I am a Boston Marathoner

 I have put off writing about my last "event" for a couple of reasons. First of all after I finished it I've been either crazy busy or sick. But more than that I've had a very hard time "processing" all that went into completing the event and all the emotions it stirred up for me.

I should have put a spoiler alert before the title...in case you didn't guess it, the last event I completed was the (Virtual) Boston Marathon.

Back in April I found out the Boston Marathon was going to have a hybrid event this year (part virtual and part in person). They were opening up registration to ANYONE for the virtual event so I decided I wanted to register!

Let me back up just a half-step. I'm guessing everyone knows Boston Marathon is a race that you either have to qualify for with a VERY fast time at a qualifying marathon, or you have to be a fundraiser to get one of the few "charity" slots. But this year I was going to be able to get a coveted unicorn medal by completing the marathon distance on Boston Marathon weekend and submitting my time.

I conned convinced a friend to register with me and then, because she and I both love to travel we decided it would be super cool to run our virtual race ON the actual course! I reached out to a friend of ours who is one of the key coordinators for the marathon and asked if running on the course was even possible. He not only said yes, but he also offered one "non-qualifying" slot for the race. Since I had conned convinced my friend to register for the virtual I graciously let Dwayne take advantage of the actual race entry. And then we starting making our plans to go to Boston!

The following month I (shockingly) completed IMChoo 70.3. (Side note: I just realized that I never completed my in depth race recap but instead stopped with the bike portion of the race...I'll have to go back to that at some point but the reason I didn't complete that recap is similar to why I've had such a hard time completing this one...)

After registering for the Virtual Boston Marathon, I joined a FaceBook group with other virtual participants and quickly realized I was in the minority regarding one fairly big "issue". 

I was unwilling to call myself a Boston Marathoner in any way. I wasn't going to say "I'm training to run the Boston Marathon". I also wouldn't buy any Boston Marathon gear, and certainly not a "celebration jacket". While others were excited to be participating in the "Boston Marathon" I refused to see it from that perspective. I was simply participating in a virtual marathon...granted I was going to run the actual course, but it still was NOT the same thing.

Boston IS exclusive. It's not a lottery system where you just apply to get a slot and they randomly draw names. You have to QUALIFY. And, in the last several years, just running a "qualifying time" hasn't been good enough to get a slot. Let's say they are letting in 50K runners to the event. They will open registration first for runners who bested their qualifying time by say 10 minutes. Then they will open if for runners who beat their time by say 5 minutes... If all the slots are filled then they shut down registration. So in order to really guarantee a slot, you would have to run MUCH faster than just a BQ time (or raise a lot of money for charity).

I like it that way. I think it makes Boston special. It gives marathoners something to strive for, something to work to acheive. It's not just random luck. You are either working hard to run and race fast, or you are working hard to raise a lot of money for a charity. There are, however, a lot of people who don't agree with that process. There were a lot of people on that group page that expressed a thought process completely opposite (basically anyone should get to run Boston). My thoughts put me in the minority (at least in relationship to the vocal people on that page). 

Training for me was not going as well as I wanted it to go. I had been battling low iron and switching thyroid meds around the time of my 70.3. Then, we got to go out to Colorado Springs in August/September for six weeks thanks to Dwayne's job. That was WONDERFUL but it also meant I was sort of starting from scratch with training since we'd be at altitude. I told my friend I wouldn't be able to keep up with her pace and that I would likely have to walk most of the distance. 

But then something wonderful happened. My training got solid at the end of that 6 weeks! I walk/ran 9.5 miles our final weekend there and then when we got back I did something I haven't done in like 6 years...I ran a solid 3.5 miles without walking!!!!

But...let's be clear, 9.5 miles of walk/running and 3.5 miles of solid running is NOT solid marathon training. But we got home about 2 weeks befor Boston Weekend. It was pretty much all I was going to get.

Let me just say if ANYONE ever asks me if they should try to complete a marathon with 9.5 miles as their longest run I will say no. At the same time, I've completed several marathons, 3 50Ks, 3 70.3s and 2 Ironmans. I do understand endurance events. And I do understand my body. I knew I could walk the 26.2 miles if I needed to and I knew I wasn't going to risk injury. So instead of backing out I set out to get my virtual medal on Saturday morning of Boston Weekend. (My friend had to back out of going for a number of reasons so it was just me and all the other virtual runners who were running the course on Saturday (I had a friend who came from North Carolina with a friend of hers but I figured they would be running much faster than I was going to be able to go so I didn't even try to stay with them).

The Boston course is point-to-point and pretty much downhill the whole way...except for the infamous "Newton Hills" that start about mile 19ish. Those hills culminate with "Heartbreak Hill". Even the downhill sections have little rollers along the way, but it's generally an easy downhill slope most of the way.

Just being out there was AMAZING! The people of Boston and the surrounding towns are unlike any I have experienced in big cities. They are warm and welcoming and just NICE. The race was celebrating it's 125th running!!! I think because of that people have embraced the race as part of their culture. Cars went out of their way to give runners room! People honked encouragement instead of irritation (you could tell because they would wave and smile or roll their windows down to cheer!).

The plan was that Dwayne would be my rolling aid station, leap frogging me along the way with water and Maurten gels. I starting getting nervous when I didn't see him at mile 2, then 3. But then about mile 4 I saw him! And then like clockwork about every 2-3 miles he was there! I saw maybe 100 other runners out there doing the same thing I was doing. And there were a few spectators out there watching their people, cheering us all on.

But, it never entered my mind that I was running "THE Boston Marathon"...I was running the Boston course...but not the actual marathon.

I was running MUCH stronger than I had any right to run. I finished MUCH stronger than I had any right to finish with a time of 5:47. That's my fastest marathon since having brain disease, on MUCH less training. I was depleted at the end but it was one of those moments that I was in shock at what I had just accomplished. 

But I didn't think for one second "I'm a Boston Marathoner"...I thought "I just ran 26.7 miles* on the Boston Marathon course and finished a virtual marathon. (When you run the actual course you get to run on the roads. As a person "just" running the course it was a longer distance between the start and finish lines-that shows the importance of running tangents!) I did immediately go buy a "celebration jacket" to celebrate what I had just accomplished but my intention was to have "Virtual Finisher" embroidered on it just so there was no confusion that I did not in fact run the actual Boston Marathon.

The following Monday Dwayne ran the actual race and, while he didn't meet his personal goal, he did well...and ended up spending about 90 minutes in medical afterward (depleted of electrolytes and a bit under-hydrated). He was a Boston Marathoner...I was not.

Following that amazing weekend there was a little "debate" on the FB group about this very sort of thing. People were calling themselves "Boston Marathoners" and wearing their jackets proudly. I (and a few other likeminded vocal individuals) countered that thought process. I basically said earlier in this post...Boston IS special. Boson finishers ARE special. We, as virtual finishers, aren't THAT. We are different. I made a post about it on the page, explaining why I was going to "alter" my jacket, expecting to be pounced on. 

Instead, an interesting thing happened. Some people agreed with me, but the ones who didn't (mostly) explained to me why they felt like I was wrong. To them Boston welcomed us in as part of the family. Moreover, they said, Boston is a spirit more than a race. Sure, in every previous year the only runners able to run the race were either fast or fundraisers, but this year the BAA opened it's doors and let in the "commoner". Me altering my jacket to specify "VIRTUAL FINISHER" was a way for me to segregate myself away from the "real" Boston finishers. To segregate myself was me saying I'm not good enough not them saying I wasn't welcome. 

I chewed on that for a while and then refocused on other things...life got busy and then I got Covid. I had a "mild" case but I was still in the bed for about a week. And then I had what the doctors think was either a kidney stone or an infection, or both. (I'm still dealing with this actually.)

Saturday I got a box from the BAA with my virtual medal and a post card... as I started to read the card I broke down into uncontrollable sobs...

Did you see that? 

"Dear Boston Marathoner"

I am part of the family. I'm not a step child. I'm not a third cousin. I'm not an interloper. In the eyes of the BAA, I'm a Boston Marathoner. They are the ones who get to decide; it's their race after all. Or is it? Maybe they recognize that this race is bigger than any entity. Boston signifies the spirit of the marathoner: perseverance, dedication, endurance...

I am a Boston Marathoner. I will celebrate by wearing my jacket with pride!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around!

Just Like Riding a Bike

There's a reason the saying goes "it's just like riding a bike". That expression implies that you already know everything there is about an activity and can pick up right where you left off even after a long time away from doing it.

I have been teaching Spin a long time (except for a short time I had to take off due to brain disease). When I trained for my 70.3 and 140.6 races, teaching Spin didn't count toward my bike training at all. It was more of a recovery effort. I would teach 5:30am Spin and then go do my long ride (up to about 112 miles or about 6 hours).

When I first signed up for IMChoo70.3 (like in September 2019) I had plans to actually TRAIN for the race. But then I didn't really ever get into training when COVID hit and I threw in the towel. Then in January-ish of this year when it seemed as though the race would happen, I was REALLY struggling to get started training.

I had an appointment with my neurologist where we actually discussed me doing a round of IV steroids again. I was having a flare of symptoms that really concerned me and steroids seemed to be the best answer. I decided to wait because I had changed my thyroid meds about a month before and the neurologist said it was a possibility that change sparked the apparent "flare". Just after that I got VERY serious with "clearing the muddy waters" of my diet. I did a Whole 30, and then partway through that 30 days I started eating Juice Plus+. 

To say I started feeling drastically better doesn't fully capture the transformation. I went from believing I might need another round of steroids to believing I might actually be able to finish the 70.3 (maybe not in the 8.5 hour time cutoff, but if I started early enough in the day I might at least not get pulled off the course-even if I ended up as an official DNF on the results). 

I felt confident leading up to race day I would have a decent swim because the current is so fast at that race. Having a decent swim would set me up to have "extra" time on the bike. I was confident if I made it off the bike within the time limit I could gut my way through 13.1 miles (again, even if it wasn't actually in the time allowed I believed I could finish it).

But, in my mind, the bike portion of the race was the make it or break it for my day. Spin class is about an hour long. I did the math before the race...if I rode at an average of about 14mph it would take me about 4 hours to finish the bike. Right at three hours longer than I was used to riding (because I'm sometimes on my bike for 75 minutes including pre-class ride time). FOUR times longer than my behind and legs were used to (and after swimming 1.4 miles*). 

I kept telling myself leading up to the race, "it's quite literally just like riding a bike".

I did not expect the swim to be quite so challenging. But when I got out of the water and got through T1 I was feeling SPUNKY! Dwayne, Cedric (husband and brother-in-law) and I all got to transition within seconds of each other but I was about 90-120 seconds faster getting out of transition. I was IN THE LEAD!!!! 🤣

I knew I wouldn't hold it for long, but it was glorious while it lasted! More importantly, I felt FANTASTIC. Except...there's always an "except" isn't there? I had a little annoying rub on the inside of my right thigh. My mind started racing "this is so stupid for you to be out here doing this...you are SO UNTRAINED...that rub is going to be a TERRIBLE chaffed spot, it's probably going to bleed...you are not going to be able to walk for a week-is this worth it". The barrage of thoughts were ENDLESS and UNRELENTING.

Until...I got to the first cemetary.

I remember when I did IMChoo '15. In training I passed that first cemetery and thought "I'm glad I'm on this side of the fence...keep riding". When Dwayne and I drove the course before his race the next year I told him that little mindset switch. When we drove the course the day before the race we talked about it again. When I saw that cemetery, the switch flipped and I was able to refocus on the spunk I was feeling.

The thing I LOVE about the IMChoo bike courses is the rolling hills (the 144.6* and the 70.5* courses are slightly different but mostly the same)! The ups aren't SO steep to be demoralizing and the downs aren't white-knuckle fast. It's a near-perfect mix. If you gear correctly you can really have a fast bike time. 

Hold on...I didn't talk about an important thing that happened!

Two weeks before the race we took our bikes to the shop to have them checked out, get our chains waxed, and just general pre-race tune-ups. (My good friend also let me borrow her -super fast-race wheels!) When we picked them up the day before we were leaving, the guy who worked on my bike told me he had fixed a little issue with the shifting.

Now, let me say...this "little issue" had been a THORN IN MY SIDE from when I first bought the bike. In middle gears it would shift on its own-either up or down! I had to actually hold pressure on the shifter in order to keep it from happening. Keep in mind, it's a TRI bike so to hold the shifters I have to be in aero. I had been on a hill a couple of times and had the chain pop off--not because of my own shifting but because the stupid bike would shift on it's own! I had taken it in no less than three times to have them FIX IT! Each time I was told it was fixed but it never was. I finally just told myself that's just the way it was going to be. Well, when we picked up the bikes, we didn't really have time for anything more than a little 20 minute ride to make sure everything was good to go. I was VERY nervous about this shifting issue because I had figured out how to cope with it the way it was. This "repair" might have made things worse! In that little ride it shifted VERY well, but I was still leary about it...until I realized partway through this race that it had not happened even one time!!

I can NOT describe the elation I felt!!! It was as if the angels in Heaven were singing the Hallalueigha chorus! ((For locals I'm talking about Tom at Bicycle Cove! He's a bike repair savant!!))

It wasn't long before Cedric passed me as if I were standing still...then not long after that my honey pot passed me. I figured I wouldn't see them the rest of the day.

But I was wrong. On one of the little hills I saw someone on the side of the road. Thanks to our very bright and unique kits I recognized it was Dwayne very quickly. As I rode by asking if he was okay he told me he popped a chain. A few minutes later, he passed me again. But not long after that I saw him a second time-same issue.

Not long after I passed him I realized we were not far from where our cheering squad would see us!! I could hear them before I could see them. I have to admit-I was feeling on top of the world knowing I was in front of Dwayne-even if it was a result of a mechanical issue, and even if I knew it was very short-lived.

Something happens inside of me when I hear friends and family cheering. It's like gasoline on a fire and wind at my back!

I actually don't remember if that was before or after the "hill". The half iron course turns left before the full course, cutting off two miles compared to the full course (the full bike course is actually 116 miles long instead of 112, making the race 144.6 instead of 140.6). Just before that left hand turn on both courses, there's a nice downhill section. When you make that left turn on the half course it IMMEDIATELY goes up a short but fairly steep hill. That combination makes for a TOUGH climb. I had read A LOT about that climb before the race. Because of how I was feeling on other climbs I decided before I got there I would just get off my bike and walk up rather than fighting to climb it on the bike. 

That would have been fine, but instead of executing my plan, I shifted as if I was going to climb it and tried (not for very long) to grind my way up. When I got off I was in good company. Most of the people with me did the same thing. Except this one KID. He looked like he might have been 16; he was riding a mountain bike and was not clipped in, and was wearing a MOHAWK helmet! Everyone cheered for him as he climbed that hill like it was nothing at all!

The cool thing about this climb is that it culminates at yet another cemetary!

"I'm glad I'm STILL on this side of the fence." ...and HALF WAY done!!

In my mind, right after the turn, I was going to be in Chickamauga. I was really looking forward to getting there because in the full that town is HOPPING! That's where special needs bags are and they bus spectators out to that spot and I think there's an aid station. In the full it feels like what I imagine the Tour de France must feel like! Not to mention my good friends (AKA Thunder and Lighting) live there. I knew it would be different for the half (no special needs bags and no buses of spectators) but I wasn't quite prepared for two things. 

First, it took FOREVER to get there after the turn. FOREVER. Second, it was pretty dead there compared to the full. And then I heard Thunder and Lighting yelling!! And then I saw my father, and step-mother-in-laws there holding my very own FAT HEAD!!

Gasoline on my fire and wind at my back.

Except the wind wasn't at my back and my tank was running on fumes at that point. And I REALLY had to use the bathroom!!

I slowed WAY down. Up until the left turn where you go up hill (the one I walked) I was averaging 15.9!! From the hill (after I got back on my bike) until Chickamauga I averaged 14.9. From Chickamauga until I stopped to use the bathroom I slowed down to 14. (To be fair, you go up a gradual hill pretty much that whole way, but it was also into a headwind....I got down to like 8mph!) When I stopped I was feeling totally depleted. I had NOT taken in enough calories...what I had decided to use was NOT going down well so I switched to Gatorade. It was the worse Gatorade I'd ever had. We decided afterward it had been leftover from the year before so it wasn't "fresh". I was a bit upset with myself for stopping, but it proved to be a VERY necessary stop indeed! I averaged 14.4 the rest of the time.

When I finally got back to transition I told the two volunteers at the dismount line I was going to sell my bike and I never wanted to see it again!!

Then I heard our cheer squad!! I reached down and took off my shoes incorrectly thinking it would help me move faster. It didn't. I got to my spot and racked my bike, slathered on some sunscreen, put on my running shoes, grabbed my hat and took off. Dwayne and Cedric were LONG gone but I'm proud to say I beat them both soundly with my speedy T2 time!!

And then I headed out on the "run", shocked at how good I actually felt overall. I expected to be completely stove up, but, other than expected fatigue, I felt surprisingly good all things considered!!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around! 

(The bike photo is from the glory day of IMChoo '15 because I can't download the FinisherPix from this race yet...)

"Swimming"

I really love it when I connect with the song that is playing at the start or finish of my races. Sunday was no exception..."Best Day of My Life" was playing as we walked down to get into the water! When I jumped in I had to question the song choice....

That water was COLD. Cold enough it took my breath away for a second. Almost cold enough I contemplated, for a SPLIT SECOND, getting back out and just throwing in the towel. 

Thankfully that thought gave way to my mantra for the next almost hour..."I KNOW how to swim so just SWIM".

There was NO CURRENT Sunday morning. It could have been worse-we could have been going upstream. But on that day it would have been barely noticeable!

There was a gal back on shore when we were waiting in line who I formed an immediate crush on...she was tan, thin and cute and had a cute sleeveless wetsuit. She had a short sleeved tri top on that was super cute. I pegged her as a very fast triathlete just by her looks. Well, as I was "swimming" along I looked up and saw her hanging on a kayak. She didn't look in distress at all as I swam by her. A few minutes later, there she was again, hanging on another kayak just up ahead of me! I realized quickly we were leap-frogging each other...I saw her the ENTIRE SWIM, along with another guy who was just behind me who was doing a modified breast stroke the whole time.

It was funny because I've never looked around so much in a race. I get in and I SWIM. When I sight, I just sight, I don't look around. In Augusta when we did the relay I looked around some, but the relayers were the last in the water so there weren't many people around me in that swim. But Sunday I spent pretty much the whole swim looking around! It was as if I was just having a lazy day in the river instead of being at the start of a 70.3 "race". Because I spent at least 80% of my "swim" looking around I saw SO MANY people NOT swimming! It was shocking! I didn't see anyone who looked like they were in trouble but I had to wonder how many of them were like me (very comfortable in the water, just not swimming) and how many were actually fearful and struggling.

I had estimated the swim would take about 45 minutes but I knew about halfway in I would never make that time. I based my minimum bike speed and run pace on that estimation, and I really felt like those times were probably all I had to give on the bike and run. As I watched the minutes tick by I had to throw out my plans for the day. What's that saying, "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face!"?

We were almost to the end and I heard my girl crush asking a kayaker how much farther until the end. So I told her, "we turn at that red buoy!" She said her goggles were so fogged she couldn't see the red buoy. I told her it was 10 of these concrete pillar things to our left, then around a corner and out. She said that was helpful and we both started swimming to our goal line. 

I never saw her again. She was probably really fast on the bike and the run!

When I got out of the water I looked up ahead and saw DWAYNE just seconds ahead of me so I took off running as fast as I could to catch him! About a minute after we got to our transition spot Cedric showed up! I was out in a very short amount of time but I knew it would be minutes before they would both pass me and I knew I would not see either of them until I crossed the finish line. 

I was right, and I was wrong.

Swim time: 59 minutes. It was the worst and the best swim I've done. Worst clock time but it was excellent people-watching!

Funny story...I found out later when I was talking to my new best friend/girl crush Dwayne heard my voice and spotted me chatting it up...he decided he was going to beat me out of the water and zoomed up ahead of me as fast as he could! (His time 58:27.)

Someone got video of me in the water! lol

Thanks for stopping by and sticking around!