The day dawned with lots of snow on the ground. I slightly irritated my lower back today when I went outside to shovel. Before you tell me that I should have hired some kid down the block to do it for me, I don’t think it would have been appropriate in this instance. You see, it wasn’t snow that I was shoveling, but a shallow grave for my children’s pet Bearded Dragon that recently passed away.

I decided to wait until the ground was nice and frozen before we commence with the funeral procession in the backyard. In actuality, my hand was forced since I don’t think I could have gotten away with telling them that “Max” was simply sleeping as he hadn’t moved in about 1 week and was starting to get all shriveled up. The children took the funeral in stride and only a few tears were shed – the children’s tears, I held mine in despite my lower back pain.

Sometimes having my wife walk on my back seems to help when it is bugging me. However, she must be pissed at me for something, since she disappeared for a second after this request and came back wearing a pair of spiked heels. I quickly changed my mind and decided to use one of those free Ben Gay patches I got from a race. I think I will be as good as new by tomorrow.

Perseverance is its own reward and that is what it took to make it through today’s run. It was fairly chilly when I started out just before sunrise with a nice stiff wind. I tried not to overdress, but I wish I had, since I was chilled through most of the run.

I set my watch timers to track 11 minutes of 80% followed by 4 minutes of 85%. After warming up for 26 minutes, I set out for the first 4 minute effort. I couldn’t really get to 85 percent so I figured I just wasn’t warmed up enough. At the next one I had the same trouble and I wasn’t really feeling right trying to push for the pace. I decided to take your option 2, and go for a 20M at around 75%.

After running about 7.1 miles, I ran home to take care of some technical difficulties. When I started out I was feeling pretty lousy GI wise and I had a feeling that I passed more than gas at one point. My feet were also hurting me in my Mizuno Wave shoes – the arches are too high.

Fortunately, my tights weren’t soiled and a quick swipe with a wet wipe made feel as good as new. I changed my shoes into my nicely broken in Saucauny Grids and started out again. I felt a bit better, but my HR was still not coming up to where I wanted it to be. I think I was just too cold.

After around 2 hours though, I started to feel really good. My HR started to come up and I finally felt like running. Unfortunately, just as I started to run very well, 20 miles had just passed. I could have completed a marathon at I am sure negative splits. Here are the details of the run so you can get an idea of what was going on:

Time: 2:48:00
HR: 138/158
TiZ(155/137): A – 0:03:07, I – 1:41:13, B – 1:03:40
Dist: Approximately 20M
Calories: 2175

Dist Time HR
3.7 33:29 138/154
3.7 33:26 134/148
3.7 31:28 135/147
2.5 21:25 136/148
2.5 20:49 141/153
3.4 27:21 148/158
.3 Cool down

I am back off to bed now. I woke up after finding this warm dead arm in my bed. Fortunately, it was attached to my body. I just didn’t realize it was mine, since I slept on it funny and completely lost all sensation in it for a while. For the first minute or two, it was really cool playing with it – lifting it up and letting it plop down, whacking it into the headboard, etc. as it completely had no feeling. I even started to jerk off, since I had no feeling in my hand, it was like someone else was doing it for me. Then I made the connection that it was a male hand, which freaked me out with a homophobic moment. But alas, all fun must come to an end and I spent the next 5 minutes trying not to move a muscle while the nerve endings woke up so as to limit that crazy pins and needles feeling.

Today I saw perhaps one of the most disgusting and disturbing things in my life. Those who know me, acknowledge that I am not easily nauseated. However, what I saw today completely made me ill.

During my swim this morning, I noticed what appeared to be booger just below a fellow swimmer’s nose, who came to rest at the wall just after we completed an interval in the same lane. I made a motion for him to wipe his nose, whereupon I realized, that this was not a booger at all, but some sort of giant pustule growing off of his upper lip.

As I looked closer, I notice that the skin around milky white pus blob was all red and inflamed. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what sort of skin lesion this person was suffering from. This thing was enormous. If his face was the map of the United States, then this thing was the size of Texas. I couldn’t believe I was in the same water with him, much less the same lane.

Anyway, after about another 30 minutes of swimming and having to see this giant sunspot of pus many times, I suddenly noticed that the lesion was gone from his face like a trailer park after a tornado. A gapping hole was in his face where once existed the pustule from hell.

All I could now think about was that this slimy mess was now floating somewhere in the water. This is the same water that inevitably enters my mouth and nasal passages while I swim and breathe through the water. You can imagine the horrible thoughts now passing through my mind. Maybe it touched my body. maybe it went into my mouth. maybe is got washed down my throat from that bit of water I swallowed when my face got splashed when I turned to breathe.

I have dealt with much pain and suffering throughout my training. This by far was the worst thing I have ever had to deal with.

C,

I know you were very kind to me in response to the incident I had as a child jumping into freezing water. You took the time to explain to someone you have never met what probably happened, and that swimming in a group is a way of keeping an eye on each other. I am writing to say that I’m relieved you decided not to do this swim, and not knowing you, didn’t think it was appropriate to suggest or urge that you hold off for warmer waters. That is where my hopes were as I was concerned for your safety, and I am glad there were others to voice theirs who know you better. In the meantime, I give my full support for your ironman training and hope one day we can meet in Coney Island.

Naama

[Original Message]
From: C
To: Capri
Cc: <pk;
Subject: Re: Hoffman Island Swim

Greetings All;

For those who are wondering, I did not do my test swim this morning. A number of factors converged to make today an untenable option (weather, work, family, etc.).

Several people have also been expressing concern about my wisdom and/or sanity in pursuing my present course of action. I have decided to take these dear friend’s advice and somewhat modify my endeavor.

Capri – If your Polar Bear colleagues would have me join them in a full wetsuit, etc., I would like to join you the next time you guys head to the water. This way I will at least be with other people when I take to the surf.My window of opportunity for doing a winter attempt is closing. It will be soon that I need to start heat acclimating for Ironman Arizona. If I can’t do the test swim this weekend and make a Hoffman Island attempt within the first weekend in February, I am afraid I will have to forego visiting the seals and make the attempt after the spring thaw.C –

— Original Message —–
From: “C
To: “
Cc: <pk;
Subject: Re: Hoffman Island Swim

Hi C, You are a driven wildman … After the swim yesterday, I rinsed my booties and left them outside to drip dry. When I picked them up 1/2 hour later they were frozen solid. During the swim – which was a short 5 minute dip because the water temp. was 39 degrees – my feet were ok thanks to the booties, but I lost all feeling in my hands. I’ll bring and wear my cold water diving gloves next Sunday. You are pushing the limits attempting the Hoffman Island swim at this time … You would get more takers if you tried the swim at the end of March or April. The water temperature is still dropping – hits bottom in February.

Capri

——————-
on 1/15/05 12:46, wrote:
Charles-

You are a wild man

Go For It!

BTW What Time?
Robert

On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 06:34:49 -0500 “C writes:

Everyone –
I will be conducting my test swim Monday morning. Tim is kayaking with his friends from the Boat House in Manhattan and aims to meet me there. Do I have any other takers? The day promises to be invigorating!

Carpe la mer!

C

—– Original Message —–
From: “teri To: <pk Cc: <bb; <c
Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2005 2:38 PM
Subject: Re: Hoffman Island Swim
C

I am interested, and the swim sounds pretty good too. Where will this beer drinking be?

Robert
On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 14:22:57 -0500 “Paul writes:

C,

I’m interested in meeting with you but Friday doies not work… let me know when you meet again….

Paul

From: “Tim ” To:

C,

I was promising everyone there would be rectal probes, at least one guytold me “no rectal probes, no kayak” but I’ll see what I can do.
Sounds like fun in the snow with the polar bears let me know how it turnsout.

Enjoy,
Tim…
——————————-
My Dear Friends,

Once again I would like to thank everyone for the concern shown towards my well being. I appreciate all of the words of caution. Please be aware, that while I have two small children waiting for their daddy to return home at the end of the day, I will by no means jeopardize my life in an attempt to visit some seals living on Hoffman Island.

Yes, the swim I propose to do is similar to ones done by Lynne Cox. However, unlike her, I would be doing the swim in a thick wetsuit and without a team of doctors slowing me down to take measurements from rectal probes, heart rate monitors and other such gadgets.

Before I will even consider an attempt, I will practice swimming in my proposed gear in Coney Island while remaining only a few feet from shore. This way if I get too cold, I can simply walk to my car and drive to the hospital.

Lastly, any test swim, and/or the actual swim, will only be done provided that the air temperature is warmer than the water and it is a relatively calm, sunny day. Judging by the recent weather and my upcoming date with IMAZ, it looks like my desire to make this winter swim will be thwarted. But who knows? Maybe the stars will all align and I will have a marvelous time. If not, I will be no means disappointed, as I look forward to making a summer attempt with my caring friends.
C

—– Original Message —–
From:

Given the water temperature and the distance, this swim is almost equivalent to one of Lynne Cox’s swims. Think about all of the precautions she would take if she were doing it: a small flotilla of support vessels, divers ready to pull her out of the water at a moment’s notice, doctors monitoring her vital signs with internal temperature and heart rate monitors. If she needed to stop, she’d be out of the water and getting medical treatment in minutes. If you found yourself going into hypothermia half a mile from shore, how long would it take you to get to a doctor, even assuming that the kayaker could get you to shore before you went into cardiac arrest?

If you don’t want to do this swim in the spring because of the triathlon season, why not just wait till next fall? Pick a nice day in October when the water is in the high 50′s. You might even get some people to join you.

—–Original Message—–
From: bb Of Peter
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 7:22 PM
To: BB Subject: Re: Collective conscience

Consider your wife and children. The hell with us, except in so far as you recognize that we are also a little crazy and some more then others push boundaries.

———- Original Message ———————————-
From: c
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 14:04:11 -0500

Hey Everyone -

As a result of the recent Polar Bear New Year’s Day swim, I connected with Tim Gamble, a kayaker extraordinaire and willing escort to swimmers venturing forth into our local waters.

Tim has offered to escort a group of swimmers to Hoffman Island a small island off of Staten Island. Tim has kayaked there numerous times and tells me that a population of seals hangs out there during the winter. The sight of this sounds quite intriguing to me and I am wondering if one of you feels the same.

We are going to meet this Friday at 5:30pm to go over the logistics of this swim and perhaps down a few beers. If you are interested, please let me know. If you are unable to attend, but are interested, let me know and I will keep you in the loop.

Of course, due to the water temperature, I would do this swim in a wetsuit. I will also do a training swim in Coney Island to see how long I can stand the cold with the wetsuit. The last thing I want is to make it to Hoffman, and then be too cold to make it back home.

C

In a water temperature below 60 degrees, Sarah, Cristian, Paul and I went for the first weekly fall night swim. Strapping a pair of glow sticks to our swim caps, we made for the surf looking like a bunch of sea aliens returning to their watery environment.

Despite the low temperatures, I am sure the water felt less cold than the atmosphere in Yankee Stadium as they managed to lose game 7 to the Red Sox after taking the first 3. This is event is as shocking as the cold waves that would suddenly hit our chests sight unseen. The water was too dark to see them coming.

The water was crystal clear this evening and flat as glass. Just as we started out, a half moon started to peek out from the clouds out over the water. The moonlight was welcome as it helped to warm us up. We started out towards the white house at the end of Brighton, frequently stopping to make sure that everyone was alright.

When you swim in the open water, you get used to the lack of lane lines as you have in the pool. Swimming at night in the ocean however, forces you to get used to the missing horizon as well. Fortunately, the lights on the shore, along the boardwalk were bright and plainly visibly.

We reached the first jetty in due course and without any problems. The initial shock of the cold wore off and the water felt quite pleasant. There was not much surface wind so simply floating around and chatting for a bit was easy and not much different from sitting as a group in a hot tub.

After a couple of minutes, we started back towards the pier with the goal of reaching the next jetty 800 yards away. It was a bit easier to swim in this direction, because you had the shore to guide you. If you looked carefully into the water while you stroked through it, you could see glowing microscopic, biophosphorescent, aquatic creatures as your hands and arms disturbed the water.

At one point swimming towards the jetty, there was a patch of very warm water so we all suddenly stopped. We started to scratch our heads wondering who was responsible for such an occurrence. Asking basking in this mysterious source of warm water for a few minutes, we continued on towards the jetty. I followed Sarah and Cristian’s bobbing glowsticks and we reached it in due course.

On the way back towards our start, we swam through a patch of water that was as intensely cold as the earlier patch of water was warm. While this was as quite a surprise as the earlier warm water, it was not as welcome. The cold patch did not last for long and it wasn’t much further until we started to exit the water. All told we swam for a little over 30 minutes.

Today was a lovely day for a swim in the ocean. Overcast, and cool 70 degrees with a nice ocean breeze, 68 degree choppy water with 4 foot swells and green as a bottle of Heineken. As always, I met the usual suspects by the municipal parking lot in Brighton Beach. During the summer, we meet by “Grimaldo’s chair”, but now that fall is upon us the lifeguards of summer and Grimaldo’s chair are long gone.

Today was a special day as several reporters from various magazines and shows came down to interview us. They were doing a story on this intrepid band of swimmers that hit the surf from March through November. After each of us gave our respective interviews, we made for the water to do our usual circuit. This consists of a 5K + swim (depending on the current) starting East towards the end/beginning of Brighton Beach, then in the opposite direction to the Coney Island Pier and then back to where we started. All totaled it takes approximately two hours.

As a Triathlete, an Ironman Triathlete at that, I probably have a bit less body fat than the rest of the group. I am already cold and shivering long before our toes touch the water. I know however, that I will warm up as soon as I get my heart rate gets moving. Tucking a flask of Hammergel into my swimsuit, I set after the lead swimmers of our group.

I am not the fastest swimmer among us, but I am also not the slowest. This usually means I am somewhere in the middle of all the swimmers through most of the swim. We start out by going left towards our first landmark, the white house – an apartment building – that marks the end of Brighton Beach. Beyond this house lies about a half mile of rocks separating Brighton Beach from Manhattan Beach. I am told that on occasion, the current is so strong that some swimmers from various groups past were swept to Manhattan Beach and had to walk back.

No such event happened today and the lead swimmers waited for the rest of us to regroup. I usually arrive at this spot 15 minutes into my swim. It is around this point that you also realize which way the current is moving. Everyone arrives in short order, where we chat in the open water several hundred yards away from the shore. It is our equivalent of a running group taking a break by the water fountain.

Today we have our swim cut out for us. The swells are clearly making their presence known and we often get a mouthful of salt water when we turn to breath. At least I don’t have to worry about getting enough electrolytes into my system. The ocean water serves as my own special Gatorade – it has all the salt, plankton, and jellyfish I need to energize and refuel myself. If that doesn’t do it, the occasional jellyfish sting prods me to go forward.

From this point to the pier is approximately two miles. We swim very far away from shore to avoid the jetties. Within a few minutes, I am swimming quite alone. The high seas make it tough to consistently keep an eye on the landmarks. At least I am breathing to my right, which helps keep the waves from breaking into my mouth, except when the break over my head.

The feeling of being alone in the middle of the open water is very hard to describe. If it wasn’t for my complete lack of fear when it comes to drowning, I suppose I would be nervous. The only thing I am really antsy about is having a plastic bag hit me in the face when I am swimming. Few things are as revolting and disconcerting as a slimy, cloying plastic bad being plastered to your face by the force of the current. The only thing I really touched during this swim was the occasional jellyfish. Several times the tips of my fingers plunged through a jellyfish as it was floating by. They feel like a hairy slimy blob. If I were playing the game where you had to guess what you are touching by placing your hand inside a bag and not look, I would guess that I was touching hairy scalps. Don’t ask me where this thought came from. Blame it on hypothermia.

I thought it was fitting that on my way towards the Coney Island Pier, the Cyclone Rollercoaster begins to appear in the corner of your eye. A swim through choppy water with decent swells is like a nice rollercoaster ride. At one point, a large wave broke and rolled right over me. I stopped for a second wondering if I just got hit by the wake of a boat. No boat was in site, so I continued along my merry way.

Occasionally during these long open water swims, there comes a point where you feel you are just not getting anywhere. For me, this point is usually where two large white apartment towers stand. It can feel like you are swimming for days before you pass them. Sometimes when the current is strong, swimming past them is pure torture. It is like walking the wrong way on an escalator. The moment you slow down, you start going in the opposite direction. Today I was feeling strong though, and I got past the towers with little trouble.

Finally I got to the Coney Island Pier. I was out far enough in the water that I was just beyond the end of the pier. I was able to look for other swimmers from my group, when the swells lifted me up high. Finally I saw my friend Cristian come up from behind me (he is faster than me, but I had a head start) and then my friend Lori swam over to us. We bobbed around for a while waiting for others, while the fishermen and crabbers on the pier looked down at us. You could hear their minds asking who these crazy people are floating around in the water.

After several minutes, it was apparent that the three of us were the only ones who decided to swim the entire distance. I started to head back first while Lori and Cristian waited another minute to see if anyone else came along.

After a couple of minutes swimming back to the start, I noticed that I was heading right for a jetty sticking out into the water. The waves must have pushed me too close to shore. I am glad I noticed in time to swim back out, because crashing onto the rocks would not be a pleasant part of my swim. I headed back out and put some more distance between myself and the shore.

The water started to get a bit rougher by this time and the waves would disorient you on occasion. At one point during my swim back, I noticed the Coney Island Parachute jump from my right eye. This would be fine if I as swimming towards the pier, but since I was swimming in the opposite direction, it could only mean that I was swimming right out into the open water. I was pretty far from shore now, but at least I was also far away from the jetties. In any event, I finally picked a landmark ahead of me to keep in sight and made the rest of the way back uneventfully.

I was the last one out of the water since Lori and Cristian finished well ahead of me. Everyone else got out of the water much earlier. Drying off and changing back on dry land, we all agreed it was a great day for a swim and couldn’t think of anything else we would rather have been doing.

Charles

About a year or so ago, someone told me about a race called “The Survival of the Shawangunks”. Evidently, it was some crazy race where you bike, run and swim about a million miles, carrying everything you need with you. It sounded like just the type of race for me. After some research, I found the race on the Internet. It took several variations of the word “Shawangunks”, but like any committed Triathlete, I found it. It wasn’t a million miles, but it was somewhat longer comparable to a Half Ironman (30M bike, 5M run, 1M swim, 5M run, ½ mile swim, 8M run, ½ mile swim, 1 mile run up a mountain).

This is an incredibly amazing race. Possibly, the best race I will ever do in my life. The bike- 30M as challenging and a great warm-up. You start out in a pack with your age group. They give you 1.5 miles to spread out before they call drafting penalties. In this race, they tell you to stand down if they call you for drafting – that is, they make you stop and put your feet on the ground, then you can continue. If you get a 2nd draft call, you DQ. The ride is mostly flat with some rolling hills, until the last 6 miles. Then it is a pretty tough climb all the way to the first run transition.

Your crew meets you at the transition, where they take your bike, give you your run gear and send you off to the trails. I kissed Lucas, Sophia, and Rita hello and goodbye and took off. You run on fire roads consisting of compact dirt, rock and gravel. At times the trails were muddy, very rocky and/or uneven. It took me about 25+ minutes to settle into a groove and feel ok. At first my hip and ankle were bugging me.

The first run was mildly scenic and shady. I don’t remember much other than hoping that my aches would go away. About the time I started to settle in the run ended and I headed for the first lake swim – 1 mile in Lake Minnewaska.

You prepared for the swim before you crossed the timing mat into the water. I stuffed my shoes into my shorts behind my ass, donned my goggles and swim cap and jumped into the 70 degree water. It was chilling and refreshing at the same time. During this first swim, I drank the lake water to quench my thirst. Then midway, some of the duct tape on my foot started to come off. Rather than let it fall off into the lake, I pulled it off and tucked it into my shorts. I am quite the environmentalist. I think the people in the safety canoes thought I might be drowning as my head went under water to pull it off.

I sat down in the water to re-don my shoes at the shore. I was a little wobbly from being horizontal, so the momentary rest was good. Once on land
I took a gel some endurolytes and headed off. By this time, I really found my running legs. I caught several people who were ahead of me. The run starts off with a long gradual climb, eventually giving you magnificent vistas. You could see for miles around. The views were so great, that you didn’t even realize you were climbing steadily. At the height of this second run, there was a water station. It was also the perfect spot to take in the world. You were at the top of the mountain, in flat rocky terrain. At one point I hopped over a large crevasse in the rocks. The run ended soon enough, taking you down to the second swim.

This swim was much easier as they had lots of orange buoys tied together with a rope to mark your way. Since I was able to swim in a straight line by following the buoys, I made up lots of time and caught several swimmers. I used one athlete that tried to pass me, by getting on his feet and drafting him for the last quarter of the swim.

I sat down in the water once again to put on my shoes. By now my feet were in some pain from the blisters that developed. I mentioned this to a volunteer who asked me if I wanted to see a doctor. I said no and carried on.

The third run started out with a quick rock step climb, out onto a paved road. The road went steeply down hill making my feet feel like I had hot coals in my shoes. All I could think about was that I truly loved the pain. It was freaking awesome. Thankfully though, the course turned right back onto some trails.

You started down another downhill section and soon enough you heard the roar of a waterfall. After a while you could start to see it to your left and ran right passed the base of it. It was magnificent. I would have stopped if not for my competitive nature.

Soon you headed uphill again to lots of rock cliffs. The trails were lined with rock climbers practicing their skills. Sometimes they would offer encouragement, other times you would be ignored. All I knew was that I had a great endorphin high going and felt like I was running like the wind. I caught a couple of more people, including the 4th place female (who may still have beaten me, since the women started after I did).

At the third and final swim, I decided to keep my shoes on. I really couldn’t contemplate taking them off. I said to the volunteer that I was going to leave them on. She said I should. We talked briefly about blisters and their prevention and then I headed out for the final ½ mile swim.

During this swim you swim towards the Mohonk Mountain house. You get a sense of everyone waiting for you to get to the shore. Once again there were buoys tied together with ropes. I passed a couple of more people and made it to the shore in good form. I didn’t rest to put on my shoes, since they were already on my feet. I was very wobbly after I climbed out of the water. You literally climbed up several large rocks that sort of formed steps. I wobbled like a drunken sailor on high seas before I finally got my bearing.

The last and final run is a major .7 mile climb to the sky tower overlooking Mohonk Lake and the Mountain house. It was very steep. At several points you had to climb stairs, including the last 50 yards where you climbed up a stone staircase. After the staircase, you could finally see the finish and I sprinted as fast as I could across the finish line.

As a survivor, you got a nice T-shirt, towel, mesh bag, plaque and lots of food. Both at the finish line and back down by the hotel where they had a fantastic spread. Chicken, Ribs, Corn, Sausage, pies, ice cream, brownies and lots more. It was amazing. The description herein does not do this race justice. This is a race that has to be done. I will definitely be there again next year.

So I just completed my first Boston Marathon. Overall I would say it was a very worthwhile experience, one for which I am very glad I participated in.

My official time was 3:55:59. Unfortunately the starting mats didn’t pick up my chip as I crossed the start. Perhaps because I wore my own NYC Marathon Chip and the BAA wanted to spite me. When I stopped my watch after crossing the finish I had the unremarkable time of 3:39:36. Not even close to breaking 3:30, which I thought, should be a moderate goal. I just somehow managed to gut it out to beat 3:40 in the last 100 yards. I couldn’t believe it took me 16 minutes to cross the start. I won’t do Boston again unless I qualify. My non-qualifying entry provided me with a number so high that I had to line up so far back that you couldn’t even hear the starting horn.

The entire race is completely different from NY. Everyone starts in a long line on a relatively narrow street. Runners line up in corrals that start at 1-1000, 1001-2001, etc. You can’t move up as they make sure everyone stays where you are supposed to line up. I wound up standing next to one unfortunate person who was separated by about 20 of his running mates because his bib was off by 1 digit.

I spent the first 15 miles just passing runners. The race is almost completely on suburban roads (except for the Boston finish). The roads are narrower than one side of 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. It was very difficult to pass people. I had one older crank who got upset when I passed between him and his running partner. I said on your right to the guy about 3 times and he couldn’t give me the courtesy to shift over a bit. I was completely boxed in and could find anyway around him. So I wedged between them and he hit me with his arm on his arm’s backstroke. He yelled some expletives at me, but I managed to remain calm and continue my run. After all, I was wearing my swell Boston Marathon NYFlyer singlet and to retaliate would show poor sportsmanship, plus I wanted to act as an ambassador of the club.

The crowd was very loud throughout the entire race. Some stretches of the course though had no spectators at all. I found it a bit strange, as it appeared to go from packed with screaming people to suddenly devoid of humanity. Those quiet stretches were a welcome relief as it was very loud at times. The fans are almost on top of you the entire time. Which wasn’t so bad, especially when they gave you oranges… very refreshing in the heat.

At one point during the course, when spectators were sparse, it appeared from ahead that the crowd was particularly loud. So loud in fact that I found the approaching noise ominous. I mentioned this to the runner next to me and she asked me if I knew why. When I told her that I have no idea, she informed me that Wellesley College was just ahead. The noise I was hearing was from all girls screaming. This was still a half-mile away.

I found this section of the marathon to be very enjoyable. It appeared as though thousands upon thousands of wild screaming girls were lined up along the right side of the rode. Several girls were holding up signs declaring a kiss to any runner that would come over to them. I found this offer quite tempting as any red-blooded straight American male would. It wasn’t my desire for breaking my PR that kept me from stopping for such a wonderful offer. In the end I decided that I better continue through this section of course to minimize the loss of hearing I was sure to suffer should I linger around any longer than absolutely necessary. As it was, my right ear hurt was still ringing for a mile or two after I passed the college.

If that was my best spectator moment, then the couple of pathetic moments of the race were when I heard spectators chanting “Yankees Suck”. I found this just unbelievable and a source of misplaced angst and a blatant reminder that Boston is a city for second places. How pathetic are some Boston Red Sox fans? Here they are watching the perhaps the most renowned marathon in the world and the best thing they can say is Yankees Suck? How much in denial are these people? Won’t they ever realize that disparaging another team will never win them a World Series? They should concentrate their efforts on some introspection to figure out how they can improve themselves, rather than hoping for misfortune for others. The Boston Marathon is a sport completely unrelated to running but some fans choose to celebrate it by highlighting their poor sportsmanship…. this being the hallmark of Bostonian bitterness.

I found Heartbreak Hill to be not so bad and overrated. I would much prefer Heartbreak to the 2 trips through the Harlem Hills during the heat of the August Manhattan Half-Marathon. It wasn’t grueling like I heard and I found it was actually a welcome relief as I got to use different leg muscles.

I made it through 21 miles in relatively good shape. The blisters that I started to develop on mile 4 were by then numbed out and I was cruising at a steady pace. My overall pace for the race was slower than NYC, but much steadier. My HR was also right at 156-158 throughout. At the NY, my HR dropped a lot in the last few miles as my legs shut down. My legs still started to die late in the race, but not to the degree they did at NY. Next time, I will make sure to get some more 22-mile long training runs in.

After the race, you had to walk a bit to get your medal. The finish area was very crowded. I walked past the weak and invalid just past the finish line and got my toasty warm thermal blanket. Next some dude placed my medal over my head. The best part of having such a high number was that my baggage bus was the first one after the finish line. I had to walk a few blocks to get my hotel’s shuttle bus. I got tired of waiting, so I figured I earned a cab back to the hotel – really I earned it as I found 20 bucks along the course. Once at my hotel, I admired my blood blister (it looked like a lava lamp) took a nice warm bath; I was too cold for an ice bath, popped some vicodin and took a nap.

As a coda to this story, the BAA website at first listed my Official and Chip times as the same. Which is completely impossible, as I would have had to start right at the mats with the elite. A couple of days later I noticed that my Chip time was changed to 3:35:07. A momentary jump for joy swept through my body as this meant a PR for me at the marathon distance. Could I have forgotten to stop my watch? Had I started it too soon? Something didn’t seem right. What could account for the 4-minute difference between my watch and the BAA Chip time? I called BAA to ask and it turns out that if they missed your Chip when you crossed the starting mats they based your starting time on the corral in which you were assigned. They state they know how long it took for runners in my corral to reach the start mats. Oh Really?

So if anyone asks my time, I will give the official BAA times. However, I will not declare it as a PR as I know in my heart it couldn’t be.