From President Ray:
Delaware Marathon Course Marshals needed
For those not running a Delaware Marathon event, please contact Ray if you can volunteer to help keep runners safe in our Bancroft Parkway area of the course on Sunday May 13 7:15-9:30am, 9:30-noon, or both. It’s a critical place and we’ve barely had enough people to cover it in the past.
You’ll get a shirt and you’ll have fun. Let me know soon if you’re in or can bring a friend! 302-633-1482
Water Table at Delcastle 4/25
Club will have a table set up to offer spring water to runners, walkers, dogs at Delcastle Rec Area on Wed 4/25 530-730pm. It’s to show our banner, pass out brochures and introduce us to the community. Group run at 6pm as always. Drop by at any time for a couple laps or to socialize. Let Ray know if you can definitely man the table for any length of time.
Hamptons Marathon/half marathon with B+
Rich Szymanski passes this on from Katie Wilson, Program Director of the Andrew MacDonough B+ Foundation. Unfortunately this bulletin is getting out after an informational meeting.
http://www.bepositive.org/marathon.html
We have 50 slots reserved in the Hamptons marathon/half marathon. If people choose to run with B+ and reach their fundraising goal, they will receive:
a trainer from club 26.2
free travel and lodging
free registration
free pre-race meal
free post-race refreshments
official Hamptons marathon shirt and race number
finishers medal
B+ running shirt
From our marathon page there is a link to the sign-up to run with us. On the site each runner receives their own online donation page where they can personalize all information.
The 2012 Boston Marathon: The Water Stop Tour
The latest edition of the Boston Marathon, the 13th I’ve done, is now the most memorable one for me. Various sources said the temperature reached 87 to 89 degrees, which was a few degrees above the temperature in the 2004 marathon. But the big difference was the humidity. In 2004 the air was very dry with a westerly wind at our backs. This year the morning dew point was 58, indicating more moisture in the air, even though the breezes in the upper eighties evaporated water applied to the skin in a few minutes. Below are some comments from club members who completed the event, mostly culled from their Facebook pages. Afterward, I’m posting some personal commentary.
Adam Shilling: stayed out of the Medic tent and may have avoided black toes too, bonus.
Andy Jacubowitch: It was a couple degrees hotter than 2004 (the year I got heat stroke), but without a noon start, which helped a little.
Claire Neilan : Today was a crazy marathon day in Boston! But goal was to survive the record heat and cross the finish line without ending up in medical tent. Goal achieved!
Dirk Sweigart: Just ran my first Boston Marathon and I really don’t know what to make of it. Terrible hot day and I was soo slow and walked. My quads were shredded…but I think that’s the course not the heat. I had a great first half (1:40) and then it all fell apart. Sheri had an awesome race…how’d she do that? Beat me for the first time, 3:45 to my 3:57. Hope she gets over THAT quickly, ugh!
Sheri Herrmann: My time was about 30 seconds slower than last year. I ran cautiously and stopped to drink at every water station. I was really just out to finish safely! It was brutally hot!
Sarah Rusk: I’m always a very positive runner. I always keep negative thoughts out of my head, but I couldn’t do that this time. I had a tough time out there. It was brutal.”
I knew at mile two there was no way i was going to run my best. In fact, it was my personal worst. That was the most difficult race I have ever run. It took all the mental strength I had to get through it. Thank goodness for the fans who were, handing out ice, cold towels, freeze pops,oranges, etc. They were amazing.
Although I ran nowhere close to my goal pace, it will be a race I’ll remember forever. I found out how mentally strong I am, which is so important in the marathon. After running that “race,” I now know I can survive anything.
_____________________________
How many times have I watched the weather forecast for a particular race change from a moderate, favorable one to something that’s going to present a challenge? For marathons, it seems about in one out of three cases, the forecast has gone awry. Sometimes it becomes more cold and blustery. Sometimes it’s rain. And sometimes it’s heat. Usually when a trend starts to go in one direction six days out from the event, it just continues to get worse as race day approaches.
And so it was with the 2012 Boston Marathon. A forecast in the low 70s a week out became a prediction of high 80s and no cloud cover with two days to go. By Saturday the Boston Athletic Association had decided to let registrants opt out if they picked up their number, but didn’t start. About 400 took advantage of that. But the other part of the decision was to extend the time in which a runner could be officially scored to seven hours from six. (In actuality, it appears everyone who finished was scored, even over eight hours.) The irony of this change was that club member Mark Lozier had been contacting BAA about extending the hours or an early start several times in the weeks leading up to the race, but kept being denied. But the weather changed all that.
Mark’s dilemma: Back up to last summer. Mark had stumbled going down steps at home and injured his right knee. He got the meniscus operated on in August and 10% was removed. Having qualified at Mohawk Hudson Valley in October 2010 (where I also got a BQ), Mark registered for the marathon in September. But as he tried to run again, he was experiencing pain. Visits to the doctor showed the knee had developed some arthritis at the point of the surgery. He took a series of fluid injections. But the knee never came around. By early this year, he determined that he’d begin walking and shortened a 12 week program to eight. The last month he covered 200 miles and got in two 20 milers. He had decided to WALK the Boston Marathon. He figured at his walking pace it would take about 6 hours and 40 minutes and thus the angst when BAA denied him, but relief when it decided the field could have an extra hour.
Meanwhile, I figured this race was going to be similar to 2004 when the temperature reached 86. Then I told myself it was like another long run at the beach and I ran about a minute a mile slower than I was capable of on a good day. So this time, I figured I could do about 4:45, a time I did in June of 2010 at a warm marathon. But my calculations were off. The humidity was higher than in 2004 and in mid-April there was no opportunity to be acclimated to the heat as I was by June of 2010.
So when the race started I noticed early on the things were going to be different. After the two initial downhill miles, my pace slowed in chunks of time on each successive mile. By the first water stop, I was thirsty and I slugged back both water and Gatorade and then went to the water stop on the other side of the road a hundred or so yards up for more water to throw on my head, neck, back and chest. My legs never felt “runnerish”. My arms got goose bumps (a sign of overheating). It probably took a third of the distance before my body was starting to properly deal with the heat.
Meanwhile I noticed how quickly the enthusiasm of the participants had dissipated. By 5K it was quiet amongst the runners. People had already withdrawn into their focus on keeping going. There were no easy early miles. It became the Water Stop Tour. The water thrown on the body evaporated in less than five minutes and by the time the next water stop appeared (only a mile down the road), the clothes were dry and the hands were hot. People weaved from one side of the road to the other for the two aid stations at each mile. BAA had doubled the amount of water available for each runner from five gallons to ten. Misters and sprays from hydrants had the runners veering to the sides of the road. Volunteers and ordinary citizens handed out ice cubes, water paper towels, small sponges, and shot water guns at willing runners. The focus was not the next mile or 5K split, it was the next bit of fluid to consume or throw on one’s body.
It was a group effort – runners, volunteers and the hundreds of thousands of civilians. We runners could not have made it without them – those who weren’t running, but who were also there out in the sun for hours and hours, handing out water cups, or gels, whatever individuals got out of their houses. One woman had a small stand of all sorts of small things runners might need – vaseline, pens, ibuprofen. Little kids stood and held small dixie cups of water their parents had poured.
And. of course, there were endless words of encouragement, particularly if one penned a sign on like I did _ “Go, Dave!” I must have heard it 5,000 times. Sometimes, in other events, I’ve gotten tired of it. But not this time. Every “Go, Dave”, even if from a guy who had already had one too many beers, was helping to will me forward.
The Wellesley co-eds, just past the 20K split, seemed to be more competitive than ever with their “Kiss Me” signs. “Kiss Me, I’m from Maine”, “Kiss Me, I’m from Cali”, “Kiss Me, I’m a Senior”, “Kiss Me, I’m Graduating”, and my personal favorite (No, I did not kiss her) – “Kiss Me, I’m a Nerd”. For 300 yards, I probably came out of the 12 minute pace I had settled into and “sped up” to a ten minute pace. So did everyone around me, and when we were past, we settled back down into our ever-slowing slog.
After passing Newton Falls, the lowest spot on the course before getting into Boston, the four successive hills, combined with the effort one was going through to keep the body cool, really slowed us all down. First a 13 minute mile, then 14 minute mile, then two 15 minute miles. Eventually everyone was walking. When I stopped “running” to walk on the third hill, I was breathing so hard that it took me five minutes of walking for my breathing to slow to a semblance of moderate breathing.
Having gone uphill so slowly, the downhills and on into Boston were a bit faster, if you consider 13 and 12 minute paces “faster”. Eventually, I finished in 5:25, over an hour slower than what I felt capable of doing if the weather had been nice. But what an experience! I’ve got many memories. I’m going to write about some of the people we met. Some were inspiring. This I’ll post on my blog in a few days.
Mark had his own interesting experiences back among the last few hundreds of participants. Most notably, he met a woman, J. Jill Cummins, who had dealt with an issue similar to his. She had damaged a tendon in a foot and had decided to walk. She had a protective boot on the foot. Mark said she had a totally positive attitude about the situation. It became even more inspiring to Mark when she mentioned at some point that during the last year she had had a double mastectomy. She ended up finishing right behind Mark, who hit his 6:40 prediction.
Race Results:
2012 Boston Marathon
2:52:29 Enos Benbow
3:06:32 Andy Jacubowitch
3:23:31 Keith Crispin
3:28:38 Sarah Rusk
3:34:28 Matt Cutrona
3:45:39 Sheri Herrmann
3:45:51 Lee Kauffman
3:57:13 Carol Giampietro
3:57:34 Dirk Sweigart
4:16:59 Mike Brown
4:45:25 Claire Neilan
5:24:57 Dave McCorquodale
6:40:22 Mark Lozier
Four Miles of Hope Run
23:11 Greg Cauller, Overall Winner
28:22 Kristen Stump, Female Winner
28:35 Dan Simmons, 1st 60-69 with a 7:08 pace, Dan appears to be reaching his pre-injury form
30:45 Jack Horowitz, 3rd 40-49
30:46 Kelly Horowitz, 1st 30-39 Running with hubby Jack, this is Kelly’s first race since the birth of their twins
Thin Mint 5K
17:49 Greg Cauller, 2nd Overall