Tag: Boston Marathon

Life Lessons From My First Almost-DNF

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn marathon training, race recap, running, The Boston MarathonLeave a comment

I was running around mile 16 of the 2018 New Jersey Marathon when I pulled over to the side of the road, slowed to a walk, and started unpinning my race bib.

I didn’t want to be running this race anymore; I wanted nothing to do with it. I had been gunning for a sub 3:15 marathon time, and after a very on-track first half marathon, my mile splits were getting longer and longer, and my legs were feeling heavier and heavier. My goal time had slipped beyond my reach, and my determination to run had slipped away.

I had no positive thoughts in my brain — which isn’t that rare. But usually during a marathon, I can will myself to keep going. Today felt different, though.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I’d been in this position before… In fact, I’d been at this exact point of this very race several times before: The New Jersey marathon was my second full marathon and my first Boston-qualifying race back in 2013. It was the marathon I ran in a downpour in 2016 after the person I loved broke up with me outside of my apartment after I had rushed home from a long bike ride to be with him. On top of all that, I had just run the Boston marathon a few weeks earlier. I knew I was very capable of finishing. But at that moment, I felt I had nothing left to give.

I pulled out my phone from my race belt to text my coach, Chris Baker, who was waiting for me at mile 20. 

“I’m not finishing this race,” I told him. “I just took off my bib.”

Continue reading “Life Lessons From My First Almost-DNF” →

Desiree Linden Didn’t Just Win The Boston Marathon — She Reminded Me Of The REAL Reason I Run

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn Inspiration, race recap, running, The Boston Marathon, travelLeave a comment

About two weeks ago, I saw something on my Facebook newsfeed that stopped me mid-scroll: the weather report for the upcoming Monday showed a light monsoon with teeth-chattering temperatures. On any other Monday, this type of disheartening weather would be, well, just another Monday. But it just so happened that this Monday was also the day that roughly 30,000 runners were planning to make the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to Boston, an event formally known as the Boston Marathon.

As a registered runner who’d been training for the race for almost five months, I began to feel my excitement for the race turn into unease. Maybe it won’t be so bad, I thought. Maybe it will be like one of those snowstorms they make a huge deal about, and it doesn’t even flurry!

It ended up being a historic race for many reasons. Not only were the wet, cold, and windy conditions some of the worst many of the runners had ever seen, but Olympian Desiree Linden became the first American woman in 33 years to win the marathon. But more on that, later.

This was my thirteenth marathon, so perhaps I should have had an inkling that something would happen to throw it out of whack. I left for the race wearing multiple layers, a hooded poncho, and plastic bags secured with rubber bands around my sneakers. “It looks like you’re heading off to a day at a chemical plant,” my friend Laura joked as I geared up to face the elements. When I got there, the Athlete’s Village (where runners congregate before entering their starting corals) was worse than anyone anticipated: mud everywhere, puddles 10 Porta Potties wide, runners in rain getups even more ridiculous than mine. We laughed at the absurdity of it all — what else could we do?

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Nevertheless, I had trained hard for this race and was determined not to let bad weather stop me from reaching my race goal — a marathon PR, or a personal record. But even the most elite runners had eschewed their runderwear for full rain jackets, which is pretty much unheard of in the professional running world. Despite the universal setback, there was only one real solution: continue to move forward, towards Boston.

I’d love to tell you that despite the conditions, I crushed the race. That I didn’t let it phase me. That, gosh, I thrived in the harsh conditions, just like the men’s winner, “citizen runner” Yuki Kawauchi, who blew everyone away by besting the pros to become the first Japanese man to win the Boston Marathon since 1987. But alas, I did not (thrive, that is). I kept up with my goal pace until about mile 13, when I started feeling an extra tightness in my quads, and, was I just imagining it, or was the headwind more powerful now?

I had trained hard for this race and was determined not to let bad weather stop me from reaching my race goal

Read the full story on Bustle.

20 Boston Marathon Finishers Share The One Thing They Wish They Knew Before The Race

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn Inspiration, marathon training, running, The Boston Marathon, travelLeave a comment

I remember my first Boston Marathon. I trekked out to Coolidge Corner with some of my friends, armed with sunscreen and Nalgene bottles filled with vodka. What I witnessed was terrifying: There were faces pitted with pure exhaustion, individuals limping along the course defeatedly, and way more bloody nipples than I ever thought I’d see in one day. At one point, a group of drunk college kids tried to cross over the route and knocked over some helpless runners along the way. Later, a runner pulled over in front of our group and tried to take a gulp from my friend Eric’s boozy hydration pack as he embarrassedly stammered, “Sir, it’s alcohol.”

Pure shock and limited knowledge about endurance races aside, I felt so inspired by all of the runners making the journey from Hopkinton to Boston that after I returned to campus, I ran on a treadmill in an empty Northeastern Marino Center, watching (mostly inebriated) college kids return from their cheering posts along the course in droves outside the window.

Several years, one graduation, and two of my own marathons later, I would get my own chance to make the epic right onto Hereford Street and left on Boylston that so many runners dream of. Though I’d watched the showdown happen live for five consecutive years and knew certain things — like if I took a drink from a college kid on the course, there was an 80 percent chance it would be beer — there was still a lot I didn’t know about how the race is organized, and what exactly this complicated course entails.

To help those running the course for the first time this year, I asked finishers of varying years past: What’s the one thing you wish you knew before running the Boston Marathon?

Before the Race: What You Need To Know

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Write Your Name On Your T-Shirt
“I’ll never forget how badly I was feeling during the 2016 marathon when I heard a random guy yell my name, and then meet my gaze to tell me that I was looking great. The realization that he had picked me out from the crowd of runners propelled me forward. Hearing any spectator shout your name because you have it on your shirt — or maybe even written vertically in Sharpie on your biceps — will at the very least make you smile, and at most give you a much-needed energy boost!” —Michele Gorman

The Expo Will Be Crowded
“The day before the marathon is the worst day to go to the expo. Everyone assumes it’s like other races where you can get in no problem. The line to get into the expo snakes around the building and then snakes all around the inside as well. Go on Friday!” —Brad Castillo Continue reading “20 Boston Marathon Finishers Share The One Thing They Wish They Knew Before The Race” →

Race Review: Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn cold weather running, fitness trends, marathon training, race recap, The Boston MarathonLeave a comment

As most of you know, I’ve been training for the Boston Marathon coming up on April 16. It’s the first time I’ve taken my marathon training seriously in a long time, and it’s been quite a haul. Luckily, I have been working with a great coach, Christopher Baker. Even though I’m a run coach and hold many others accountable, I find it really hard to hold myself accountable when I’m planning for so many other people, so it’s helpful to have someone taking the guesswork out of my training. While the workouts have been quite grueling — and balancing them with everything else I have going on in life (work, school, coaching, attempting to have a social life) has been even more demanding — I’m happy to have a schedule and some kind of consistency in my life.

As a tune up, I ran the Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon on Saturday. It was a wonderful opportunity to see some real-time results of this training plan in action. A friend had suggested the race after the drawing results for the New York City Half came out, and while I didn’t have any desire to run another NYRR race, I liked the idea of a small town race in a new and different place. While the hills of the course were intimidating, I liked that there was no pressure to PR, and the idea of getting a race in before the marathon.

A few friends from The Most Informal Running Club, Ever (NYC), and I headed up to Sleepy Hollow via the MetroNorth train, and were able to walk to the race start from the train. The weather was chilly, but sunny, so it was nice to not freeze our butts off before the race like the runners in the NYC Half had done the weekend before. We even had time for our tradition of taking a photo in the Port-A-Potty (don’t ask why).

29512705_10216019860388257_44471192411846527_n Continue reading “Race Review: Sleepy Hollow Half Marathon” →

I Ran A Boston Qualifying Marathon Time, And Nobody Was Waiting For Me At The Finish Line

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn marathon training, running, The Boston Marathon5 Comments

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Let me start this post by saying that I am incredibly lucky.

I have a wonderful, supportive family and am overwhelmed on a daily basis by the amount of phenomenal friends I can count on in my life. I have two, strong legs that can carry me through what seems like an insane amount of miles to many people. I am not terrible looking. I have a great job, smart coworkers, and a cozy apartment in Hell’s Kitchen with a roommate who is nice and asks me about my day when I come home.

You should not feel sorry for me. Continue reading “I Ran A Boston Qualifying Marathon Time, And Nobody Was Waiting For Me At The Finish Line” →

Writer, Runner … Triathlete?

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn Uncategorized6 Comments

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Sometimes, we all go a little too far — in life, in love, and for some of us, especially in training. As someone who takes pride in pushing herself, even I reached a point in May where even I had to acknowledge I’d taken measures to an extreme, in a not-so-great type of way.

After months and months of training for the Boston Marathon (my 2014 recap is here… still working on the 2015 recap!), I finished the 26.2-mile race in a personal best time for the course. (Yay!). Yet after just one weekend off, I was back to the grind: I completed a 10k with an elevation gain of 1,212 feet in Bear Mountain State Park, then set off to Cape Cod for the all day/all night Ragnar Relay, where I ran just under 35 miles in 24 hours.

And I wasn’t done yet! One week later I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon, a race I had to scramble to buy a bib on Craigslist…then finished in a disappointing time, in pain.

By the time I crossed the finish line along the Coney Island boardwalk, I was mentally and physically exhausted. A pain was creeping up my left knee, and both my hips ached.

The last thing I needed was an injury, but what did I expect? I’d just broken every rule in the recovery book. My runner’s high was running out, and I had officially given my friends and co-workers who labeled me “crazy” a legitimate reason to do so.

So I set out to rest for a few weeks. And I did. Try, I mean. Really. But as most runners and athletes know, not training for something is often worse than training for a specific race, even if you’re tired. So when I heard that a group of friends were signing up for triathlons, I started toying with the idea of registering for one myself.

I’d swam as a kid at my local swim club (thanks mom!) and I’d once biked 26 miles with my high school gym class … so how hard could a tri really be, right? After some encouragement from a few buddies, I signed up for the Lake George Half Ironman, a course boasting a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run in upstate New York.

Well, I was wrong about the “easy” part — riding a road bike is completely different than the mountain bike I’d used to commute in college, swimming might be the most exhaustive sport, ever, and running after both of these events is a feeling I cannot even describe into words. 

However, what I did find is that by training with three sports instead of the usual, “run every damn day” workout routine I was previously doing, was that my body didn’t feel overly strained in one specific area anymore. Plus, mixing up my workouts was fun. I wasn’t dreading my next sweat session — as long as you don’t count the 5am wakeup call — or feeling exhausted before I even put my sneakers on.  

I completed my first Triathlon Sprint in Connecticut this July as a “warmup” for the big race (Lake George). The Greenwich Cup’s half mile swim, 15-mile bike and 3-mile run was a refreshing change up from my beloved marathon. I even came in second for women in my age group, which, as SNL’s version Hannah Montana would say, is, “Pretty cool.”

Now, all that’s left to do is conquer the half ironman distance, without forgetting the real reason I compete in endurance events to begin with: Because it’s fun, because I get to train with amazing people, and because I like proving to myself, and to others once in awhile, that I’m strong and capable of conquering challenges — both big and small.

Stay tuned for a race recap, and leave any advice/words of wisdom in the comments below.

On Running Boston

On By idratherbestrongthanskinnyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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My first experience with the Boston Marathon was my freshman year of college. I filled my Nalgene bottle (a necessity back then) with cranberry juice and vodka, and went to cheer on the runners with my friends. I clapped at strangers and wore a Yankees baseball hat, for which I was ridiculed for by several passersby. I got excited when I saw my friend’s dad pass by unexpectedly, and I witnessed an elderly woman attempt to cross the street only to get stampeded by a runner too exhausted to stop in time.

Besides that, the whole day was pretty uneventful.

Yet my friends and I returned to watch the race year after year. “Marathon Monday,” it was called, and it was a celebration for all Boston college students, not to mention an excuse to day drink and yell (words of encouragement!) at strangers.

Things changed when my friends convinced me to run a marathon of my own right before graduation. We couldn’t qualify for Boston, but we flew to Nashville for the Country Music Marathon as a ‘last hurrah’ before getting our diplomas. As my first visit to the south, I realized the best way perhaps, to see a city, is to run 26.2 miles–or any distance, really–through it. And it was during that race that I finally figured out what a marathon was all about.

Strangers hold signs and their hands out for high fives from sweaty, wet, shaky palms. Runners and non-runners are pushed to their very breaking point. Individuals discover their true potential, and what they’re really made of. And the crowd supports them, because whether they are running for charity, in memory of someone, or for themselves; running that distance alone is incredible. So after we crossed that finish line and flew home, watching the 2012 Boston Marathon was a truly extraordinary and special experience for me. “I get it now,” I remembered thinking. “And someday that’ll be me.”

Last year’s 2013 race was the first in five years I was unable to stand on the sidelines and cheer. After graduating and moving back to my hometown in New Jersey, I no longer had the luxury of Patriot’s Day off from work. Yet I was still excited for the runners, and my younger friends still attending Northeastern who would be cheering them on.

But as we all know, the marathon did not go as planned. People were killed, and a city was in panic. Watching it all unfold from screens via newscasts, Twitter and text messages was eerily strange, weird and scary for me–as it was for the nation.

On any other year, I would be cheering alongside the other spectators, most likely near the finish line as it was close to my dorm. I had many friends who were in attendance, that day—and confined to their apartments during the manhunt that followed–yet luckily were spared from any serious harm.

Timing is everything though. And while it felt strange to miss such a big day in Boston history I would normally be at, I’m glad I wasn’t at that finish line.

Just a few weeks later, several of my friends from Boston and I took on the New Jersey Half Marathon and Marathon in Long Branch, NJ. We wore custom made, “NJ Runs for Boston” tank tops, and ran with the city and its people in our hearts. Along the course, I got emotional seeing the #BostonStrong signs along the route and runners who wore shirts designating they had been just 2, 1 or .5-miles away from the finish line in Boston before they were stopped.

Even though I struggled through the last 6 miles of that race, I ended up finishing with a time of 3:27:07–not only a Personal Record, but within The Boston Marathon’s qualifying requirements. I quickly forgot about all the cursing myself out in my head I’d done while I was painfully finishing the race, and switched to being elated about running Boston the following year.

After crossing the finish line in 3:30:26 on April 21, 2014, words can’t really describe the experience I had. Being back in Boston with the same friends I had traveled to Nashville with was so comforting to begin with, and prepping for the race (going to the expo, making pasta dinners, rolling our calves out with The Stick in the living room) felt like home. My phone blew up with text messages, Facebook posts and tweets from friends, family members and coworkers wishing me luck. To be honest, I’ve never felt more loved in my life.

As for the race itself, the excitement, anticipation, enthusiasm, respect from and for other runners, pride from Bostonians and its people, and resilience was overwhelming, awesome and powerful. Along the course, I had so much support from cheering spectators–from small children handing out water cups and high fives, to families holding out orange peels and necessity items like wet paper towels, to inspirational signs, to drunken frat boys and the Wellesley College scream (and kiss!) tunnel. There was never a dull moment in the course (I say that about the crowd, and the rolling hills!). It might be weird to say, but I enjoyed just about every sweaty, calf-burning minute of it…minus that awkward moment a man walked in on me in a Porta Potty right before the race.

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Though I wasn’t there for the tragic events of last year and cannot pretend to know or even imagine what it must have been like, I know in my heart that Boston has come back three times as strong, and nine times as proud. While the Boston Marathon has always been something special and amazing, it is now a symbol of a comeback–quite possibly, the greatest comeback this nation has ever seen.

I won’t pretend to associate myself with the runners who returned to the finish line in 2014 after being stopped in 2013 (and I admire those people to the fullest extent). But what I can say is, I’m proud to have gotten the opportunity to join them in their own personal comebacks. I’ll even wear my Solar Zest-colored marathon jacket with dignity!

I couldn’t walk normally for over a week, but the pain was well worth it. Just past the finish line, I think the smile on my face said it all: I could not be more honored to have been part of Boston’s big day.