This past Monday I was fortunate enough to run in my 4th Boston Marathon. Each one of these has been particularly special to me because of the 4 year journey it took to make it the first time. The last 3 times it has also been a special time to share with my father and me. I try to go into the race with an appreciative attitude toward the things I have been blessed with in life. The last two have been special in that my fellow coach, training partner, and close friend will be running the race with me.

The forecast called for mostly cloudy skies and temps in the upper 50's to low 60's. Not ideal for an April marathon but nothing to complain about. I woke up on race morning and for the first time ever before a marathon or tri I was completely unmotivated. I felt like I couldn't wake up and I just wasn't excited about anything. No matter how hard I tried as the morning went on I couldn't snap out of it. This continued to the starting line and through the first half of the marathon. I wasn't talking and I kept focusing on every little problem from aches and pains to the fact that there wasn't a cloud in the sky and I had on no sunscreen to the large number of runners passing us with seemingly no care to what was ineveitably going to happen later on. I had to stop twice to relieve myself which cause me to have to run way to hard to catch up to my friend, who I told to keep his pace. I have also been having a problem finding a shoe that works for me. The Nike max-motos I had on were beginning to cause blisters under the balls of my feet and I wasn't halfway done. Even the girls of Wesley did nothing for me.

By mile 15 I actually thought of stopping. My energy was gone and I felt like I wasn't up for the intense discomfort that I predicted was going to be happening very soon. At mile 16 I said to my friend I am going to starting talking to everyone and acting up to try to get myself out of this or I am done. I started by loudly thanking people for cheering and for volunteering. Something completely changed mentally and everything became good and positive. I was high fiving little kids, clapping witht he music, and generally doing any positive thing I could. I needed some good Karma and it happened. I kept it up for the rest of the race and ended up having a great time both metally and race wise. It is amazing what the mind can do. We both started to slow slightly halfway up Heartbreak Hill on mile 21 and then we say Dick Hoyt pushing his son up the hill. Rick was waving his arms to, what I thought, inspire his dad. That gave me another mental push. We kept up a steady pace until the finish line to a 3 hour and 15 minute marathon. I set a course PR by 7 minutes and fulfilled one of my life goals of qualifying for Boston at Boston.

Now tri training begins for real next week.