Boston marathon
(16.4.2007)

History of the marathon

The race has very long traditions (this year was 111'th time) and it was well covered by news. Statistics from the past years tells that the first Boston marathon was won in 1897 by John J. McDermott from New York. First Kenyan victory came in 1988, after which they have dominated the race with only couple Ethiopians (1989, 2005), one Italian (1990) and on Korean (2001) winner since then. There were some interesting names in the roll of honor, especially around 50's and 60's.
1897: John J. McDermott (USA)
1954: Veikko Karvonen (FIN)
1956: Antti Viskari (FIN)
1959: Eino Oksanen (FIN)
1960: Paavo Kotila (FIN)
1961: Eino Oksanen (FIN)
1962: Eino Oksanen (FIN)
1972: Olavi Suomalainen (FIN)
1975: Bill Rodgers (USA)
1982: Alberto Salazar (USA)
2004: Timothy Cherigat (KEN)
2005: Hailu Negussie (ETI)
2006: Robert Cheruiyot (KEN)
This year there won't be a Finnish winner though, as the top-10 were ranked by 7 Kenyans, 2 Ethiopian and 1 Italian, and I was ranked 6689'th. :-)


Day before

I stayed in a hotel far away from center in the middle of a quiet suburban (Dedham) accessible only by car (which I did not have), and by local train. Because of the distance and the rainy weather I decided to stay in the hotel and rested all day. As a side result, I saw too many weather forecasts all predicting a spring storm in Boston area: rainy, cold weather (+5 C) and 11 m/s head wind all the way. Later the weather pattern changed little bit so that the worst of it was over before the race started. Anyway, watching TV was not very encouraging and the following quotes were heard several times:
"Chilly, heavy rain and 30 mph wind against the face of runners all the way"
"It could be the coolest Boston marathon ever"
"The marathon has never been cancelled so far due to weather conditions"
"It's not gonna be fun out there"
"Boston marathon will be a Nightmare"
And the most provocative prognosis was:
"There is not going to be any record breakings this year"


Watching weather channel for 5 minutes started to feel like there is storm in a water glass, and a disaster somewhere in the country at every moment. Over-dramatizing: a normal 11 m/s spring gust for coastal areas appeared almost like a dramatci storm on tv. On the other hand, tornados had flipped trucks upside down in Texas, so I guess there were some real storms around somewhere.

Anyway, the runner number 6689 was ready for the start line no matter whether raining cats and dogs. And even if the wind was supposed to make it feel as "biting -4 C", it's still nothing compared to -24 C during my coldest winter time training in Finland. It may slow me down but not stop me.

The race day

I woke up 5:27, three minutes before I had set the alarm clock. I left by local train to the South Station and from there by underground to Arlington street. I planned to have a light breakfast in South Station because my hotel did not serve any breakfast that early, and there were no shops nearby either. At the South station I jumped off from the train and headed to the nearest cafe shop when I heard a voice behind me asking:
"I hope you know where you are going as half the train is following you"
That was funny. I adviced them to the proper direction as I had anyway familiarized myself to Boston public transportation system for about two days already, and by all means, was therefore supposed to be the most experienced guide around. :-)

When I arrived to the venue, there were huge amount of people in the Boston common park lining up for a dozen of yellow school buses, which were transporting the runners to the starting area at Hopkington located 42 km west from Boston. It was rainy day and it took about 1 hour to wait to get in a bus. I had a plastic ad hoc cover on the top of my clothes to keep my warm and dry.


The trip took about 40 minutes via highway, but the last part near the Athlete's village took some time for all the buses to unload. Our bus had to stop in the traffic couple of miles before. There was a funny sight was when somebody had drooped off from his bus for a nature call, and then rushing back from the bushes to catch his bus, which had meanwhile forwarded by about... 300 meters. It was much less funnier when I started to feel the same urge. I eventually had to ask the driver to let me out from bus just 100 m before the Athlete's village (starting arae), and basically run to the nearest port-a-john. I even went as far as asking people, one-by-one, to let me jump in the line due to the urgency. Anyway, I conclude that I was properly hydrated at least. ;-)

After the emergency call to toilet, I then checked my gears, packed the overalls into the storage bus, and had light stretching. After a few minutes of waiting I started slowly moving from the Athlete's villate towards the starting corrals. At this point, the rain had almost stopped and it was slightly warmer than predicted, about +8 C or so.


The race

There were lots of people, more than 20.000, divided into two starts and several corrals according to their qualification times. I reached my corral (6000-7000) easily and squeezed in to the front of the pack. The separating strings between the corrals were removed just couple of minutes before the start, and I managed to sneak further forward somewhere around 3000.

Boom! I took a vigorous start and rattled off downhill and even passed other people. The first 6 km of the course was mostly downhill, and the first 10 km went rather quickly. The weather wasn't too cold or windy. On the contrary, I started even to think whether I had too much clothes on as many others were running in shorts. Later I did not regret running in warm clothes, even though the storm was only in a water glass. It wasn't even raining much and there was always another runner's to cover from the most gusty winds.

However, my stomach started soon to protest the pace and my hear rate measure also demanded to take it easier. So I slowed down a bit and tried to maintain the heart rate between 160-164 level. As a result, I started to drop back a little in the crowd. Not sure whether it was a proper choice to slow down or not, but I definitely did not want to undergo the Berlin experience again.


About the pace, it was difficult to say how much each factor slowed me down but I figure out these reasons: The second part (10-20 km) went mostly with the "slowing down" feeling. Not sure how much it shows in time but I was passed by many others during this period. I was merely concentrating on my running, and tried to keep it relaxed. At times, I gave a few high fives with some cheerful spectators but not as much as requested. Couple of times I was also cheered due to clothing (small Finnish flag in front, text "Suomi" on the back), and somebody shouted "Helsinki!" or similar. Free beer was also offered but I contented myself with the official's drinks at this moment. I accepted a free hot chocolate after the race in a near-by bar though. :-)


Then somewhere around 25 km, I started to belive that maybe I could get "somewhere" after all. The intermediate times at 10 and 15 km had been more than expected to be, but as my running never was very relaxed at that day, I did not focus on those much. Overall, my running was rather constrained as you might conclude from the pictures. Around half way (21 km), I took an energy gel from my pocket, and picked another from organizers at 27 km, and enjoyed it at around 32 km. I figured out that two was better than one.

At this stage, the uphills also started. It seemes that I outpaced many others during the downhills, had similar pace during uphills, but was still losing at the flat parts. There were four hills (Newton Hills), of which the most famous is the last one called Heartbreak Hill at 33 km. The story says that in 1936, John A. Kelley passed Ellison Brown for the lead, and patted on his shoulder on his way. However, his pace was not strong enough, and Brown later catched Ellison and went by to win the race, and thus, "broke Ellison's heart".

Well, people did cheer runners around there by the words "don't break your heart". But the hill was not as high as its fame, especially as I knew it was the last of the four. After that, my running remained strong and I started to pass others. I felt very energetic from this point on, and felt that I could keep up the pace easily even though being tired. Overall, the cheering during the race was very good and "go runners go" and "looking great" were constantly heard.


Still the day before, I had the feeling that if I cannot break the 3 hours barrier, then my time did not matter at all; and I especially would not wanted to hear any congratulations from anybody. I did not know the exact intermediate timings but after 30 km, I felt that I could get somewhere around 3:12 if I could just keep up the pace.

After 35 km I felt really strong and thinking "yeah, I will make it" and started to pass others. The last 3 kilometers felt rather long, but I had no problems to keep up the pace although I could feel the passed kilometers in my legs already. I was rationalizing that the finish line would come sooner or later anyway, all I needed to do was keep on running. In the last 800 meters, I took as an interval training, and made a good final 100 m sprint to finish my race.

After completing the marathon, I did not know whether to cry or laugh. I could have done both easily with slight provocation. The uppermost feeling was that, damn, I had completed a marathon, and it doesn't come any easier no matter how many I had run. Quite a job completed even, despite that my main goal to reach sub 3 hours result was not achieved. I was satisfied with the two facts that (1) I had broke my previous record of 3:14, and (2) I had completed Boston marathon. More with the latter one.

The race facts

Finish time: 3:12:09
Ranking 2154 / 20348
Average heart rate: 164
     
  5k 10k 15k 20k Half 25k 30k 35k 40k 42k
Total time 0:21:26 0:43:40 1:05:57 1:28:35 1:33:28 1:51:27 2:15:09 2:39:18 3:02:11 3:12:09
Leg time 0:21:26 0:22:14 0:22:17 0:22:38   0:22:52 0:23:41 0:23:09 0:22:53  
Pace 4:17 4:27 4:27 4:32 4:26 4:34 4:44 4:38 4:35 4:33

Summary

The track profile has 150 m drop overall, of which the first 5 km is almost all downhill. Four more difficult uphills all between 25-35 km, which seemed to sort the wheat from the chaff even among the elites as well.

The race was won by Kenyan Robert Cheruiyot, the same chap who won Boston also in 2003 and 2006, and who slipped at the finish line when winning the Chicago marathon in 2006 earning brain concussion and $ 100.000 plus the bonus of winning all the three. Nevertheless, the runner at rank 2154 also won a nice precious medal and plenty of good mood. :-)