I made it! I made it! I had to get old to do it, but I qualified for Boston! The ever elusive 3:15 still slipped away while I crashed into the runner's stupor the last mile and a half.
I didn't feel stressed at all about my time leading up to the race, so that was nice. Chad and I got to the start line an hour early. I was freezing and shaking, so I used my clothes bag as a toke before the race. I am sure everyone thought I was an idiot, but at least I wasn't losing heat out the noggin! We saw Heather as we were shedding the sweats, so she joined with us to the start. This turned out to be such a good move for both Heather and me.
I didn't keep my mile splits like a dummy, but I had my race band, so this is how the race went for me.We got out a little slow on the 1st mile, then we picked up #2,#3, #4. We lost chad here, because he planned to stay with the 3:20 pace group, but the 3:20 pacer was way too fast and blew up all of his group by #15. In fact, later we saw him hustling past us without his sign! What?! That's no way to make friends!
We were right on with my race band at #4. We got a little fast mile #5 through #7, so we were 51:50 here which is not quite 2 minutes ahead of my band. My right calf was tight here, but by #11 I was feeling pretty good. We went across #13 at 1:36:28 (almost exactly 2 minutes ahead of pace)
#13 through #18 eat me up on this course because I think I can go 7:15 per mile here, but with the rollers I was happy at 7:25 or so. We gave back time, but we were still ahead of schedule by 40 seconds at #21. I felt decent at #22, and heather was struggling a bit. I just told her I needed her and we started coaching each other here. We sounded like we were talking to our track kids, but for me it was mostly just positive self-talk.
I was fading at #24 and Heather pulled her phone out and called her sister at the finish line. Who does that?! I thought if she is strong enough to be making calls and yapping on the speaker phone, I have to stay with her. We were right at 3:00 at 24.2. I knew I didn't have sub-3:15 here, but I thought I may still be able to go 3:15. Heather went on at #24.5. I grabbed a water, tried to surge and had nothing. It was auto-pilot from there. I crossed the finish line, and Heather was waiting there. If we weren't married to two different people and didn't stink, I may have kissed her on the mouth. She really pulled me the last 3 miles. She is a great gal!
Big props to my track kids for giving me a great base. Bigger props to Chad for running the long runs with me all spring. Massive props to Heather for taking me to a big PR!
It is R&R for me now. I think I will be taking the bike to XC practice next week! | 