2013 Boston Marathon

After a month of thinking about what that happened at the Boston Marathon, and after being lazy about posting... I'm finally updating Coursing.

Unfortunately, the actual race itself became of little importance due to the events that directly followed the marathon... or interrupted the marathon for many people.

Regarding what followed the race, I still struggle with what to say. Unless you live in a cave or you're reading this years from now, you are fully aware that the 2013 Boston Marathon was bombed. Literally. Two bombs went off, both right near the finish line. Seconds apart. Three people died on the scene, and something like almost 200 people wound up in the hospital, including a huge number of amputees.

It was a disgusting act that left America and the sport dumbfounded. What should've been a day of joy, celebration, competition, and holiday in Boston turned into a nightmare scene straight out of Hollywood. Fortunately, it could've been a lot worse all around. And for myself, I had long finished the race and was a few miles away from the finish line when it occurred.

The days that followed where a complete circus act, very similar to watching OJ Simpson drive down the highway. The city went on lockdown and law enforcement went on a manhunt for two suspects. A few more people died. Emotions were high. Every media outlet in the country thrived on it, and was fixated with each and every waking moment.

Finally, with the killing of one suspect and capture of another, things have calmed down. There are still dribbles of news every now and then, but for the most part, this cowardly act is fading away. Who knows, maybe they'll come out with a made-for-TV movie on it someday? For many of us though, this won't be something that we are going to forget for a long time.

I'll never forget hearing the huge "BA-BOOOOM!" that the two blasts made. I heard them from Cambridge.

I'll never forget watching the chaos unfold on TV, only a few minutes later, knowing that I was only a few miles away and that I was just at the scene. This sort of thing happens every day in random places all over the world. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised that it could happened in our own country? Either way, to actually be that close to a bombing leaves you emotional and jumpy, to say the least... even after 26.2 miles.

I'll never forget a casual conversation with another marathon finisher while walking through the Boston Commons. Both of us jokingly said, "I survived the race". About 10 minutes later, the bombs went off.

I'll never forget that 2 days before the race, on Saturday, a handful of teammates and I climbed through the scaffolding, directly in front of Marathon Sports on Boylston St, right at the finish line. This was exactly the scaffolding that was blown to smithereens and killed and mangled people 48 hours later. We climbed on it like monkey bars. We laughed and had fun the whole way. We then took a photo in front of the finish line, and moved on.

And lastly, I'll never forget my conversation with a women at the airport, while I waited to board the plane back to Chicago. She was in the final steps of her race when the blasts went off. She was 26.1 miles deep, and physically stuck on the course between both blasts. Exhausted, tired, dehydrated, delirious... and now nearly killed. Not knowing how else to respond, she crossed the finish line and found safety. She was physically unharmed, but I can only imagine the horror that she experienced.

It is absolutely horrible that such an innocent and pure event like that was soiled. The most famous race in the world was victimized, much like the Olympics and some other sports in the past. For runners, this was especially disheartening. Our Mecca, our Vatican, our place of homage was tarnished. Again, we can only be fortunate that more people weren't injured or killed.

Everyone has their own stories of the 2013 Boston Marathon. Alas, all the things I mentioned above took center stage away from what was a great race for many of us. Unfortunately, time has passed and I never really had the chance to fully reflect upon my own race. I haven't really embraced or celebrated the accomplishment. I wound up running my second fastest marathon to date, a mere 9 seconds away from a PR and 23 seconds away from cracking below 2:38. It might have actually been one of my best marathons yet, given how strategic Boston can be.

Here are some very brief memories and thoughts from the race itself aside from the bombing:

I spent the night before the race in Hopkinton area with Jason Kedzuch. What was supposed to be logistically easy, nearly turned into a pre-race nightmare as our shuttle driver got lost. Luckily, we made it to the start with a little time to spare and found our teammates.

Weather on Patriot's Day was nearly perfect. It was sunny and in the 50's. We had a touch of headwind, which increased as we got closer to the coast.

I ran most of the race literally stride for stride, with teammate Scott Laumann.

Scott and I tackled the course by going easy on the early down hills, averaging 6:13's for the first 3 miles. We blazed the 4 through 16 miles at an average of 5:55.8... (I recall constantly thinking "Wow this is really fast", and minutes later thinking "Wow, this is going so smooth and easy"). We battled the uphills in 17 through 21 with 6:13 avg's. At that point, Scott and I separated.

I stayed conservative on the sharp downhills of 22 and 23, then threw everything I had at the last 3 miles. My final 5.2 miles, which were in an increasing headwind at that point, averaged 6:02.9.

In a perfectly executed race, the goal was to go through the half at about 1:18:40 (we were 1 whopping second fast!), and then come back in whatever possible to get sub 2:38:00. I recognized that a negative split would've been very difficult or impossible for me with that strategy... and hence stuck to an even-effort plan.

I ran 2:38:23.

Looking back, everything felt very smooth and very fast. At no point, did I feel like I was out of control or bonking. I was truly all-in from mile 4 though 26.2... even those late miles. I don't think it would've been wise for me to have gone any faster at any point in those 22 miles. The uphills took a lot out of me, and the late downhills were taxing and begged to break me (hence, I didn't roll 5:45's on them)... The late headwinds probably took a little away from me in the final miles that I didn't expect. Mile 25 had a nasty uphill/over pass that hurt but I still pushed on it. I was sub-6 pace in the last 2.2K.

The only place I could have possibly squeaked out any time would've been in the first 5K. Scott and I started the race incredibly conservative... Hell, that first mile was 6:23! Coming out of Hopkinton is basically a fall-down-hill mile. That 5K was so slow that when we finally picked it up, we easily had a thousand runners in front of us at the 3 mi split. We did this to save our legs, and maybe that helped in the end? In hind sight though, it would've been worth the risk to go out slightly faster so that I had a chance at a sub-2:38.

Otherwise, I ran the highly strategic course as perfectly as I think I could've. And for that, I'm extremely proud of my Boston Marathon. On any other course, I would've had a huge PR race

It was a great experience and help to tackle all those miles along with Scott, and I couldn't have done it without him. Likewise, I couldn't have made it through all of my winter training without my TTAU teammates. A big thanks to my host for the weekend, Jason Kedzuch (he and Dawn made me feel at home, and kept me safe in Somerville). I only wish Sarah could've been there with me (she was sick at the time, back in Chicago).

I put a ton of split info below, but I think it's worthy of looking at to see how special this race was. Given the volatile course and an even effort, it was a near perfect performance in a Boston Marathon that will never be forgotten.

K's - Splits - Laps - Avg Per Mile

5- 0:19:18 - 0:19:18 - 0:06:12.6

10- 0:37:45 - 0:18:27 - 0:05:56.2

15- 0:56:14 - 0:18:29 - 0:05:56.9

20- 1:14:38 - 0:18:24 - 0:05:55.3

25- 1:33:02 - 0:18:24 - 0:05:55.3

30- 1:52:01 - 0:18:59 - 0:06:06.5

35- 2:11:19 - 0:19:18 - 0:06:12.6

40- 2:30:07 - 0:18:48 - 0:06:03.0

42.195- 2:38:23 - 0:08:16 - 0:05:59.5

1st Half- 1:18:39 -- 0:05:59.9

2nd Half- 1:19:44 -- 0:06:04.9

TOTAL 26.22- 2:38:23 -- 0:06:02.4

Mile- Split

1- 6:23.1

2- 6:11.7

3- 6:05.1

4- 5:59.0

5- 5:59.0 (30:37.9)

6- 5:51.0

7- 5:57.0

8- 5:59.0

9- 5:57.2

10- 5:52.5 (1:00.10)

11- 5:55.3

12- 5:52.9

13- 5:56.7 (split- 1:18:39)

14- 5:53.9

15- 5:58.6 (1:29:52)

16- 5:53.1

17- 6:10.1

18- 6:11.7

19- 6:01.8

20- 6:16.5 (2:00:25)

21- 6:24.9

22- 5:59.6

23- 6:06.3

24- 5:59.3

25- 6:07.4 (2:31.0)

26- 6:02.0

.219- 1:17.9

26.219- 2:38:23

2nd Chicagoan

3rd Illinois

216 Male

235 Overall