Re: 2014 Boston Marathon Discussion Thread

[Nick Morris]

All of our runners have crossed the finish line.

And now a word from our sponsor.

Thanks for tracking and posting  

Yes, thank you, Ounce! It was awesome having you doing play-by-play.

Congrats to everybody out there. A great day.

  

(Keep it coming!) 

 

Hip hip hooray!!!     

[Michele "1L" Keane]

Thanks all! The last 0.15 was very emotional and I finished in tears. But I did what I set out to do and that was the most important thing

[ounce]

Thanks all!  The last 0.15 was very emotional and I finished in tears. But I did what I set out to do and that was the most important thing

Nice job, 1L.  REALLY nice job and smart job, too.

     

[fostever]

Great day for Boston horrible day for me running wise. It was fun while it lasted. Crashed bad at 19 but finished walk running by walking one light pole running 2 then walking 1 running 3 with this other guy. Lost a lot of salt and cramped badly, ended in the med tent for a brief stretch. Just dehydrated and a bit beat up going in, oh well! Congrats to all the others who had great days!

[ounce]

It's so much more fun watching everyone online now.  They must have a GPS device built into the bibs now.  Seemed like once everyone hit Boylston it stopped tracking until the finish line.  That may have be planned because of last years tragedy.

That was very interesting, Paula Sue.  Some were slow to update at 30K and 40K, I was rotating between about 3 or 4 different places to look.  Most of the time, the website was inserting numbers without having to refresh.

[Paula Sue]

It's so much more fun watching everyone online now.  They must have a GPS device built into the bibs now.  Seemed like once everyone hit Boylston it stopped tracking until the finish line.  That may have be planned because of last years tragedy.

That was very interesting, Paula Sue.  Some were slow to update at 30K and 40K, I was rotating between about 3 or 4 different places to look.  Most of the time, the website was inserting numbers without having to refresh.

Just a guess about the GPS...just don't know how the BAA could track runners so closely any other way.  I'm guessing the timing mats are still every 5K but the tracking seemed to be right on even when some of the folks I was tracking went from 8 to 9 minute miles to 16 and 22 minute miles in those wonderful Newton Hills.

[mul21]

I'm watching the replay right now and I'm surprised at the crappy picture quality of the broadcast.

I may be influenced by knowing the outcome already, but Hall just doesn't look smooth even early in the race.

[Jerry]

Thanks guys for tracking. This is the toughest race I have done. This is no doubt the best performance I have presented.

The spectators are way more than 5 years ago when I was there. I wish you were there to see Boston one year stronger, as said in on banner.

[wrichman]

Hey all you guys! thanks for tracking today! fun to read your play by play as Meb won. I STILL can't figure out how to post a pic in this forum (even after asking for help). Anyway, the reason I was quite slow today is b/c I'm 3 months pregnant.    Training was rough the first trimester, but I felt great during the whole race (well, there was the 4 porta potty stops. ha) and wore a shirt I made "Baby's 1st Boston". It was a ginormous hit with the crowds and every one was so nice to me. I should wear it every year! haha

[Paula Sue]

Anyway, the reason I was quite slow today is b/c I'm 3 months pregnant.    

Wow...congratulations!  Starting that baby off running  

[Jerry]

Hey all you guys! thanks for tracking today! fun to read your play by play as Meb won. I STILL can't figure out how to post a pic in this forum (even after asking for help). Anyway, the reason I was quite slow today is b/c I'm 3 months pregnant.    Training was rough the first trimester, but I felt great during the whole race (well, there was the 4 porta potty stops. ha) and wore a shirt I made "Baby's 1st Boston". It was a ginormous hit with the crowds and every one was so nice to me. I should wear it every year! haha

Congratulations!

[Alex Kubacki]

Thanks everyone for tracking. For me the wheels came completely off. Not really sure what happened. To add insult to injury I stupidly never put on sun block and am now completely sun burned. What a bonehead. 

Congrats on the baby news Whitney.

[Gobbles]

Thanks all for tracking and the kind words.  
My lungs, diaphragm, and calves weren't recovered from Saturday.  I really left it out there on Saturday, and that was the plan.
I was wheezing like I had emphysema from about 15 miles, tough to run with about 60% lungs.
It was a good weekend, got my 16:34 5K on Saturday, and finished reasonably on Monday.

[Seth Harrison]

Thanks for tracking everyone yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to check in here last night. It was such an awesome day. I didn't run fast, but soaked in what was an incredibly awesome day. As I think I mentioned previously, I ran the marathon and covered it for my newspaper. Here's the link for my coverage, which includes the story I wrote, the video I produced (ran with a GoPro), and a small photo gallery. This will serve as my race report.

http://lohud.us/PoBO8P

[JohnP]

Thanks also for tracking and congratulations, Whitney. I missed a sub-4 here due to my first ever bathroom stop during a marathon. I just could not figure out the ideal food/bathroom combination for an 11:30 AM start. And I'm not sure where that high of 63 came from. It was 70 degrees the last two hours that I was running. I think the warm weather took a toll on most of us - it was 28 and 36 degrees one week ago when I was doing some last runs. No warm weather acclimation at all. Still, it was really good to run this Boston. Of the three times I've been here (two qualified, this one not qualified), this had the largest and noisiest crowds by far. It was amazing especially the last 3-4 miles. I would say Boston College was louder than Wellesley college for the first time too (sorry Michele).

[Paula Sue]

Thanks for tracking everyone yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to check in here last night. It was such an awesome day. I didn't run fast, but soaked in what was an incredibly awesome day. As I think I mentioned previously, I ran the marathon and covered it for my newspaper. Here's the link for my coverage, which includes the story I wrote, the video I produced (ran with a GoPro), and a small photo gallery. This will serve as my race report.

http://lohud.us/PoBO8P

Awesome article, Seth...and well said.

[carleenp]

Hey all you guys! thanks for tracking today! fun to read your play by play as Meb won. I STILL can't figure out how to post a pic in this forum (even after asking for help). Anyway, the reason I was quite slow today is b/c I'm 3 months pregnant.    Training was rough the first trimester, but I felt great during the whole race (well, there was the 4 porta potty stops. ha) and wore a shirt I made "Baby's 1st Boston". It was a ginormous hit with the crowds and every one was so nice to me. I should wear it every year! haha

CONGRATS!!!!!!

[John Kilpatrick]

Congratulations to everyone out there - regardless of the times, you all earned the right to be there which is impressive to me.  I see some had great days, some had meh days and some had forgettable days, but at the end, it still inspires me - I mean, it's Boston!

Dave - I hope you can come to peace with this - 2:30 has been an elusive goal, but the really cool thing is how hard you've worked to achieve it - nobody can EVER question your heart and I can't think of a person in the world who I'd like to see a lofty goal more.  For whatever it's worth, I've thought of how hard you keep working when I've been through some bummer injuries and disappointments - you have always kept going and kept fighting and it's a great source of energy...

Steve B - Holy smokes that was a killer 5K - congratulation on BOTH achievements!!!

The Youngs - you guys have a neat story and it is so cool to get to run together - Michael, if we could all combine and each give you just one second each!  Great job guys!

Schuey - I hope that time wasn't disappointing to you - as a new daddy, you are probably right where you are supposed to be - that little bundle is WAY more important than a marathon time and even without huge volumes of training you ran a fast race - the fact that you felt like crap less than 10 miles in yet still fought through speaks volumes.  I hope you keep coming back!

Nick - I know you didn't run this year, but you worked so stinking hard to get there that it will be fun to meet up with you next year!

Jerry - WOW - what a race!  Great splits and congratulations on the sub 3!  Great job American!!!

Ed - not much to say except great splits - when it looked like you might bleed lots of time, you held it together - that had to hurt but great time anyway!!!

Alex - those last few miles had to hurt but you kept trucking - the time may not show what you wanted, but no doubt the effort was there - and that time is nothing to shake a stick at even on a flat course.

Dave P - nice splits, even at what I heard felt pretty brutal heat-wise towards the end you didn't fall much off pace - great job! 

Whitney - forget about the race, congratulations!!!!!!!  I'm not as often over here as often as I used to be (I think I'm still welcome though   ) so it is also nice to see you running and doing your thing again.  Nice splits by the way!!!

Jim L - nice job on getting it done - I'm sure the legs feel "lovely" today!  Grats on gutting through!


Jill - Great job - my girlfriend (Kelli Sliwinski) runs for the ATC as well and said this Boston was one of the hardest she has ever done.  Heard you all had a nice get together there as well...

Jon - Sounds like you enjoyed it and had the bonus of family there with you!  Splits looked pretty darned consistent - great job!

Seth - what a great video and it sounds like you were able to soak it in.  Don't know how much running you have left in you after this, but in spite of being there for a variety of reasons, your splits looked excellent!  You always have an eye for other people and I hope you got to enjoy some of it for yourself...

John P - Hope you enjoyed it and appreciated being at BOSTON - way to fight through at the end!

Michele - you needed this badly I know - had a great race and I hope it helped your soul a little bit to be there.  You have a lot of races under you, but I can imagine this one was so important.  Bonus was a great well-ran race - crazy good splits.  I know I've told you this before, but you are a true inspiration to a ton of people and it is great to see when things go well for you.  Congrats 1L!!!

Sorry - didn't  mean to make this a book (sorry if I missed anyone) but Boston was pretty special this year and it was neat to see the folks there taking part.  Great job everyone...

[Michele "1L" Keane]

Thanks all again. Congrats Whitney! And John P -I so totally agree as the Scream Tunnel was pretty lame. BC made me run faster as I can only hear "Go BU" in my head passing through. And I beat Doug Flutie, so that was something!

[Nick Morris]

Once again congratulations to you all and I hope to get to run alongside most of you at next year's race!!

[jon c]

Due to timing and other issues, we missed seeing anyone from the board this year.  It was certainly not intentional on our part, but know that we missed seeing you all.  I will file a race report hopefully before the end of the week.  It was a special race for me for a number of various reasons and I'll go into detail a bit in the report.  It was warmer than what I expected, but it was a beautiful day to run Boston once again.

Thanks to all who tracked all of us and for the support.

[Julie]

congrats to all of you and congrats on your little baby Whitney!! yay!! I ran a half marathon at 30 weeks with my singleton but so slowly and with twins just forget it, I would throw up every time I tried to run. hahah.

[nkrichards]

Stuck out planting carrots on Monday so was only able to catch a bit of the race...

Great read...thanks for the tracking and the play by play coverage.

I know some of you had better races than others but you were there on a very special day.  Hope those memories are just as special.

[Jim Lentz]

Thanks to Everyone for tracking!

[mountandog]

This is a lot of fun to read.  Wish so much I could have watched Meb live.  It's also a source of comfort to realize after reading this that I wasn't the only one who suffered out there in the last 10 miles.  Thanks for tracking us all.  We all know you're out there and appreciate the support.

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