Category: Running

I took the following text from www.steverunner.com. Steve was giving a “thank you” to those of us who followed him and cheered him through the marathon yesterday. Take some time to run over to Steve’s site and read the rest of the quote. It is currently at the front page of the site.

“Thank you”

At 2:10 PM on Monday April 16th 2007, as I approached mile twenty-two of the Boston Marathon course, I was feeling horrible: both physically and emotionally. I had worked so hard for this moment, and I was failing. The digital clock on my wrist displayed the bitter truth: I was losing my chance for a personal record, I was falling apart and powerless to do anything about it.

All of the positive energy that had been rolling around in my head had been blown away as I came to the top of the hills, as the cold Nor’Easter wind and rain pelted my weakening body. What had been a solid 9:30 pace, had become a frustrating 11:00 pace by mile 19.

I was exhausted, dehydrated, and in mind numbing agony. The positive thoughts that I had been chanting to myself had succumbed to feelings of utter failure.

I had dreamt of this race, and this course, for many nights over the past year, with a steadfast determination to conquer my previous course record, and now my dreams were being shattered.

When I came to mile 22, and saw John Ellis, he gave me words of encouragement. He instructed me to focus on my running form, lean forward a bit, and let my legs (which were not in pain) carry my body. He reminded me that this was the moment I had worked so hard for, and then told me something that gave me more inspiration than any of the positive thoughts which had carried me to this point.

“There are hundreds of fellow runners, all over the world, cheering for you and following you on the Internet right now…”

As I turned back to the race, it took a few minutes for that last bit to sink in.

“Hundreds following me?”

“ME?”

My friend Steve did not run as well as he had hoped during the second half of the race. I have not gotten any information from him directly about what happened, but I am sure in the next couple of days I will know. Through the first half he was right on the pace that he wanted–down to the second.

He started having stomach cramps in the second half. His time slowed down throughout the second half. The last 2 Km. were quite slow. He covered them in 20 minutes. That is a fast walk pace. Quite a change from the first 20 Km. which were covered in less than 6 minutes per Km.

Here is Steve’s info from the BAA website.

23627 Walker, Stephen J. 45 M Oxford MA USA

Checkpoints	5k	10k	15k	20k	Half	25k	30k	35k	40k
	0:29:45	0:58:44	1:28:18	1:58:22	2:04:50	2:30:04	3:05:41	3:45:01	4:29:15
Finish				Pace	Projected Time	Official Time	Overall	Gender	Division
				0:11:02		4:49:02	18379	11371	4236

Blaine did well. He was looking to best his Boston PR by more than an hour. He did not quite do it, but was still more than 50 minutes faster than his previous Boston performance.

1658 Moore, Blaine 27 M Portland ME USA

Checkpoints	5k	10k	15k	20k	Half	25k	30k	35k	40k
	0:21:56	0:41:42	1:01:16	1:21:14	1:25:35	1:41:21	2:02:09	2:23:37	2:44:52
Finish				Pace	Projected Time	Official Time	Overall	Gender	Division
				0:06:38		2:53:49	495	464	384

Congratulations my friends. And to everyone who stuck it out in the weather and ran Boston.

I am listening to the race at WBZAM radio out of Boston.

Last year I felt like I had a friend running the race. This year I have spent more time with my friend Steve and am proud to be called a friend of his. I have been so excited about this race. He has trained very well and is looking to set a personal record (PR). Even if he does not hit his overall goal time, he should easily be able to set a course and a marathon PR.

I have another friend, Blaine who is running and trying for a 1 hour PR at Boston. He was sick or injured (I can’t remember which) when he ran it 2 years ago.

Blaine is running in Boston because of a qualifying time. Steve is in because he is running for a charity. Therefore, Blaine has already started his race and will finish probably more than an hour faster than Steve.

The weather is not that great for the race. I just heard on the radio that they are experiencing snow this year for the first time in 40-something years. They have a nor’easter that has moved it. Expecting between 3-5″ of rain today. Wind constant between 20-25 MPH with gusts up to 50 MPH. And, to make it worse, since Boston is a point-to-point race, they will be running in one direction the whole way. That direction is straight into the wind.