Boston Marathon, part 1 (Friday to Sunday)

After a series of delays for my outbound flight given excessive wind at Logan Airport, restricting the number of flights that could land, I finally arrived about 1 hour after I was scheduled to. Given I went to the hotel out in Wollaston first (an interminably slow ride on the T's red line) to check in, I didn't make it to the finish line until shortly after 6pm -- too late for the expo. And definitely too late for the presentation by Meb. So, I took a few obligatory photos of the finish area, and happened to be there for the Meeting of Champions (totally unexpected for me).

By the time the various introductions were finished, it wasn't terribly early compared to the annual meet-up at Wagamama's inside the Prudential Center. First up, though, a brief stop at the memorial (to which I always doff my hat as I'm running towards the finish line).

It's always interesting sitting down opposite complete strangers and pretty much instantly being able to get into pretty fluid and interesting conversation. The people I sat down with were a couple from the UK (one of whom was earning their 6-star medal) and a man from New Zealand by way of Switzerland. Slightly later, a couple of other people from the U.S. joined our end of the table (to pretty much complete the group of 20).

It was an enjoyable enough time, it was after 8:30pm by the time I was departing, so I headed on back to the hotel.

Saturday was a fairly early start for a long day. But in three years of staying at the same hotel in Wollaston, I *finally* decided to walk across the street and look at the different monuments in the Merrymount Park, where I usually see either Tai Chi being performed, or a group dancing to (I assume) traditional Chinese music.

Monument to our first father-and-son presidents: John and John Quincy Adams

Statues of John Adams across the way from Abigail and a young John Quincy Adams (I think)

I spent a sizable amount of time at the expo, largely related to attending various talks/presentations. 

First, though, I had to pick up my bib, then purchased the cap (to add to my collection of Boston Marathon ball caps) and meandered about.

There was a miniature version of the Spirit of the Marathon statue (at Mile 1 of the course), and a unicorn version of the Make Way for Ducklings installation I had yet to find (granted, I didn't look terribly hard), in 8 years of coming to Boston.

Around the corner were several cases filled with historic artifacts from the Boston Marathon.

Gold-dipped laurel wreath that is awarded to the winners

Case includes the bib worn by Kathrine Spitzer a couple of years ago, on the anniversary of her original Boston run.

                                        

Case includes singlet and bib worn by Johnny (The Younger) Kelly.

I also decided to get on the line for getting the patch to customize the Adidas Celebration jacket, despite it being pretty long. It wound up taking a full hour -- pretty much consistent wait time throughout the weekend. They were only using 4 of the 5 machines they had, which pretty much let them get through about 200 - 240 jackets per hour.

I managed to take in several speaker/panel discussions at the stage right behind the jacket customization area.

First up was author Paul Clerici (one of whose books on the Boston Marathon I had just gotten a few days before as a birthday present)

Fascinating to see what the first medal that was handed out to all finishers looked like. (It took nearly 90 years before medals were given to all finishers.)

And this is a collection of all (?) of the medals that have been handed out since 1983.

I left briefly to go get a bite to eat for lunch (a simple sandwich at Eataly), and then came back in time to see Dave McGillivray's presentation. While he's been the race director for over two decades, now, he's run the Boston Marathon for over 50 years. He was set to run it for the first time in over 35 years during the day this year, alongside his adult children. (He usually runs it at night, after directing the race for all of us.)

Next was a panel discussion with U.S. pros.

                                        

Later, several of the former Boston Marathon champions. 

Not sure what happened, but most of them were late. However, 2018 champ Des Linden was there on time, so the hosts had a brief conversation with her alone prior to the others' arrival.

After this panel, I wound up taking off to get dinner, opting for Cheesecake Factory (which is just outside the expo and the T station I would need to get to for my return to the hotel). Mmm... tasty.

This year, I spent an inordinate amount of time (for me) at the expo. Sunday was no different. I got there early enough to take video of the 6-star finisher wall. (Inspired to do so from a conversation with FB marathoning celebrity Robert Wang (also staying at the same hotel as me) who spends 30+ minutes at each Majors that he's at where the wall is present taking photos of the entire wall so that others who couldn't make it can have a photo of their name on the wall.)

In addition to this brief video, I wound up taking close-up video (4 columns of names at a time, making them reasonably legible -- though the video is a bit shaky), which took far less time than Robert's photos. But given how large those files on, you'll need to see them on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/jared.levine.1/videos/960586842363225?idorvanity=1445631925462087

My intent was to catch the Golden meet-up this year at Boston Common. Sigh. Yet again, I somehow missed it. Given the size of the gathering, it's hard to believe that my arriving less than 5 minutes late should have made the difference. Maybe next year.

While I was wandering around the Commons after giving up on finding the meet-up, I took a look around - as I don't usually enter the park during my time in town.

First up was a monument to Thomas Lee, who was responsible for anesthesia. Oddly enough, there was some presumably-local lady who was very happy that I was taking photos of this.

Around other edges of the park was a monument to (I think) George Washington (I couldn't get close given construction), a priest, and Sumner (whose first name is unknown to me).

Soon enough, it was time for two of the three group photos I was meeting up for during the height of the chaotic traffic of the finish line.

Shortly after this photo, I met up with a decent size group of pacers -- we all pace for MarathonPacing.com from time to time.

Since the next photo meet-up wasn't until 2pm, I went back inside, but took a mini-detour to take a few end-of-course photos that I sure wasn't going to take on Monday -- the firehouse located on the outside of the final turn at this now-mythic corner.

Next up inside were several of the wheelchair champions.

But it's a little bit of a trek, given the crowds, to get from that stage to the finish line, and I wanted to make it to the last meet-up -- Boston Squeakers (a group of people who have either barely made it into the Boston Marathon or barely missed making it in, given the varying nature of the cut-off times each year).

Back inside the expo, I caught part of the Breaking Barriers panel discussion:

And a historical conversation about Ted Corbitt, who among other things was instrumental in better standardizing (and, I suppose, professionalizing) course measurement (which was highly varied and flawed for decades) and was a trailblazer in Black men's marathoning.

Finally, it was off to the North End for dinner. It was early enough, I decided to get my cannolis first (to minimize the line). This year, I decided to go to Bova's (about two blocks away from the insanely mobbed Mike's Pastry and Modern Pastry). I'm not sure if it's truly the better product, or if it was really a matter of which ones I wind up putting in the fridge overnight. I should really make sure to work with others to get identical types from each of the three to split up and do a true taste test.

I had the Nutella-filled cannoli and half of the black-and-white on Sunday night, and saved the chocolate-dipped cannoli and other half of the black-and-white for after dinner Monday. That extra time in the fridge for the chocolate-dipped cannoli was great for the chocolate: best cannoli I've had yet.

And dinner at Giacomo's (no reservations taken, so get there earlier lest you wait on a very long line to get in) was quite tasty, too. Especially the garlic bread.

Long trek back to the hotel, and it was time to slow down for the even and get as much rest as possible for Monday's race. I watched a bit of the Billy Joel @ Madison Square Garden #100 special. (I had seen him live in concert at MSG in December with a couple of friends.) I managed to conk out prior to them cutting it off prematurely (given its delayed start).

Semper Paratus - Coast Guard Marathon

Let the Armed Forces Challenge begin!

I was somewhat surprised on my 4-hour drive down to first pass a trailer that was carrying two submersible objects that I had to wonder if they were some form of torpedo. And then shortly afterwards, I wound up passing 4 trailers, each one carrying a rather sizable tank on the back. Thankfully, the turret up top of each didn't have its gun attached.

1st up in the Challenge was the Coast Guard Marathon in Elizabeth City, NC. Tiny town with a relatively tiny field running.

A few notable, or (in some cases) semi-hidden, landmarks in the town.

This memorial wall (in front of the Museum of the Albemarle) is made out of dog tags.

A separate memorial park just a few blocks up the road:

But a few quirky landmarks, too:

And a lovely view of the water from the park that we would be using as our starting area and finish festival.

In the morning, while the usual announcements, etc. were being made in the area by the starting chute, there was a Circle of Remembrance held on the pier overlooking the water, being run by Wear Blue to Remember, in honor of those service members whose anniversary of their being killed in action was the April 6-7 weekend. They had strips of names to be read out by all of us who attended. Among the ~30-40 people standing in the "circle," we read out about 50-60 names. And the second time around the circle, those people who wanted to honor others they knew who were KIA called out those names -- another maybe dozen names, going as far back as Vietnam. Very simple ceremony, but meaningful and moving. I've never seen that done before. Rather, I'm accustomed to how the Marine Corps does it on Marathon weekend by having signs on both sides of the course with the photos and names of the fallen lining the Blue Mile (approximately Mile 12 - Hains Point) followed by a phalanx of volunteers on both sides holding the U.S. flag. Always a powerful section with the absolute silence on the course amid the posted photos.

Finally, we were off! It was a beautiful, clear day with ideal conditions -- started in the low 40s with minimal wind. Unfortunately for me, there was no appropriate pace group to join. The fastest half marathon pacer was running for a 1:40 (equivalent to 3:20 marathon), and the fastest marathon pacer was 3:30. And I was looking to hit 3:15, so it was on me to be my own pacer.

The early miles, I did a reasonably good job of maintaining the appropriate pace. And then things got very confusing. Typically, when one runs a marathon, one runs some extra distance, because it's very difficult to run all of the tangents perfectly (i.e., run the exact path for which the official measurement was made), with not knowing exactly where to move, or moving around people in your way, or shifting to the side to pick up something at the hydration station or throw something in the garbage pail. Slowly but surely, it adds up.

After 8 miles, my watch was showing me running about 8.06 miles. Not shabby, but something I noted I need to continue to improve. (After all, that extra distance means I need to run faster to hit my goal time at the finish line.) When I looked at my watch after 9 miles, somehow I was showing as having run only 8.8 miles. What?! Where the hell did the extra mileage go -- approximately 1/4 mile, in fact. Was it just bad placement of the sign? No, because that was pretty much the same thing that kept on happening at each mile marker (with its corresponding painted mark on the ground). And, no, as far as I know, I didn't leave the course and come back in (i.e., cut the course) - I was always in sight of other runners in front of me on the course.

Even worse than that, while there were mostly decent directional signs on the course (especially given there were multiple places on the course where one direction crossed the other direction), they did a HORRIBLE job of controlling the traffic -- and that refers to both runners and vehicular traffic.

There was ZERO indication just about anywhere on the course where we were told which side of the road we should be on (save for one stretch of a wide, multi-lane road we were on for less than a mile). A large portion of the course was on neighborhood roads where it is one lane of traffic in each direction. And several of those had people running "out" and others running "back" in the other direction. It didn't matter much for those of us in the front of the pack, but once there were people actually going in both directions, it was highly confusing, and added more distance to run for those who shifted around coming in the other direction.

What's worse is the fact that many of those roads not only had one lane of traffic open for vehicles (but no indication of which direction they would be coming), but BOTH lanes of traffic were open. Thankfully all of the drivers who drove on the course were going very slowly (so, we didn't have to jump/dodge out of the way of the oncoming traffic), but that there were ever any parts of the course where vehicles are driving at you on your side of the road is inexcusable. As far as I know, no one got injured, but it was definitely a recipe for injuries.

So, because of the confusion about the actual distance combined with the logistics of moving around traffic and/or runners coming in the other direction (adding yet more distance), and possibly expending more energy early on compared to what I should have, I think my time was harmed to a small extent, but enough so that my final time, which was a Boston Qualifier, was not an improvement on what I already had from Mesa. I'm almost happy about that, though, because I have a feeling it would be invalidated for Boston anyway. Why? Because I think the total distance of the course was short. My Garmin showed 26.14 miles run. Not only do I never run a "perfect" race vis-a-vis the tangents, but I certainly didn't do so given the aforementioned logistics.

Despite it not being as good a time as I wanted, I came in 1st place in my age group! Woot!

When I made my way out of the finisher's chute (~11am), they had just begun the awards ceremony for the half marathon. Unfortunately, though, they weren't going to start the award ceremony for the marathon until 1pm (ugh!) - hence the photo here only has me in it... I had someone take it during that down time.

Since my hotel wouldn't allow a late checkout, I went to get lunch. Mmm... tasty burger, as is my wont.

As it was about 12:15 by the time I finished, a little later than that after using the restroom, I made my way back to the finish area (cheering the finishers along the way). Soon enough, it was time for the awards ceremony.

While standing around waiting for my age group to be announced, there were two people right next to me in some measure of distress. One early 20s man (who had just finished his 1st marathon) wasn't feeling great. Despite a running club friend of his telling him to keep walking around, he decided to sit down -- alas, he sat on the ground, rather than on a nearby bench. And after he sat, he decided to lay down fully. He was asked multiple times by many people (including medical staff) if he was doing ok. He never lost consciousness, always insisting he was fine. He was very dehydrated from having thrown up a couple of times on-course, apparently. I had an extra unopened bottle of water still and handed it over. (He declined the bottle of Hoist (electrolyte drink) I had.)

Separately, there was a lady (who was actually one of the top finishers in her age group) who was totally out of it. She was visibly weak in the legs, but was refusing to move over to the bench to sit. In that amount of time it took to insist on that, her legs went out from under her. Thankfully, she was already being supported by someone from behind and one side. Pretty quickly, the medics came over to check her out. She did wind up having everything go grey for a bit, as she recounted it.

I had earlier told the running club friend of the 1st person that I'd help her get him up and over to her car (a short distance away) after the ceremony was done. As we were walking out, he threw up again. Multiple times. And then had to use the porta-potty (which he made in time). Finally, everything out of his system, he was able to make it the rest of the way to the waiting car. Thankfully, he is a local, so he was driven home for his recovery.

All the drama finished, it was time for me to finally head back home. 

Now to make sure my recovery goes well over the next few days, because I have the Boston Marathon next week! Stay tuned.