Virtual Race: 2020 Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is normally held on the third Monday in April.  This year’s race was postponed until September because of COVID-19.  At the time, it seemed like the outbreak would be controlled by then.  By June, it was apparent that things weren’t going to improve enough by September to hold a race with 30,000 runners and hundreds of thousands of spectators.  Instead, this year’s race was replaced with a virtual race.

In a virtual marathon, everybody runs 26.2 miles on their own, and then they report their results.  It’s not the same experience as running with other runners.  Everybody is running on a different course, and they may not be running at the same time.

There are a few reasons why race organizers offer virtual races.  First, runners who have trained for months to run a marathon don’t want their training to go to waste.  Second, the runners have already paid entry fees, and it’s not always possible for the race organizer to give refunds.  Often, most of the money has already been spent.  A virtual race is one way to offer runners something for their money, even though it’s nowhere near as satisfying as an in-person race.  Finally, by the time race organizers realize they need to cancel their race, they’re already ordered things like T-shirts and finisher medals.  They usually have the year incorporated into the design, so you can’t just save them for next year.  You could still mail a T-shirt to everybody, but a virtual race is a way for runners to “earn” their finisher medals.

The Boston Athletic Association actually did give refunds to everybody who was signed up to run this year’s race.  They had a separate registration process for the virtual race.  You had to pay an entry fee, but it was substantially smaller than the normal entry fee.  Basically, it covered the cost of the medal and T-shirt, and presumably the costs of administering the virtual race, which included developing a new app and website.

The Boston Marathon finisher medals don’t just say, “2020.”  They also say, “124th Boston Marathon.”  Because of that, the Boston Athletic Association is officially recognizing the virtual race the 124th Boston Marathon.  Next year’s race will be the 125th.

When I heard that, I immediately wondered how it effected streaks.  I had a streak of eight consecutive Boston Marathon finishes.  If I did the virtual race, would it count as my ninth consecutive Boston Marathon finish?  If I opted not to do the virtual race, would it bring my streak to an end?

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one with those questions.  As more details about the virtual race were published, they included a FAQ list.  One of the questions was about how the virtual race would affect streaks.  The B.A.A is being pretty flexible.  If you finish the virtual marathon, it counts toward your streak.  If you chose not to do the virtual race, it doesn’t count against you.  You would still have a streak.  You just wouldn’t be adding to it.

Why are streaks important?  It has to do with the registration process.  Most runners get into the Boston Marathon by running a qualifying time.  Prior to the 2011 race, if you had a qualifying time, you could be sure of getting into the race.  Since then, the number of qualified runners who want to register has exceeded the available slots.  To address that, the B.A.A went to a staggered registration process.  Basically, the better your qualifying time is (relative to the qualifying standard for your age group), the earlier you can register.  Generally, if you can qualify with at least five minutes to spare, you know you’ll get in, but runners who barely qualified might register and later learn that they missed the cut.  The most frustrating part is going into your qualifying race not knowing how fast you need to run to actually get into the Boston Marathon.

Runners who have an active streak of at least 10 consecutive Boston Marathons finishes get to register early.  They still need to run a qualifying time, but as long as they qualify, they know they’ll get in.  This is my goal.  I came into this year with a streak of eight years.  I was expected 2020 to be my ninth year.  Assuming I get into the 2021 race (and finish), I would have a streak of 10, making qualifying for future races much more straightforward.

I don’t do many virtual races.  I was signed up for lots of marathons that got cancelled this year.  Most of them offered virtual races, but I skipped most of them.  I did one in July, but that was mostly because I really needed to motivate myself to get out and do a marathon-length training run to stay in shape.  That wasn’t a consideration for this virtual race.  I’ve done three real races recently.

Let’s be clear about something.  Even though the B.A.A is calling this the 124th Boston Marathon, I still don’t consider it to be a “race.”  Neither do any of my running clubs that keep track of how many marathons I’ve finished.  This won’t count towards my lifetime statistics.  I signed up for the virtual race for one reason.  I wanted to extend my streak of consecutive Boston Marathon finishes.

They created an app called, “124th Boston Marathon Virtual Experience.”  You could download a virtual toolkit that included your race bib.  Here’s mine.

You could either use the app to track your run, or you could wear a Garmin watch or Fitbit and upload results to the app after the run.  I opted to use my watch.  I was skeptical about the accuracy of using a phone to measure distance.

You could run your virtual race any day from September 5 to September 14.  Originally, it was going to be September 7 to September 14.  They made a last-minute decision to give us two extra days.  I think they did that, because some people wanted to do their virtual race while also running a real race somewhere.  Giving us an extra weekend made it easier to find a real race that was actually going on.

Personally, I didn’t want to “double-dip” by doing a real a marathon and also counting it as my virtual race.  Since this was going to be recognized by the B.A.A. as the 2020 Boston Marathon, I felt it should be a run that was distinct from any other race I might do.  That was just my opinion.  As far as most runners and the B.A.A were concerned, double-dipping was perfectly legitimate.

I’m doing a series of real marathons that begins on September 12.  Since I didn’t want to use one of those for my virtual race, it made most sense to do my virtual race as early as possible.  That way, I could have a week of recovery before racing again.

That decision was made more complicated by a recent injury.  Four weeks ago, I fell and banged my knee during the Riley Trails Marathon.  At the time, I thought I just had some scrapes, but the next day, I felt some minor discomfort in my right knee.  It wasn’t painful, but it just didn’t feel right.  I had a couple runs where I felt some minor discomfort in my knee, but it only lasted a minute or two.  Then I’d feel fine for the rest of my run.  The only other times I would notice it were walking up stairs and doing leg extensions.

At first, my knee seemed to be improving, so I kept up my training.  A few days before the Millennium Meadows Marathon, I started to notice knee discomfort while doing things like planks.  I was also having more discomfort with stairs.  It didn’t bother me during my runs, so I still wasn’t too concerned.

I ran the entire Millennium Meadows Marathon without any discomfort, but started having more persistent knee discomfort the next day.  I rested Monday and did weight training on Tuesday.  I didn’t run again until Wednesday.  During that run, I had knee discomfort that never went away.  I stopped after less than two miles.

Thursday morning, I saw a doctor at TRIA Orthopedic Center.  I’ve been there before.  They treat a lot of athletes, and they have a large physical therapy department.  The doctor took X-rays that confirmed that nothing is torn.  I just have some minor inflammation in a couple of the tendons around the knee.  He gave me a knee brace and started me on physical therapy.  I had my first PT appointment immediately after my exam.

The physical therapist I saw on Thursday knew I had a virtual marathon this weekend and a series of marathons starting the following weekend.  She got me started on some exercises, but made an appointment for me to come back the next day to see a colleague who not only works with runners, but is an experienced ultrarunner herself.  Her name is Lauren.

Later on Thursday, I tried another run.  This time I was wearing the knee brace.  I was disappointed to find that my knee didn’t feel much better wearing the brace than it did the day before without a brace.  I suspected the brace wasn’t the right size for me.  It didn’t feel at all snug.

On Friday, I saw Lauren.  She confirmed that the brace was too large and got me one that fits much more snuggly.  Knowing about all my upcoming races, she gave me some different exercises that won’t be as stressful on my knee.  She also helped coach me on how best to get through all my upcoming races with the injury.  That’s one of the things I like about TRIA.  If you go in with a running injury and say, “I have a marathon tomorrow,” they don’t even flinch.  They just take it into account when they give you a treatment plan.

Ideally, I would’ve gone for a short run to try out the brace, but I didn’t want to run the day before my virtual race when my knee was already inflamed.  I had to settle for trying out the brace by doing a few miles of walking.

Roughly 17,000 runners chose to sign up for the virtual race.  The first 15,000 got an extra pre-race package in the mail.

It contained some of the same things you would get with packet pickup for the real race.  Some were more useful than others.  The useful things included a souvenir race bib and some product samples.  One of the not-so-useful things was a clear plastic bag that would normally have been used for gear check at Boston Common.

Although I could’ve printed my race bib, I didn’t have anything to print it on besides plain paper.  A paper race bib doesn’t hold up well once it gets sweaty.  I wanted to wear a race bib, so I chose to wear the souvenir bib instead.  All the souvenir bibs look the same.  They’re all number 2020.  That’s OK.  In a virtual race, wearing the correct bib number isn’t important.  I only wore the bib to make it feel more like a race.  Anyone in my neighborhood who saw me running probably realized this wasn’t an average training run.  On the other hand, it’s not the first time they’ve seen me running for hours.

My route was a 1.75-mile loop through my neighborhood.  I used this same route for another virtual race on July 4.  To complete a marathon, I needed to run 15 laps.  One of the advantages of a loop course is that I didn’t need to carry water with me.  I put several water bottles in a cooler and set it next to our mailbox.

It was a nice enough day that I didn’t feel the need to start early.  I took my time eating breakfast, icing my knee, taking a bath, and stretching.  I didn’t start running until 9:00 AM.  That seemed appropriate.  The real Boston Marathon starts at 10 AM Eastern Time.  In my time zone, that’s 9:00, so I was actually starting at the right time.

One of the product samples was a Clif Bar.  I ate that about 30 minutes before I started running.  I put some of the other product samples out with my water bottles.

As I started running, I felt some slight discomfort in my knee.  It was less discomfort than I would’ve felt without the knee brace, but it was still there.  Doctors will often ask you to rate your pain on a 10-point scale, where zero is no pain, and ten is the worst pain you can imagine.  On that scale, this was only one or two.  I felt it with every stride. But it wasn’t really painful.  Mainly, it was a reminder that my knee wasn’t OK.  I wouldn’t worry as long as there was only minor discomfort.  The important thing was that it not get worse as I continued running.

I really didn’t know how this run would go.  I was cautiously optimistic that the knee brace would prevent or at least minimize further damage to my knee, but 26.2 miles is a long way to run with an injury.  The best case is that I would feel the same from start to finish.  In a worst-case scenario, I might feel more pain with each lap and eventually be forced to stop.  In a middle-of-the-road scenario, I might have to switch to walking to finish my virtual race.  The good news is that there wasn’t any time limit.  We could take as long as we wanted.  The only rule was that it had to be one continuous session.

I started at a pace that felt easy.  It was the same way I run most of my training runs.  When I finished the first mile, I was surprised to see a time of 9:31.  It felt slower than that.  I’ve been training in summer heat for the past few months.  At the start of this run, it was 62 degrees with a nice cool breeze.  It took far less effort than the same pace would’ve taken just two weeks ago.

As I finished my first lap, I asked myself how my knee felt.  I noticed it with every stride, but it didn’t feel any worse at the end of the lap than it did at the start of the lap.  So far, so good.

During training runs, I normally just drink water.  The last time I did a virtual marathon, I drank Gatorade, which is what I would drink during a race.  Since I had some food samples, I just drank water today.

My second mile was also 9:31.  Then I sped up a bit to 9:20 in the third mile.  I didn’t mean to speed up.  It just happened.  The pace still felt really easy.  It was about a minute per mile slower than my usual race pace.

At the end of my second lap, I again asked myself how my knee felt.  It still felt the same.  I had another drink of water and kept going.  I saved the food samples for later.

Over the next few miles, I eased up a bit, running times in the 9:30s.  My knee still felt the same, but I wondered if I would really notice it if there was more inflammation.  I’m pretty good at tuning out pain during a race.  I wasn’t running as hard as I would during a real race, but after a certain number of miles, it would start to take more effort.  Then, I was more likely to tune out the pain.

I was content with the pace I was running.  If anything, I was going too fast, but it still felt pretty easy.  I didn’t care what my time was.  My only goals were to finish and to try to get through it without making my knee worse.

For the first four laps, I just drank water.  After my fifth lap, I opened a package of Clif Bloks.  For the next six laps, I ate one Clif Blok per lap.  There aren’t many calories in a single Clif Blok.  This was more about race psychology than nutrition.  Eating one per lap gave me something to look forward to.  After every 1.75 miles, I had a ginger ale flavored chew as a small treat.

Now that I was eating the Clif Bloks, I was taking longer on my water stops.  I took the time to chew it completely before washing it down with some water.  That added to my mile times.  The miles that included water stops now took just over 10 minutes.  The ones that didn’t took between 9:20 and 9:30.

The app for the Boston Marathon virtual experience was intended to make it feel more like you were in Boston.  Among other things, it would have crowd noise at different places, and if you were using the app to keep track of your distance, it would display where you would be on the actual Boston Marathon course, for the benefit of friends who wanted to track your progress.

I wasn’t running with my phone, but I’ve run the Boston Marathon enough times to be familiar with the course.  As I finished my 11th mile, I asked myself where I would be if I was running from Hopkinton to Boston.  In just over a mile, I would be getting to Wellesley.

The Wellesley “scream tunnel” is at roughly 20 kilometers.  By the time I actually got there, however, I had forgotten all about it.  I was focused on which lap I was on.  I wasn’t really running in Wellesley.  I was running a familiar route through my neighborhood, and that’s where my head was.

From time to time, I passed people who live in my neighborhood.  They’re the same people I see walking when I’m out for a normal training run.  I’m sure some of them noticed my race bib, but nobody commented on it.

As I finished the halfway point of my run, I was on pace to finish in about 4:13.  That was faster than I planned, but I still felt OK.  When I thought about it, my knee still felt the same.  When I wasn’t thinking about it, I sometimes didn’t notice it at all.  I was now optimistic I would get through this race without any significant increase in knee discomfort.

Buoyed by my optimism, I started running a little bit faster.  That wasn’t a conscious decision.  It just happened.  My optimism about finishing without any problems led me to get excited, and I subconsciously sped up.  Now, my times for miles with water stops were in the 9:40s, and my times for the miles without water stops got as fast as 9:03.

As it warmed up and got sunnier, I started to perspire.  I could sometimes feel sweat under my knee brace, which went from mid-thigh to mid-calf.  It felt like my brace might be riding down.  I don’t know if it actually was, or if it just felt that way because of the sweat.  A couple times, I stopped briefly to check.  The part that surrounds my kneecap was still in the right place.  That was the important part.

As I finished my 10th lap, I ate the last of the Clif Bloks.  I had two other food samples.  One was a protein drink that I was saving until after the race.  The other was a Cliff Shot.  I’ve used a few different brands of gel packets, and I’ve tried a variety of flavors.  This flavor was Boston cream pie.  That seemed appropriate.  I was saving that one as a late-race treat.  I had five laps to go.  I planned to eat my gel with two or three laps to go.

After my 11th lap, I just drank water, but it was still a longer stop.  I was getting thirsty now, so I drank more than usual.  I was now past the 19-mile mark.  I asked myself where I would be on the Boston Marathon course.  I wasn’t actually sure.  I was somewhere in Newton, but I couldn’t remember exactly where “heartbreak hill” is.  I know the Newton Hills by sight, but I can’t connect all of them to mile markers.  I know the first one starts at about 16 miles.  I know the second one starts between 17 and 18.  I really wasn’t sure where the third and fourth hills start.  I forgot about it and kept running.

At the 20-mile mark, I was pretty sure I was past heartbreak hill.  The next major landmark would be Boston College.  That’s the last time I thought about where I would be on the Boston course.  I just knew I had three and a half laps to go.

Midway through my 12th lap, I was already getting thirsty again.  When I finished that lap, I took a longer drink of water.  I waited one more lap before having my Boston cream pie gel.

That water stop took so long that I didn’t get back into the same pace.  I was definitely running slower now.  That was OK.  In fact, it was good.  I needed to slow down.  By now, I was starting to notice some discomfort in my left Achilles tendon.  I suddenly remembered feeling the same thing during my last race.  After that race, I forgot all about it.  This Achilles tendon was a problem area earlier in the year, so I wanted to be careful with it.  I shouldn’t run too fast.  The Achilles tendon discomfort actually made me forget about my knee.

When I finished my 13th lap, I finally had the Boston cream pie gel.  Fancy gel flavors sometimes miss the mark.  This one didn’t.  It really did remind me of Boston cream pie.  That lifted my spirits.  I had 3.5 miles to go.  I was beginning to get tired, and I was a little cautious about my left Achilles tendon, but the remaining distance was manageable.

I finished my 14th lap and started the last one.  I was doing this loop for the last time, but there was no need to rush.  I resisted any temptation to put on a strong finish.  I kept moving, but not too fast.

I didn’t actually have to run the whole lap.  With less than a block to go, my watch read “26.22.”  I stopped my watch and stopped running.  I walked the remaining distance back to my driveway.  My final time was 4:13:44.

I gathered up my things, went inside, and took off the knee brace.  I iced my knee and opened up the app to enter my result.  That turned out to be much more difficult than I thought.

The app gave you three options for entering your result.  One involved using the app to measure your whole run.  I wasn’t running with my phone, so I obviously couldn’t do it that way.  Another option was to have the app retrieve the data from a watch which was connected to my phone by Bluetooth.  I had the data on my watch, but I’ve only had this watch for a few months, and I’ve never connected it to my phone before.  I had about six runs stored on my phone, but I had yet to upload any of them.  The third option was to manually enter the data.  I tried that option and immediately got an error screen that looked like this.

This appeared to be a bug in the app, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.  Maybe they would eventually fix it, but probably not right away.  Realizing I probably needed to use a different option, I took the time to load Garmin Connect on my phone.  I already had an account, but the last time I used it, I had a different watch, and I was using it on my computer.  I had to look up my password.  It didn’t work.  I then reset my password and created a new one.

When I finally got logged into my Garmin Connect account, I had to connect it to my watch.  I didn’t know how to do that.  I had to find the user’s manual for my watch to read how to connect it to my phone.  When I finally got it connected, it started synching.  I had six runs that had never been uploaded.  Five of them were marathons.  The synch took several minutes.

When it was all done, I could finally tell the app to get the data from a connected watch.  It said “No activities found.”

Besides the app, there was also a website you could use.  I had to find a link to it in an email.  I had to log in to my Boston Marathon account.  Then I had to give it the username and password for my Garmin Connect account.  It said my device was connected.  That’s all.  I had to look around a little more to find a menu for entering my results.  When I told it to get the results from my phone, it said, “No activities found.”  What the hell?

I belong to couple of Facebook groups that include Boston Marathon runners.  I
asked if anyone else was having this problem.  After several exchanges with different runners who either entered their results or ran into problems, I learned two things.  First, if you want the app to get the data from your watch, you have to connect your Boston Marathon account to your Garmin Connect account BEFORE doing your run.  Oops.  I wish I knew that earlier.  I also learned that the option to enter your data manually worked on the iPhone version.

Neither Deb nor I have iPhones, but Deb has an iPad.  She downloaded the app, and I gave her my account info, so she could log into my Boston Marathon account.  The option to enter my data manually worked.  We needed to enter my finish time, as well as the exact date and time that I started my run.  Finally, we needed to enter a link to the data.  I could see the data in my Garmin Connect app, but I didn’t know how to get a link to it.  After one more exchange with another runner in the Facebook group, I was able to send Deb a link.  She entered the link into the app, and it accepted my results.

A short time later, I got an email with a link to my results.  They included a finisher certificate.

Entering the results took more than an hour.  It was almost as stressful as the run itself.  The important thing is that I’ve extended my Boston streak to nine years.  I don’t know when next year’s Boston Marathon will be held.  They’ve delayed registration, and in all likelihood, they won’t be able to hold the race in April.  Maybe they’ll hold it in September.  Maybe they’ll have another virtual race.  Whenever or whatever it is, it’ll be my 10th.  That will make today’s effort worthwhile.

During the late miles of my run, I was noticing my left Achilles tendon more than my right knee.  Since the run, I haven’t noticed it at all.  I did make a point of stretching it.  I think I’ve been neglecting to stretch it, because that stretch puts pressure on my right knee.

Meanwhile, my right knee felt the same throughout the run, but it has felt worse since finishing.  Now, even walking on level ground causes some slight discomfort.  I have to be particularly careful going up and down stairs.  The physical therapists at TRIA have coached me to take every step with my left foot going up stairs and to always lead with my right foot going down stairs.

I suspect that knee will bother me most tonight and tomorrow but gradually get better.  For the next week, I plan to limit my training to light cross-training activities like walking and low-resistance spinning.  Hopefully it’ll be feeling somewhat better before my next series of races.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  4:13:44

Average Pace:  9:41

Consecutive Boston Marathon Finishes:  9