Bethany's Boston Race Report

OK, this is better late than never, right?? Here is a summary of my race recap, I'll keep it short, don't want to bore you all.

   This was my 5th Boston marathon and as most of you know, I live right in Boston's Back Bay right near the marathon course. 98% of my long runs were completed right on the course, I know every little hill, every little turn etc. My goal for Boston was somewhere around 3:30 and the thought of running 8 minute miles sounded like a piece of cake to me. While training I ran the Martha's Vineyard 20 miler and averaged 7:58pace, and the New Bedford Half Marathon where I averaged 7:29 pace, so I was fairly certain that 3:30 would be doable.
      I felt great in the days leading up to Boston, I slept great the night before and felt great that morning and headed to the start line feeling great and very relaxed. This was my first year in the first wave, I was in the 11th corral. When the race started it was WONDERFUL because there was no hold up, there was no weaving, there was no pushing and shoving (like 2 years ago). It was great, i got to run MY pace right from the start. My first mile was 8:25. My goal was 8:45 for the first mile as I like to warm up slowly and I also wanted to be cautious of that long downhill at the start. My plan was to average 8:10 for the first 15 miles and then speed it up from there.
        At the 10k mark I was averaging 8:06 and at the half I was averaging 8:02. The fastest average pace I ever got was 8:01 and I held it to mile 16. Starting around mile 10, the bottoms of my feet started to BURN. It continued to get worse with each step but I ignored it. Starting at mile 12 I started to get a crampy feeling in ALL of my toes! hmm, that's never happened before. The cramps spread from my toes to my feet and eventually to my ankles. It felt like I had no circulation. I started thinking really negative things and then I started getting annoyed. I was ready to be done. My legs started to get tired, I was feeling hot and kept dumping water on my head at every water stop. I was also feeling dehydrated but all I could drink was water, the Gatorade was just too sweet!
         Miles 17-24 pretty much sucked. for the first time during a marathon I wanted to see the finish line, I was ready to be done. Not to sound like a brat, but usually during a marathon it's like 'oh there's the finish line, ok, guess I'll stop now.' During Boston I was like where's the $#@!$% finish line?!?!
         Also, I made the mistake of putting my name on my shirt. It was great for the first 17 miles but then when I walked through some water stops (4 to be exact) the drunk college kids at BC were really making me angry! YES I KNOW I CAN DO IT THANK YOU. YES, I KNOW I AM WALKING RIGHT NOW. JEESH PEOPLE, GET OFF MY BACK, I'M JUST TAKING A LITTLE WALK BREAK, I'M NOT QUITTING, CALM DOWN, STOP YELLING AT ME.
         Once I got to mile 24 I started feeling better knowing the end was near. I had coworkers, family and friends starting at mile 24 to the finish. While I was feeling like crap, I refused to let it show because I did not want anyone to know I was suffering.
       My Garmin said I was averaging 8:17 pace as i turned onto Boylston st. so i knew I was set for sub 3:40(I'm already qualified for next year anyway so it didn't really matter). As i got closer to the finish line I realized i wasn't going tomake it sub 3:40 so i took off sprinting. My official finish time was 3:40:02 for 26.2 miles, 8:24 pace. My Garmin read 8:17 pace for 26.52 miles. (Damn I added on a lot!) Once I took my shoes off i noticed that my socks were all bunched up under my toes, hence the cramps and feeling of no circulation. Hmm, that's never happened before either.
        Running for Team in Training was awesome! That was my favorite part! I raised $1,600 and the team as a whole raised $700,000! WOW.
         All in all it really was a great day despite struggling through. No, I didn't get the time I wanted but I don't really care. I still ran a great race and I'm very content with my time. :-)
I was more sore than usual for the 2 days after Boston. Everything is fine now and I'm getting ready/excited for our next big adventure, our first Ultra at the end of May.

Thanks for reading. Ryan will post his recap soon. He has AWESOME pics from the race. I have none. sorry.

We Signed Up for an ULTRA!!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS:

WE JUST SIGNED UP FOR OUR FIRST ULTRA! We are running the Pineland Farms Trail Running Festival 50 km at the end of May! Woohoo! We are so excited. We just signed up together tonight. Miss Bethany is also running her first Barefoot 5km on the day before the 50km, also as part of the Trail Running Festival. 

AND . . . . 

WE JUST SIGNED UP FOR THE ANCHORAGE ALASKA MAYOR'S MARATHON!!!! Miss Bethany's parents are driving there for about 3 months in the RV, so we decided, why not fly out to meet them, and run a marathon there!!! 

We can't wait!!!!

Promise we'll have our complete Boston Marathon post coming up later at some point this week!!!! Stay tuned!!!

Our Boston Marathon Results

We can't believe that Boston Marathon weekend has come and gone already! This is something we look forward to ALL year and living right here in the city makes it even more exciting for us.

This is just a quick post with some pictures, we will give a more detailed race report later. We also took some pictures at our special engagement rock out in Hopkinton, we'll post those later too.

Meeting back up after the race. (This was the first marathon we ran apart!)

 Ryan: 4:07:52  Bethany: 3:40:02

Back at the apartment, testing out my new recovery calf sleeves

Out to dinner post race

Blogger meet up! it was SO nice to meet everyone!!

OK, much more to come later. Just wanted to give you all a quick update in case you were wondering how we did.

Boston Marathon Weekend!

We are having a BLAST! Here are some of our pictures from the weekend so far! You might even recognize a familiar face!

Here's Ryan, signing up for the 2011 Goofy's Challenge (what has Miss Bethany done to me?)

Here's speedy Miss Bethany getting her number.

Here's Ryan getting his number. 

Blogger meet-up, with our friend Meg! We literally bumped right into each other as soon as we walked into the expo! She was so sweet and pleasant, you should all try to meet her at some point!

The expo.

Our friends from the KRDP.

More to come, on this fun-filled, exciting weekend!

Am I Wrong to be Upset About This???

So we have a new half-marathon coming to "Boston." It's called 13.1 Boston. Maybe you have one near you, as they have races in several major cities throughout the USA.

13.1 "Boston" is at the end of June and according to their website and ads in magazines, its said to take place in Boston. The ads they have in local magazines show pictures of the city, as does the website. Originally the course was TBA but the location was definitely listed as Boston. I was excited to run this and figured I'd be able to walk down to the start line, since I live in Boston. I encouraged a good friend to sign up for the race and told her she could stay at my apartment. Here's what 13.1 Series says about Boston:

“Where the Party Meets the Pavement” is our tagline and when you come out and run, you’ll understand why.  Join the party in the fastest growing half marathon series in the country.  You’ll get to enjoy the sights and sounds of America’s top cities through this new and exciting way to race.
However, when the course map came out, it was revealed that 13.1 "Boston" is actually in a small, rural town called Canton. According to Google it's going to be about a 25 minute drive to get there. Oh, wait, Ryan and I don't even have a car! So now on top of paying $55 to run in our backyard, we are now going to have to rent a car to get there!

I just think it's really rotten of 13.1 Series to advertise that the race is in Boston, with bands and entertainment along the course, only to find out it's actually taking place on a farm 20 miles out of the city. I feel like they are tricking runners, getting them to sign up thinking they will get to run through a city. 13.1's website STILL says Boston and shows pictures of Boston.


I love to run and know I'll have fun, but still....Am I wrong to be upset about this?

Ryan's 'Reflection' Run

"So here we are ya'll, it's about that time. They say it's the ending, man, but it's only the beginning. Guess this is where, we're just gonna take off, man, and not look back . . . " - Jon Hope

So this morning was my last run of substance before Boston. Bethany ran really early this morning because she had to go to a workshop all day. So I was left to go on my last substantial run before Boston all on my own. Decided to do something I rarely do, and brought my iPod shuffle on the run this morning, just to give me that little extra motivation and to pump me up a little. I have about 100 songs on my iPod shuffle, all random stuff, from Guns n Roses to Jay-Z to K'naan to Kiss, all kinds of stuff. It's all on shuffle, so it all gets mixed in and I never know what comes next.

So of all the songs to randomly come on as soon as I step out of my apartment pre-run, what comes on but Jon Hope's 'Most Important Song of My Life,' the opening lines of which are at the beginning of this post. Those three lines pretty much sum up the end of my marathon training. It's the end of training, but it's only the beginning of what's to come. Time to take off and not look back, all the way to the finish line. 

Needless to say, I was a little fired up to start my run. I was planning on just doing an easy 10 miles on the Boston course, but ended up hammering out 10 miles at slightly over marathon-goal-pace, and it felt easy. I finished my run turning onto Boylston, and walked down to the finish line. Just to look at it and visualize, then turned around and walked back to my apt.

Well that's about it. Bethany is at a conference/workshop all day so I figured I'd write this post to occupy some time, haha. Hope everyone's doing well, and everyone doing Boston is ready and excited!

And the Winner is . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . Paige, from Two Runners and a Brown Dog !!!! 

Paige, please send us an email with your flavor of choice and your mailing address, and we will get your Mix1 out to you immediately! 

Thank you to everyone who entered our first giveaway, and we are sure that there will be many more to come!

Countdown to Boston, and Ryan's New Obsession

Less than two weeks 'til Boston!! Next week at this time, runners will be starting to arrive in our wonderful city. It gets so exciting around here, we just can't wait! Here is what we've been up to lately. (And make sure you read to the end to see Ryan's latest obsession.)

3/27/10 -- 20 Miles with Team in Training at Ryan's Marathon Goal-Pace!

3/30/10 -- Happy 25th Birthday Ryan! (Wow, I'm getting old.)

Miss Bethany's Team in Training singlet. Even though it's her 16th marathon, she still likes to put her name on her shirt. :-p

Our new shoes which we will be running Boston in. We always like to get new shoes and break them in about 2-3 weeks out so they have that fresh bounce to them.

Miss Bethany's race-day fuel. What's your race-day fuel of choice?

Ryan's new obsession:  Grillo's Pickles!!! He absolutely loves them. They are all-natural, all-delicious and made right in Boston! They come in two flavors: HOT and Regular Dill. They are unreal. He's gone through like 3-4 jars in like two weeks. Grillo's even has a pickle cart which sells pickles by the spear on Boston Common. Ryan has been known to take a nice lunch break walk over to the Common and buy some delicious crispy spears. (Miss Bethany constantly makes fun of Ryan's pickle consumption.) Ok, enough about the pickles. But when you guys are in Boston for the marathon, you NEED to try these pickles.

Anyway, hope you guys are getting excited for Boston. Also, if you haven't yet, you have until midnight tonight to enter our Mix1 giveaway! We will announce the winner on our blog tomorrow!