Boston -- The Long Awaited Race Report (Part 3)

The saga continues.

So Beacon Street. Ohmygod, I never hated that street more-- and to think I used to live on it! When I caught my first glimpse of the famous Citgo sign down in Kenmore, it looked like it was about an entire country away. To think that I had to run to that and then keep going just about killed me. I cannot even explain how demoralizing that felt. I had fought ever step since that foot cramp started and seeing how far I still had to go was unbelievable. But the crowd kept going. I had people atop some of the brownstones cheering for me by name... apparently the letters on my jersey were visable that far up. And every time I could muster a run, the screams got louder and louder. It was overwhelming. How could I stop? When I was coming into Washington Square, I saw an older couple standing by the trolly tracks in red Boston Marathon jackets from a few years ago. The woman turned to me and yelled "Come on JC... you are almost there. If we did it, so can you. Don't give up!" And I ran on. By this time, I must have looked really rough, because the cheers for me by name just got louder and louder. A couple running next to me were both getting a little irritated at the attention I was getting, but I didn't care. They had each other. I had the crowd. Seemed fair to me.

When I finally got myself into Kenmore, I knew I was close. And even more importantly, I knew that someone very soon I was going to see Tara. And I needed to run for that part. So with one last mile to go, I broke into a steady run again knowing I was not going to quit. Before turning onto Hereford Street, I heard a more unusual call of my name. Turns out it was coming from a woman I had been talking to on the walk to the start line. She had time qualified in and was expecting to be somewhere in the under 4 hour range, so she had finished a while ahead of me. My parents had mentioned that she stopped when she saw the signs along the way for me and told them all that I was doing well. Turns out she had come back from the start to watch me finish. And what a wind in my sails that turned out to be. I turned the corner onto Hereford and started scanning the crowd for Tara. And as I was about to make my turn onto Boylston, right there underneath the Hynes Convention Center awning was Tara screaming her lungs out for me about to jump over the railing. It was incredible. I about lost my composure then but thanked her with what energy I had left and then turned and ran down Boylston to the finish line. And it was over. 5:40:17.

It took a while of walking... several blocks, in fact, to get to the place where they take the chips off shoes, give out water, heat blankets, food, etc. And then several more blocks to the family waiting area... I didn't see my pit crew anywhere. Seems the public transportation system had a bit of a meltdown and a lot of runners were left looking for their loved ones. When I finally found the M section, I sat down, wrapped myself in my heat blanket, and finally worked the cramp in my foot out. I was done. And I wanted to nap. Eventually a guy came over to me sitting on the stairs waiting and noticed that I was shivering. I don't really remember shivering so much as just sitting in exhaustion, and he suggested I move into the sun. I had had enough of sun by now and just wanted to relax so I told him if my family didn't show up in the next few mins, I would move to find sun-- but the truth is, I needed to stay as close to this M as I could because otherwise I might not find them so easily. Next thing you know, here come the medical folks with a wheelchair to check on me and move me. Seems my friend ratted me out. So I got up and moved to the sun... no wheelchair, thank you. I settled back down and started chewing on a bagel and Marisa, Kelly and Patty found me and brought me flowers, followed shortly by Tara and then my folks.

Overall, the race was awesome. I wound up, however, with one of the most horrific sunburns you could imagine... all over my neck, my arms and the back of my calves. It made stretching out the tension in my legs impossible as even to this day I feel like my skin is about to tear. My arm, in particular, is swollen from the sun exposure, so I am in a little more pain that I had expected. When I finally met up with the family, we went back to my hotel, I showered, we had some champagne and I donned my new jacket before I took the pit crew out to dinner to thank them all for their incredible support and love.

My race was awesome. My knees held up, even if my foot didn't. While the time wasn't quite as good as I had hoped, I knew that I put everything I had into that race, so I have no regrets... just room for improvement. The course itself is a lot harder than I had imagined. The mind games even harder. But that crowd... let me tell you, friends, there is nothing like it. If it weren't for that crowd, I don't know where I would have found the strength to continue. It was amazing.

So this week I am back to working, just at home, and next week life continues as normal, except for that whole OMG, I ran a marathon thing my brain keeps doing. It will probably take me a few days to really start to feel awesome again... more because of the horrible sunburn than anything else. But I am stoked overall. I got to do something I had dreamed of in the far off future. I got to have my family there. I got to have my friends there. I got to take back mile marker 9 from that moment some 11 years ago when I was at one of my lowest points. I got to live a dream. Can't get much better than that, can it.

And on that note, I am tired of typing. More this week, I promise. For now, there is your race report. Now to insert some pics....