Tag: boston marathon

Boston Marathon Weekend “Race-Vacation”

This past weekend marks the longest time I have spent in Boston! I was there from Friday through Wednesday, highlighted by all the touristy stops, the B.A.A. 5km on Saturday, over 180 miles of cycling over 4 days, and, of course, spectating the 120th edition of the Boston Marathon.

Friday was very relaxing. I picked up Christina from Logan airport in the morning, then we spent the rest of the day checking out the sights and sounds of Boston. We did an easy 4 mile run and checked out the marathon expo. In the evening, we met up with Karen and Sean for Regina’s Pizza in Allston. It was great to catch up with them!

On Saturday, we walked from the hotel to Boston Commons for the B.A.A. 5km. The 2.5 mile walk took us just under 40 minutes. I’ve never warmed up for a 5km by walking 2.5 miles, but you know what they say…”always try something new on race day!”

[If you follow me on Instagram, you might remember my collision with a car on March 31st – the event left me with abrasions, bruises and a very tender right LCL. I went from running 50 miles a week to virtually 0 for two weeks. A few days before the 5km, the knee pain had subsided, giving me hope that I can restart running again. But was racing a 5km a good idea?]

In short, the 5km went well with a finish time of 17:31. That put me 96th overall in a field filled with a lot of fast professional runners.

2016-04-16 10.36.36

We spent the rest of Saturday doing touristy things, checked out Quincy Market, went to the Sam Adams brewery tour and eventually had dinner at Stephanie’s on Newbury.


On Sunday, I woke up super early and headed out for a 3 hour bike ride out to Dover. Saw some turkeys on my way out and then some more on my way back to Boston. The ride got pretty chilly in Dover, with temps dipping down to 27 degrees. I was back at the hotel before 8am for a quick shakeout run with Christina. Good thing she was having breakfast so I had a generous window of time to shower and prep for the run.

2016-04-17 09.14.15

Later that day, we did more touristy things – checked out Quincy Market a couple times, visited the New England Aquarium, and walked along the Freedom Trail.


Marathon Monday!

We got up nice and early and was out of the hotel by 6:30. We got shuttled to Boston Commons where we met up with Team Chocolate Milk teammates Dougin and Jill. They all got on the cheese buses around 7:30…so that left me with 4+ hours to kill before I could spectate the race.

I jogged back to the hotel – a quick 2.5 miles from the Commons. I got on the bike and did a quick 47 mile ride out to Concord. I had a route planned for 50 miles but once I got to Concord, there was a parade going down one of the main streets so I had to take some side roads to avoid the crowds. In the end, I still got some good sweet spot efforts on the bike and was back at the hotel before 11am.

I spent the rest of the day spectating and tracking the marathoners. It was an unusually warm day so everyone that I was tracking had faded on the latter part of the marathon (which allowed me more time to cheer along the course). Karen and I met up and cheered at Coolidge Corner. Christina was wearing a pink hat so that was the item to spot. And to our surprise, there were a lot of pink hats! Nonetheless, Christina passed Coolidge Corner (mile ~24) and looked strong. Later on we met up at the finish and had dinner & post-dinner night caps with Dougin, Jill and Christina’s parents.


All in all, I had a very enjoyable and relaxing time in Boston and Cambridge. I got to spend some quality to friends and experience the glory of the 120th running of the Boston Marathon. I look forward to running the 121st Boston Marathon next year! 

 

Los Angeles Marathon Race Report & Olympic Team Trials

It’s true. Time flies!

It was only 6 weeks ago that I decided to run the Los Angeles Marathon. The opportunity to spectate the Olympic team trials, watch my friend Karen run her first marathon, and then cap it all off with a marathon seemed like a perfect idea!

Due to busy season at the day job, I was left with only one flight out of New York on Friday evening. After a 90 minute delay, the JetBlue “red-eye” flight landed at 3:30am Pacific time. I went straight to the hotel, dropped my things and got a bit more shut eye. At 6am, Carlos and I went on a 6.5 mile shakeout run along Figueroa, on the Olympic trials course.

2016-02-13 06.20.12

We got breakfast, made sure Karen was ready for her marathon debut, and then spent the next few hours cheering. The trials marathon course was extremely spectator friendly and we were able to see the action unfold with little to no down time.

go Karen go!Go Karen Go!

After Karen had finished her race, it was back to the hotel to regroup, and then party! From 3pm onward, I carb loaded with tons of Angel City IPA. Jetlag finally hit me around 1am…

LA LIVE!
LA LIVE!

 

Race Day – February 14th, 2016

3 ½ hours later…I woke up at 4:45am, got my CPTC-NB race kit on, ate breakfast and chugged a steaming hot cup of coffee. My friend Sky and I hitched a ride from one of her friends to the start of the marathon. Luckily for us, Jimmy (who drove us), is an LA local and intelligently shuttled us into Dodgers Stadium at 6:15am.

Since I registered after the corral assignment cutoff, I was assigned a very high bib number, which did not initially allow me to enter Corral A, which included all runners who are capable of finishing the marathon in 3:15 or faster. With a little more luck, me and 3 other racers were able to convince one of the race coordinators to allow us into Corral A. What a relief! In the corral, I was joined by 10 or more of my fellow Central Park Track Club – New Balance teammates. We chatted a bit and at 6:55am we were off!

The first half mile of the race was slow since it was into an incline. But after that, we were met with a significant downhill as we left the confines of Dodgers Stadium and entered the streets of LA. My strategy for the day was split up the 26.2 mile race into 5km increments. Additionally, I wore a heart rate monitor to make sure I was not overexerting my pace. Everything was going spectacular for 30km. I splitted: 20:05, 20:21, 19:52, 19:48, 19:44, and 19:51, which was spot on as I wanted to run evenly. But just as things were going well, the wheels were beginning to fall off – I was met with an incrementally painful side stitch, which I first experienced at mile 20 of the IRONMAN Louisville marathon. When I passed the 20 mile marker, I could no longer handle the pain to my side, so I significantly slowed down my pace in an effort to relax the pain. The pain goes away but subsequently returns when I increased my effort.

The last 10km was simply damage control.

  • How was I going to limit time lost?
  • Is there a pace that I can sustain that will not increase the amount of pain on my side?

The answer was yes – the remaining two 5km splits were 22:28 and 22:59, respectively. I had accumulated a 5 ½ minute deficit.

The crowds along the finishing line were AMAZING! With the time lost, I finished in 2:55:11.

Despite the painful side stitch, I enjoyed every minute of the LA Marathon course. The course was spacious throughout, crowd support was spectacular, and aid stations were fully loaded with enthusiastic volunteers. I couldn’t have asked for a better race experience.

2016-02-14 10.02.45

With my 2:55 result, I may use it as my 2017 Boston Marathon Qualifying time.

And until then, no more marathon distance running until I lace up for 26.2 miles at the IRONMAN World Championship on October 8.

Next up, the NYRR New York City Half Marathon on March 20th!

Thanks for reading.

 

 

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