Boston 2014 - Dave Ware
Before Race Day: What an amazing and actually almost overwhelming experience. Personally getting ready for this year’s event has seen some very high highs and some very low lows. I was truly moved by the bombing and the events that occurred last year and committed to qualifying and running Boston this year in support of Boston, the running community and our Country. I was fortunate to be able to qualify in a “crash course” training plan and was so looking forward to having a great experience come Patriot’s Day. The experience turned out to be nothing short of remarkable, unfortunately my running was not. In January I tore a quad muscle that led to a hip mobility issue and then to a calf tear. My longest run this year was 5 miles on March 31 when the calf “popped” and I was only able to work up to a 12 minutes run (6 x 2 minutes with 1 minute walk) 4 days before the race. My plan was to jog 2 minutes and walk a minute for as long as the legs would allow. Any other year, any other race and I would not even have gone. But, this is Boston, this is a once in a lifetime experience, and this is the year of determination to finish. I had to be there…
Barbara and I flew to Boston Sunday morning and you could feel the excitement everywhere. The cabbie asked if we were running, the hotel clerk asked if we were running; everyone in Boston was so gracious and proud. This year the Boston jackets were orange and they could be seen everywhere you went. We checked into the Liberty Hotel (great facility, great location) and walked up Charles Street to the Boston Commons where it was a mass of this year’s race orange and all the past year’s race colors of various shades of blue. We made our way to the expo for check in and although there was security everywhere you felt very safe and secure. We stopped and paused at the scene of last year’s bombing and shed a tear. With 36,000 runners you would have thought it would be long lines, but this was one of the smoothest registrations I can recall. (Got my orange jacket while we were there.) We played walking tourist as we made our way back to the hotel, enjoying the nice Boston Spring, a bit chilly but bright blue skies. Dinner at Scampo was wonderful and they had a really cool T-shirt showing prisoners running (The Liberty is a renovated jail.) Had to get one…
Race Day: Woke up at 6:30 and got some coffee. The hotel provided bananas and powerbars so grabbed a couple of each. Took a shower and dressed. After last year the new rules allow you to leave a bag at the end to change, but anything you take to the start will be donated to charity. It was amusing seeing the array of clothing that people were wearing…everything from old pajamas to towels to recycled Goodwill clothing. I left behind an old sweatshirt (Bart Simpson) that I had been trying to donate for years. I left my hotel at 7:45 dressed in my sweatshirt and sweat pants and had about a ¾ mile walk to the Boston Commons where the bag drop and bus pickup were located. Visited the porta potty and loaded onto the bus without any problem. The busses were leaving in waves just as the race would do and my assigned time was 8-8:30. They were pretty relaxed about getting on the bus, but as with almost everything about the race itself you always had to show your race bib or ID. It took about 45 minutes to ride to the start.. On the bus I was on the side that the sun shone in and you could tell it was starting to warm up. In the Athletes Village there was music playing and about 100 porta potties set up, all with very long lines. About 35 minutes before my wave was to start they had us start lining up and after the prior wave cleared the start area we began the ¾ mile walk to the start. Finally able to discard my sweatshirt and pants I made my way to the starting corrals. I was amazed how many supporters were there at the start. (Including a house with several partiers offering Beer, cigarettes and French fries – actually saw a girl right in front of me take a can of beer and chug it then proceed to the Start&hellip
I was in Wave 3, corral 1. I think there were 9 corrals in the wave, so about 1000 people per corral. Prior to the start of the first wave there had been a moment of silence to remember last year. Before we began there were a few short speeches while we waited and some cheering and then we were off…
The Race: I don’t have much to say about my “race.” I was pleased that I was able to follow my plan of alternating running with walking for the first 9+ miles averaging about 9:30 per mile until 9.5 miles. At that point the calf was starting to hurt and the overused quads were feeling spent (remember, their long run this year was only 5 miles.) For the next 3 miles I mostly walked with some short jogs thrown in. I hit the half-way point in 2:15:53. From about the 12.5 mark to the finish I walked. I could not run even 15 seconds without pain. I finished in 5:19:09 for a 3:03 second half.
Boston Spirit: More importantly was the Spirit of Boston. The whole 26.2 miles was lined by tremendous crowds. This is truly a community effort and as we made our way along the course you could tell each time we entered a new town or village, people were everywhere and the sound levels were incredible. From the start I could have put my hand out and “high-fived“ people the whole way. I slapped hands thousands of times. It was such a joy to see the people, give a high-five slap, especially the kids. Some of the children were being held by their parents with their arms out and got such a kick out of a runner slapping them as they went by. I had exchanges with kids probably 2 or 3 years old up to some adults that could have been in their 80s. One of the most emotional times for me was passing Dick and Rick Hoyt who were doing Boston for the last time. As they moved along the course the sound level just swelled. I did have tears as I went by and wished them well. It was also emotional to see runners that had written on their shirts “2013 24.8 miles (or similar distance); 2014 26.2 miles. I will finish! It was also very emotional seeing all of the runners that had the names of the four people killed from last year’s attack on their shirts. (I later learned that the winner “Meb” had all four names on his bib and he had dedicated the race to them.) I do not think I have ever raced and lost my breath or had tears from such an experience! All I can say is Thank You Boston! I will be back.
Comments
Congrats on getting to Boston and finishing with the injuries you had.