Marathon Monday

The short story: f*ck that was hot!

The long story: It began absolutely beating down with rain, peppered with thunder and lightning, just as I had to make the 10 minute journey to the buses. I fared ok, in a PVC poncho, armed with an umbrella. The latter was confiscated at the buses, on the list of verboten items for the Athletes Village. I had no problem with that; it was a dollar store umbrella and it had served its purpose.

The road where the buses were loading was flooded to the point that each new approaching bus caused an actual wave of water to head for all of us lined up to board.

It was already so humid that the bus windows were entirely fogged up. The bus ride took much longer compared to what I remember, and another different element was the fact that they kept us sitting on the buses for a good 15-20 minutes, rather than just dumping us out and heading back to Boston for another load of runners. I discovered later that because of the thunder, the BAA had made the first wave runners shelter inside the school, and had held the arriving buses for athletes to shelter in place. The upshot of this was that there was no rain at all by the time we got off the buses, and the sun was even trying to break out.

I only had an hour before my wave was called, and I spent 45 minutes of that waiting in the port-a-potty line, so things went rather quickly. Sooner than I realized, we were sent on our way. It was already super humid, and I took off my jacket and tied it around my waist before I even began running.

I was checking my watch at every kilometre and ended up going a good 15 sec/kilometre faster than I had expected or planned. It didn't feel like an effort, so I decided to roll with it.

At about 7km, I thought I heard someone call my name, and when I heard it a second time, I looked over and there was a running friend, Heather. She'd planned on running in the low 3:20s, but her little boy had given them a restless night and she wasn't feeling like it was going to be a PB day, so we decided to run together. And so we did. Heather is one of the sweetest, kindest people I know, and even though we exchanged very few words, it did wonders to be running alongside such a great companion.

The sun came out and the day just got hotter and hotter. What did me in in the end was a first for me: a calf cramp, likely due to lack of salt (from sweating). It besieged me at around Heartbreak Hill, and that's about where I lost Heather. The last 7km were a real struggle, but I only walked at 2 water stations, and plugged onwards at a much slower pace. I finished just a whisker over 3:30, and for the day it was, I will certainly take that.

I have received all sorts of lovely messages of congratulations and encouragement and I am grateful for every single one. I will reply properly as soon as I can, but for now we are about to go out to a lovely restaurant with 4 beloved Boston friends, and celebrate our annual reunion.

Pic below is courtesy of Heather's husband, Chris.

Buckle up: there are lots of photos today, because there was lots of seeing and doing.

I began the morning with a 2 mile reconnaissance jog to see if there was indeed a dog-friendly beach in Salem. After all these years of staying in this town, I've never been aware of its existence. It's part of an old-timey arcade park called Salem Willows, and dogs are allowed on the beach except between June and September. 

After we packed up the car and checked out of our inn, we drove to the beach with the dogs. They could smell the sea water before they could see it, and they went crazy. The water is very calm at this little pocket beach, and even Soleil was dashing in and out with great zeal, in between her dig-to-China missions on the sand. I managed to collect a small handful of sea glass, including some really pretty blue pieces.

Then it was onward to Boston (it's only 20 miles or so south of Salem), and wonder of wonders WE DID NOT GET LOST! We found our hotel on the very first try. This is something we have never managed to do before in our ten years of coming to Boston.

We arrived at 1pm and check-in wasn't until 3, but because we had the dogs with us the hotel fast-tracked a room for us and by the time we had unloaded the car, we were able to go straight up to our room. We are very close to the Boston Garden (I know it's not called that anymore) and the Celtics were playing this afternoon, so there has been a lot of bedlam. Better now than at 10pm tonight I suppose.

I walked over to the convention centre to pick up my race kit. The security has really been ratcheted up this year and it was kind of unnerving. And even this late on a Sunday afternoon, after two and a half days of expo, with mere hours left before closing, the place was heaving with runners, and my main mission in life became to get the hell out as quick as I could. They don't make it easy, though - you are forced to go through the expo in order to exit the building.

I walked back to the hotel, then we went out with the dogs to search for patches of greenery where they might be able to pee. Not a lot of choice, but we did find 2 options.

I have sorted out my clothes for the race; I am lucky that I brought some lighter clothing for possible warmer-day runs or treadmill runs at other moments in the trip, because the forecast high is now close to 70, and it's going to be humid. It's still going to be wet and windy, especially before the start, but at least it's not going to be frigid. 

I guess at this point all we can do is bring what I've got to the starting line and see what that gets me.

We've made it to Salem, MA, and we are enjoying the ''particular'' vibe of the Witch City...a mix of colourful characters and kitsch, with a dash of out-and-out wackiness.

This morning in Burlington it looked damp and cold from the hotel room window, but the sun was peeking out, and it was already a surprisingly warm 10 degrees celsius first thing in the morning. I took the dogs out for a short walk and then came back, got changed and went for a 10km run to shake the legs out a bit, and enjoy the stunningly beautiful views across Lake Champlain to the Adirondacks in New York State. I simply love the Burlington, Vermont recreational trail, and we both really like the energy and scenery of Burlington, Vermont.

We didn't hit the road until 11am because we didn't have a huge drive ahead of us, and it was mostly straight interstate through Vermont's Green Mountains and then New Hampshire's White Mountains. I did detour Tim to an outlet mall in New Hampshire, to scour the Saucony outlet for a particular model of shoes that I like. I scored 2 pairs, which was the sum total of what they had.

The forecast for Monday is looking slightly more positive from my point of view, because even though it's still promising rain, most of the forecast sites are now suggesting that temperatures will be in the mid-40s first thing in the morning, rising all the way to near 70 during the race. So at least it won't be sleet and really cold temperatures like last year. As well, the wind has now shifted from being a firm headwind to a crosswind to tailwind, so I will certainly take that. 

Today the temperatures hit 25 Celsius, which is a real shock to our systems after a long, cold, Canadian winter. The dogs were feeling it, and spent a good part of the day panting.

The small in where we are staying tonight is quite lovely.  We have a nice big room with a separate bathroom and a walk-in closet. I am spread out on the bed with two zonked Labradors (who are not supposed to be on the bed, but I'm not telling them that.)

Tomorrow we head into Boston.