Jorge Carvajal
The Boston Marathon, April 16 2007, came during one of the busiest times in my life. I had to present two papers in a national conference in early April and was to take the comprehensive exams for my PhD degree at the University of Kansas at the end of April.
However, out of the three marathons I have run so far, this was the one for which I trained the hardest. I ran three 20 milers and put in considerable work on downhill running. I had to train for Boston in the coldest winter I have seen during the four years I have lived in Kansas. I did some of my long runs with a wind chill of 8 F and remember how the water from my bottles and the sweat from my head became frozen.
I finally made it to the race with the threat of a “100 year storm”, a Nor’easter that prompted the Boston Athletic Association to issue a weather warning three days before the race in which they stated that “combined with the rain, we are concerned that predicted weather conditions will increase the runners' risks for hypothermia”.
On race day, when walking at 5 am from my friend’s apartment in Cambridge, MA to take “the T”, the local subway to downtown Boston, it was difficult to keep the balance, due to the wind gusts. A persistent rain welcomed me to the line to take the school buses to Hopkinton in the Boston Commons and a narrow spot in a crowded runner’s tent was the place where I tried to get a little rest after a night with zero sleep. It rained heavily during that wait and the wind was pretty strong.
I was assigned the bib 11943, which corresponded to the first corral of the second wave, scheduled to start at 10:30 am. Once the first wave’s runners had left for the start, the tent became less crowded and I started my last minute preparations for the race. It had been hard to decide the night before what to wear for the race. I leaned towards shorts, a technical tee and long sleeve technical shirt on top. The remaining clothes were throwaway ones. I headed to the start with a trash bag on top of the long sleeve (I ended wearing this trash bag thru more than half the race), a cotton shirt on top of the trash bag, another trash bag on top of this shirt, then a sweater, and believe it or not, a third trash bag. In addition, I wore a winter hat and throwaway gloves. I had a second pair of gloves to wear after the first ones became too wet and a baseball type hat attached to my fuel belt.
However, I knew I had an important business to take care of on my way to the starting line: I had to go # 2 in a portajohn. I was running late. It was almost 10:10 am and every portajohn had one person waiting. I finally entered one to find out that no toilet paper was left. Then I made a line to the next one just to encounter the exactly same situation. Fortunately at that moment I remembered that in the numerous things I had in my check bag was some spare toilet paper. That was a live saver!
By the time I checked my bag it was 10:20 am and I was about 0.6 miles from the starting line. I did not want to lose my spot in the first corral of the second wave so I actually had to run that distance, weaving thru thousands of runners. When I got to the first corral there were 30 seconds left. No time left to stretch, which I always do before any run.
In a blink I had started my first Boston Marathon. This time I did set my two watches at the starting line (I failed to do so in my first marathon), the one on the right hand to keep my total time and the one on the second to be re set every mile to monitor my mile splits. I wore a 3:29 pace band on my left hand; that time was my goal regardless of the weather, a BQ [Boston qualifier] and a PR. That meant an average of about a couple of seconds less than 8-minute miles. The pace band was actually customized for the Boston course and accounted for the hills, with mile splits that ranged from 7:41 in mile 16 to 8:27 in mile 21.
By the first mile, which I ran in 8:45, it had stopped raining and the 0.6 mile involuntary warm up and the adrenaline made me felt as if I was toasting. I threw away my winter hat, the first trash bag and the sweater. I put the baseball hat on my head and two miles later I almost made the mistake of throwing it away; however, I decided to save it and I ended wearing it through the finish line, as cooler temperatures and gusts were going to greet us later in the race. I did throw away the second trash bag and the cotton shirt.
After the first mile I got into a good pace. The crowd support in Boston is awesome and that helped a lot. I got to the half in 1:46:19, a little behind target but still within a doable BQ. I knew I had to save my legs for the hills from mile 16 and the last 6 miles and so I kept my pace. Passing by Wellesley College is indescribable. I did not do any cheek thing but got a lot of high fives.
In my previous two marathons miles 16 to 20 were the hardest; it was there when I started feeling too tired and slowed down. However, I felt great at mile 16. It was actually my fastest mile split, 7:41. In the hills afterwards, I felt strong and I was passing lots of runners, although I was a bit slower than what my pace band indicated. Around mile 19, though, I started feeling a discomfort in my right thigh and for fear of an injury I slowed down a bit. By mile 21 the discomfort was still there and I decided to slow down even more, to forget about my BQ and PR, to just enjoy the last stretch of my first Boston, and to save my leg from a possible injury. I finished tired but I felt I still had a lot left in me. My finish time: 3:43:02.
The question I have not been able to answer so far is - was that discomfort just tiredness from the Boston down hills and would have I been able to keep my pace without getting injured?
Overall, running Boston was a wonderful experience. The organization is amazing (including the fantastic pre race pasta dinner) and even with the bad weather we had that very special support from the crowds.
What next? Well, I thought I was not going to run another marathon any time soon. However, given that I feel I was not totally spent at Boston, I might think of it as very long run and give a shot to the Andy Payne Marathon on May 26, in Oklahoma City. This is six weeks after Boston. I have not decided to run it yet but I have continued training in case I sign up. I did a 14 miler two weeks after Boston, an 18 miler three weeks after Boston and a 14 miler at marathon pace four weeks after Boston and I feel like I am in good shape. My concern is the temperature. I will decide within a week of the marathon and if I run it, I will again attempt a BQ and PR.
Jorge Carvajal, 46, is a member of runLawrence.