This year rather than put any pressure on myself to run, I decided to take it easy. Two friends of mine were the 4 hour pacers, and so I decided to just stick with them. Not that 4 hours is a walk in the park, but I felt like I could hold that pace without pushing myself.
Race morning I found my pacers and stood in the corral with them waiting for the start. It was fairly cool but predicted to warm up quite a bit before the finish. National Anthem, 168 moments of silence, plus 4 more for the Boston victims and then the gun. It took a couple of minutes to cross the start. As usual it was pretty crowded for a few miles. Things went almost like clockwork with no major issues. I've been dealing with some pain just behind my big toe on the ball of my foot. I had bought some "dancer's pads" and this was really my first test in them. While I had some pain, it was no where near the level that I had experienced in training runs, and my run in Scotland.
The pacers and I hung together the entire race, and finished in 3:58:31, almost perfect timing.
This was a good race for me, I did get hot near the end, but nothing serious. Some runners experienced dehydration issues, and a few had to be hospitalized. I'm thankful to have finished with no apparent injuries.
Thanks to Chuck for the picture above.
