well, my trip got off to a rough start as the airline canceled my flight out of Newfoundland due to weather issues. I was able to get off the island later that day but did not make it to Boston all the way. I ended up in Halifax Nova Scotia for a day, so i took advantage of the opportunity to drive around my old home towns and see some old familiar sites.
a day later, i finally made it to Boston and got myself checked into my hotel. The next day, i traveled around Boston and area and shot some cute video footage at various marquee sites, including the starting line, finish line, boston common, and the marathon expo.
then i returned to my hotel room for a pizza and early night's sleep. i also recorded this pre game interview where i told my amazing story of the journey to get back to Boston.
the run itself was brutal. a combo of heat and fatigue slowed me down substantially just 16k into the race. it was an extreme struggle to get thru the run. but as awful as i felt, i managed to enjoy the experience. i high fived about 1000 little kids. i also took time to enjoy the infamous Wellesley College girls who were holding 'kiss me' signs, at the 20k mark.
after finishing the run, which i did in 5:16:55, i was in a rush to get to the airport to get my flight to LA, which i barely made! it was a long day, but in the end, i accomplished the main goal of finishing.
the next few days in southern california were interesting. the weather was actually cold, rainy, and foggy, so i didn't spend much time outside. i went to Venice Beach and the Santa Monica pier and did some site-seeing. I also took in the Eagles concert at the Hollywood bowl. Eagles have always been one of my favs and it was great to see them live in their home town.
among the videos i shot, was this reflection of my Boston Run.
the next day i literally slept for about 16 hours, which was surprising but much-needed.
then, i drove up to Malibu area and visited one of my favorite beaches there, then carried onto Santa Barbara and reunited with three old friends for dinner and a concert.
then next day was an amazing drive up the coast all the way to Big Sur and into Carmel and Monterey. It was nice to get a glimpse of the marathon course and take time to site-see and shoot pictures and videos.
the Big Sur marathon expo was great. I had a chance to listen to Chuck Engle and Dean Karnazes speak, two internationally-recognized ultramarathon legends.
i had to get to bed early, as i would be waking up at 1 am in prep to catch a 3.45 am shuttle bus. i actually slept well. the race was awesome. there were 5000 marathonners and 4000 other runners doing other events, so the athlete's village had a boston feel to it. the course was tough but i felt much better and ran very well at first. the knees were quite sore from Boston though, so that limited my speed. in the end, i ran 27 minutes faster than Boston, 4.49.49. Given the difficulty of the course, this was actually a good run. i finished right around the middle of the female range. many runners did not finish at all as it was hot and windy.
it was very frustrating running 2 very slow marathons. part of me feels i can and should have done better, while part of me is realizing that i will have serious limitations and may never run fast again. i felt upset and disgusted at the finish line and wanted no part of any of the post-race celebrations. But now that i am home and have had a few days to reflect, i feel that these runs went better than i thought and i feel the urge to get back out there and prove to myself that i can still do this and that i can do better. So, i am going to be looking at the calendar and playing around with potential ideas and will give serious consideration to more marathons this year!
Jennifer
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment