Yesterday, at my first-ever Boston Marathon, I withdrew from the race at mile 22. I was soaked to the bone, shaking from the cold, and dealing with shooting knee pain that left me barely able to walk, let alone run. The wound is fresh and I’m sure it won’t ever fully heal. While I’m disappointed, I don’t have any doubt that I made the right choice. I let my brain win out over my stubborn heart.
I had the typical weekend leading up to Boston–trying hard to rest up while being tempted by all of the running fun to be had around the city. I met up with the Oiselle gang to spectate the 5k, visited all the pop-up shops and spent too much money, and took a million photos at the finish line. As the weather reports got worse and worse, I spent hours going back and forth on outfit choices–not daring to believe that a trash bag would end up being the smartest way to go. Something felt off for me all weekend. It’s hard to say what it was, but it never felt like I was really about to run Boston. As it turns out, my gut was right.
Monday morning my running partner Denise and I woke up to frigid temps and whipping winds. Undeterred, we donned our throwaway layers and heavy-duty trash bags before getting a ride downtown to the busses that would take us to athlete’s village. The start area was chaotic and muddy–the huge tents were strewn with mylar sheets and heaps of discarded shoes and clothing. I had a wristband for my charity team that was supposed to get me into a heated indoor space, but no one knew where to tell us to go. Undeterred, we used the facilities and squatted on an old shower curtain while we pulled on our dry socks and shoes with shaking hands. My best-laid plans of warming up, carefully hydrating, and leisurely eating my last pre-race snacks quickly went by the wayside and we strained to listen for the announcement that it was our turn to join the parade of figures in ponchos trudging to the start.
At the start line in suburban Hopkinton, I had a decision to make–either stick with Denise, who had no time goals and wanted to run for fun, or to push for the 3:25 I had trained for. As the first gust of wind whipped the rain into our eyes, I told Denise I would stick with her and we would get through it together. The first few miles we kept our spirits up, dancing along with the music being blasted from inside homes and under tents along the way. The crowds were thin but enthusiastic, screaming encouragement from the sidelines. We made a few bathroom stops but kept up a fairly steady pace as the rain pounded down, soaking through every layer.
We stopped into a med tent in Wellesley when my mittens had gotten so heavy and cold that I couldn’t move my fingers, and a helpful doctor worked my numb fingers into a pair of rubber surgical gloves. At mile 13 I saw Jeremy and gratefully accepted the poncho he had ready and waiting. Just after that, we got a huge lift in Wellesley when we heard that Desi won! What a gutsy and well-deserved win from one of my favorite runners!
The happiness carried us down into Newton, where I handed my soaked gloves off to my dad and trucked up the first of the Newton hills. Then out of nowhere, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain under both kneecaps. I gritted my teeth and trailed behind Denise before finally admitting to her that I needed to stop and see what was going on. Being the amazing friend she is, she immediately hooked her arm under mine and we hobbled together to the med tent at mile 20. 
The tent was teeming with runners convulsing from cold, their heads bowed under heat sheets and blankets. After manipulating my legs and seeing my grimace, the doc in the tent quickly concluded that it was likely patellar tendonitis, and handed off what he said was his first ice pack of the day. Denise was insistent that she wanted to stay with me, but I knew in my heart that I wasn’t going to make it and told her she needed to finish the race.
Alone in the tent, I put my head between my knees and sobbed–through the haze of tears, promising the volunteers that I wasn’t sobbing from the pain in my knees. It wasn’t the first round of tears and it won’t be the last. After 15 minutes of ice I was numb enough to give it one last shot, even though my gut was telling me it wasn’t smart. I knew my friend Bry would be volunteering at mile 21, and by the time I hobbled up to her, we both knew my day was over. She walked me to a church nearby that was open as a warming station for volunteers, and with wet and trembling fingers I called my dad to get a ride home.
I am still in the midst of processing everything that happened. I pride myself on being fairly in tune with my body, and as I sit here icing my tender, swollen knees I am 100% certain that I made the right choice to stop. In fact, 23 elite runners made the same choice. I have had a fairly charmed running journey up to this point, and there were always going to be bumps along the road. I’m not sure what exactly caused the knee issue, but I’m sure it has a lot to do with 2+ hours of running hunched over against the rain and wind on slippery and unstable surfaces. That was the single hardest run of my life and I’m proud to have made it as far as I did. I’m not yet a Boston Marathon finisher, but I will be. Congratulations to everyone who gutted it out to the finish yesterday–you all are beyond amazing!
The list of thank you’s is too long to include here, but it’s coming. Huge VIP shout outs to Denise, Bry, Jeremy, my parents, and everyone who reached out yesterday. I have the most fantastic support system.
Because I take my advice from the best, I will keep showing up. I will finish the race. Thanks for being here–the journey is far from over.
Leah
Workouts: Both my HMGP miles and my MGP miles this week felt harder than usual. I did them without music and hit my paces, but it took effort to get there. I ran the MGP workout way too fast and my stomach was not cooperative, so my goal for this week is to run my marathon pace miles at true marathon pace and to let them feel easy breezy.
First taper week is done done done! This was a super duper busy week/weekend, so I was grateful to be able to carve out time to get all of my workouts in. Monday started with easy miles, and then Tuesday I ran a really strong workout. I’m taking advantage of the lighter evenings to do some of my harder runs later in the day–much as I love to get my runs out of the way in the morning, I definitely do better when I’m fueled and rested. I hit the first set of these half marathon paced miles at a 6:58 average and the second set at a 6:50 average. I felt so strong and steady during this workout–which was definitely the high point of the week.
I generally cut back on the booze and sugar in the two weeks before a marathon, so that should help get everything into ship shape for marathon Monday. Commence all of the weather stalking…
Well, well, well–back to weekly recaps after a little bit of a break! As I mentioned in my 
Sunday I wrapped up the weekend with an easy recovery run with J, and then Monday I split my easy miles into two runs since I had gotten a crappy night of sleep. Tuesday was just a fabulous run! I felt like I was finally 100% back in my groove–it was one of those “I could have run forever” nights. However, it was followed by a really tough workout the next day–3×2 miles at HMGP. I got it done, wrapping the last set up at 6:59 pace, but it hurt.
This past weekend, my running buddy Alexa and I ran the 
After a nice chat we made sure to use the boat’s bathrooms and walked off the gangway directly into the registration area. The bib pickup and bag drop were smooth and easy, and we were able to stay warm indoors at the ferry terminal, chatting with various running friends up until the race start.
After the 10 mile mark we ramped it up for the first of three sets of MGP miles–just as the course got hilly and stayed that way until the end. We cranked it through three miles in the 7:30s and then hung together until mile 15, when I was feeling good enough to speed ahead. The only downside of the small race size was that I was pretty much alone for this last chunk–but the water stop volunteers and cops were awesome and I kicked it into high gear for the last three miles–7:38, 7:57, and 7:10. Overall, I finished at around an 8:10 average (according to my watch), feeling fairly strong and happy. 
This was a huge and hugely successful week of training! First, this will be my last weekly update until mid-March–J and I are heading to New Zealand for our honeymoon on Wednesday and I’ll be mostly offline while I’m there. 
The sunset didn’t hurt either!
Today I enjoyed the gorgeous snow from an overnight storm and J and I did a morning yoga class–a great start to working out the kinks. This afternoon once most of the snow had melted away I did my recovery run. Onto two more days of work before we jet off–can’t wait!!!
What a fun sports and running-filled week!! Any other Olympics fans out there? I definitely miss the running and gymnastics from the summer games, but I love watching the winter sports, especially the figure skating. We had people over to watch the Opening Ceremonies for the 4th Olympics in a row! Fun fact–Jeremy has actually been at all four of these parties, although for the first one we weren’t dating and he was just some cute kid from my kickball team 🙂 You’re welcome for the photo below. This year we repped Japan because we were gifted these amazing kimonos for our wedding from cousins who live there–pretty cool, right?
Wednesday I treated myself to a rest day and did a bunch of foam rolling along with my core and mini-band work. Thursday dawned super icy so I hit the treadmill for my tempo run. I had some technical issues with the interface on the mill at the gym, and as usual, it went by slowly, but I got it done. Friday was a super easy recovery run before a huge day of running fun on Saturday! I met up with some of the Oiselle gals for an 18 miler. It got up to 50 degrees and I felt pretty good the whole time! We ran on the Boston course and ended up with 852 feet of elevation gain. My fueling was on point and we even finished with a couple of strong fast miles at the end. As always, happy to have great company 🙂
After some recovery chilling I was out the door for more running fun! A big group of the O girls met up for the New Balance Grand Prix event. It was my first time attending a professional track meet and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was SO much fun and so exciting! The big stars of the night were Jenny Simpson and Emma Coburn–Jenny took home the W in the 3000 in an amazing performance! I also loved watching some of the other less familiar runners and events. Like the 60 meters, where the runners are going so fast they hit a crash pad at the end. Wild! Also, I run on this track every Tuesday so that’s pretty cool.
Wednesday I did my first workout at the Y near my house–it’s cheapest gym option that’s close to both home and work. They supposedly have fancy treadmills that can connect to TV streaming services but I couldn’t figure them out, so I made do with an episode of The Crown on my phone. Things to work on for next time!
Sunday J and I ran the Super Sunday 5 Miler! Despite some logistical hiccoughs, we had a fantastic turnout from the Oiselle gang and I managed a 20 second 5 mile PR. I have a recap of this race coming shortly, so stay tuned for that.
The theme of this week was: hooray for the cutback!! I definitely was feeling the accumulated stress of 3 weeks in a row at close to 50 miles, so was glad to be taking it a bit easier. I had some residual tightness in my right hip after last week’s 16 miler, so this couldn’t have been better timing. Monday I kicked things off with 6 really easy miles at 9:30 pace, keeping it light so my hip could loosen up. After some quality time with my foam roller Tuesday’s marathon pace run felt pretty good. I haven’t been running with headphones much recently, but I was definitely glad to have a little music to pump me up for this one! Tuesday was also the hubby’s birthday so we celebrated with delicious tacos and this amazing flourless chocolate cake. SO good.
Thursday was a beautiful 6 miles, the first 3 with a colleague who’s also training for Boston. Friday J and I went to a yoga class together and did some nice shoulder opening work–definitely something I don’t focus on enough!
Week 7–here we go! This one had some off moments but overall I made all of my training happen and ran outside every day, which makes me super happy. Monday was 7 miles with some snow flurries I wasn’t expecting, but it made for pretty scenery. Tuesday I had a track workout on the books so was excited to join the HHRC crew. This was a fun one–400s with 5 minute tempos alternating HMGP and MGP in between. It definitely kicked my butt but I was happy I went, as always. It’s really motivating to have pacers to chase and buddies to run with.
Shorter and Faster 