Last night, I shared a few thoughts and memories of the Athlete’s Village before the Boston Marathon. The following are my watch splits, which will be off a little bit from the official splits. I will share those later. For a change, I hit almost every mile split. The only one that I missed was mile 26, so instead I have mile 26.2.

Mile 1: 7:16 / 7:16
The first mile was perfect. Our goal was to go out around 7:00 minute pace, and we made a short pit stop so that we could avoid doing so later. It worked for me; apparently it wasn’t enough for my friend, though. I started the watch at the mats, which were about 5 seconds in front of the starting line. The first mile is basically straight down hill, so it is important not to get carried away.

Mile 2: 6:43 / 14:00
The second mile was also where we wanted to be. There was not a whole lot of strategy here; we just let ourselves get carried along without going too fast. I started to overheat a little as I was wearing a little too much in the way of clothes.

Mile 3: 6:41 / 20:41
This was the last mile that I wanted to keep slow, and we were right on pace. I decided to put my new hat that I had bought a few days earlier in the pocket in the back of my shorts, but it fell out within about three steps. There was no stopping for it unless I wanted to be trampled. It was a waste of $12.

Mile 4: 6:33 / 27:14
The idea in mile 4 was to start picking up the pace a little bit, but not too much until we had gotten done with the predominantly downhill aspect. Conservation of strength was the key thought here. It was the first time on the course that I saw any food; there were some kids giving out oranges. I went for about a quarter mile with the orange stuck in my mouth for the few kids that happened to actually look at me as I ran by.

Mile 5: 6:27 / 33:41
This was where I was supposed to get into my groove. I should have been around 6:05-6:15 pace starting in mile 5. I did not quite manage that. Towards the latter stage of the mile, I started leaving my friend behind as he thought it wiser to run his own race rather than my race.

Mile 6: 6:05 / 39:47
Mile 7: 6:11 / 45:58
Mile 8: 6:24 / 52:23
The next few miles were pretty easy, with some gentle rollers and a basically flat trip. I was hoping to keep up the pace from mile 6 through until I got to the Newton Hills, but it did not quite work out that way. My pace gradually eroded as I overheated from too many layers, despite removing my gloves around mile 8. I managed to keep those, however, since I have a little more experience getting my gloves into my pockets.

Mile 9: 6:18 / 58:41
The first real hints of the wind started in the 9^th mile. The race had not left me too wet up to this point, although it would sprinkle down on me off and on and for the rest of the race.

Mile 10: 6:20 / 1:05:02
Around this point in the race, I was running by the folks that I would be near for most of the rest of the race. There was a gentleman from Montana that would get a lot of cheers, a Canadian, a few guys running in Army singlets, and a guy from Minnesota.

Mile 11: 6:30 / 1:11:32
The man from Canada and I started chatting around this point. Apparently, his girlfriend has the same thoughts on marathons during vacations that my wife has. I guess both ladies are bound to be disappointed. Towards the end of this mile I could start hearing the Wellesley girls.

Mile 12: 6:18 / 1:17:50
Wellesley is an interesting place. I would guesstimate that there was about a third of the women there this year that there had been 2 years ago when it was in the 80s. The only real difference in the noise levels, though, was that I could only hear them from about ³/₄ of a mile away rather than from a bit over a mile away. I decided not to stop for any kisses, nor did I try to get any of them to flash me this year. I did play up a sprint along the line, however, which immiediately caused an extra 30 hands to shoot over the fence and the noise to go up about 2 decibles.

Mile 13: 6:27 / 1:24:18
Back to reality. Somebody that I spoke to after the race had actually doubled back around so that he could run through the Wellesley girls a second time. The Canadian caught back up to me; he had stopped for a kiss.

Mile 14: 6:23 / 1:30:41
I got a little heartburn during mile 14, which was interesting. I am not one to suffer much from heart problems or stomach problems, but it went away after about 30 seconds so I decided to ignore it.

Mile 15: 6:36 / 1:37:18
The Canadian gentleman that I was running with stopped for another kiss; this time it was from his girlfriend. I doubt that he told her that she was second for the day. There also started to be food other than oranges available here and there.

Mile 16: 6:21 / 1:43:39
Mile 17: 6:46 / 1:50:26
Coming into Newton, the rolling gets a little more pronounced. Towards the end of the mile, it poured for about 2 or 3 minutes, getting me thoroughly wet. The wind started up here as well, and would remain constant for the rest of the race. There was basically a 15 to 20 mile per hour headwind for the next 8 miles, with gusts going over 30 miles per hour. I rolled my sleeves down during the rain and that was the first (and only) time on the course that I was happy to have them. They stayed down for the rest of the race, despite not needing them once the rain stopped. My torso stayed nice and warm, so had these been the conditions for the entire race then I would have been dressed appropriately. It was the sort of doom and gloom that I had been expecting.

Mile 18: 6:47 / 1:57:13
Mile 19: 6:41 / 2:03:54
Mile 20: 6:58 / 2:10:53
Mile 21: 7:17 / 2:18:11
My goal of keeping around a 6:30 to 6:40 pace through the hills did not work out too well. The Canadian encouraged me a few times, but he was in better shape than I was and eventually pulled away near the top of Heart Break. I did not see the Johnny Kelley statue; I must have gotten distracted when I was near it.

Mile 22: 6:36 / 2:24:47
Mile 23: 6:45 / 2:31:33
Coming down after the Newton Hills was tough. My legs did not really want to turn over, and I had trouble picking up the pace. I should have dropped about 20 seconds at least through these miles and into the finish; the original race plan had called for being at or under 6:20 to 6:25 pace here, and then dropping back down to 6:00 minute pace for the final miles.

Mile 24: 6:50 / 2:38:23
Mile 25: 6:53 / 2:45:17
In the 24^th mile, I should have been picking up the pace but I did not really have much left. I basically gave up. One problem with not having raced much this year up to this point was that I did not have that practice in that I like to have before an important race. Thankfully, I finally pulled away from the guy from Montana. I was pretty tired of hearing people cheer for him at this point. I felt a couple of twinges in my calf, but other than making me hop for a few steps they quickly stretched themselves out and did not bother me much.

Mile 26.2: 7:55 / 2:53:13 (~6:35/mile pace)
I managed to pick it up a little for the last mile plus. It was a too little too late sort of effort, and I failed to meet my goal times. That is just the way that it goes some time. I did manage to pass quite a few people coming through, but there were a few people that held me off and a couple that came up from behind. The wind was particularly fierce through here, which never helps.

I may not have reached my goals during the race, and I may have chosen the wrong years to run the race in terms of weather, but it was still worth running. I enjoyed myself, and I feel like I accomplished something. It also gave me a good resolve to keep myself in shape throughout the Summer so that I can make up for my lack of an acceptable time this Autumn. I do have to admit that I was a little disappointed that there was not as much food this year as there was two years ago, though. There were oranges throughout the entire race, but it took over half the race before I saw anything else being offered and even then it was not as plentiful or as varied as I remember from 2005.

Tonight I will talk about the post race festivities and how everything went after I crossed the finish line.