Boston Marathon 2014
When
signing up for “the Boston Marathon 2014,” I knew my wife wouldn’t be going on
this trip and didn’t look at the calendar until it came time to get my plane
ticket and it would put me flying out 2 hours after our Church Easter Service
which I lead the music so I couldn’t miss nor did I want to miss the biggest
service of the year service was pretty amazing!
So I jumped in the truck and flew out of XNA Rogers, AR and made my
flight just in time. I arrived at my
Hotel at 11:00pm to stay the night with Matt Aguero my long time marathon
buddy. They changed the rules this year
and said you have to pick up your race bib and chip in person with an ID
because of the increased security. I
emailed (BAA) Boston Athletic Association probably 3 to 4 weeks prior to the
race not knowing if I could get on the bus to get to the race without a bib,
let along get an official time or even this year get scanned with a metal
detector before getting into the start of the race. My wife would call me crazy for trying to go
and race without a bib, but soon after the BAA emailed me back and told me to
call them on Tuesday 6 days before the race.
They then told me I could pick up my bib the morning of the race at 6am
at location that I wouldn’t tell anyone and that I wouldn’t tell anyone that
they were handing my bib out after the running expo had closed. It happened to the lobby of my hotel, small
world and I began to think the stars were aligning for me to run a great Boston
Marathon.
This would
be my 3rd Boston Marathon and for the 2 previous years I hadn’t ran
well, the course, crowd and weather seem to be perfect but I hadn’t even
qualified for Boston at Boston Marathon which meant thousands of runners had
passed me previous years. This Race was
to be different because I was having an the best spring I had ever had with
many top finishes in 50k trail runs, Trail Marathons and in the peak training
ran just a few seconds slower than my half-marathon PR on a very hard course at
the Vike-Hike Half-Marathon to out kick another racer to finish 1st
place at a 6:14 overall pace with 700 feet of elevation gain. This means a 6:35 to 6:45 pace at Boston
should be a breeze right? And if I were
to run much slower I might not catch my plane back to home!
Matt Aguero
usually trains and runs 2 marathons per year, 1 spring and 1 fall, and he is
the most consistent runner I have ever seen with splits training and race
times! I took his training for Boston
Marathon 2013 (bombing year) and didn’t run well. So I looked at my past training from my PR at
Tulsa marathon on a hilly course, which was cross training and doing many races
and applied it to my 2014 Boston Approach.
I would hope for the best I got pretty beat up after the Vike Hike it
was all concrete, but what got me worse was a sinus infection and a bad case of
poison ivy which would lead to a trip to the Doctor and the nurse getting to
give me a shot in the butt! I hate
shots, as the nurse said, “for a guy that runs marathons you sure scared of a
little needle.” This would lead to
clearing up my sinus mess and clear up the P-Ivey.
A week
later at starting line me and Matt would have to wait in line to get into the
start of the race as they were scanning runners with metal detectors, guards
with 243 assault rifles standing on the building tops everywhere! Then before I knew it there was a moment of
silence for the victims the previous year and the gun fired to start the 2014
race. I turned to the guys next to me
and ask if they put sunscreen on and one of them said, “looks like we are
setting in the tan lines for the summer today, have a great race bub and by
this time we were finally moving as I started about 4,000 to 5,000 runs back
from the starting line. This is also
what the BAA would guess my finish place from my previous qualifier at Tulsa
Marathon with a 2:58
I would
cross the line and think of the victoms of the previous year and think of my
wife and brand new baby girl walking right through where the bombs seems to be
way to soon after she has passed in the explosion points, even though it was an
hour later! And I would start my fast
pace of 2 super fast downhill miles at the start of the Marathon. Whatever pace you want to run at Boston it
will be about 30 to 45 seconds faster at the first 2 miles because they are
fast and everyone is stinking fast!
I would soon hit a crazy wall at mile 11 as I was setting in
a perfect pace but I couldn’t breathe and my ears were feeling blocked and my
sinus system was just failing. I would
push on holding pace knowing it wasn’t good but hoping it would pass. Every marathon has a moment sometimes
hopefully short but a moment that feels like wow this stinking hurts but
hopefully passes so you can press forward.
But this wasn’t going anywhere and wasn’t going to get better. The level of effort to the production of pace
felt like a steam train that was burning up all the coal and starting to burn
on the left over fly ash at mile 15. Pressing this pace with no air wasn’t that
hard until my legs said they were done going with out blood and air flowing to
them!
This would
be the start of not a death march because I would keep running at all cost with
now the thought of missing my plane that was to leave 2 hours after my planned
sub 3-Hour-Marathon. I would hope the
best for now just making the plane. It
would be the hardest my body as pushed through pain. Sad when you have the best crowd cheering
you from starting line to finish line, 26 miles streets lined with cheering
fans and tons of “Boston Strong” sign
everywhere! I had my name and Heb. 12:1 on the side of my arm on each side
which would leave a pretty cool sunburn tattoo on my right arm! But the crowd wouldn’t just scream for Meb
USA Boston Champing setting a new PR and retiring from Marathon racing but
would cheer for the Okie with Joshua on his arm with the wheels falling off!
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| Wesley College (all girls halfway mark and they scream so loud!) |
I finished at a rough 3:35ish and wow what a day feeling as
medical folks were trying to take me to the medic tent and I told them I didn’t
have time to go to it.
I walked through the madness of a marathon
finish and leaned against a rail trying to give my body a rest as a medical
student said you need to get in the wheel chair and go to the medical
tent. I told him my flight was leaving
in 1 hour he said from, “you better get going!”
And I did, I soon a volunteer if I was going the correct way to get to
my hotel and get my bag because they didn’t check bags at the finish now. She tried to turn me around and I told her
she was wrong. She said, “where are you
from? Because I am from Boston.” But I
didn’t take her advise and glad I didn’t I stopped at the next block and ask
again and my hotel was right, “thank God I am going to make my flight.” I was feeling sick as I would walk what
seemed to be 50 yards and then have to stop and lean against the wall or
whatever I could find as I felt I was going to throw up on since I had crossed
the finish line. I came into the hotel
room and there was Matt he had ran an amazing time and finish 190th
out of almost 40,000 runners, truly an amazing marathoner with a 2:35 finish!
WOW I told him I was not doing good and hadn’t had a good day and he said sit
down I said I have to get my bag and go there was not time to change clothes it
was get to the airport! He walked me out
and helped me get a taxi! Thank you Matt
you are an amazing friend! I then would
take off my shoes and put on a different pair of shoes. Why do taxi’s crack the windows? Saving gas?
Because it was hot in that taxi and then when hit the tunnel going under the
water you smell all the exhaust from other cars and it was enough to put me
into a cold sweat and you know what comes next!
Yes Matt the good friend he was had given me an extra check bag that he
had picked up at the running expo for me!
Told him the night before I didn’t need it but my head was buried it in
now throwing up 2 Gatorade’s, 2 gels and a water! The taxi drive was screaming and pulled over
super fast and rips the door open to see a nasty taxi but it was all in the
clear check bag and I held it up like a trophy and he was so grateful it almost
made me smile. But I still was hurting
and continue my 50 yard segment stop.
Got into the airport got my ticket process going and ask the airline
agent for a bag and she said we don’t have any and I told her I just threw up
in the taxi and she found one really fast for me! Remind you I now am wearing flip flops, a
race jersey, short shorts and backpack in one hand and an empty K-mart bag in
the other hand. And if you want sympathy
from TSA you never get it. But if you walk in like you had just finished the
hardest marathon in your life they will rub your back, help you get your stuff
checked even walk you to the bench with your shoes!
I no looked at my watch and still
had 30 minutes so I walked into the food court and bought a water from
McDonalds because they didn’t have a cup of ice water so spent $2.78 on 16
ounces of water and drank it. I then sit
down and put my head down on the table.
This was the finally the point where I felt like I stopped moving since
I crossed the finish line. Sat there
until I figured I better change closes in the bathroom another 50 yards and
head to the gate, which was about 50 more yards. I sat at the gate and looked at Starbucks
thinking I needed another water but it was past my range it was 100 yards! I didn’t really care that a bottle of water
was going to cost me 3 bucks at this point it was just I didn’t think it was
worth the effort of 200 yards! So then I
got a text from Josh Wiersig that said he was praying for me because he had
checked on me early and I texted him and told him I was hurting bad! He said “I am praying for you.” Well I know God had answered his prayer as I sat
at the end of line as I always do waiting to get on a plane a man handed me a
1.5 liter bottle of water! He said, “you looked like you needed this I saw you
come in earlier and something just told me to buy you this.” Then the flight attendant saw I was hurting
and got me a whole row to myself to lye down in. She soon would place her hand on me and I
jumped and cramped. She said, “was checking to make sure you were still alive!”
Still don’t
know why I didn’t run well at Boston, could be sinus troubles, could be I was
over trained, or wore down from so many races this Spring? I plan to go to Boston again when my wife gets
her a BQ and we plan a longer adventure together.
In the mean time another Marathon another day! Sign up for a race and get out there and TRAIN!
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| Meb Winning! |
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