Who ordered this weather for B2B? Thank you!

Can it really be? Gorgeous, nearly perfect weather for Boston followed by gorgeous, even more perfect weather for Big Sur? It's looking like that's actually going to be the case!

We start at Carmel:

                                            

We arrive there on the buses around 4:30am and start running at 6:35am, so it should be about 48F during that timeframe.

Then, finishing at Big Sur:

Given I'm shooting for 4 hours or so, I should be finishing at approximately 10:30 - 11am, while the temps should still be in the lower 60s.

As I type this (Thursday night) I don't yet have the hourly forecast, but it should be pretty close temperature-wise. And the winds appear to be comparable to what we had at Boston. Sure, it's unfortunate that it will be largely a headwind, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Sweet!

Personalized Mesa Marathon video

About to head off to Big Sur, but finally posting a link to my personalized video (that I got recently) from February's Mesa Marathon, where I ran my sub-3. Very nice video. It would be nice if more races provided this sort of product free.

Thanks, Mesa. Great job. And a really good race! Certainly worth considering returning for another round.

Boston Marathon 2022, part 3 (or: You Fool!)

The prior night, I had told my mom to meet me at the southeast corner entrance to the Arlington T stop. (I didn't know the precise street names, but knew it was the stop outside of the finisher's perimeter, but not on top of the gates themselves.) I also knew it would take me about 10 minutes or so to get everything and get out of the finisher's area. Given the arrangement of the gates, it looked like my mom would need to go a bit out of the way to cross down to get to me.

Well, 15 minutes or so (at least) after I get out and to the T stop, I still didn't see her. (No idea exactly how long, since my watch died at some point after I crossed the finish line -- phew, at least the full race was captured on the Garmin.) I asked one of the volunteers if I could borrow a phone call to try to get in touch, since I don't run with my phone practically ever. Of course -- voicemail. And it wasn't until hours later that she wound up seeing it. Luckily, I eventually saw her standing at the corner across the street.

After we finally connected, we went to the Prudential Center. A longer walk than expected, and given we were coming from the back side (not from Boylston St., for obvious reasons), I really didn't have any clue just how far away it was until we were right on top of it. With all of that drama, we wound up getting to Under Armour around 2:15pm, shortly after their woefully-underadvertised (yay!) free medal engraving started. As it was going to be a 20-minute wait, we proceeded to find the restrooms. As always, the ladies' line is crazy long. And despite my having taken a reasonable amount of time in the men's room, by the time I got out, my mom was *almost* inside the ladies' room. So, I decided to stand against the wall just outside.

After several minutes standing there, I started to try to pay attention to who some of the women were to see if the same ones entering were also exiting -- meaning my mom was taking an unexpectedly long amount of time. However, during my wait, I started to feel a little lightheaded. Not totally unusual nor unexpected. After all, even though I had eaten some of the post-race food, and I had my usual shot bloks during the race, my blood sugar might still be a bit too low. (In this case, however, I think I may have also inadvertently locked my legs -- a big no-no under normal circumstances, made worse in my condition.) I could push through it. Really? Well, it got worse. No problem. "I can find a seat when mom comes out in a couple of more minutes." Sure.

Lo and behold, I collapsed right where I stood. I hit my left knee on the floor and then was on all fours. In no time, I had multiple people asking me if I was ok. (Yes, I nodded my head.) Slowly but surely, I open my eyes and made my way into a seated position on the floor. Again, people asked me if I was ok, if I needed water or something else. (No, I have Gatorade in my bag. I just need to pull it out.)

As I start drinking the Gatorade, my mom finally emerges from the restroom and wonders what is going on. Needless to say, very worried as I related the tale, and concerned for the remainder of the day that I might pass out again. We made our way back to Under Armour to collect the medal and proceeded apace to The Cheesecake Factory for lunch. 

Oy, 30-40 minute wait. Fine. Take a seat and wait. After we were called up, while we were waiting at the front desk, I feel ever slightly lightheaded. Mercifully, within seconds, we are ushered over to our table and I take a seat. Watered and properly fed, I felt SO much better. Granted, my knee was increasingly unhappy with me given the earlier fall, but the rest of me was fine.

We finally make our way back to the room -- much later than I ever expected would be the case when I planned out the day. Soaked in a cold bath for about 15 minutes (to help both the knee and the recovering legs) before turning it into a hot shower. No dinner, though I had enough snacks still available, I was fine for food. (And mom was stuffed from the late lunch anyway.) 8pm and I'm snug in bed, relieved that the day is finally over, my knee screaming at me when I keep my leg close to straight.

Tuesday rolls around, and given the engraving was done on Marathon Monday, we partake of the HoJo's breakfast and hang out for a few hours before heading up to my traditional lunch at Mr. Bartley's in Harvard Square. Always the best burgers and onion rings. And a chocolate shake, naturally. They didn't fail this time, either, with the Cancel Culture (though I canceled the ranch dressing that would normally come on it). Classic BBQ bacon cheeseburger this way.

Thus marks the end of another Boston Marathon weekend. Until next year, Beantown! Off to Big Sur to complete the iconic Boston 2 Big Sur Challenge!

Boston Marathon 2022, part 2

The day finally arrived. All the worry about bad weather was gone. It was a glorious day. Granted, it was rather chilly first thing in the morning -- being about 40F. However, the throwaway sweater and fleece pants that I bought, plus the hat (from donating platelets at Inova) worked beautifully for keeping me warm throughout my time waiting to catch the bus all the way up until getting into the corral. 

The only thing that didn't work as well as desired were the throwaway gloves with hand warmers. Nothing I do *ever* truly works to keep my hands warm. I have so many different types of gloves that I've used for running, it's ridiculous. Ah, Raynaud's.

I surprisingly met up with a colleague from work -- I knew he would be running the race, but hadn't planned anything. Well, his inexperience (it was his first Boston) had him jump out of the growing crowd (to my eye) waiting to board the buses. He has a shaved head, is short, and very light. And, what jumped out at me was the fact that I was seeing this person with a shaved head wearing a singlet and shorts, and nothing else. No outer layer, no mylar moil blanket. Nada. As I got closer to him and the rest of the crowd, I recognized him. After about a minute of chatting, despite his claim of being ok temperature-wise, I offered him the mylar blanket I had in the pocket of my throwaway sweater. (I had it on me thinking I might have needed that extra bit ahead of the race.) He accepted it, and I can only imagine how bad it would have been for him prior to race time had he not done so, because even with it, he was still shivering a bit.

After we got to Hopkinton and into the Runner's Village, it was close to my first Boston back in 2017 in terms of the vibe, energy, etc. They had more portapotties, and even a sectioned off area for urinals (that line moved really fast). They had the usual big tents (though most people were outside in the sun, staying that much warmer than the tent would afford. While they did have water and Gatorade available, and Maurten was also there providing some of their product, there was nothing else for a food or drink nature. Previously, they had bagels, coffee, Clif bars, Clif shot bloks, Gu -- nothing. I am SO glad that I had decided to stop at the HoJo kitchenette before leaving to prepare a bagel with peanut butter for my arrival at the village. While it's not part of my usual routine before marathons, having a bagel very much *is* part of my routine before Boston and New York.

The big moment came. 9:15am. The announcer (who is a riot, by the way, changing up his rote announcements to make sure neither we nor he gets bored) opened up the gates for Wave 1 to move to the pre-staging area, and then one pair of corrals at a time, tell us to move towards the corrals. Very smooth process. By 9:30 I was walking to corral #8, and by 9:45am I was in place at the front of the corral. After shedding my sweater and fleece pants, it was only a few minutes before the gun went off and corral after corral was released to make our way to the start. I was over the start line just about 5 minutes after the gun went off. And it was great -- it was not crowded at all for me starting in the last corral. At no point did I need to jostle with anyone. Just fly down the initial hill.

The pace band I printed out for myself had a stretch goal time of 3:13:59 on it. Having just aged up the prior week, my qualifying time for New York City is 3:14:00. And despite already having a sufficient time from Mesa back in February with my sub-3, I was looking forward to the possibility of achieving a qualifying time as a 50-year old *in* Boston. Given I've never even gotten a BQ in Boston, it was an ambitious goal.

With all the recent publicity and social media surrounding Spencer (Golden retriever who has been "cheering on" runners for more years than I've been running Boston -- and not once had I ever knowingly seen him before), I was keeping an eagle eye out for him at about Mile 2.5. I saw him, but had I not known where to look, I wouldn't have known it was him. When I got there, the banners he usually has in his mouth (by way of a pole they are on either end of) were on the ground -- so he looked like any other dog along the course, and there are usually quite a few that come out with their humans.

I looked for the family of a friend of mine who had come out once to cheer me on, not knowing if they actually would. (One of them lives near the course, so she usually does come out for some of the time to cheer on the racers, as so many locals do.) While I didn't see them (since I was looking in the prior spot), turns out they *were* cheering me on a little further down the road. While I didn't see or hear them amid the crowd, they saw me "in the zone" around Mile 8.

While my early miles were certainly faster than what my pace band said I should be doing, it wasn't exceedingly fast (about 10-15 seconds "too" fast per mile). I was feeling great, and the weather was ideal for running. After about Mile 3, I shifted my hat a little so that it stayed on my head but exposed my ears so I wouldn't overheat. Around Mile 12, I heard the Scream Tunnel about ½ mile away -- damn, those ladies are LOUD! And when I got there, it was wonderful with the cheering and screaming. And there were a couple of us that simply cupped our ears in the "I can't hear you gesture," whereupon they would take up the challenge and roar even louder. It was great! Gained even more speed on the downhill leading away from Wellesley.

However, a little past half-way through the marathon, I noticed my splits and my cumulative time were slipping. With the Newton Hills still ahead of me, I knew that my stretch goal of sub-3:14 was not going to happen. But I had to stay enough in control if I was going to accomplish my dual goals of finally conquering the Newton Hills and getting a BQ at Boston. What's more, I was starting to feel the twinge of needing to make a pit stop. And not a brief one, either.

Off of my experience in Mesa with going faster than pace down the hills to willingly "give it back" on the uphills, and having not only added inclines to my treadmill workouts for weeks ahead of time but made sure to know basically where they were, one by one, I was jogging (but NOT walking) my way up the hills (slightly increased effort, but not overly much) and declaring them DONE when I reached their peak. I recognized the minor rolling hills that were in between some of the main hills so that I didn't trick myself into thinking the hills were gone sooner than they were. And when I finally summited that last hill, I slammed the metaphorical hammer down and declared Newton -- the bane of my Boston marathon existence -- to be conquered, once and for all! I checked my time, and sure enough, I had given back about 5-6 minutes on those hills. Yep, sub-3:14 was totally out of the picture. But I still had BQ in my sights.

And, yes, the extra energy I expended early in the race, and as much as I wound up using in Newton, likely hampered my efforts in the back 5 miles to some extent. But, in the end, as I got ever closer (and was thankfully able to keep those intermittent twinges at bay), it became increasingly clear that I was going to make it.

Right on Hereford. Left on Boylston. Past Mile 26 (with the sign missing this year). Doff the hat at the memorial (and miss seeing my mom, who I was expecting to be in that area), and cross the finish line. 3:23:20 -- BQ for the first time *at* Boston in five years running it!

The race over, the adventure had not yet finished.

Boston Marathon 2022, part 1

Finally, we have returned to Patriots' Day for the Boston Marathon! And a glorious day it was. But, first, the necessary build up.

I arrived on Saturday and checked into the Howard Johnson's in Quincy. Even HoJo's far away from the action is expensive - oy! I need to make my arrangements earlier before all the prices go sky-high. Quaint little town. You might recognize a couple of people associated with it:

(While John Adams' name is legible, John Hancock's signature might not be easily seen here.)

On my way down to the expo, I had to take a few of the obligatory photos, though I didn't ask anyone to take a photo with me in it.

And I felt compelled to take a couple of photos of the memorial. 

It's always touching walking and running past this spot. I doff my hat in tribute every time I am running full-speed towards the finish line. I hope my timing getting into town next year will enable me to attend whatever ceremony they have for the 10th anniversary of the bombing. 

This year, the expo was pretty decent. Not quite back to it's pre-pandemic self, but pretty close. Alas, my arrival was a little too late to attend the few speakers that I really wanted to. Having passed up the Fan Fest and the Adidas Makerslab on my way in, I decided to make a stop there to personalize my jacket. I got the patch they were offering up and customized it with my bib number -- 7032 -- finally getting a Wave 1 red bib!

While I originally figured I would go to the meet-up for one of the Facebook groups I'm a member of, I was feeling more my introverted self, and decided to bail on it -- heading straight off to the North End for some really good Italian food. Giacomo's already had a line outside of it when I arrived at 5pm, but it only took 15 minutes for me to get seated upstairs. And a great view of the street -- and of the next line that I would be standing in one block away: Mike's Pastry.

I got the Frutti di Mare Fra Diavolo. One of my favorite Italian dishes. And, dang, was it good, tasty, chock full of seafood, and a huge portion. (Sorry, no photo. Too hungry.)

And while the line for Mike's stretched just around the corner of the block from their store, it took less than 15 minutes to get inside and get my goodies. I got three desserts, to last me through Marathon Monday night: Nutella cannoli, black & white cookie, and mousse cannoli. All scrumptious.

Sunday, after having a surprisingly good breakfast at HoJo's (no need to go to Thornton's this time 'round), I hung out a little while before heading off to meet some friends for a non-Easter brunch and then a couple of hours at Boda Borg. For anyone who likes escape rooms, make sure to take a trip here at some point. And splurge on the 4 hours rather than 2 hours. You'll want it, given how often you'll fail in some of these quests and go back continually to figure them out and move on to the subsequent rooms within the quest. And if you're in Sweden, you'll have lots more opportunities, as the vast majority of their businesses are there -- Malden, MA has the only one within the U.S. Loads of fun.

I swung back down to meet my mom, who was coming in to track and watch me at the marathon, and we went for dinner back in Quincy at Liberty Tavern. The portions were huge, good prices, and friendly waitstaff, even if the place was overly loud for our tastes. 

Nice relaxing day with minimal walking or other activity, all in the lead up to the big day: Marathon Monday -- my 5th in-person Boston Marathon (been running it since 2017).

Best ranking!

The Abbott World Marathon Majors ranking system is a little convoluted in terms of how runners aged 40+ earn points, but you kinda get used to it. In short, the faster you run, the better your rank likely will be. And your best two results from qualifying races are what get added together to determine your total points (and, therefore, rank).

Well, Shamrock Marathon -- from St. Patrick's Day weekend -- has finally been added to the results. And it's my 2nd qualifying race of the year. There are only 44 people who have two qualifying races right now, so there's little competition so far. And, amazingly enough, I am 9th in the age group!

Thing is, I should no longer be in the above list at all, since I have "aged up." Not sure how long it will take for my results to shift over, but as I understand it, the points that I earned in one age group will shift to the new age group -- no recalculation of points to be done. So, given I have 6530 points at the moment, were I to appear in the correct age group right now, I would actually be 8th place!

Great as it currently is, I don't think this combined result will be good enough by the time the full year finishes up to be in the Top 65 of the age group. I'll be trying to beat my Shamrock time at Boston (which would be astonishing if I manage it) to help inch up my points a little bit. But the real effort at going up in the rankings will come in October when I try one more time to go sub-3.

But for now, I need to revel in this great ranking while it lasts.

2018 Redux? Not quite.

 The game is ramping up. What will Marathon Monday hold in store weather-wise?

It looks like it will be a chilly morning before we get moving on the course, but that can be handled will proper layering. While it looks somewhat reminiscent of 2018, if the above forecast stays intact, it will be far better. Back in 2018, it never got above 40F, was pouring the whole time, and had winds of about 25mph. So, yes, even if it winds up raining to some extent, it will be warmer and not nearly as windswept as 2018. Nevertheless, I'm hopeful that the rain chances stay low, and that at most we get intermittent sprinkles *after* we set off. (I don't want to be standing around in increasingly wet shoes.)

And with my standing outside in line for the medal engraving on Tuesday morning, I'm hoping that the wind and rain will hold off until after I set off for lunch.

Verdict is still out

I gave it an extra day to see how the new pillow works for me. So far, it seems like it just might be working pretty well. I start out readily enough face down -- the hole in the pillow is sufficiently large for much of my face. So long as I am cool enough so that my breathing into a relatively small space doesn't wind up heating me up (which it easily could), this works nicely. As I am wont to do, at least on work nights, I wake up in the middle of the night, and after seeing that it's nowhere near time to really wake up, I relatively easily get back to sleep. However the last two nights either at that point or unwittingly before then, I wound up shifting back to my old position, still on stomach but with head to the side. I've been pretty well rested the past couple of mornings, but Garmin indicates that I haven't increased my proportion of deep sleep; rather, I've been getting more light sleep. Hmm... More testing needed. And hopefully any extra sleep will make my workouts easier and my recover better.

Regardless of new pillows and possibly better sleep, slowly but surely the anxiety about Boston 2 Big Sur is building. What will the weather be like for both races? Will I be able to handle the hills? Will Newton destroy me... again? What about the worse hills in Big Sur? With me being one of the official pacers for the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon in May (my first time running MCHH), and starting to add the uphill part of that profile into my training runs, will that help me out much with B2B? Stay tuned!

Flexibility is important

No, not the flexibility that comes from stretching (though that's supposedly helpful, too). No, I'm referring to the flexibility to change up training and roll with the punches. Last weekend, while a friend was in town, apparently what I ate was far enough off my regular regimen that it put my digestive system in a bit of a tail spin for a few days. What should have been a 21-mile run last Sunday wound up being solely 10 miles, interrupted three separate times by having to go to the restroom. (Really glad I was on the treadmill in the gym and hadn't attempted a run on the W&OD trail.) And the several days after that were adjusted while my system got "back in whack." 

Somewhat disappointing, but keeping focused and flexible enough to change up my planned training regimen got me back to where I needed to be. Today, I had a 22-mile run to kick off my 2-weeks taper before Boston. Flat portions I did at ~7:10/mi pace, with hills approximating Boston's profile at 7:30/pace, and it worked quite nicely. I even managed to get through the "Newton Hills!"

Improving sleep?

Yes, I know. Sleep. 7-8 hours a night is advised. During the work week, I never wind up getting that much. According to my Garmin, I get about 5 - 5.5 hours per night. And it's about a 50-50 split between light sleep and deep sleep -- certainly not ideal.

What's worse is that I'm a stomach sleeper. When I'm in bed, I find it impossible to sleep on my back or on my side. (Interesting, since I can sleep in both positions on the couch in front of the TV, and the couch isn't quite as comfortable as the bed.) So, given my using a regular pillow, I have to cock my head to one side or the other -- not ideal for the neck and shoulders, to be sure. I got a travel pillow that was supposed to be useful for this, but is far too uncomfortable, not to mention the fact that my face still wound up in the mattress. (At least it's good for use on a plane ride.)

I just spent an hour or so reading reviews of various different pillows ostensibly intended for stomach sleeping (so many had such bad reviews), and I just took the plunge on one. Should be interesting to see whether it's comfortable enough to sleep through the night. It arrives Monday, so hopefully I'll have a favorable review in this space on Tuesday.