Boston Report!

I'm blogging here within hours of my finish at Boston, so I'll give some initial impressions.

First of all, my finishing time was 2:59:17. That is actually 14 seconds slower than last year at Boston, when the gales were blowing. That's a little disappointing, but I'm still very happy I went under 3 hours. And I had a great time, and being out here in Boston for the Women's Oly Trials and with my friends has been an incredible experience! So I have to say that this has been quite the rewarding experience.

I ended up getting 1 of my 3 goals. I may not have bested my PR (although it was close) nor did I go under 2:55, but I did go under 3 hours, so that makes for a successful race by that measure.

Here's my race recap:

The day was pretty near perfect. Low to mid 50s, light wind. The sun did come out right at the start and I think that did become a factor. But I gotta be honest, these were the closest to ideal running conditions for a marathon that I have EVER experienced. I have zero excuses. Not that I'm upset with how I did, I'm actually quite happy. But I didn't hit all my goals, so I'm thinking about what went "wrong."

My plan to run 2:55 meant I needed to average 6:40 miles. I hit that plus or minus (depending on the hills) for the first 22 miles. I was very close to my goal at the half, coming in at 1:27:35. That's about perfect. And I felt great far longer than I did last year. Last year, I slowed down markedly on the Newton Hills miles 16-20, but this year, I felt pretty good through them. The wheels started to wobble (not come off. Kirk has assured me that my performance was NOT the wheels coming off) around mile 22-23 on all those downhills. Frankly, my legs hurt. Bad. I was in serious pain. Manageable, I suppose, but still pretty consistent.

My last 5K coming in was slow, about a 7:30 pace, although I did pick it up the last mile. I DID stop once for about 3 seconds, and I walked at 3 water stops for the length of time it took to drink a glass of water (~5 seconds), and I wish that weren't the case, but it is, and I know that had minimal impact on my finishing time so I've made my peace with that.

Here are my possible reasons why my race went bad:

1) I got dehydrated. I stopped sweating at mile 21. 2 miles later I was hurtin' bad. After the race I rehydrated, I could walk well and felt reasonably fine (but I'm still sore, let me tell you!). A sure sign that my legs had a tiny bit more in them than I pushed them to. The sun dehydrated me more than I had anticipated, and I failed in properly hydrating. Rookie mistake.
2) Those hills were tough. The pounding down, the long climbs up, and that long downhill after Newton all hurt. My training may have improved in terms of mileage this year, but I probably neglected the hill workouts more than I should have.
3) I kissed too many Wellesley girls at mile 13. Just kidding! :) Those women rock though. They have the most phenomenal vocal cords.
4) Bad (but improving) running form, inadequate upper body and core training left my upper body exhausted for the last couple of miles. I'll need to fix those things before my next marathon.
5) This is probably the hardest one for me to admit, but perhaps (and probably), I just wasn't mentally tough enough today. I should have powered through those last few miles. Stopping even for a few seconds with so little left to go really does bother me. And I should have pushed harder at the end. It's a race, it's SUPPOSED to hurt. I know I've gutted out a lot of races, including marathons (see last year's Boston), so I know I have it in me. I just may not have today. Compounding that may have been the dehydration which weakened my resolve. But this is also something I need to clearly work on.

I huge HUGE congrats to my training and marathon travel partners, MDRA's Kirk, Anne and Mike. You guys showed tenacity, and ran excellent races! And moreover, you made this weekend so much fun. Great job to local blogging legend Chad. I'm looking forward to your race report (if you haven't already done it!) And a huge thanks goes to those who were there cheering me on, my best friend from college's parents who drove all the way from Bellingham to the halfway point to cheer me on. I'm so glad they got to see me looking strong. And a huge thanks and shout-out to the lovely Emily, who besides putting up with Misty Mike (jk Mike, I love ya like a brother), came out and cheered us on and presumably cheered me on (I was too tired to notice) and hopefully won't tell me how bad I looked at mile 23! :)

And thanks to everyone else who tracked me online and sent warm messages of encouragement. Thanks for making me feel like a star today! The marathon is such a selfish (and perhaps pointless) endeavor, but it gives me a lot of joy, and the fact all my friends and family are so supportive means so much to me! (I must be on the proverbial runner's high right now, I'm feeling downright sappy!)

Boston on my mind

last couple thoughts before Boston...

Check out this great article from MinnPost about Michelle Lilienthal, possibly Minnesota's best hope for an Olympic qualifier at the women's trials. I'll be cheering for her and all the other Minnesota women on Sunday.

Great video on the MDRA blog to psyche me up for Beantown!

And lastly, weather's looking great. Could it be better than this??

Boston-bound

No...sleep...'til Boston?

I'm getting pretty excited about the race. Training partners Fancy Kirk and Misty Mike are already in route. I'll be joining them out there tomorrow. My blog will most likely be silent for a few days. But since half my readership will be in Boston with me...if a blogger stops blogging and nobody is on the Internets...finish this proverb.

This will be my 2nd year running Boston. I ran it last year (and blogged about it). Hopefully the weather is better than last year. It should be, but even if it isn't, running this with my friends will be a great experience. And watching the Women's Marathon Oly Trials will be such a treat (watch it here), especially after watching the Men's Trials back in November.

My goal is the same as last year's goal, to run a sub 2:55. I know I've trained well enough for that, but I just need the guts to go out there and run it!

Good luck to all Boston runners. Shout outs to those Boston-bound runners in blogland: Mike, Kirk, Anne, Chad, and Chris! Run well, blog well.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

8 inches of freakin' snow? Are you kidding me??? Check out my blog post from 1 year and 5 days ago. Yep, 81 degrees. And today we have over half a foot of snow on the ground.

Last night I went to the Twins Opener with Misty Mike (he calls me Nasty Nate for no other reason than alliteration, so I thought I'd return the favor), Dr. Em, and one of my friends (and by far the biggest Twins fan I know...nah, 2nd biggest Twins fan I know. NO ONE is a bigger Twins fan than Beth. Check out her blog for a recap on the game). Anyway, I'm sure you all already know that since we were prominently featured by national TV. During the standing O to Torii, the cameras lingered on us. Why? Because we're beautiful people, that's why! Then the text messages started pouring in from friends who saw us on TV. Good to know so many people are watching the game!

The game was incredible, great pitching by Livan. Good hitting, base running and all-around great small ball baseball which is always fun to watch. Hopefully the power turns on. We've got a lot of guys with that capability. I'm going back tonight for the game, so hopefully we get a power display! Come on Morneau, earn that huge salary! One guy who DID earn his salary upgrade was Joe NATHAN. He is so money! I was proudly wearing my Joe Nathan shirt, and he did not disappoint.

In other news, I'm going back and forth on this snow business. For one, I'm really tired of it. I'm so sick of walking through it, running through it, and mostly, NOT being able to pull my summer bike out of storage yet, although I'm sure the winter bike is enjoying the extra attention this year. BUT, this morning, I ran to work, and while it was the toughest 12-mile jog (and probably the slowest) I've done in years, it was also the most beautiful. The Minnehaha Parkway wasn't plowed, but that made it more picturesque. Seriously, it was really magical out there. I may have even had a runners high (there, now officially every running blog on earth has linked to this NYT article), and I didn't even need a harvest moon to get excited about running! But as magical as it was, I'd like the snow to magically disappear so I can get back to training for Boston and get back on the soft trails.

Odds and Ends on a Snowy Day

It's officially spring! That favorite time of the year when things get green, short sleeves on runs come back out, and my hands finally warm up! Well, 6+ inches of snow later, it sure looks like a winter wonderland to me. The big plus of a late March snow? Shoveling the driveway is optional, because it's gone within a couple days. (shoveling the sidewalk, mandatory and courteous). The Strib weather page says that the snow should be gone in 2 days, which is hard to believe because there's so much of it, and it's not supposed to be that warm this weekend.

"Don't panic: most of the snow will be gone by Monday or Tuesday, sun angle is too high for snow cover to linger for long."

I'd never thought about the sun angle aspect before, interesting. Actually, it's great because while I love the snow, I am ready for the next season to happen. The skis are put away, and I'm done with that. I'm not even a little tempted to get one last ski in. Well, maybe a little.


But instead of skiing, I'm enjoying a nice Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and thinking about the Boston Marathon! The first and only time I had a Cherry Wheat was last year immediately following the Boston Marathon, and since I just ran my next to last long run, thoughts of Boston are pretty fresh.

Also, those of you who read this on Google Reader may have missed out on a small change I made to the blog. I put a banner across the top, from the Human Race 8K that we ran last weekend. It's a great photo (thanks Marty!) that shows 5 of us running (the guys in red, I'm in the middle somewhere). Hard to believe that we were running in singlets just last week, and today we trudged out a long run through inches of snow. Welcome to Minnesota! (Read Mike's 8K wrapup here - he's the one in red leading the MDRA charge).

Hope everyone has a happy Easter! I'll toss in a plug for my church. I'm going down to New Orleans with our youth group in a couple months, and we're doing an Easter pancake breakfast as a fundraiser from 7am-noon. It's Park Avenue Church at 34th and Park in So. Mpls. It's a wonderful church with awesome praise and worship. The music there is phenomenal, and the preaching is inspiring. In any case, no better time to check it out than Easter Sunday! Park Ave will definitely have the Spirit moving.

Classic Nor'easter. Mariners, get off the water!

"Worst conditions in the history of the Boston Marathon."(Boston Globe article from this morning)

Boston Marathon Website (you can follow along with me on Monday!)

In other news, it's a gorgeous sunny day in Beantown right now! Time to go enjoy the sites! (and some tasty pasta on the North End.)

Oh, and my previous time goal at Boston...I hereby revise my goal to SURVIVING the race. If I do that, I will consider it a success!

Have I mentioned this yet?

I'm getting really excited for the Boston Marathon! It is 6 days away. If you want to follow me online (start time is 10am Eastern, 9am Central on Monday April 16), you can go to the website and use my bib # 2398.

I'm putting down my goal here right now, although I know that's a dangerous thing to do! My running has felt great the past 6 months, and I've had a couple races that gave me real confidence, especially my 1:24 in less than ideal conditions at the Frozen Half Marathon. My PR is a 2:58, so I'd like to beat that, but really, my goal is sub 2:55 (NYC qualifying time). That's 6:40 per mile. Is that possible? Check online or come back to this blog in a week to find out!

Kirk sent me this elevation profile in hopes of scaring the crap out of me. He succeeded. This is scary.


I've also been checking the weather out there. I promised myself I wouldn't look at the forecast until Thursday, but I cheated and looked on Sunday. Not too bad, high of about 50. The possible showers concern me, but not much I can do about those.

However, beyond running the marathon, I'm looking forward to seeing Boston, NYC and hanging out with Alison, Joel and Mary. It's been a while since I've seen any of them, and seeing them is a guaranteed good time!

Ok, I just read this post, and it is definitely the lamest one I've yet written. I'm hereby re-enacting my self-imposed ban on blogging about running. It bores even me.

Next post will hopefully be an Easter recap. 28 people in my little house! Photos to come...