It’s the weekend of the Boston Marathon. For the third straight year, I flew to Boston on Friday, so I could do the B.A.A. 5K race Saturday morning.
It’s getting harder and harder
to find hotels anywhere near Boylston Street, where the marathon finishes. It’s not just that the close hotels are
expensive. Most of them are fully booked
a year in advance. For the second
straight year, I’m staying someplace new.
It’s another hotel in the downtown area.
It’s within walking distance of a station on the blue line, so I could
get there from the airport without having to change trains. It’s also within walking distance of a green
line station, so I can get to Boylston Street without changing trains.
My race bib for the 5K race was
mailed to me, but I still needed to pick up my race packet for the
marathon. After checking into my room
and dropping off my luggage, I went to the Hynes Convention Center to pick up
my race packet.
On my way to the convention
center, I saw this sculpture in the lobby of a Bank of America branch that’s
near the marathon finish line. Bank of
America recently replaced John Hancock as the principal sponsor of the marathon.
After picking up my race packet
for the marathon, I visited several of the booths. I didn’t buy anything, but I always stop at
the Marathon Tours and Samuel Adams booths.
I also stopped by the Point32Health booth, where they were giving sets
of bib clips to runners who were over 60.
Even though I’ve done the
marathon a dozen times, I was still surprised how heavy the race packet
was. It included a bottle of water, a
large bottle of Gatorade, a protein drink, a race program, and several other product
samples. After the expo, I went straight
back to the hotel, to drop it off.
I took some time to organize my
clothes for the 5K race. Then I went to
a nearby cafe to pick up something for my breakfast. Finally, I had dinner at a pizzeria near my
hotel.
The start area for the 5K race
was in Boston Common, which was able a mile from my hotel. I could’ve walked there almost as fast as I
could get there on the subway. I took
the subway, so I wouldn’t have to spend as much time outdoors before the race.
The race didn’t start until
8:00 AM, but they start loading the corrals at 7:30. I waited until 7:00 before leaving my hotel.
The temperature was in the
upper 40s, but I was expecting a cold breeze.
I wore tights to keep my legs warm, and I also wore a Tyvek jacket until
the race started. They had a gear check,
so I could’ve worn extra layers on my way to the start, but I decided not to
bother. The gear check would’ve taken
extra time both before and after the race.
You could pick up your T-shirt
either before or after the race. Some
people pick it up before and put the T-shirt in their gear bag. Since I wasn’t checking a bag, I waited until
afterward.
Last year, I ran this race
without doing any specific training for it.
I had race-walked a few 5K races, but it was my first time running 5K in
about 20 years. Since then, I’ve run two
other 5K races. I expected to be faster
than I was last April, but I didn’t know how I would compare to my fastest 5K
race last summer. I wasn’t doing any
fast-pace training during the winter months.
This is a large race. There are about 10,000 runners, divided into
two waves. Figuring out where to line up
is always a guess. When I entered the
start corral, I saw a sign indicating 9:00 pace, so I moved farther
forward. I expected my starting pace to
be between 7:00 and 8:00, but I never saw signs for those paces. Before I knew it, I was in the front of the
corral for non-elite athletes.
When they moved us from the
corral toward the actual start line on Charles Street, I walked slowly, while
most of the other runners moved as quickly as they could. Now I was farther back, and I wondered if I
was too far back.
After the elite runners
started, we moved forward again. Now I
went back to thinking I might be too far forward.
As we started running, there
was a bit of congestion. I was running
fast at first, but came almost to a stop before having room to speed up
again. It didn’t take long, however,
before I found enough room to run. I
hadn’t even made the first turn onto Boylston Street before I was already out
of breath.
We ran two blocks along
Boylston before turning again onto Arlington.
On Boylston, I was trying to find my pace, while also watching out for
potholes. By the time I turned onto
Arlington, I was already slowing a bit from my initial pace. It was a constant negotiation with
myself. I could move my legs faster, but
I didn’t have the aerobic capacity to keep up that pace.
After two blocks on Arlington,
we made a left turn onto Commonwealth. By
now, I had settled into what I hoped was the right pace. I focused on keeping up with the runners
around me until I saw my time for the first mile.
When I got my first split, I
was disappointed. I ran the first mile
in 7:37. That’s faster than I ran the
same mile a year ago, but it wasn’t as fast as a 5K race than I ran last
summer.
I couldn’t see myself picking
up the pace. The pace I was going
already felt unsustainable. I had been
out of breath since early in the race, and that wouldn’t get better. This is why I don’t like running 5K
races. They’re way too intense.
In the second mile, I kept up
with the runners around me. We
eventually went down a slight ramp to go under a bridge. I accelerated going downhill, but struggled
with the pace coming back uphill on the other side of the bridge.
Next, we made a U-turn around
the median to reach east-bound lanes. We
were now following the last kilometer of the marathon route.
Again, I accelerated going
under the bridge. Again, I struggled
with the pace coming back uphill. Ahead
of me, I could see runners turning onto Hereford.
It’s two short blocks on
Hereford before the turn back onto Boylston Street. The two mile mark was right at that
corner. My second mile was one second
faster than the first mile. I expected
it to be slower. I was no longer keeping
up with the runners around me.
When you turn onto Boylston
Street, you can see the marathon finish line in the distance. I knew that wasn’t our finish line. I knew I would need to run another 7/10 of a
mile after crossing that line. I
nevertheless ran hard toward the marathon finish line.
It occurred to me that this was
probably the fastest I’ve run on Boylston Street. I’m never this fast at the end of the
marathon. That thought propelled me.
After passing the marathon
finish line, it got more difficult to maintain my pace. I started to feel the wind for the first
time. It must’ve been a tailwind in the
first half of the race. Now it was a
headwind.
It was two and a half blocks to
Arlington. That wasn’t so bad. After that, it was another two blocks to get
back to Charles Street. Those two blocks
seemed like forever.
On the other side of the
street, I could see runners from the second wave who were going the other
direction. I was almost done, but they
were just getting started. I felt bad for
them. I was so glad to be done with
those miles.
After making the turn onto
Charles, I saw the three mile sign. I
expected to be disappointed with my time for that mile. I was shocked to see that I sped up to 7:17
in the third mile. That gave me the
incentive to keep running hard to the finish line.
I finished in 23:19. My best time last year was 22:46, so I was a
little disappointed that I’m not as fast now.
On the plus side, my time was more than a minute faster than my time
from this same race a year ago.
The finisher medal is pretty
nice for a 5K race. It has designs on
both sides, and it features the B.A.A. logo, just like the marathon.
After getting my medal, I moved
quickly through the finish area to get my food bag and my T-shirt.
After getting back to the
hotel, I ate most of my post-race food, but I couldn’t eat it all. They give you as much food after the 5K race
as they do after the marathon. What I
didn’t eat today, I can save for my pre-race breakfast on Monday.
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