This was in fact, my first Boston Marathon experience. I am incredibly thankful for the experience, but it was a bit overwhelming. Prior to Boston, I had two other marathons. The first marathon, which was my qualifying marathon, was a very small marathon in a rural area in West Virginia. I believe in total there were 1,800 participants and that included 5k, half-marathon, and the full marathon participants. I qualified in November 2023 so I missed the deadline for Boston 2024. I ran Chicago in the fall of 2024 essentially as a practice/prep for Boston because I had 1) never run in a major marathon and 2) only run one other marathon. Chicago taught me several things that I was able to implement for Boston, probably the most important of which was allowing enough travel time to arrive, get acclimated, and allowing for adequate rest time. Chicago also prepared me for the crowds and amount of people even though it was still overwhelming. The most challenging part of Boston (aside from the course) was the process of just getting to the start line. The amount of time spent walking and traveling, in addition to a later than usual start time for a marathon, made it more difficult to plan for eating, fueling, etc. In regards to future Boston events, I do not plan to qualify again. I had a goal when I started marathon training to run two marathons, one to qualify for Boston and then to run Boston. I’ve already run one more than I intended to!
Despite it being a bit overwhelming, the expo was my favorite. I attended on Saturday and the amount of people in one space was incredibly overstimulating. However, I really did enjoy that the marathon had so many other aspects and celebrations each day so it was very rewarding to see so many people taking interest in a sport that I feel sometimes is overlooked. Also, on the day of the marathon seeing everyone in the small communities come out to support the runners was inspiring. You could tell it was very much an event they celebrated each year as they are all grilling out, day drinking, holding fun posters, etc. Also, on the way back to the hotel, interacting with people on the bus/train who have traveled from neighboring states and hearing how they do this each year to support the race.
The weather was actually the unusual piece of that day. It was absolutely beautiful weather (mid 50’s temp, lower humidity, mild wind) and it was said this was the best weather for Boston in several years, so I believe everyone I knew participating was expecting great results. I’m not going to say that the strategy changed, but knowing we had a great forecast seemed to at least ease the mental doubt of weather being a limiting factor for the outcome of the race. Despite the great weather though, I still had a very tough day and I feel like others did as well. Which leads to what I would want to change…the outcome. My pace was steady until about mile 16-17, but then fatigue from the hills or something seemed to set in and the pace slowed down. I really cannot explain this otherwise. I have attributed it largely to the hills in Boston, the unusual timing and schedule of the marathon, and the starting process. Additionally, my own admission that I’m not a good traveler could have been a contributing factor as well. I would have really loved to have maintained pace at least to mile 20 before slowing down. In Chicago, I had an IT band issue flare up around mile 13 and by mile 16 I had to slow down. I finished the race despite the issue going on with my leg. While I didn’t have any type of injury in Boston, and my time was just slightly faster (3:37 vs. 3:41), I would comfortably say that the last 6-8 miles were more difficult for me to finish than Chicago with an injury.
Let me backup my celebrations a little bit to include the whole trip, because let’s be honest, the whole thing was in fact a celebration of hard work. I arrived in Boston four days prior to the Marathon. On the first two days I was there, I ate foods that I enjoy like pizza and ice cream. Then I went back to more appropriate foods for fueling and less likely to upset my stomach. After the marathon, I finished off the day with a tasty cheesesteak sub and fries, completely unhealthy, but it tasted great! I also bought a couple of pieces of clothing from the expo including a singlet to wear during the marathon. Again, for me, the goal has always been one Boston and done, so I treated the event as “I’ll only be here once”.
I have only run three marathons and each training cycle has been pretty different. The first was just more about establishing a foundation or baseline for the mileage. For Chicago, I did a slightly longer training cycle and had a bit more speedwork because I was trying to trim some time off my pace. Coming out of the Chicago marathon with an IT band issue, my focus shifted some from speed to just staying healthy. Boston training incorporated regular hill workouts at varying intensity and at different distances. I also included a bit more rest and I did have a lingering fear of the IT band issue not being fully resolved and another possible flare up.
Despite not having the outcome I had hoped for, I’m still incredibly thankful for the experience to run Boston. I am the youngest of seven kids. My brother (who is 24 years older than me) ran Boston in 2014. I always bragged to other people about how he was “the real runner” of our family because he had run marathons and “even Boston”. I never 1) imagined I would or could run a marathon or 2) would be running the Boston Marathon. I met Nathan at the park in Elkin prior to running a half marathon somewhat on a whim. I ran the Mayberry half in November 2022 and finished with a time of 1:36, which I honestly didn’t know if that was a good or bad time. After that, I didn’t really run much again until spring time because it was too cold. When I started running again, I saw Nathan again at the park and he convinced me that, based on my half marathon time, Boston was a very feasible goal. A couple of weeks later, I found myself officially training for my first marathon with the goal of qualifying for Boston. Prior to the beginning of that training cycle, I had run 13.1 miles one time, and that was the longest distance I had ever run. Through each race and training cycle since then, I have learned so much and had a couple of wonderful PR runs. I unfortunately also learned that progress is not always as linear as we think it should be and have experienced that while you feel you have adequately prepared yourself for something, any hiccup or injury on the day of the race may not allow your performance to be an accurate reflection of the effort you have put into the training.
