold rain and wind, so I took the train.  When I reached Government Center Station, I still needed to walk a few blocks to get to the hotel.  I dreaded going outside again.  I was cold, and it was still raining hard.

When I reached my hotel room, I found this waiting for me.

This was the first time I stayed at The Bostonian.  I knew I would like the location, but I was pleasantly surprised by all the things they do for marathon runners.  They also offered complimentary post-race massages.

It took time to peel off all the layers of wet clothes and find places to hang them up so they could dry.  Then I took a hot shower.  It was hard to tell if the water was the right temperature.  It was hot, but to my hands, it felt like ice water.  I stayed in the shower until the color returned to my hands.

Later, I went out for a post-race celebration at Boston Beer Works.  I could take the train most of the way, but I still had to walk a few blocks outside.  It was raining even harder.  Fortunately, I had another rain poncho in my suitcase that was still dry.

People who have done this race many times were saying that these were the toughest weather conditions they’ve ever had.  It’s hard to imagine worse conditions.  More than 2300 runners needed medical treatment, mostly for hypothermia.

I ran the 2012 Boston Marathon, which may have been the hottest of all time.  This year’s race may have been the coldest.  I’ve experienced just about everything this race can throw at me.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  3:50:18

Average Pace:  8:47

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  351

Unicorns:  8