Mike's Marathon Blog

23138 is my bib number for the 114th Boston Marathon. I’m an official participant.

Now that I have my number, I wanted to include some information on how to keep track of my progress during the race:

• TEXT – Simply text the word RUNNER to 31901 using your US mobile phone. You will then receive an sms text response with instructions on how to submit a runner’s bib number. (Message and data rates may apply. You will be opted in to receive four messages during the race. Send STOP to quit. Available on participating carriers AT&T, Alltel, Boost, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Verizon and Virgin.)
• EMAIL – Continue to the registration page for the AT&T Athlete Alert program on the race website. Sign-up using your mobile phone number for SMS text message updates, or by entering an email address for email updates.

If you register a mobile phone online, you will receive a message asking you to confirm your intention to receive updates from the 2010 Boston Marathon AT&T Athlete Alert Program. Once you’ve completed registration for AT&T Athlete Alert, you will receive text updates courtesy of AT&T and the Boston Marathon when your runner has crossed the following points on the course:

Starting line
10K
Half-Marathon
30K
Finish

http://registration.baa.org/2010/cf/RegAthleteAlert/pg_AthleteAlert.cfm?mode=entry

If you happen to be in front of a computer on Marathon Monday, you can simply go to http://www.bostonmarathon.org/ and type in my bib number to see my location on the course. I should cross the starting line around 10:45 a.m.

I was actually just on the website and came across some very interesting information. In terms of on-site media coverage, the Boston Marathon ranks behind only the Super Bowl as the largest single day sporting event in the world. More than 1,100 media members, representing more than 250 outlets, receive credentials annually. There’s some other great stuff on the website. Check it out if you get a chance.

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Today has been circled on my calendar for quite some time.

The alarm sounded at 5:30 a.m. Yes, I said 5:30 a.m. I did my usual routine, grabbed my bag and I was on my way to Boston College. The temperature in my car was 24 degrees. Now I know you’re thinking ‘hey, you’ve run in much colder weather than that!’ Yes, but after a week of 60’s and even one day of 70, 24 degrees mine as well have been 5 below. Forty-five minutes later, I was walking towards 7 Coach buses waiting outside of Alumni Stadium for over 500 BAA charity runners.

The buses left for Hopkington shortly after 7:30. When you need to get on the Mass Pike and drive for 25 minutes to get to your starting point, you’re probably not just going out for a light jog that day. In fact, just the opposite of a light jog. How about a nice run along the Boston Marathon route from the actual starting line in Hopkington all the way to Brighton? Sound fun?

Ever been in a Porta-Potty at 8 a.m. when it’s 25 degrees out? That’s not even the worst part. Standing in a 30-person line for the Porta-Potty at 8 a.m. when it’s 25 degrees is actually worse than using the actual Porta-Potty. Ever been in a Porta-Potty at an athletic event like a marathon or a triathlon? You’d think bears were just wrestling in there. It’s absolutely disgusting. I’ve been in bathrooms at construction sites and rock concerts that look better than those. You know what’s even more fun than standing in line for the Porta-Potty and actually using it? Opening the door and seeing your entire team starting the run 50 yards away from you. Awesome.

Just what I wanted to do before a long run: sprint down a hill to catch up to my team. And apparently that’s what I had to look forward to for the next few miles……descending hills. It’s funny, we’ve been practicing running up hills for the past 4 months and the first two hours of the race are downhill. The first quarter of the race is through cow-towns and then the second quarter is straight down a busy commercial area. It’s definitely an interesting road to hold one of the most famous races in the world.

For race day, I keep telling myself to just get to mile 13. If I get to mile 13, I’ll be good the rest of the way. I know miles 13 to 22 like the back of my hand. This is the section of the race that most runners fear: the Newton Hills and Heartbreak Hill. The Children’s coaches have us run this section every single weekend to help overcome that fear and familiarize ourselves with every inch of pavement. I am more confident running those hills than any other part of the course. Yes, Heartbreak Hill is absolutely brutal, but I know I can get up it. And once you reach the top, you’re on cruise control to the finish line.

I ran great today. I have been worrying all week about this run. I used this week as a dress rehearsal for the actual week of the marathon. I planned my meals accordingly, tried to get sufficient amount of sleep and basically just tried to get my mind in check. My head was definitely the biggest challenge. Especially when you wake up every morning to clicking in your hip and knees. It’s very difficult to stay focused. It helped running well today. I am ready for Boston. 23 days. I can’t wait!

Oh and in case you wanted to know how far we ran today:

Hopkington

Ashland

Framingham

Natick

Wellesley

Newton

Boston

3 hours, 20 minutes

21 miles

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2,100 Mike’s Marathon Blog page views! Wow. I can honestly say that I did not expect that when I started this over 5 months ago. And no, those views do not count me. The blog averages about 15 views per day. I think that’s pretty good! Twitter gets 50 million Tweets per day, but whatever. Twitter sucks. Sorry you can’t find out what Ashton Kutcher is doing on my blog!

I’m kinda sad to see this come to an end soon. This past Monday was the big 1 month mark! Maybe I can keep blogging about all the different events I will be doing after the marathon? Will anyone keep reading if I do that? Mike’s Post-Marathon Blog? I’m already signed up for a half-marathon at the end of May, which many of my friends and family will be running with me. After that race, I start training for triathlons.

I competed in a few Sprint triathlons last summer. Most Sprint triathlons consist of a 1/4 mile swim, 13 mile bike and a 5k run. My goal for this summer is to train for an Olympic triathlon. An Olympic triathlon, also known as “international distance,” includes a 1 mile swim, a 25 mile bike and a 10k run (6.2 miles). There are a few in the area that I’m leaning towards, but I don’t want to even think about the triathlons until the marathon is over. I guess I’ll take the day after the marathon off, so April 21st I’ll start training for the triathlons.

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I mentioned the fundraiser a few posts ago and now we have a date! Emily’s Wish Fundraiser will be held at Mint Bistro in Manchester on April 10th. Two very good friends of mine, Dave and Alyssa, are putting together this fundraiser in support of myself and Dave’s brother, Brian. Brian is the person that I write about on my Miles for Miracles Profile page. Him and his wife, Katie, lost their baby, Emily, to a rare brain tumor about a year ago. She was a patient of both Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber, the two charities that Brian and I are running the marathon for.

Dave works at Mint Bistro and thought it would be great place to have a fundraiser to support the two runners and more importantly the two charities. I sent an ‘event invitation’ on Facebook, which I’m sure many of you received. For those of you that actually read this blog and don’t have Facebook, I will include some of the details here.

The fundraiser, like I mentioned above, will take place on Saturday, April 10th at Mint Bistro, which is located right on Elm Street in Manchester. There will be a cocktail hour starting at 4 and the first round of dinner reservations start at 5. If you would like to have a sit-down dinner, please call the restaurant as soon as possible and make reservations (603-625-MINT)! Please mention that you are attending the fundraiser (the restaurant is open to the public that night as well). If you are not interested in having dinner, please feel free to stop by and have a drink or two. I will be there all night. There will be many great auction items and raffles. All proceeds will be donated to both Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber. A portion of the restaurant’s proceeds will also be donated to the respected charities.

Hope to see everyone there!

http://www.mintbistronh.com/

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This week marks my 19th week of training. Seems like only yesterday I started this crazy journey. I’m 100% kidding. That was the epitome of sarcasm right there. It feels like I started a year ago! Can anyone tell that I just want this race to be here!? Anyway, the thought process behind my training schedule was to increase 1 mile every Saturday.  And yes, I started at mile 1. I’ve had a few rest weeks when I haven’t increased a mile, but I added another mile onto my next Saturday’s run (if that makes sense?). For instance, Week 6 I ran 6 miles. Week 16 was a rest week (I ran 12), so the next Saturday I ran 18. Today, you guessed it, 19 miles!

This was yet another week when I got up at 6 a.m. and immediately checked my e-mail to see if practice was canceled. Nothing. I then checked the weather to see what conditions awaited me in Wellesley. Here’s what I read on WBZTV.com:

“According to the National Weather Service, this nor’easter could be one of the heaviest rain events since the spring of 2006 for eastern Massachusetts. According to WBZ meteorologists, we can expect to see 3-to-6 inches of rain in eastern Massachusetts by the time the storm is over. There is also a high wind watch with gusts of up to 55 miles per hour expected.”

Since practice wasn’t canceled, I figured we wouldn’t run as far today because it was raining so hard. I’m such an amateur! Quote from one of the coaches before we started: “Today’s run will make the actual marathon seem easy.” Maybe he was talking about a different race and not the Boston Marathon? Today we ran from Wellesley to Cleveland Circle in Boston, around the BC reservoir and back. 19 miles. The wind was blowing so hard, there were waves in the reservoir! There were a few moments that I was basically running in place because the wind and rain were straight in my face.

And if today’s run couldn’t get any worse, I ran the last 8 miles with this on my heel:

After we finished and everyone was stretching, a girl came over to see how my leg was. I asked her how she knew about my leg. She said “I was running behind you and noticed the blood on your shoe. Hey, you know you’re a true runner when your shoes are soaked in blood.” I guess it’s official now.

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My biggest challenge with running is my pace. Since I started running about 5 years ago, I have always had issues pacing myself. I run too fast, then I run too slow. If you’re a runner, you probably know what I’m talking about. It’s actually one of the biggest challenges for most runners. Even the world’s elite runners struggle with pace. I have watched numerous videos of some of the best runner’s in the country and all of them practice their pace. They run miles down to the second. It’s very impressive.

The reason Boston is one of the toughest marathons is because of pace. The elevation at the starting line in Hopkington is 490 feet. The elevation at the finish line in Copley Square is 10 feet. The elevation drops 340 feet in the first 9 miles alone. Pacing yourself during this section of the course is extremely difficult. Most amateur runners think running downhill is easy and this is a good time to gain some ground. Not the case. Running downhill may feel easy and not as tiring, but your quads would disagree. Miles 10-16 drop another 100 feet. This is when most runners start to feel their legs burning. They’ve been running mostly downhill for 16 miles. This is when the race really starts.

Miles 16 to 21 are known as the Newton Hills. The course rises 170 feet in just 5 miles. This is the part of the course that the Miles for Miracles team runs every single Saturday. Not only do we run miles 16-21, we run 21-16 to get back to our cars.

I have been running with the team for a few months now. There are typically about 30 runners who participate in the weekly runs/practices. Most of the same faces are there every week. Obviously with 30 or so runners, not everyone runs together for 15+ miles. Everyone usually stays within eyesight of each other and most people, at this point, have found a running buddy or two. I run with the same girl every weekend and have been for 3 months. The interesting part of this……….she doesn’t know about it. I don’t know this girl’s name, she doesn’t know mine and we have never spoken more than 20 words to each other. I run directly next to this person every single Saturday!

I immediately started looking for a ‘pacer’ during my first practice all the way back in December. I noticed everyone’s running styles and speeds. I watched runners separate from each other and began learning who I could keep up with and who I couldn’t. After a few weeks, I noticed that one girl never ran slower or faster than me. Little did she know, I found my pace girl.

This girl must be aware that I follow her. The reason, I assume, that she has never spoken to me is because she thinks I’m a super creep and/or a running stalker. She must surely thinks it’s strange when I pass her, look back at her a few minutes later, realize that I’m too far ahead, jog until she catches up and then run 3 inches away from her for the remainder of the run. Putting this in words is actually helping me understand the situation a lot better. I think a 10 foot separation is in order for this weekend’s practice. I’d rather run the marathon without a restraining order. It would be difficult to keep pace when I have to stay 150 yards away from my pace girl.

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One more month!!!!! Well, one more full month. April won’t be so bad because I will be spending most of the days resting. I don’t even have a run over 15 miles in April (except for the marathon, obviously). March……not so much! I have four 15+ mile runs and two 20+ mile runs. If everything goes according to plan, I will run over 100 miles in March. That is best case scenario, of course.

There were only 4 weeks in February and I had to rest during 1 of them. I still have this nagging IT band/knee injury that just won’t go away. Who knows what surprises I will encounter in March? For the past month, I haven’t had as much time as I used to. My work hours changed, therefore my gym schedule changed. During the first few months, I was able to swim and attend Spin class. Both of these cross-training exercises got me to where I am today. Both swimming and Spinning are the healthiest forms of exercise I have ever done. Spin class would actually make my sore legs and knees feel better. I unfortunately do not have the time to do either. There are only certain time windows that I can swim at the Y and I can rarely make it to any of the scheduled Spin classes any more. Therefore, my workouts have to be extra tough.

I have been doing circuit training at least 2 days per week. Circuit training is both a cardio and strength training form of exercise. It’s basically a full-body exercise for an hour straight. It doesn’t compare to Spin class, but it fits into my current schedule. I still run 3 days per week and lift every Friday. I still haven’t worked out on a Sunday in about 2 months. It’s mainly because my rest days consist of running half marathons and my non-rest days consist of 18+ mile runs on the toughest stretch of the marathon route.

February recap:

– 76 miles running (3 weeks)

– 8 hours in the weight room

– 1 Spin class

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I woke up Saturday morning at 6:30 for my weekly long-run. I cautiously peeked through my blinds and could barely see across the street through the snowstorm. Great. I ran to the computer to check my email to see if practice was canceled. Ha. Not a chance. The coaches love torturing us. They’re crazy and would run in a hurricane if they had to (they both had shorts on that day).

I was not feeling it that morning. I was tired and something I ate the day/days before was not sitting well. I made my toast, packed my bag and dragged myself out the door. I actually sat in my car for for awhile, watched the snow fall and contemplated driving to Wellesley. It’s hard enough preparing for a long run, but when your mind isn’t in it, you’re in for a very long run that day. And a long run happened to be on the menu that day. How long? 18 miles.

We ran from Wellesley to Cleveland Circle (in Brighton) and back. 9 miles out and 9 miles back. We ran the Newton hills, Heartbreak Hill, the 1.5 mile hill past BC and the hill on Washington Street. Twice. We were exhausted. The coaches told us that run is one of the most difficult runs that we would ever do in our lives.

And what does everyone talk about after running 18 miles? Ice baths of course. The coaches and many of the runners on the team speak very highly about ice baths. Cryotherapy (“cold therapy”) constricts blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity, which reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. Once the skin is no longer in contact with the cold source, the underlying tissues warm up, causing a return of faster blood flow, which helps return the byproducts of cellular breakdown to the lymph system for efficient recycling by the body. Though you could use individual ice packs, cold-water immersion generally produces a greater and longer lasting change in deep tissues and is more a more efficient means of cooling large groups of muscles simultaneously.

I was hurting after the run. My knee and hip actually felt good, but everything else was in pain. I was cold, my muscles were tight, my feet were sore and wet and my stomach felt like it had a brick in it. So, I decided to see what all the hype was about. I filled up the tub with cold water and got in. I’ve read that in the winter, you don’t even really need ice because the water is already so cold. After a few minutes, I dumped in all the ice that I had in my freezer. It wasn’t so bad. After about 5 minutes, you’re legs go completely numb, so you can’t even really feel them any more. It was my first ice bath, so I really have nothing to compare it to, but I did feel pretty good the rest of the night and all day today. I stayed out until 3 a.m., so it obviously helped a little.

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I have been waiting for this since September. This is the famous Miles for Miracles singlet that I’ll be wearing during the race. Children’s Hospital Boston’s Miles for Miracles program is celebrating its 14th year at the Boston Marathon. Children’s is one of BAA’s largest charity partners and also one of the largest marathon teams. Over 150 runners run for the team every year. And every year, each runner gets to wear the checkered singlet.

Believe it or not, this singlet is one of the main reasons that I wanted to run for Children’s. It’s one of the main reasons that I wanted to run the marathon at all. For years, I remember seeing people running down the street wearing their singlets. I used to think how strange it was that a person would wear a race singlet just going out for an afternoon jog. I would see them from time to time, in towns all around the area. Some of the people were old, some young, some experienced runners, some not so much. I have even seen people wearing them in triathlons that I have participated in. It’s like a bullseye for me when someone has one on. It immediately catches my attention. Now that I have one of my own, I fully understand why people wear them.

It’s not just a singlet. It is so much more than that! It’s dedicating your life to something for 6 months. It’s waking up at 6 am to run in 10 degree weather. It’s eating chicken instead of steak. It’s drinking water instead of beer. It’s blisters in between every single one of your toes. It’s endless squats and lunges. It’s raising $5,000 for the kids at Children’s Hospital. It’s getting a donation from someone that you know doesn’t have a job. It’s staying in and resting every Friday night. It’s excruciating knee pain when you’re 9 miles from your house. It’s taking the right onto Hereford and the left onto Boylston. It’s crossing that finish line after 26.2 miles.

Not too many people own a Miles for Miracles singlet. Believe me, it’s an honor to have it.

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“The marathon is a charismatic event. It has everything. It has drama. It has competition. It has camaraderie. It has heroism. Every jogger can’t dream of being an Olympic champion, but he can dream of finishing a marathon.”

~ Fred Lebow

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