Boston Marathon 1995


I am alive after running the Boston marathon as a "bandit". This marathon was an incredible experience and I finished it - even though my preparation has been less than adequate. The big factor is the mind, your legs don't really matter because they are pooped after half the distance anyway.

I had been carboloading for 4 days straight, no meet, no fat, no chesse, just noodles, vedgies, and potatoes - thanks to Nici for his suggestions. I had left my running shoes in the lab and on the way out to the Start I was ment to pick them up. We got to the lab but the building was closed due to a bomb threat - can you believe this? We waited for some time and the buidling was opened just when we had started to pull off. I ran in grabbed my shoes and off we went.

Rick and Anne dropped me off at Hopkinton and I had my first indication that this will be far when it actually took us 45 minutes on the highway to get there. I got to the offloading place and took a shuttle bus for several Km to the actual start. Conditions were wonderful, a sunny day, 15C, but a bit of a head wind, mainly on the latter parts of the course. There were seas of runners and I just plunged into this. Everybody was psyched, jolly and yet scared of what was about to start. The count down was amazing, you could hear a pin drop, a few wise guys were smart commenting and a few people laughed but most were just focusing. Then we heard the starting gun, everybody applauds, cheers and begins to get restless but as we were way back in the pack it took another 5 minutes until anything would move at all. When we finally were on the road I found out what the Boston marathon was about. The entire 42k were lined with cheering people on both sides (an officially estimated total of 1.5 million people), lots of kids that wanted high 5s, people handing out orange slices, water, gatorade, bananas - and that for the entire length of the course. Funny placards all along, there was one with the sign of an inbound subway stop, referring to an incidence a few years back when a woman took the Boston T for part of the race, won, was declared winner and later disqualified. There were 6 bands playing along the course, at one country band a couple formed and they were two-stepping past the band, then on with the race. I immediately settled into a great rhythm, the cheers were carrying us all along and everybody was cruising on the stored up carbos.

I reached the 10k mark at 53 minutes which equaled my previous best, then wellesley was the next experience, 2000 cheering women, encouraging the guys to take the shirts off and many obliged resulting in another round of cheers. I reached the half marathon distance and felt strong like a horse. My time was just below 2 hours which improved my previous best by more than 20 minutes. Newton came next and I saw Tom, Alison and Dan, I got some water from them and continued after a few seconds. After 25K reality hit, this was the distance that I had not trained at all, and this is exactly the point on the course where "heartbreak hill" starts. I understand the name now, your legs are hurting and tired - that is nothing new - but it just breaks your morale and you never recover from this completely. Up to that point I had been 11 minutes ahead of my schedule. I found out that I had not drunk enough fluids the last few miles, my banana had been consumed or mushed in my pocket and I tried to strugle up a group of steep hills over a length of several K. People dieing in their steps all around me and everybody is at the absolute low point. i walked up most of this sucker, I started to get cramps, I felt some blisters developing and the prospect of another 15k to the finish was less than appealing. I drank some gatorade, walked up the hill and tried to loosen up with little success. A guy padded me on the shoulder as we almost reached the crest and encouraged me on, I was able to hang in for a bit but fell back anyway. I stopped for some stretching, drank more gatorade, came past a group of friendly people and the spirits were rising again. I starting trotting slowly and my step quickened, the hurting of the blisters was less bad, and the pain in my legs was again easier to ignore. I caught a second wind, which carried me down commonwealth avenue for more than 10K. At the BU bridge I came up to the guy who had encouraged me at heart break hill, he was now really hurting and looked awful. I patted him on the shoulder and paid back the encouragement he had given me before. He stayed with me for a bit but fell back after a while. Michael and Sabina were there and they took this picture which gave me another big boost.

All along I could see Boston downtown - it just would not get any closer. Coolidge corner and yet another 5 or so k to go. My mood went straight down and I really hit the wall at 3k to go. I had to walk a bit, stretch, lost a lot of time, forced myself to continue running with all the cheers around and the finish line so close. I just jogged, did not see anything around me just focused on keeping going and turned the last corner, I heard Rick shout, he was waiting for me a block from the finish. I could see the finish line and started a sprint that contained everything I had left. I crossed the finish line at 4:21:56, 9 minutes behind my (very optimistic) schedule and I could not believe that I had actually done it.

I came in at the same time with the guy who had given me so much support, we crossed the line, hugged each other and both had tears coming down our face - Dude, everything went so fast and i did not catch your name, if you read this, drop me a line. - All runners reaching the finish were immediatedly wrapped in aluminum foil and I walked out the finish area to meet Rick.

What a great day and I will try everything to be here again next year for the centenary run - if I manage to qualify legally.

More soon and many hugs, lobsterman

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