A Day in the Life of a Boston Marathon Finisher

I am officially up a marathon and down a toenail.  A decent trade, so I'll take it. 

Our day started bright and early the morning of April 18, 2011.  The bags were packed and our clothes were laid out the night before, which made waking up at 5:15 AM that much easier.  MFNE sprung for a charter bus for the Running for Cover team so we were spared the long lines for the BAA buses to Hopkington.  Micah and I made it to the team bus 15 minutes before it departed.  (Note: Micah and I are never on time, especially for things like races (Sunday Morning) so this was a huge accomplishment for us.)  We climbed on the bus, picked our cushy chairs, used the restroom (because we could), and while enjoying the warmth of our bus we quietly snickered at all the marathon suckers who were stuck waiting in line to be packed like sardines into a cold school bus.  They may have been faster runners, but we showed up in style.  Once in Hopkington, we were taken straight to Athlete's Village where all the Boston runners waited for their waves to start.  I spent the majority of the morning curled up in the fetal position under a blanket to get away from the wind, but Micah braved the cold long enough to get a pretty good shot of our holding pen.

 

Micah and I were in the last wave.  The walk to the start line was about .5 mile away from Athlete's Village.  On the way, there were tons of water stations set up by the neighborhoods and volunteers along the road ready to donate all the "throw away" clothes left by the runners.  Spectators lined the roads all the way from Athlete's Village to the start line and beyond...

The support along the way was absolutely amazing.  There was not a single stretch of the 26.2 miles without spectators.  Micah and I wrote our names on the front of our shirts and people yelled for us the entire race. Allie is an easy name to yell for but Micah got some interesting versions including Meekah, Meesah, Michael, Mick, and Mich.  All attempts were greatly appreciated and extremely motivating.

 We coasted for over half of the race with the exception of one bathroom break (sorry Micah).  I may have taken the hydration thing a little too far...I've never had to pee so often in my life.  Hopkington, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, and Wellesley flew by.  Wellesley was the best thanks to the ladies of Wellesley College.  And no, Micah did not kiss any of them.  I was behind him for this section so I know this to be true.  I, however, cannot vouch for the other guys running in front of us.

  

 We started feeling the burn between miles 17-18.  Newton's hills were harder than we expected, even before Heartbreak.  Like many of the runners around us, we chose to walk the uphills and run the downhills.  By Heartbreak, it got harder and harder to start that running part...And yes, we looked as beat down as the folks in front of us at this point.

   

Our pace slowed significantly between 20-24 miles.  Despite the cheers and high fives, my legs refused to go.  Getting out of Newton was exciting (no more hills!) but seeing the "Entering Brookline" sign made me want to cry.  I forgot about Brookline.  I wanted to be in Boston.  We were able to muster our last bit of strength to finish out the race once we saw the "Entering Boston" sign.

 Finally, the right on Hereford, left on Boylston was right in front of us.  We came around that last left as strong as we could.  Our legs were numb at this point, so it didn't matter.  Lo and behold, my parents had squeezed their way up front and were cheering us all the way to the finish line!

 

We certainly didn't break any records by finishing at 4:56:10 but the Boston Marathon experience was out of this world.  I learned a few things that will help us the next go-around, like how you probably shouldn't beat your best half marathon time when running your first marathon.  And yes, I say first because there will most definitely be a second.  But what will I call my blog from now on...?

More importantly: thanks to everyone's support we have raised $4500 (and counting) for the Melanoma Foundation of New England!  Running the marathon was easy with so many people cheering for me.  I never thought I would surpass my fundraising goal by so much but it's clear that I have the best fans in the world.  Eat your heart out Geoffrey Mutai.

Just a Few Days Left!

Just a few days to go before the Big Day!  I'm practicing telling everyone "yes, I am ready for the marathon" with confidence.  To be honest, I'm not sure if I actually believed April 18 would ever roll around.  While the past 3 months of training have been fun, it's nice to know that the end is near.  It was hard to keep the thought of that final right on Boylston and the image of the Pru looming in the distance when running through a blizzard in the dead of winter.  But it's here, finally!  And right now weather.com is advertising good news for Monday.  Yes, I realize it's April in Boston and you can't ever count on the 10 day forecast but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Partly Cloudy doesn't turn into Rain in the next five days.

Now that training is winding down, I'm in my final push for those last minute donations.  It's not too late to throw some money in the pot to support my Running for Cover team to benefit the Melanoma Foundation of New England!  Just go to www.firstgiving.com/allisonsilletto.  To help you keep your eye on the prize, I will be here in just a few days! 

Boston Marathon Finish Line

Full Circle

It's official.  I've been running for one full year. 

My running career (term used loosely) began March 2010 when a friend of mine, Ronald (name changed to protect the innocent), randomly asked me to run the Cohasset Road Race by the Sea with him on April 11, 2010.  At first I hesitated because my limited running experience left me with only negative thoughts.  I only ran when forced to: high school gym class, basketball practice (suicides), marching band practice (yes, we ran), being chased by a lion while on safari in Africa...you know, only in dire circumstances...But we had just spent the winter learning to ski together so I figured I should give this running-for-fun thing a shot.  Plus, Micah jumped at the opportunity and there was no way I was going to let him have fun without me, even if chances were slim that it would be fun at all. 

Ronald gave us at least 4 weeks notice before the race.  We signed up immediately but in true Silletto fashion we decided we would start training "tomorrow."  Tomorrow ended up being 2 weeks before the race.  I found a 4 week training program online and split it in half hoping that would do the trick.  For the record, it is not recommended to go from the couch to running 10Ks in 14 days.  You should work your way up.  Don't procrastinate. Your body will hate you.  The first run out of the gate was a 45 minute run. It was pouring rain and neither one of us had appropriate running clothes.  We wore COTTON.  Silly newbies.  Minus the wheezing and the pain, running in the rain was surprisingly enjoyable.  The second time we ran, we decided to go for a distance rather than a time limit.  1 mile.  Sounded easy enough.  So easy, we decided to take the dogs along.  We split up because a) there were squirrels and Sota preferred chasing them over running with me and b) I couldn't make it.  I blamed it on Sota but the truth was I ran a half mile and felt like I was teetering dangerously close to death.  (I was in a very dramatic phase last year).

Needless to say, I was not overly confident that I would be able to run a full 10K in less than 2 weeks.  Luckily for me, I have a competitive husband who refused to take no for an answer.  We kept running.  We even ran a nice hill training route through Beacon Hill.  I hated it.
April 11 rolled around fairly quickly.  We got to the starting line and I was immediately intimidated by the fancy running gear everyone else was sporting.  Micah insisted he could maintain a 9 minute mile throughout the race so Ronald and I decided to roll our eyes at him and hang back to run it together.  If you've ever been to Cohasset, you know that it is absolutely beautiful.  It's the quintessential New England town right on the water.  Ronald and I were handling the course well until we got just over halfway to Forest Ave where the course turns left and goes straight uphill.  It was the most demoralizing sight I've ever seen.  There was a collective gasp in the small group of runners around Ronald and me but we managed to muster on through the last 3 miles.  Micah was there waiting for us when we crossed the finish line.  We rushed over to the registration area where they were giving out free hot dogs and saw a small ice cream shop across the street.  6.2 miles deserves a good ice cream cone - and it was SO good.  The feeling I had completing my first race was indescribable and I knew as I was downing my free hot dog that I would be doing this again.

So here I am one year later: 2 half marathons down, and two weeks away from running my first marathon.  I managed to slice 11 minutes 22 seconds off last year's 10K time.  Cohasset was just as beautiful as last year and the hills seemed significantly smaller.  We went to the registration area and there were no hot dogs left and the ice cream shop hadn't opened yet, but that didn't dampen my spirits.  Besides, no hot dogs meant we had to stop for lunch and there just so happened to be a McDonald's on the way home.