Boston Strong

Let me begin by saying this is not the post marathon blog I had envisioned writing after completing the 117^th Boston Marathon. I am happy to say that my family and I are all safe but still processing the events that happened that day.   Due to the horrible events, I was stopped at mile 25.8 which will forever be documented in Sports Illustrated (see page 12 in the April 22 issue).  My family was at mile 26 almost directly across from the second blast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The race up until that point had been a fabulous run.  It was a perfect day for a marathon, sunny but not hot with a slight breeze.  I had mentally broken the race into 4 segments and had been executing on that plan.  Segment one was from the beginning of the race until mile 9 when I would meet my family for the first time.  As I approached my family in the chaos of the crowds all I could see was their exuberant smiles.  I stopped for a few hugs and kisses then moved on to the second segment which was from that point to the hills of Newton.  The highlight of this segment was the “scream mile” of Wellesley College, women that cannot adequately be described!  The third segment was the dreaded hills of Newton.  Through them I felt strong and after the last hill I knew I was going to finish the race.  The final segment was from the hills to the finish which I had planned on taking mile by mile and hopefully enjoying the moment.  During this segment I ran through Boston College which was by far the loudest part of the course with students on both sides of the street, then on to mile 25 which is where DFMC has a cheering section.  After that I had planned on seeing my family close to the finish line and having my son run the final distance with me and get our medal.  The last part was delayed due to tragic events but I did take my son with me to receive my medal the day after the marathon which I think helped both of us heal a little.

Running the Boston marathon for DFMC was one of the greatest challenges I have ever taken on and I am proud to say that I not only finished the race but raised over $10,000 for the Barr Program.  I am still roughly $500 short of my goal amount and hope a few more donations will trickle in to push me over my goal of $13,100.  Those of you who have donated and cheered me on in spirit and in person I humbly thank you.  While it is not a sure thing, look for me to run the Boston Marathon again next year for DFMC. 

Again thank you for everything and keep running!

Ray

 

 

Running update

So I am not so good at this blogging thing! I can blame work or kids and say I don’t have time, all of which would be true but honestly I just have not MADE the time! Slight nuance but for me an important distinction, as I am a big believer of we make time for things we want to make time for.  I am less than 3 weeks away from running the Boston Marathon and I have not updated this blog since December!  I guess that means I have a lot to bring everyone up to date on.

First let me say thank you for all of those that have donated.  While I was willing to pony up the $4000 you need to fundraise to run for the DFMC myself it’s very nice that I will not have too and I have raised over double my original goal.  That said you can still make donations here and remember every last dollar goes to fund cutting edge research.

http://www.runDFMC.org/2013/rayf

So what has happened in the last 3 months?  I have run more miles then I have ever run before in my life and loved every moment of it!  I only started running in November of 2011 so to voluntarily run a marathon 17 months later, well is in line with my never quit and never a challenge too big attitude! Although others including my wife just call it plan crazy, which is slightly true.  If I had to do it again I would because setting such a high goal has kept me motivated.  My training has gone pretty uneventful except for the last week or so but we will get to that.  Since December I have logged around 300 miles which is probably the total distance I had run in my entire life up to then.  I have been trying to run 2 to 3 times during the week keeping my mileage below 20 miles or so with a long run on the weekends never peaking about 40 miles for a week.  I tried a few weeks to run closer to 30 during the week and found my long runs suffered or my body made it be known that it did not appreciate the abuse.  I have successfully upped my long runs from 5 miles to 18 miles and did one competitive half marathon finishing in 1 hour 59 min (which I should say was done in February in Boston during a N’orestern).  I have run the actual course more times than I can count and have run heart break hill enough times not to be afraid of it.   Then came the big finale this weekend, a 22 mile run with 17 miles under your belt as you hit the Newton flats (only in Boston could you call a 4 mile stretch which includes heart break hill as “the flats”).  Roads were barricaded in certain spots since there were over 2000 runners on the course for their final long run.  It was supposed to be a celebratory weekend marking the beginning of the end.  For me it was the worst run I had since I began training.

I had been told to expect at least one run during my training to be bad but since things had been going so good I thought I had dodged that bullet.  I mean come on I ran my 18 miler is less time than my 16 miler and felt great what could go wrong.  Well just about everything!  The morning started poorly.  I had forgotten to go to the store to pick up my normal breakfast for the morning of the long run, couldn’t get out of the house on time and had to go back because I forgot my GPS and had only logged about 4 hours of sleep the night before.  It was also the only week I had logged less than 10 mile during the week due to a variety of reason and not carefully laid out all my running cloths the night before.  The run was off to a bad start before I even took one step!  Then I took bunch of steps and it didn’t get better.  I usually warm up and find my zone by mile 3.  My body adjusts to the weather (the cold) and I maintain a good temperature throughout the run usually resulting in me taking off my gloves and hat.  On this run I had dressed inappropriately and missed my mark by about 10 degrees and was constantly cold.  Then I made the equally stupid mistake of running the same pace as I had the week before.  I knew this was dumb and told myself this as I set off but let my ego get the better of me.  All was OK through mile 10.  Then this was my point of no return.  It was a decision point. I could head back, settle for 20 instead of 22 or push it.  The ego won and I pushed it and immediately realized I made the wrong choice.  I started to have some intense right foot pain which led to left hip pain.  This lasted until mile 14 at which point I should have just headed in but I didn’t. My pace had dropped to between 13-14 min/mile pace almost 5 min slower than my normal long pace.  I tried to keep going telling myself I could just run through it.  Then my body just stopped leaving me a mile to walk before I could ask for a ride back to my car. 

Well, all I can say is that I am glad to get that out of my system and am looking forward to my 14 miler this weekend!