With Love From Me To You

This is me at mile 20, also known as Heartbreak Hill.


Do you know who Uta Pippig is? She won Boston 3 times in the 80's, and doesn't want to be remembered for the way she won one of those runs, where she had terrible stomach cramps and the commentators kept talking about the blood and feces running down her leg. And that's not how I think of her. Uta is an enthusiastic supporter of Dana-Farber and many other charitable endeavors, with a great personality, a wonderful sense of humor and an energy within that is pretty contagious.

Here she is at the church in Hopkinton where all the Dana-Farber runners are lucky enough to congregate before the race, giving us one last pep talk and description of strategy for the really tough course. Be sure to hit the play button.

Overall this was a great weekend for me. Saturday at the Marathon expo and then the Red Sox game, Sunday a leisurely day in Hopkinton with our hosts Alan and Beth, visiting the starting line area, where the food vendors have nothing for a runner to eat (fried dough, I don't think so). Sunday night I had my preferred premarathon dinner of brown rice and cheese, and I slept well Sunday night. Monday I ate my preferred marathon breakfast of oatmeal. And still, my stomach was a little finicky, so I arrived a little later at the church than I had planned while my stomach hopefully calmed down.

It was a cold and windy day, and I had a long sleeve shirt under my singlet for most of the morning. Here is our coach Jack getting us in the right frame of mind for running into the wind. (And how many people get not one but two Boston Marathon winners giving them advice on Marathon morning?) I don't know if all 550 Dana-Farber runners got their picture taken with Jack, but a lot of us did, including me.

Jane and an elite runner both convinced me that a singlet was enough for me, so I ditched it after the pictures just before we went outside, and didn't think to put on sunscreen on my shoulders as I had on my face earlier. The sun on April 20 is as strong as the sun on August 20, so the fact that it was in the 40's and windy was irrelevant to how burned I would get.

As a past winner, Jack was announcing over the public address at the starting line, and I was very happy when he saw me and recognized me and wished me luck by name. I was determined not to go out too fast. I was helped in that regard because my legs felt a little heavy and I felt a little bloated, but not too bad. I saw our hosts Alan and Beth at around mile 2.5 and was doing well at that point.

I was very happy that I found my training partners Charene and Susan at about mile 4.5. I ran with them for less than a full mile. They were keeping up a pretty good pace, and after a while I just declared that I didn't feel like I had a four hour marathon in me, and I was going to back off a little. My legs were a little less heavy, but I still had that bloating feeling and was getting a few cramps.

After we parted, the cramps got worse, especially when I drank water or gatorade or had my Cliff Shot Blocks. That was a horrible feeling because I obviouslyhad no choice but to keep hydrating. Still, the predominant thought I was having was that the discomfort was not that bad, it was not the pain of being injured that I had from my Boston Marathon in 2007, so just stay focused and be smart about pacing. Sorry I am being so graphic, but the cramps got better when I could pass some gas.

What made the race so wonderful was, as always, the love from the crowds, cheering "Go Neal" and "Go Dana-Farber". The scream tunnel at Wellesley was as wonderful as ever, but I didn't even want to wasted energy high fiving any of the students, never mind kissing any of them despite their written invitations.

I was happy to be so familiar with the course, especially miles 10-21 which I had run just three weeks before. There is a nice public park in Wellesley we run by, and all of a sudden I had my sharpest cramp yet, so sharp I stopped in my tracks. Then I realized I wasn't going to be just passing gas. There was nothing to do but hop over a wall into the park, and since this was Boston with a ton of spectators, try to be as discreet as I could and have my Uta Pippig moment. As I pulled myself back over the wall a woman said I was lucky to be a guy, and I just smiled, though I was thinking if she only knew how much I had in common with women runners at that moment.

So now I was disgusting, and realized that if I spent the time waiting for a porta potty, there was only so much cleaning up I could do, so I just decided to keep going. And I did feel a little better, the cramps were hardly noticeable the rest of the way, though as I made my way through the hills of Newton, I felt the quads aching, not as bad as my first 20 miler, and I just think that is what the course does to you with so much downhill before you get to the uphill. I saw my aunt Martha and cousin David at mile 19. I was carrying the names of over 200 people who had been stricken with cancer and David was the only one of those who I actually saw during the race. It was extra inspiration as I made my way up Heartbreak Hill, still feeling overall pretty good. Yes I was gross, but I was thinking I was going to easily make my revised goal of running in under 4:30.

Lots more great crowd support along Beacon Street as we approached the Dana-Farber cheering section with some children patients from Dana-Farber. Then I saw my friend Anne, who ran for Dana-Farber with me in 2007, and she got what she described as a salty hug. Sorry Anne, I couldn't help myself, and I wish it was only salt. Then we posed with coach Jack for the official Dana-Farber photographer, and I still thought I was not going to be cutting it close for my 4:30 goal.

A half mile further down the road I saw Jane, but she didn't see me right away, so she had me turn around for one more picture. Now I realized that I was not really figuring in the .2 in the 26.2 miles, so I had to get moving, but happily made my goal by finishing in 4:29:52.

While I am very proud of my effort and happy with my time, like Uta, I don't want to be remembered for running with gastrointestinal distress. Personally, I will remember this Boston Marathon for all of your support which has helped me raise over $22,000 for cancer research at Dana-Farber, and for the love I have received and tried to give back and for the inspiration of all those whose names I carried with me on race day. I love you all. And because I can't help myself, its still not too late to donate. http://www.runDFMC.org/nealb2009

Here are some miscellaneous pictures of me in the church with friends, gathering for our team photo, and during the run. More might be added later.

Me with Judes, Gathering for the team photo at the church

with Kristen and Andrea, the Southeastern CT chapter of DFMC, and the names I carried

Mile 25.5, no idea why these are so dark, and stopping and turning around after passing Jane.

Another DFMC team member's daughter took this.

Thanks again.

Final Countdown

It is all coming so quickly. I am leaving on Saturday for Boston.

I wanted to let everyone know that if you want to follow me during the race, there are three ways to sign up for the AT&T Athlete Alert program:
Simply text RUNNER to 41234. You will then receive an SMS text message confirming how to complete registration.
Continue to the registration page for the AT&T Athlete Alert program on the race website at BAA.ORG. Sign-up using your US mobile phone number for SMS text message updates, or by entering an email address for email updates. Please note that this method will require that you have an athlete’s bib number and date of birth. My bib is 22038 and my date of birth is 10/25/58.

I have raised over $21,000 for cancer research, and its not too late to donate.

Weather forecast has been all over the map, right now its looking good, yesterday it wasn't. Welcome to New England.

Here's hoping the wind is at our back.



I am

One last chance to make it real

My running and fundraising is going a lot better than my blogging.

Next Saturday I will be at the Marathon Expo, then the Red Sox game with Jane, and our great friends Alan and Beth, who are our hosts in Hopkinton for the weekend, as they have very generously been since my first Boston in 2005 . After a long seemingly endless winter of bad weather, it is hard to believe how quickly the last few weeks have flown by. We are just about here.

Here is an update on my long runs and how I felt about them.

Saturday March 7, I ran 15.5 miles by myself in 2:35:20. I was happy enough with being able to sustain the pace of my recovery run.

March 14, I ran with Boston Bound friends Charene and Susan, whom I first met at a marathon training program run through our local hospital. The program lasted a few years and I made a lot of great friends through it, but eventually the funding vanished. It is so much easier to train with other people.

Our run was from my house on a course which is much more hillier and more difficult than the marathon course. I did the first 10 miles in 1:33, 13 miles in under 2:02, but then the hills really got to me and my quads started to really hurt and I finished my 20 miles in 3:20, not exactly a negative split. My last couple of miles were over a 14 minute pace. That hurt as much as my quads. What was nice was that two friends commented on Facebook about seeing me near the end of my run, and thinking I looked fine.

March 15 I ran out of Waltham with my DFMC teammates and had a pretty good run of 15 miles in 2:25. Mile 14 was still being done at a 9:45 pace and my quad felt a little better. I did stop and take pictures of Paul Pierce's house and the Celtics practice facility at the gym we ran from. Jane and I stayed both Friday and Saturday nights in Waltham, and my blog worlds collided as we had a great time with Stephanie and Maria from our Around the World Trip.

My last 20 miler was on March 28, on the course. We ran the first 10-11 miles backwards on the course from Heartbreak Hill to Natick, then turned around so that miles 10-20 of our run were miles 10-20 of the marathon course. There must have been over a thousand people running on the course with us. I had one goal, and that was to try and run a negative split, or at least an even one. This means that the second half of a run should be at least as fast if not faster than the first half. If its not then you probably went out too fast and are too tired to keep your pace. This is especially true in Boston with the hills from mile 15-21. It is a siren call to try and bank time, thinking it is ok to speed up at the start so you can accomodate a slower pace at the end. If you go a minute a mile faster than you can handle for the first 13 miles, you won't slow down by just a minute a mile for the second half, you might slow down by 4 or 5 minutes a mile. This rule I have honored by breaching it, no matter how much I know the rule. Those Sirens were pretty gorgeous and had great voices you know.

So I went into this training run determined to run more intelligently, and have to thank Judith, another Dana-Farber runner who ran a negative split by 6 minutes in last year's Boston, mind boggling to me, for her encouragement and advice. I ran my first ever even split over such a long run. Here are my splits.

1. 9:40, 2. 9:03, 3. 9:21, 4. 9:29 5. 9:43 6. 10:08 7. 9:27 8. 9:37 9. 9:39 10. 9:49 (Total at mile 10 was 1:36) 11. 9:41 12. 9:02 13. 9:04 14. 9:28 15. 9:25 16. 9:10 17. 10:06 18. 10:01 19. 9:33 20. 10:10 (total at 20 was 3:11:41) 21. 10:48 I ran a total of 22 and a quarter miles, although I accidently turned my watch off so I don't have a split time for the last mile. I was pretty excited, and now am more determined than ever to run a smart Boston, and despite the downhill first half, to try for an even split.

So here I am. Unlike Chicago in 2006, I do not know that I can run this marathon in under 4 hours. But I don't know that I can't, either. So, I am going to try and run a really smart race and enjoy myself and think of the cause that I am running for.

April 4 I was in Sarasota, Florida, one of the prettiest places I know to run. I ran the marathon there last year. We belong to a gym down there and I while my mileage was in taper mode, I worked out like crazy. Between the heat and the week of hard exercise, I am not unhappy with the fact it took me 2:13 to run 13 miles. When I told DFMC coach Jack Fultz that I was headed for Florida, he quickly replied, "So I guess you are done with your hill training." So I am posting a few pictures of Sarasota, to show you how gorgeous it is down there and to show Jack the bridge I ran over 4 times. You have to take the hills where you find them.

So now there is but 10 days to Marathon Day. If you want me to carry the names of your loved ones who have suffered with cancer during the marathon, you should email me at nmbesquire@gmail.com by Thursday April 16th, and you can make a donation to support my run and cancer research here. 100% of all donations go directly to cancer research, no part of it goes to overhead.