North Vancouver

Boston was lots of fun. The food, shopping and room-mates were great and here is my post race report from Boston 2010.

We arrived at the Athlete's Village about an hour and half before gun time. The weather was perfect and we managed to find really short line-ups for the porta-potties (what a bonus)! The run started off with the my body needing its usual 30 minutes to warm up. I was feeling okay, not great but it was Boston and the nerves were definitely there. I was happily running along when I started to feel a pain in my right thigh. It was only mile 8 on and I started to have real doubts that I would get to mile 10 or even halfway let alone finish.

It's amazing what your brain thinks of when you are faced with the unplanned. There was no way I would have predicted that my leg would have bothered me this early on. I expected a certain amount of fatigue, pain and definitely tiredness but come on...mile 8. There were 16 'freakin' miles left. My brain went through the causal factors, I am not fit enough, I should have done hills, perhaps I should not have gone to yoga on Monday and Wednesday, I should have done more training runs, etc. etc. Fortunately my brain was too preoccupied with coming up with new survival plans that I didn't or couldn't dwell on the negative for very long.

Everyone says that you won't know what you are made of until you experience the OMG there is a possibility that I may not complete this marathon, and you know what you quickly make peace with that idea and then another part of your brain so 'NO WAY I am going to get to the end even if it means I have to drag my sorry ass or crawl across the finish line'.

It became a race of '1 more mile of running means 1 less of walking' and I didn't want to make my 2 girlfriends, Birgitte and D, wait too long at the finish for me, so I had to keep going. You quickly give up the thoughts of a personal best, requalifying or anything pleasant as all you want to do is get closer and closer to the 'Finish'! I just have to put one foot in front of the other and I will chip away at this 'Boston Beast'! I knew it wouldn't be pretty but the most important thing was that I didn't want to disappoint myself or all the people who have supported along this journey.

Yes, I made this marathon mean so many things. People say that the pain, suffering, mental and physical anguish will make me a stronger and better person...I am not so sure about that...what I do know is that when faced with dropping out or persevering I chose what I could live with. The idea of not completing just wasn't an option. Who says that running doesn't impair your judgement...I ran on and on and when you are going as slow as I was I rejoiced in the thought that perhaps I won't hit the wall. I was already tired and in pain so what more could 'Boston' throw at me...the leg cramps! Yes, my old friend 'the cramps' visited around mile 23 and fortunately I was able to breathe my way through most of them. As I was getting closer to the finish I forced myself to really look around and take in all that was Boston, the spectators, the other runners (possibly suffering as much as I), and the fact that I was running my 10th marathon. For the first time during a race I didn't make the decision that I would do another to prove myself...perhaps I am getting wiser in my age! I crossed the finish line around 4:18 and like most marathoners was incredibly happy to stop running.

Glo

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