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by R.L. Bynum
Hi Deads,
What can I say? I am one of those sick and twisted runners that gets a high with EVERY marathon finish, but finishing the 2002 Boston Marathon beat all of my previous 13, including my first marathon finish.
Heck, I was trying to rank the experience on the flight home Monday night and the only events that clearly were ahead of running the Boston Marathon were my wedding day, the day I proposed and the days my two sons were born. It's not an exaggeration to say that Monday probably would come next.
In a word, it was AWESOME! I wish everybody could experience it.
It's just terrific to be a runner. A baseball player can't get an at bat in the World Series and a golfer can't play a round in the Masters. But a runner can, with qualification or a little luck, run in the
Trying to rank the experience on the flight home Monday night and the only events that clearly were ahead of running the Boston Marathon were my wedding day, the day I proposed and the days my two sons were born. |
How big is Boston? On the way to the DRS dinner on Saturday night, I started talking to a guy who said he was Korean. I assumed he was a Korean living in the U.S. He said no. He had travelled for 24 HOURS to get to Boston to run the race. He said that, to his body clock at that point (at around 5:30 p.m.), it was 4 a.m. Talk about having to adjust your sleep schedule!!!
There was a guy (I think about 22 years old) from Alabama who had just qualified for Boston. His parents went up to Boston with him and taped everything: when he picked up his number, when he picked up his T-shirt. Tell me Boston isn't special.
THE DAY BEFORE
First a little on Sunday (I had previously posted about Saturday's terrific encounter.) Wade (my non-Dead friend who I came up with) and I headed out to Val's in Arlington, Mass., for some terrific food and conversation. Thanks for getting that together Val and have a happy birthday on Wednesday!!!
It was terrific to meet more Deads. I just wish I had been able to meet everybody. Judging from some of the posts, I missed meeting a few people.
After the brunch, we headed back to Boston. Wade isn't a baseball fan and wasn't interested in the Yanks-Red Sox game, so I headed down there by myself. I had resigned myself to not being able to get a ticket since they were going for $100 and $200 on Ebay and I wasn't going to pay that.
I figured that, at worst, I could walk around Fenway and see what it looks like from the outside. After getting out of the subway station, all I heard was "does anybody have a ticket to sell," and never heard anybody trying to sell tickets.
But as I was walking past the line of people waiting to get into the bleacher section (while holding up one finger), an older gentleman said that he had one extra ticket since his son couldn't go with him to the game. I asked how much and braced myself. I was stunned when he replied $15, which was face value! I got so lucky. I was sitting in the right-field bleachers and it was a blast.
Fenway is one of only two of the old baseball cathedrals left (I don't count the renovated Yankee Stadium) along with Wrigley and that was probably my last chance to go to a game there before they move on to another stadium.
As I was roasting in the heat watching the game, I really started to get worried. If it had been like that the whole time on Monday, it would have been terrible. Fortunately, it turned out to be cloudy and pleasant for the first 18 or so miles before it got a bit hot. Even when it got hot, it didn't really feel that bad to this N.C. resident who is used to more humidity.
We went to the free pasta feed and it was terrific. Fortunately we got there before the line got too long. When we left, the line was about 10 times as long as when we got in line. That was only the second race I've run for which the pasta feed was free. The other was the Parkersburgh (W.Va.) Half-Marathon.
On my way out, I stopped at a convenience store and bought three chances to win the $300 million in tonight's Big Game drawing. I know that I've got a better chance of running a 2:15 marathon. :)
RACE DAY
I've never run a marathon that was run better. There are SO many volunteers and they all were so nice and eager to be helpful. The ride on school bus was a little longer than I expected, but I think we had one of the "elite" drivers. He kept passing the other school busses and I suspect he may have driven a PR to Hopkinton.
We walk out of the bus and an enthusiastic lady exclaims, "Welcome to Hopkinton!" This is just too great. What a neat little town.
I was there with Wade and four others in the tent sitting on some plastic and waiting for noon to get closer. Toward the end, Dennis Halpin joined us for a while. It's about like it was at NYCM: you get there early to wait. Fortunately it wasn't too cold and it wasn't too hot.
In our tent (the one that had the food line), there was a couple who had just gotten married. She was wearing a white jog bra and white shorts and he was wearing a black singlet and black shorts with "just married" written on the back. That was pretty neat. At one point, everybody in the tent gave them a hearty round of applause.
Since I didn't qualify and got in with a media waiver, I was in the 16th corral (of 17). In conversations with the runners who were around me, it was clear that their time goals and previous marathon times showed that they weren't going to shooting for a pace anywhere close to what I hoped for.
I knew that I'd have to do some maneuvering when, as I sat at the front of my corral, the last guy in the 15th corral had written on the
Written on his singlet, "Last place finisher, you don't want to follow me." |
We were so far from the start that when the race did begin, we were saying to each other, "did the race just start?" It had, but it took just under 13 minutes for me to get to the start. As soon as we started moving, I started going for those little open spaces.
While most people were pretty much walking all the way to the starting line, I was hustling ahead. As I posted Monday night, there is videotape evidence of that on ESPN2 (if you go to where the race clock on the screen is as 12:27). You can see everybody walking and then I zip by on the right side of the road (on the left part of the screen.)
I was almost at full stride about 500 feet from the starting line. You know what was really weird? Wade (he ran his typically good race at 3:17) was in the 6th corral and it took him 7:48 to get to the one mile mark (from the starting line). It took me 7:28 to get to the one-mile mark (yes, I know, I went out too fast AGAIN).
That was a hard-working 7:28, let me tell you. There were people taking leisurely paces running side-by-side with 3 or 4 of their friends. Another problem is that my best chances to move ahead was to go to the side of the road. But many of the spectators were putting their hands out to give the runners "five." I nearly got clotheslined one time when I was going by a runner to his right and he decided to reach his hand out to give a spectator five. That wouldn't have been good.
For two reasons, I tried to take it easy in the first 16 miles. One, I kept thinking it was going to get hotter and, two, I knew that, for five miles from 16-21, there would be a lot of hills. Although I still was always trying to weave around people some, I was fairly comfortable with my pace by the 5th or 6th mile.
I looked at the race as three segments: 1-15, 16-21 and 21-finish.
I ended up taking four packets of Gu and was very happy that I had put an Advil in the pocket of my shorts. At about mile 15, my quads started to get tight and weren't feeling that good. Soon after popping the Advil, that went away and I felt great.
Joe Bator mentioned the funny sign ribbing Arthur Andersen. Another amusing one was at Wellesley. Two women held up a big sign that said (I can't remember the exact wording) something like, if you ask for a kiss here, you'll get one. I didn't stop, but Wade said he talked to a friend from Raleigh who did. He got a kiss from one, started to run again, but decided to go back and get a kiss from the other.
He got a kiss from one, started to run again, but decided to go back and get a kiss from the other. |
I actually didn't think the Wellesley hills were that bad. Heartbreak Hill was long and sustained, but it really wasn't that bad, either. The problem with it, of course, is that it's at mile 21. Of course I train in hilly Chapel Hill and ran the Grandfather Mountain Marathon, so my view may be warped. It really helped mentally, though, to know that Heartbreak Hill was basically the last big hill on the course.
My first sighting of the famous Citgo sign was a mental boost, knowing I was getting closer. Being a huge baseball fan, it was neat to run by that sign I had seen so many times while watching games on TV.
The next mental boost came when I saw the Prudential building, but
there was nothing quite like turning that corner on to Boylston and
seeing the finish at a distance.
I'll never be able to convey to non-runners the feeling at that point, but I'm guessing most of you know what a high that part of the marathon induces!
I ended up finishing at 3:45. Considering I ran a 3:42 on a flat Tybee (Ga.) Marathon course in February, I was fairly happy with the time.
I saw a few Deads along the course, but the only Dead I could clearly identify was Neil Cook (thanks for the support). Thanks to the others who I couldn't identify!!
THE RACE AFTER THE RACE
Because the airline shuffled our fights, I had to catch a 6:50 flight out of Logan. Friends of ours let us use their room to take a shower, but we really didn't have that much time. I didn't check any baggage in order to help me get to the airport more quickly. I was feeling so good, I actually ran from the finish area to the Sheraton. I heard more than one comment along the way to the effect of, "hey, the race is over."
Of course after hustling to the airport, it was delayed and we didn't take off until 8:20 p.m.!!!
I must look shifty. I got the full screening when I left RDU and it happened again.
When we went through the screener to get into the gate area, Wade went right through and wasn't stopped. They stop me, go through my stuff, run the wand all over me and make me empty my pockets.
Then, as we are boarding, Wade goes right through, but they stop me!!! They do all that stuff again and, as a kicker, I have to take my shoes off. That wasn't exactly what I wanted to do after running a marathon, bending over to take my shoes off then putting them back on.
I should say that I seriously didn't mind any of that because I'd rather have them do that with what happened at 9/11. But it because a good joke between Wade and myself that I get stopped twice on the way out and he doesn't get stopped once!!!!
So, marathon No. 14 is in the books and I'm one state away from getting the needed 10 to join the D.C. and 50 club. I'm now plotting which one to run to get that No. 10. I've run them in Ga., S.C., N.C., Va., Md., Pa., N.Y., Mass., and Ill. So the most likely candidates are Tennessee, Kentucky or Ohio.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to reading everybody else's reports!!
R.L.
R.L. Bynum * Hillsborough, N.C. * work: * rlb@herald-sun.com * home: * rlbjvb@juno.com *
