Always room for improvement

Recently, I got an e-mail from my gym about taking a Functional Movement Screen test. This morning, I took them up on the offer. In short, it measured mobility of both lower and upper body. One unsurprising result is that my ankles are pretty weak. I could tell that prior to the test because of my balance -- if my ankles were stronger, doing movements on one leg would be easier and steadier than they typically are for me. And working on my ankles may help with the rest of the kinetic chain up through to my hips (which are always a bit tight). So, regardless of whether this helps improve my times, it will help the mechanics of my running (and presumably recovery).

I have some exercises that were provided to me that I should be taking on. Most being daily, a couple being only 2-3 times per week. 

The kicker, though, was the comment/recommendation that I cut back on my running until after I sufficiently improve my ankles. (Gasp!)

"So, when you say reduce my running, just how much are you saying? I will be pacing for the Historic Half Marathon on May 21."

"Well, ideally you would cut it out completely. But I'm practical and don't want to get in the way of your goal race. So, don't worry about it before your race. You can start your pullback after then."

Big sigh of relief, but what I didn't flag to him is the fact that I will also need to start my next training cycle the week after the half, so that I can hit my goal at Sydney. I just sent all the relevant info to my coach who I'm looking to start back up with -- assuming he thinks that all the different things on my calendar between now and then won't get in the way of achieving the end goal and it's worth the time. (We'll see once he sees the e-mail.)

Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 5 (Homeward Bound)

Post-Marathon Tuesday is the worst day (because of having to go home) but also the tastiest day (possibly 2nd tastiest, if the North End meal is good enough). 

Despite leaving the hotel on the early side, I got here just as they were opening up. Perfect timing, as a couple entered immediately before me. I quickly made my way through the menu to figure out my order and made it clear that I was ready. Thankfully, the waitress noticed and took my order in short order. Phew -- first order up. That would definitely help me with my very tight timing, given how long the T ride between there and the hotel was taking, and between the hotel and the airport.

Oh, scrumptious: Ragin' Cajun. Bacon Cheddar Cheeseburger that had jalapeno peppers and cajun spread. Oh, and their iconic onion rings substituted for french fries. Oh, gladly clog my arteries! So good!

I wolfed it down a little faster than desired (heck, I was hungry, and pressed for time to get back to the hotel to get my bags to then go to the airport). While I wanted to get ice cream at J P Lick's (which is only 1-2 blocks away, en route to the Harvard T Station), not only was I too full to do so, I didn't want to take the extra time that would require.

Back quickly at HoJo's, I got my bags from behind the counter and headed out. If I timed things well enough, I might actually be able to catch the next inbound train with minimal wait. Alas, the train arrived about 2-3 minutes faster than expected, so I missed it. Ugh. 15+ minute wait for the next one. Fine. And then once I got to South Station to transfer to the Silver Line, it was another 10-15 minute wait. But, mercifully, it was so full when we left that the bus driver made a cursory stop at each of the stops only to see if someone was planning on exiting. (None did -- we were all going to the airport.) That helped regain a little bit of time that would otherwise be spent onloading/offloading passengers.

Finally I made it to Logan and, thanks to TSA Pre, flew through Security and off to the gate. Alright, by this point it was actually multiple hours since lunch. What the heck. Dunkin' run #5 for my fifth different item at my fifth different Dunkin' location.

Alas, it was late enough in the day that it was ever so slightly stale and crunchy, rather than the soft texture good doughnuts would actually be.

My first flight was so full, and unfortunately I was in Group 4, I was forced to check one of my bags to my final destination. (I hate having to do that, especially when it turns out that there was just enough overhead space remaining where I actually could have brought my 2nd bag on.) And astoundingly enough, on my last leg from Newark to Dulles, there were a total of 40 occupied seats on the plane. TONS of empty space.

Given my standard results at Boston, I have decided to rethink my race strategy for Boston. Rather than run for time, it will be for lots of random fun extras (assuming the weather cooperates well enough):

1) Take photos at all the mile markers

2) Take a photo of some of the landmarks (e.g., John Kelley statue) and regular spectators (Santa is usually around mile 4 or 5)

3) Get video of jumping on the trampolines at Mile 10

4) Take selfies in front of Dunkin' while eating a donut or munchkin. (There are several Dunkin's directly on the marathon course)

5) Take video of some sections of the course: Starting Line, Wellesley Scream Tunnel, surmounting Heartbreak Hill, making the final two turns and running towards and over the finish line.

Welcome other suggestions of what should be considered to be done during the race. I look forward to getting back to Boston next year - one of my two remaining annual races (since NYC is less guaranteed than Boston is).

Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 4 (Race Day!)

Wake-up time was 4am. Maybe I take too much of a risk in only setting one alarm, but that's all I ever wind up doing. To date, I've always gotten up instantly. This time was no different.

So, after eating my standard pre-race meal (granola bar and banana) and using the bathroom multiple times (obsessively make sure "one last time" that I've "done my business") amid putting on my running kit for the day (this time including arm warmers/sleeves and contact lenses, given the expected cool rain), I gathered up everything that I neede for my post-race checked bag, and the food and drink I would be using on-course, put on my pre-race poncho and headed out the door at 5am. By 5:15am the inbound T had arrived, and I was off! I wound up getting to Arlington station a little before 6:15am, and made a beeline through the bag check area towards a bagel shop that I had discovered the day before -- it had smelled great and was definitely popular. Great, let's get a good bagel to eat on the bus ride out. Nope! The store was not opening (and ordinarily, it would have opened at 5am), at least not that morning. (Fools!) Damn it. Do I really want to have a bagel on-hand? Yeah, I kinda do (since they haven't provided them at Runners' Village since before the pandemic). You guessed it: Dunkin' run #4. But, on my way, so that I didn't add an excessive additional amount of needless walking, I made sure to drop off my checked bag before heading to the Dunkin' store just across the street from where the bus loading occurs.

Sigh. Not a good bagel. Passable for my needs at the time, but not desirable. The one good thing that I figured I'd be able to take advantage of by being a customer was a real bathroom. (Always go one more time when you get the chance, especially in a real bathroom rather than a port-a-potty.) Nope! The gates on the bathroom that was actually in the courtyard area of that building was closed. (Not really surprising, after all.)

So, after these two disappointments, I made my way to the holding area, waiting for security to start letting everyone through to the buses. Finally, a few minutes behind schedule, they opened up. I wasn't overly worried about making sure I was on the very first wave of buses, so I made my way towards one of the port-a-potties right before the final queues for the buses.

Back in the throng with everyone else, I made my way towards what would eventually be the the first bus in the line. They shunted the long line for my bus into two shorter lines. But rather than making it into a regular snaking line, they just made it into two separate lines that fed to the door, because "that's how lines work." Whatever. We're all getting on the bus, who cares what order?

Our ride out was uneventful, and we got there after about 1 hour, as expected. Almost totally fogged in, but not yet raining, nor excessively windy. Not all that bad. Yep, one more time to the port-a-potty before going into the tent area to just sit awaiting the time when Wave 1 is permitted to leave Runners' Village and make its way to the corrals. The hour passes pretty quickly. Right before we line up, I actually cross paths with a colleague from work. Last year he was wearing a singlet and shorts and had no throwaway or mylar blanket, and was shivering non-stop until I handed him an extra mylar I had with me. This year, he learned from that and was wearing some warm throwaway clothing. After exchanging some brief pleasantries, we were off to our respective holding pens. I was in Corral 7, but he was in Corral 4. (Nice!) While waiting for our turn to be let go towards the start, one of the runners announced the birthday of a first-time Boston Marathoner in our corral, and he got a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" sung to him. A few minutes later, and we were off on our near-mile walk to the corrals!

Time gets close, so I swap out my pre-race poncho (but tuck it in behind my belt) and put on the mylar to stay warm enough. Less than 5 minutes before the starting gun it starts to rain, pretty steadily. (sigh) About 1 minute before the gun, despite the rain continuing (but not as heavily), I shed the mylar and prep my Garmin. And then, soon enough, WE'RE OFF!

(At the top of the hill leading out from the Starting Line)

There were two spots on the course where I was expecting friends to cheer me on. The first spot was around Mile 7-8, but there was the known possiblity they would not arrive by the time I expected to pass the spot. Alas, that was the case. I think they arrived about 15-20 minutes later, as it turned out. Oh well. Still having a good time using the energy from the crowd lining the course.

The next location was an unknown as to specifics. I knew that I should be looking on the left side of the road at Wellesley. Despite having run this multiple times before, it hadn't really sunk in just how many miles comprise Wellesley. First up was the Scream Tunnel. As always, you could hear the roar about ½ mile in advance, if not more. It's AMAZING just how energized these ladies are, screaming their lungs out. Rather than do the typical gestures for increased volume (such as throwing your hands up, or circling your hand above your head as if you had a towel you were twirling there), I tend to go for the taunt of putting my cupped hand to my ear as if I can't hear them.

This works wonders for getting even more cheers from the co-eds for those of us going by. And it's a lot of fun.

This doesn't do any justice to just how packed the campus is with screaming women cheering on the runners.

A couple of miles later, around Mile 15, is where my friend Maria was stationed for cheering on me, her other friends running the race, and everyone else. It's always nice seeing a familiar face in the crowd.

I attacked the Newton Hills in the same patient way that I've learned to do so that I can continue at a running (though slower) pace, rather than walking any of them. At the bottom of Heartbreak Hill, while I was looking to the right because I finally noticed the statue of John Kelley (I think that's what that was, at least -- and it's only taken 6 times running to notice this statue), I heard my name, rather unexpectedly. (As you noticed, my name was not printed on my bib. So either someone was cheering me or there was another Jared nearby. I assumed the former.) Lo and behold, one of my friends' sister and her husband were there -- totally unexpected as I had been given the impression they wouldn't be in town. Very nice surprise! Helped give me an additional boost as I was starting on the worst of the four hills.

Soon enough, I was past Newton (yes!) and making my way towards Brookline (whereupon there was about a 5 minute downpour for me), then to and past the iconic Citgo sign to get to the last mile.

While I'm always counting to four in Newton (the hills), I'm always saying the same mantra during the last mile: "Down the hill, up the last hill, right on Hereford, left on Boylston!"

(The iconic final turn onto Boylston.)

Boylston with about ¼ mile left to go. As is my custom since the memorials were erected, as I passed each memorial, I doffed my hat in honor of the victims and continued on to the finish.

While I had long since given up on my time-specific goals (a BQ of 3:25 and a stretch goal of a NY qualifying time of 3:14), finishing in 3:32:08 is still not shabby. And seems to be close to my average performance for Boston.

Gradually, I made my way through the post-race area, getting my medal, mylar blanket, food and drink, and then collect my gear check bag. Since I wasn't meeting anyone, I was able to quickly make my way towards the Prudential Center (since I wanted to get my medal engraved at Under Armour, rather than dealing with the wait and the line at Marathon Sports on Tuesday morning). As I proceeded, I savored the King's Hawaiian rolls that were included -- oh, those are heavenly at this point. Thankfully the way that I started out, I came across an open loading bay where there were several people changing out of wet clothes and into dry, warm clothes. I took advantage and got my soaked singlet and arm warmers off and put on the long-sleeve shirt I had packed, and then the NYC Marathon poncho -- a godsend of a warm piece of clothing.

Eventually I made my way to Under Armour and, given the timing compared to when I was planning to meet up with friends for dinner, I decided against getting a lunch.

 

The decision made plenty of sense when I made it, since it was about 2:15 - 2:30pm when I got into the T Station at Prudential Center. But unbeknownst to me at the time, and what would take MBTA about 30-40 minutes to properly inform us, there was a Green Line train disabled at Boylston. So, we had to walk to a different station on the Orange Line. Ugh!!! By the time I finally got back to the hotel (given not only the additional delays of getting the initial train and then the transfer, but also the immensely slow stretch between two of the stops on the Red Line), it was about 5pm. There was NO WAY that I would be able to shower, change, and get to the restaurant for 6pm. Oh well. I let my friends know that I wouldn't be able to make it, then took my time with making myself human again, and then figured out whether there was some place close to my hotel that I could get dinner. Thankfully, yes. It was only ½ mile to get to the restaurant. And a tasty choice it was.

Cheese tortellini alfredo (which I hadn't eaten in at least 25-30 years) with grilled chicken and garlic bread. Boy, howdy, did I wolf that down quickly. And despite there being several good desserts on the menu, I held off, since I still had a chocolate cream cannoli awaiting me in the hotel fridge.

Early enough evening where I could pack up most of my stuff, leaving only a little extra for the morning, and then relax, conking out relatively easily.

Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 3

Today's schedule had LOTS of empty space in it, as most of it was related to several group photos I wanted to catch. The first thing I was planning on getting to (when I started the day) was the Golden retriever meet-up that was set to end at the Finish Line in the 11 - 11:30am timeframe. (100+ Golden retrievers together. How adorable!) The meet-up was to honor Spencer (and his niece, Penny), the Golden retriever who used to cheer on runners and hold a banner in his mouth. Last year he was named the official dog of the Boston Marathon, what would turn out to be the last marathon he was able to attend. He was featured on some of the banners that were hung around town.

I wound up noticing a meet-up brunch that wasn't overly far away from there to start at 10:20, so I decided to join the meet-up. Turns out, only the host showed -- none of the other 7 RSVPs showed up. (Oh well!) But the restaurant we went to (Thornton's -- a very popular local institution) took FOREVER to bring us our food (not so unexpectedly given how busy it was). But, as you can already tell, by the time we finished up and set out, it was already after the expected end of the Goldens meet-up. I made my way over to the Finish Line and caught up with an owner of a couple of Goldens and asked her whether the mass photo has already happened. Yep, the meet-up was over. Now it was just onesie-twosie encounters.

And, as it turned out, I also missed the first of the group photos: Marathon Maniacs. (There's a push to shift future timing for this photo at Boston to 1 or 2pm, when it is MUCH less crowded than it is at noon.) There were three other group photos that were on my itinerary for the day, but at 1pm, 2:20pm, and 2:30pm. Lots of waiting around, crowd-watching, and scrolling through marathon-related posts on FB.

(Several of the pacers who run for Marathon Pacing who were set to run the marathon on Monday. No, not as pacers, since the Boston Marathon doesn't use official pacers.)

(A small number of the huge membership roster of the World Marathon Majors Challenge FB group, created by Robert Wang (front and center with the backpack).)

(A decent contingent from the membership of the Squeakers 4 Lyfe FB group. Members either were squeaked in or squeaked out of qualifying for Boston at least once since they instituted the cut-off times beyond the age group qualifying times.)

I was a little peckish by this point, since it was several hours since brunch, and would be another 2.5 hours until meeting up in the North End for dinner. Yep, you guessed it: Dunkin' run #3, this time for a maple glazed donut:

It was a little chilly, so I decided to go into the Prudential Center for a little while to sit down and hang out before making my way to dinner. Shame I didn't quite realize that it was actually much closer to get there, and didn't require any transfer between the Green Line and the Orange Line like I thought, since I was getting off AT that transfer point at Haymarket. So, I wound up arriving FAR too early. What to do to pass the time? Well, when in the North End... Mike's Pastry. It was early enough that the line was pretty darn short. It took me maybe 5 minutes or so to get to the counter. OK, dessert for tonight and for Monday night: chocolate mousse cannoli and chocolate cream cannoli. Even with that minor diversion, I was still exceedingly early for dinner. I didn't even attempt to see if I could wait inside -- it's a small place, there's no chance that would have gone over well with them. So, outside it was, keeping an eye out for the rest of the party.

After a relatively short time, the next member of the party arrived:

Then a chance encounter with a couple of other friends of Jonathan's who were trying to figure out where they would go to dinner.

And Matt is one of the truly insane people who participates in the Barkley Marathons. (If you haven't seen it yet, you should watch the documentary about it. Truly fascinating.)

Finally, Laura and her family showed up a few minutes before the scheduled reservation time. As we were missing 2-3 other people who were expected, we invited Matt and his wife to join us.

The Boston attitude of the owner was hysterical -- though he was dead serious about his annoyance with our group at a couple of time. We all understood where he was coming from, and his position was correct. It's his total lack of tact about what he was saying that actually amused several of us (not that we showed him that amusement).

Dinner was delicious, the conversation lively, and it ended all too quickly. We weren't exactly given the bum rush after the hour that we were there (and, no, we weren't dilly-dallying), but we were given the bum rush so they could make use of the table. Very busy and very small restaurant -- we totally understood. It was that hour, anyway, for us to all make our respective way back to our hotels to finish our last minute prep, hit the sack, and be ready to hit the streets in the morning!

Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 2

Saturday, April 15, 2023, was the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. One of the reasons that I made sure to be in town early on Saturday was so that I would be able to attend whatever memorial ceremony they held. No, I didn't know anyone who was directly affected by the bombing, but it still felt necessary. So, I had a goal of being near the finish line before 2:30pm.

First up on the agenda for the day was meeting up with a friend and her family in Walden, at Boda Borg.  But while I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to make my second Dunkin' run:

Think of Boda Borg as an alternate version of an escape room. LOTS of fun. I had been there two times before, and had one specific room/puzzle that I wanted to finish solving, since the first time around, my group never finished the last room, and the second time around (with a different family), we wound up not going into this particular room in the first place. So, how did we do? We failed LOTS of times, and had a blast doing so and trying to figure out what we were doing wrong. Rats definitely got the best of us for the first hour of the two hours we were there. Definitely need to return at some point, but must have 2-4 others joining me to do so.

Given a confluence of events, the five of us wound up leaving at about 12:30. Laura and family went to lunch near Faneuil Hall, and I took the chance of being able to both get through the expo (well, pick up my bib and shirt, at least) and get lunch prior to the ceremony kicking off. I managed it, but just barely. 

I got through what I wanted to do at the expo (which is SO much smaller than it was pre-pandemic) and picked up a really tasty salad at Eataly on my way to the ceremony. Timing was tight enough, though, that I didn't wind up sitting down inside the Prudential Center to eat. Rather, I made my way outside and stopped at the first of the two memorials.

I wolfed down the salad in a few minutes' time to make sure it was finished before the ceremony started. (It would have been highly disrespectful, IMO, to have been eating anything during the ceremony.) Ironically enough, at this memorial, the crowd that gathered was solely watching the honor guard, mostly standing at attention. We were able to hear it when the ceremony started up at the memorial right by the finish line, but we weren't able to really hear much of anything, unfortunately. However, I was able to watch video of the ceremony later that evening. Simple yet moving.

Afterwards, I made my way to Copley Park to get my Celebration jacket customized with the patch -- something that Adidas has been doing at a pop-up stand the past couple of years.  The line was short but not brief -- it took about an hour. I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of the panel Q&A of some of the men's elite field, even.

Shortly afterward, they were introduced by Dave McGillivray to the assembled crowd in the finish line area.

I milled about a bit, spending some time taking some of the standard photos around the finish line area -- certainly less crowded than it was earlier, and much less crowded than it would be mid-day on Sunday.

How to kill some more time before the new Boston Lights show in a few hours? Go back to the expo and see what's there!

(Replica of the finish line and the various light pole banners)

(Part of the historical display at the expo - replica of the gold-dipped laurel wreaths the winners are awarded.)

(The Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Championship medal I will finally be able to claim after I finish the Chicago Marathon. You're mine... in six months.)

I took the chance going into the Adidas merch area -- it really didn't take all that long for me to get through the entry line, to find the ball cap that is my traditional on-site purchase (as I always get the Celebration jacket online when it first comes out), and checkout. I wound up seeing the Hyperice booth, and luckily was able to purchase the carrying case designed for the boots that I bought several weeks ago. And between stopping at he Sydney Marathon and Marathon Tours booth (to enter their raffle for an entry into the race and several days' vacation), I ofnd out that they had some pre-race ponchos available, and how I was supposed to ask for them. Much nicer poncho than the one from Tokyo that I had brought for race day.

Dinner by the finish line and a couple of additional photos of the memorial lit up at night (below), and it was not all that long before the Boston Lights show kicked off.

Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 1

The 127th Boston Marathon has come and gone, now, and it was a great weekend overall.

For first time in 6 years, I flew up on Friday for the full weekend's festivities. This year, I wound up connecting through Newark Airport (ugh). It was a long enough layover, I wound up making my first Dunkin' run there: 

Apple fritter. No great shakes from Dunkin' -- I've had FAR better fritters. But it was sufficient to tide me over for a little bit and get me even more in the Boston mood.

Finally landed at Logan Airport, I got my Charlie Card for the week and board the Silver Line to the Red Line towards my hotel in Quincy. I had heard about the delays on the T prior to my arrival, but didn't realize just how bad they were. Good lord! First of all, once I transferred, I had to wait about 35 minutes for the Red Line to arrive at South Station. (It was 20+ minutes for about 15 minutes.) Then, aside from it going slower than normal through much of it, there is one segment of two consecutive stops where it CRAWLED -- between JFK/UMass and North Quincy, which should be somewhere around 7 minutes (I think) was taking 20 minutes (!). Great; note to self: pad on a fair bit of extra time!

Finally checked in at HoJo's (don't judge me -- it's actually a really good, comfortable room, they have breakfast included, and it's comparatively inexpensive), I unpack my bags and hit the road, hoping that I could get to the expo before it closed at 6pm. Nope, no chance. Not only did it take a while for my train to arrive in the first place, but the travel time to the convention center took me past 6pm. Conveniently enough, though, there was a huge meet-up scheduled for dinner at Wagamama's in the Prudential Center, so I made my way there a bit early. Plenty of people were already there. I chatted for a while with some friends sitting at the next table over, and gradually as my table filled up, conversation shifted to the people I was seated with. It was definitely a good time. Good food, good company -- what more can you ask for? Before departing, the Trattoria Dopeys (+1) took a "reunion" photo:

Look at that -- it's nearly 8pm. Time to book it over to the Fairmont Copley Plaza for Boston Lights.

Alas, I don't have any ay of effectively transferring the videos that I took on my phone onto my laptop to then upload here. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights the marathon put on a different show (about 3 minutes long repeated every 15 minutes for 2 hours) that showed different scenes from the history of the marathon (typically from the past 10 years, actually) and had different music and/or voice-over to match. It was well done, and certainly helped amp up the mood, especially in the lead up to the anniversary being commemorated on Saturday.