<p>Weird, I thought I had posted in here today.</p>
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<p>Great picture, <strong>Maria</strong>.</p>
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<p>Race Report:</p>
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<p>Moe dropped me off a couple of blocks from the buses to get things rolling in the morning. It was quite cold and blustery as we waited and the queues moved rather slowly, so I got chilled to the point of shivering. I should have worn pants and another layer up top, maybe even a knit hat. I was surrounded by folks from Maine and they were very chatty and fun. I sat on the bus next to a guy from the RA sub-3 Boston forum which made him virtual friends with BHearn and JenRuns. </p>
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<p>The bus dropped us off and we walked up the hill to the back of the school. There was a large field set up with tents, food, beverages, jumbotron, etc. I grabbed some stuff then headed towards the front and was surprised to find an entire other field set up similarly. I grabbed some freebies and found the gear drop buses and deposited my bag before heading towards Dan's charity house. A cop gave me directions to the house where I met Dan's buddy Scooter (great guy) and I drank some water and used the potty before heading up towards the starting corrals. There is another staging area with portajohns up there. The red bibs were heading for the corrals so I sat down and tried to chill out a bit. Saw Bhearn headed in so I yelled good luck to Bob. During the national anthem I was surprised at how many men in the staging area were oblivious and didn't remove their hats. Weird. The red wave took off and us whities started to backfill the corrals. I found my place and was happy to hear my friend Amy yell for me on her way to the corral just ahead. I had worn my yellow Oregon livestrong hat just so that she could find me in the crowd, so its job being done I passed it over to the folks collecting clothes towards the corral entry gate and got ready to go.</p>
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<p>What a sea of runners. Amazing. I just went with the flow, tried to hold back and run easy. First mile went by in 8:20 or so and though I got passed by a few people I wasn't going to waste any energy moving side to side. Rinse and repeat for about 13 miles. Somewhere along the line I started looking at my HRM and saw that I was in the mid 150s. It felt pretty good so I used HR rather than pace for pretty much the rest of the race. If I got above 160 I backed off and if I got below 150 I sped up. </p>
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<p>5k: 25:30</p>
<p>5k - 10k: 25:14</p>
<p>10k - 15k: 25:28</p>
<p>15k - 20k: 26:18</p>
<p>20k - 25k: 26:08</p>
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<p>Passed the half in 1:48:xx and had fleeting thoughts of an amazing 3:36 finish, but I quickly laughed that off and drew from my experience for a dose of realism. As I passed Wellesley I kissed a few girls holding "Kiss me I'm from Oregon" signs. Just cheeks, no tongue. <span><img alt="icon_thumleft.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/icon_thumleft.gif"></span> I was starting to think about the upcoming hills, which I was quite ignorant of due to my lack of course study prior to the event. But I knew there were a few and they were coming up fast so I tried to keep that HR down in the lower 150s so as to conserve energy. This slowed me down from 8:10ish pace to 8:30ish pace. I knew Arrojo was manning the 19 mile clock, so I concentrated on getting there feeling good and cheery. He was there and after a quick greeting he ran up ahead to take a picture of me coming by.
So nice of him! </p>
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<p>25k - 30k: 26:46</p>
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<p>Since my longest run had been 19 miles I knew that I was officially over my skiis at this point. The last hill ends around mile 21/35K and by the time I had gotten over it my legs were getting pretty stiff and I knew that if I didn't want to do a long, long walk in I'd have to employ some kind of strategy.</p>
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<p>30k - 35k: 27:42</p>
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<p>I decided to drink a lot of fluids, walk some flat and minor uphills and fly down the downhills. I was able to powerwalk pretty fast and I ran about 7:30 pace down the hills (that actually felt good), so I played leapfrog with a lot of steady runners who probably tired of seeing me over and over during this stretch. In my head I was thinking of just getting through this stretch without endangering 4 hours, looking for Moe at mile 23 or so (she had to go to the finish instead) and trying to keep the cramping at bay. I gave high-5s liberally to keep my spirits up.</p>
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<p>35k - 40k: 32:08 </p>
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<p>The crowd is amazing. A wall of sound. I see the 25 mile mark and gird my loins for the final rally. I thought "Hey, you're basically done. You can do a 1.2 mile cool-down run, right?" So that was that and I started running to the best of my ability. Around .5 miles from the finish I got two jolts in my left calf and thought I was going to seize up, but I stiff-legged a few steps and the cramp subsided and allowed me to continue on. I knew that sub 3:50 was in the bag now so a sense of relief came over me, even though time was pretty irrelevant to this whole experience. Rounding the final corner and seeing the convention center was a welcomed point of reference. I knew exactly how far I had to go and felt like I could relax and enjoy the finish. I purposely avoided speeding up and cutting people off and just cruised in with a smile on my face. I heard my name yelled out so I turned and waved, but I couldn't see who it was or if it was truly for me. But it was Moe and it was meant for me, so how cool is that!? Thanks, Moe!</p>
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<p>40k - 42k: 12:49 Finish time 3:48:03 Average heart rate: 155.</p>
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<p>On January 1 I had no idea if I was going to be able to run this thing or if it was just going to be a fun visit to see friends. On 4/18 I finished smack dab in the middle of the pack with a smile on my face. So there you go. <span><img alt="nike.gif" src="http://files.kickrunners.com/smilies/nike.gif"></span></p>
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<p>I didn't buy the jacket because I want to come back and race this thing someday. The hat will suffice for now. It's a nice hat. </p>
