I wanted to also thank all of my family, friends, and
coworkers for supporting me not only before but after the race. It’s a great comfort to know that I have such
a great support network to lean on. If
it weren’t for Amy and Abby’s support I never could have accomplished this.
The pre-race atmosphere was incredible in Boston as we
arrive Saturday evening. After a few
transit snafus getting used to the bus and subway system we finally reached the
hotel and headed out to dinner. We had a
great dinner at Legal Seafood overlooking the Boston Harbor. After dinner we went to a bar down the
street and had a beer and met a wonderful guy that we talked with for a couple
of hours and he even bought us a round of drinks. We talked to several other Boston natives
that night and I must say that they all welcomed us with open arms and wished
me luck in the race. We quickly
developed a liking to Boston!
Sunday brought the race expo and wow, what an
environment. All of the volunteers were
so friendly and seemed as excited as I was about the race. Everyone there made sure that our questions
were answered and made sure that we had everything we needed to enjoy the experience. While at the expo I had to purchase the
sacred Boston Marathon jacket. I wore
that jacket all day Sunday as we explored Boston. We encountered countless other marathoners
and their families talking to several of them throughout the day. Just looking around we saw both current and
older jackets worn by the runners.
Sometimes we had short conversations with folks and others just a quick
nod to one another as we both knew what was going to take place on Monday. Amy and I really enjoyed the day traveling
around town and even went over and checked out Harvard. We ended the day with an early dinner and
headed back to the hotel to rest.
Unfortunately rest was not in the cards as I was awake at 2:30 AM and
could not get back to sleep and that ended up being a factor in the race.
6 AM on Monday I jumped on one of hundreds of buses with the
other runners and we departed to the start in Hopkinton. The bus ride was uneventful and after an hour
ride we arrived at the race village near the start line. The atmosphere was exiting as well at the
athlete’s village where I exchanged running stories and race strategies with
several other runners. Some had run
Boston before while others like me were running for the first time. The worst part was the 3 hour wait for the
race to start at 10AM. At 9:30 we
started making our way to the starting line hitting the porta-john villages on
the way…twice!
Well, it’s game time.
As we assembled in our corrals at the start the excitement builds and
before I knew it the gun went off! We’re
rolling folks! Right off the bat I
noticed that my legs just didn’t feel great…probably lack of sleep. Not a huge deal as I was planning on taking
it easy for the first 4 or 5 miles anyway.
For the record, this is a tough course.
The first half is a NET downhill with lots of short uphill rollers in
between the downhill stretches. I
probably made the mistake of holding back too much on the down hills and making
sure that I didn’t even get down to my goal race pace. I think this had the same negative effect on
my quads as I was probably tensing my muscles too much trying to slow down when
I should have just let myself hit that race pace. After 5 miles I knew that my legs were going
to be hurting so I decided to maintain a low 7 pace and hold on for the race
finish.
The crowds were so exciting the entire race with families
and kids making up a large part of the early crowds through the small
burbs. The kids wanted high fives from
runners…how can you pass that up as they jumped for joy when runners obliged. I quickly noticed that as runners discarded
gloves, hats, and shirts that race fans scrambled to pick them up. After about 4 miles I was ready to shed my
gloves so I took them off and tossed them at two young girls’ feet. They jumped for joy as I ran past and quickly
scooped them up as a souvenir! I hoped
they enjoyed my sweaty gloves!
At the 10K mark I was right at a 7:01 pace and I was pretty
happy with that as that still would give me a low 3 hour finish. Not too bad despite how bad my legs felt. Just keep at it and I’ll be fine is what I
kept telling myself. I let myself enjoy
the sights and sounds of the crazed spectators along the way. Simply amazing is the best that I can describe
these folks. They obviously love this
race! Ashland, Framingham, Natick all
went by not with ease but at just a steady effort. Then came Wellesley…wow…imagine what seemed
to be thousands of crazy screaming college girls holding signs to kiss
them! I gave some young nice lady a hug…was
a bit afraid of a kiss as they likely kissed many in front of me which didn’t
seem to appealing. Yes, I was thinking
about germs during a race! But these
girls were crazy and I think I high fived about every one of them! This was at the half way mark and still
holding onto a 7:07 pace which was fine but I could tell my legs were headed in
the wrong direction!
The next couple of miles passed and I was just in a zone
focusing on the pace and getting to the finish.
Then as I headed into Newton, I could tell again that the excitement was
ramping up. It’s good because I was
getting very tired and I needed a boost to keep me going. At this point I was stopping for a few
seconds at the water stations to make sure that I was getting enough
water. We started tackling the Newton
hills and it wasn’t too bad. I heard one
runner say that the hill we were on was the steepest and once we get over it we’re
good to go and that Heartbreak Hill was longer but not as steep. I think he was correct because that hill was
tough. Shortly after that it seemed like
pandemonium as we started up Heartbreak Hill…again thousands of people
screaming to make it up and up it I went!
It was a long hill and tough but the adrenaline took over and powered me
up the hill. We had just passed the 30K
mark (20 miles) and the pace dipped down to 7:20 but not too bad as we were
hitting some good hills but the legs were going bad fast!
After Heartbreak Hill I had nothing left in my legs. I starting walking the water stations
sometimes up to 45 seconds just to give my legs a short break and this
worked. I was able to make up to 2 miles
stints and then walk again just to re-group.
The crowd support at this point was great. All through the race people were yelling Go
Team Mickle which was on the front of the shirt that Amy had made. I must have heard that a thousand times but
it really got me going those last several miles. By this time we were running mostly downhill
and my legs were toast. I would have
been better to keep running uphill! By
this time I looked at my watch and knew that I would have a slower time. The last 4 miles my pace had slipped down to
the 8:30’s and then into the 9’s as I was walking more just to make sure that I
got to the finish. At mile 24 I took my
last short walk and then said well let’s finish this! By this time again 10s of thousands of fans
on both side of the road were roaring. It
was so inspiring to hear Team Mickle being yelled as I ran that last mile.
What can I say as I head to the finish? It’s so inspiring and emotional as you know
you’re finishing a lifelong dream that you thought was never possible. I was going to finish the granddaddy of
marathons! I came in at 3:24 which was
slow for me but it was a tough course and somewhat windy so I’ll take it. After all, I was injured all last summer and
only starting training again in September.
But it leaves me wanting more not only to run a faster time but to
avenge those bastards that darkened the event!
I’ll be back at Boston…not sure when but I’m going back!
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