One Week Until Boston

Next week at this time I will be on a air plane heading back home after running the Boston Marathon. As you probably know by now this will be my first time running it. I'm very excited, but also a little nervous. Jay from my running group is also running it. This will be his second time running it. He has given me a lot of advice about the race. Of course, it's the same advice he gives me for the Pig that I rarely listen to. He tells me not to go out too fast. I will try to follow his instructions, but I won't make any promises.

I get the butterflies before every race. I think a little nervous energy is good. I usually don't get them a week before the race, though.

The Boston Marathon had been a goal of mine for quite some time. I came close to qualifying a couple of times, but missed by just a few minutes. After the close calls I wondered if I would ever qualify.

The race should be interesting. I'm not expecting to run a great time. If I break 3:30 I'll be happy. If I weren't running it I would probably be scheduled for a twenty three miler this weekend. So, I will treat Boston as my long run for the week. I don't feel that I'm in as good of shape as I have been in the past for some of my other marathons. I'm hoping the adrenaline and the excitement of the race will stay with me for most of the race.

I've heard all the horror stories about Heartbreak Hill and I'm not looking forward to that part of the race. If you aren't familiar with Boston, the first seventeen plus miles are a gradual down hill. Then you get about three miles of up hills before finishing with more down hills. Just getting through the last eight miles is tough enough, but to have to do a lot of that going up hill will be brutal.

I've also heard great things about the crowds. I was told that all twenty six miles are lined with more people than at any point of the Flying Pig. This will definitely help.

Another positive is going to be the weather, I hope. Last time I looked, the weather guessers were predicting 42 degrees and cloudy. It doesn't get much better than that.

My wife Kathleen and five month old son Brennan are also making the trip. I'm glad they will be there to share this experience with me. I know Brennan will never have any memory of the trip, but I will remind him often about the weekend as he gets older. Maybe some day he will run it and I will get to go and be a part of his Boston experience too.

If you are really bored next week you can check out my progress during the race. You can go the marathon's web site at http://www.baa.org/ and enter my bib number - 6423. Jay's bib number is 4058, he will be about ten to fifteen minutes ahead of me. It will update our times at four or five different points of the race. The race starts at 10:00am.

I would love to hear words of wisdom from anyone who has run Boston. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm really looking forward to this weekend and I will tell you all about it when I get back.