Boston Marathon

Wow what a day! I was dropped off in Hopkinton around 8:30. I stood in line awhile and finally got on the bus to take me to the runners village. They took a different route this year and I finally got to the village by 9:38. I ran to the bus to drop off my bag and raced down to the porta -potties near the start. I made it into the corral as the announcer said 1 minute to the race. Off we went 5 minutes later (my #7771).
On the bus I met Helmut from Vienna Austria. He told me about some of his 25 marathons. This was his first Boston. He is running Stockholm in June and said Italy (Rome, Florence) was a great place to run marathons.
The race went well through 25K then my left leg was hurting. My left calf cramped at the top of heartbreak and then from mile 25 to 25.5. It went away at the top of a small hill. When I saw the finish I just told myself to keep going and it would be over soon. I was really at my end. I glad it wasn't another mile I'm not sure if I could have kept running.
My legs hurt a lot standing in line after finishing, more than any of my last 4 marathons. This was much harder than Boston last year.
On reflection it felt good to finish in 3:39:08 although I was looking to finish faster.

Update!!!!!!!!!

It's been a long time since I added to this blog. January I ran a total of 165 miles including the ING Miami Marathon. I ran a 3:50:46. I was 425 overall. It poured at the start and I was standing in 2 inches of water at the beginning. Temperature 76 degrees and 76% humidity. Not ideal conditions. Miami may not be the best place to run for a PR. I drank too much beer (my son and I stayed next door to the Gordon Biersch brewpub) and felt full the next morning when I got up at 4:30. I was 13th in my age group just like in Vermont in 2006 where I ran a 3:18. BUT Miami was great!!!
In February I ran 138 miles total not as much as I had hoped to run but Connecticut can be a tricky place to run in the winter.
March was a good month I just broke in a new pair of orthotics which help me recover unlike my old orthotics which seemed to drain my legs of energy. Total miles for the month of March: 181.
April Boston Marathon in 9 days. I can not describe how great it is to run Boston. I hope everyone who runs marathons gets the opportunity to qualify and run. I hope I finally got my speed back; I ran 53:46 for 7 miles this morning (7:40.9/mi.) I have been tapering for 2 weeks and will take it easy for the next week.