Boston to Big Sur 2023 the graphic novel

In 2017 I ran Boston to Big Sur. This is a special registration for special (aka crazy, committed, or stupid you decide) people. You run the Boston marathon on the East coast then 6 or 13 days later depending on the year you run the Big Sur marathon on the West Coast. I’m not that crazy I chose a year with a 13 day gap.

In 2023, my friend Christopher was running Boston for the first time, so… we decided to go all in and do Boston to Big Sur. The following is a comparison illustrated by yours truly (if you need a family portrait I do commissions) comparing the day in Big Sur to the day in Boston. This is the sequel to my Boston 2023 graphic novel race report.

2:15 AM Alarm goes off. When I registered nobody warned me I’d be getting up at 2:15 AM

2:15 AM in Boston, sleeping, get some rest I’ve got a marathon to run today

2:30 AM Stumble into the kitchen to make my brown sugar and cinnamon instant oatmeal. Nice to have a kitchen so I have a real bowl and spoon!

2:30 AM Still sleeping

2:50 AM Apply the body glide. Toes, feet, and other places that make we wonder why body glide with built in sunscreen exists

2:50 AM Zzzzzzzzzz

3:25 AM Christopher and I drive to the Embassy Suites to catch our assigned shuttle bus.

3:25 AM Roll over

3:35 AM hand over our ‘purple ticket’ for the 3:45 AM bus from Embassy Suites. Excited to be on a ‘real’ bus instead of a school bus

3:35 AM Still snoozing away

4:05 AM Try not to think about the fact this big bus is navigating a windy twisty road in the dark along a cliff.

4:05 AM Still snoozing

4:35 AM Our bus is one of the earlier ones to arrive so we nab spots on the grass next to the plastic fence race organizers set up to remind all the boy runners the risk of seeing all of nature as your urinal, since this particular region of nature is widely infested with poison oak

4:35 AM blissful sleep

4:45 AM It’s still dark out. Some of the port-a-potties are in areas without lighting. Once you close that door it’s pitch black. Ripping the wrapper off a new roll of toilet paper is remarkably difficult in the dark, but the fact I am the very first to use this stall makes me slightly less terrified of what might lie on the surface of the port-a-potty hidden in the dark

4:45 AM Alarm goes off (blanket magically changes color from red to green because I’m too lazy to redraw and I accidentally used the wrong color on the previous pictures)

5:20 AM Runner sleeping has a large spider sitting on his shorts, Spend the next 15 minutes discussing with other runners waiting around whether to flick it off. Because the spider doesn’t look poisonous and is right on his butt, decide to leave it unless it starts moving.

5:20 AM Grabbing the brown bag breakfast our hotel prepared for Boston runners since we leave before the breakfast buffet opens

6:00 AM Drop off gear check bag at the truck. Too late we realize Christopher’s inhaler is in his gear check. No they will not go sifting through the pile of bags in the truck to try and retrieve it

6:00 AM Sitting on the train headed to the finish line where you drop off gear check and catch buses to the start

6:20 AM Start heading to corral, Find Yvonne standing in massive line for the port-a-potty. She accidentally left her gloves in her gear check bag. I had already been toying with not wearing mine, so hand them to an appreciative Yvonne. Also tell her about the shorter port-a-potty line where we had been sitting earlier

6:20 AM Switched from red line train to green line train

6:43 AM In Corral B waiting to start, no plastic fencing and no poison oak in sight, so several male runners visit nature’s urinal

6:43 At the port-a-potties beside bag check, why are the seats always wet? No don’t answer, I don’t want to know and I will use the hand sanitizer when I leave

6:53 AM Crossing the start line, Start the Garmin

6:53 AM Walking with masses of other runners from the buses towards Boston Common for bus loading

6:55 AM Realize shoelace is untied. Move to side of road but runners are packed tight and faster runners are dashing to the side to get by. Christopher acts as barricade so I can tie my shoe without fear of being run over.

6:55 AM Walking along Boston Common to the security entrance for bus loading

7:20 AM 3 miles in (~5 km) Big Sur has the best mile marker signs! Despite the near perfect running weather. I do not get a speeding ticket.

7:20 AM They aren’t letting my wave go through security yet, sitting under a tree staying off my feet

7:44 AM 5.5 miles (~9 km) Meet a guy whose run Big Sur over 20 times! Ask him what he thinks of the weather today, his answer “We don’t know the weather yet”

7:44 AM It gets cold just sitting here waiting, bundle up in my mylar blanket and put on garbage bag and plastic shower cap to try and stay warm

8:10 AM at 8 miles (~13 km) OMG the wind, now I know what that guy meant

8:10 AM Seriously is any guy capable of not splattering the seat in a port-a-potty?

8:38 AM at 9.5 miles (~15 km) There goes another hat! I’m carrying my visor in my hand this wind, the only sound you can hear is bibs flapping in the wind

8:38AM Sitting on the bus on my way to Hopkinton, the start of the Boston marathon, glad I’m not sitting in the back like I did last year, less bumpy up front

8:46 AM 10.5 miles (~17 km) Group of Japanese drummers on side of road providing motivation on the biggest climb of the course. Stop to play one of the drums, because this is a great race for a PR (Photo record)

8:46 AM Are we there yet?

9:02 AM at 12 miles (~19 km) Take a photo of the amazing view at Hurricane point, genuinely concerned that the wind will blow my phone out of my hand and over the cliff

9:02 AM Try not to think abou tthe fact we have to run all the way back

9:04 AM Start running downhill from Hurricane point to Bixby Bridge but I’m not running any faster because the wind is blowing me back up the hill

9:04 AM Are we there yet?

9:17 AM 13.1 miles halfway (21.1 km) Pose for a photo by the grand piano at the halfway mark and amused by his girlfriend standing nearby wearing a shirt that says “Dibs on the Piano Player”

9:17 AM No really are we there yet?

9:45 AM at 16 miles (~26 km) See ponies on side of road and a sign saying “Free Pony Hugs”. Stop for pony hug

9:45 AM Yay! We finally got to Hopkinton and I was able to secure a dry spot under the tent

10:53 AM 23 miles Another hill … really?

10:53 AM Gun sounded for Wave 3 at 10:50 but haven’t crossed the actual start line yet ‘cuz I’m back in corral 8

11:10 AM 25 miles (40 km) ANOTHER hill? Not even the guy on the accordion playing Roll out the Barrel can make this fun

11:10 AM .5 miles (1 km) High fiving all the kids on the sidelines, running too fast because it’s that nice downhill at the start of Boston

11:20 AM, 26 miles (41.6 km). The sign says it all

11:20 AM thoroughly enjoying having lots of people in the crowds yell GO SUSAN!

11:22 AM 26.2 miles (42.2 km) Crossing the finish line!

11:22 AM 3 miles (5km) Overhear another runner asking out loud who is Susan? as they’ve been listening to people yell Go Susan for the past 2 miles.

12:54 PM Awards ceremony completed, hanging out in the VIP Tent with the other Boston 2 Big Sur finishers rocking our jackets, medals and Yvonne’s plaque for 3rd place in her age group

12:54 PM Running through Wellesley getting a kiss on a cheek from one of the girls

3:58 PM Showered, changed, and out celebrating two marathons on two coasts in 13 days at the pub with glasses of wine for Yvonne and I, non-alcoholic beer for Christopher

3:58 PM Sitting on the curb in the family meeting zone huddled in my mylar blanket looking for Christopher

8:35 PM Fast asleep

8:35 PM Celebrating finishing Boston with Smores and friends

Thank you to Christopher for sharing this coast to coast 52.4 mile adventure with me and to all my run buds, friends and family who support this craziness from near or far and to anyone who humours me by reading my race reports! Below are the photos that inspired my artwork. Any resemblance of the artwork to an actual photo is an unexpected surprise.

If you enjoyed this post check out my other race reports, running quizzes, tips and more!

Boston marathon 2023…a day in the life

Inspired by a clever New Yorker article sent to me by my friend Chris Randall, my 2023 Boston race report compares my Marathon Monday routine in Boston to a typical Monday at home. Hopefully it provides a few knowing chuckles from my running friends, and a few behind the scene peeks for my non-runner friends.

4:45 AM Marathon Monday in Boston, my watch alarm and phone alarm go off, don’t want to risk sleeping in today!

4:45 AM Monday at home I’m sleeping

4:55 AM Stumble down to the hotel lobby to put my oatmeal in the microwave, didn’t add enough water so go to the washroom to add a bit more water and another 30 seconds in the microwave

4:55 AM Sleeping

5:00 AM Apply Body Glide to toes, feet, and many other places including those places which are the reason runners do not share Body Glide

5:00 AM Zzzzzzzzzzzz

5:05 AM finish packing gear check bag that includes warm clothes to put on after I finish, recovery sandals, Boston 2023 jacket, Advil, and a Twix chocolate bar

5:05 AM Sleeping

5:15 AM Head down to the hotel lobby with Judy to meet Yvonne and Mike to drive to the train station

5:15 AM did I hear something? Nah go back to sleep

5:20 AM Grab one of the brown bag breakfast bags the hotel made for all the marathon runners who are leaving before breakfast buffet is open

5:20 AM Zzzzzzzz

5:38 AM Make it to the platform in our stylish pre-race wardrobes with 2 minutes to spare before the train arrives

5:38 AM Yup, still snoozing away

5:40 AM OK, got to the train, breathe. It’s not hard to tell which people are going to the Boston marathon as we clutch our gear check bags

5:40 AM Still sleeping

6:13 AM Change trains from Red line to Green line. I find someone asking for change and offer him the extra banana and bottled water from my brown bag breakfast

6:13 AM Have I mentioned I work at home? So yup still sleeping

6:35 AM Drop off gear check at finish line. Yvonne and I stop so a stranger can take a picture of us in our stylish onesie and bathrobe

6:35 AM Clock radio alarm has gone off, lie in bed listening to CBC local news

6:45 AM Pulling up my shorts in port-a-potty and hear someone say “Oh I think there’s someone in that one” just as the door to my port-a-potty opens… I guess I didn’t turn that latch completely to the locked position

6:45 AM CBC Radio morning

7:00 AM – Follow huge mass of runners making their way from gear check to go through security for bus loading. Mike tells us we can cut across Boston Commons and the security lines will be shorter. He’s right.

7:00 AM National news

7:05 AM They aren’t letting anyone through security until their wave is loading onto the buses. Judy & Mike are in wave 2, Yvonne and I are in wave 3 which isn’t loading yet, so find a tree and settle in to wait. Glad it’s not raining.

7:05 AM Feed the cats

7:40 AM It’s cold sitting here waiting so I break out the garbage bag to put over the top of my robe and put on a shower cap to try to trap the heat and stay warm. Yvonne has gone to Starbucks in search of a bathroom because there are no port-a-potties this side of security. Starbucks gave out free coffee to the runners in line for the one bathroom in the store.

7:40 AM Breakfast of champions.. oatmeal with almonds, maple syrup and blueberries

8:10 AM Wave 3 is loading, so we’ve gone through security. We don’t miss our last chance to use a port-a-potty before we get on the buses. I carefully ensure door is properly locked and wonder why yet another port-a-potty seat is covered with mysterious drops from the previous user. Wipe off seat with toilet paper and take advantage of Purell upon exit.

8:10 AM Complete Wordle, Quordle, and Unwordle with help from Cluseau and Oola

8:25 AM After navigating very chaotic bus loading lines, Yvonne and I sit on the bus and settle in for the long ride to the start and try not to think about the fact we have to run all the way back. Amused to spot a driver in the lane beside us with a bowl of oatmeal in his lap, casually eating the oatmeal as he drives along

8:25 AM A little pre-work yoga, Cluseau sits on my lap during shavasana

9:40 AM arrive at Hopkinton, the athlete’s start village. I assume the wave 2 runners are gone so I just nab a spot in the first tent which keeps me dry as the rain moves in. Try to relax and stay warm. Time to put on my bright pink, shiny new, carbon plate super shoes.

9:40 AM work my way through the piles of email that arrived overnight

10:20 AM Wave 3 corral 8 is called to the start line. I drop my old running shoes off in one of the many clothing donation bags held by some of the thousands of volunteers rocking the blue and yellow volunteer jackets

10:20 AM Online meeting

10:40 AM Stop at the last set of port-a-potties on the way to the start corrals. Unexpectedly find some of my run buddies (Rita, Vincent, Faye & Diane) doing the same thing so we stop for a quick selfie showing off our fine assortment of disposable rain gear. Experienced marathon runners who knew what to pack!

10:40 AM Document review

10:50 AM Wave 3 has started, but it takes a while for Corral 8 to start moving. Bid farewell to my stunning purple bathrobe but keep the garbage bag because it’s still a bit cold

10:50 AM More email

10:56 AM Rip off the garbage bag and cross the start line. Hit Start on my Garmin. I’m about to run the Boston marathon, how terrifying awesome is that!

10:56 AM still answering email, Cluseau is helping

11:34 AM 6.5 km (4 miles) into the race, running through Ashland. I high five one of the many cheering kids spectating as he counts off each high five he receives (298, 299, …) My Garmin says I ran my last km in 5:13/km. Feeling good, lots of downhill in the first 10 km. I’m warmed up now, I take off my arm warmers and tie them to my bib belt.

11:34 AM Team meeting

12:15 PM 14 km (about 8 1/2 miles) into the race, running through Framingham. I hear people shouting GO CANADA! The person in the Canada shirt is Helene from Ottawa! I take my phone out of my pocket for a selfie and we end up running the same pace for a few km. After about a mile she calls out “They are yelling Go Susan more often than Go Canada” did I mention I have my name prominently displayed on my shirt. My Garmin says the last km took 5:40 min.

12: 15 PM Lunchtime, clam chowder, Oola waits hopefully in case there are any table scraps for her. At some point I should probably change out of my pyjamas

12:31 PM 17 km (about 10 1/2 miles) into the race, running through Natick. I see one of my favorite landmarks, Santa Claus is at the top of the hill on the right hand side. My Garmin told me I ran the last km in 5:27.

12:31 PM Done lunch, get distracted reading book 6 in the Wheel of time series, Matt just arrived in the Aes Sedai village.

12:54 PM 21 km (13 miles) into the race, running through Wellesley. This is where all the Wellesley college girls hold up signs offering to give you a kiss, I’m not out for a goal time today so I head over to the fence and get a kiss on the cheek from one of the girls. “Kiss me I’m blonde” though she’s not blonde, I’m confused but don’t have time to stop and enquire. My Garmin says I just ran a 5:29 minute km (8:51 min/mile pace) I’m pleasantly surprised by how good I feel running this pace, the cool weather must be working for me.

12:54 PM The chapters with Matt are the best chapters in this series. I really should get back to work.

1:48 PM 31 km (19.2 miles), running through Newton home of the infamous Newton hills. The last and best known of the Newton hills is Heartbreak Hill, the last big climb in the race. Got caught in rain a few miles back so put the arm warmers back on. At 32 km another runner comes up to me and asks “Is this heartbreak hill?” I apparently can’t keep track of hills and answer “Yes” he looks at me and says “Let’s do this!” we fist bump and head up the hill. Apparently, even after 6 Boston marathons I can’t keep track of the Newton hills, because Heartbreak was actually the next hill, whoops! My Garmin says I ran the last km in 5:08, and the one before that in 5:09, it also reported a couple of sub 5 min kms in the last stretch. As much as I would love to think I am running that fast through the hills I know better and realize I can no longer trust my Garmin.

1:48 PM Another meeting, still in my PJs

1:55 PM Around 32.5 km (~20 miles) running past Boston college. The students read the name off my shirt and cheer loudly. When I reach out to high five one of them, everyone else leans out for a high five and screaming encouragement. My hand hurts by the time I get past them all. My Garmin says I ran the last km in 5:00 (8:00 min/mile) sufficiently inaccurate that I no longer have any clue what my pace is.

1:55 PM Still in the meeting

2:22 PM 37 km (23 miles) into the race, running through Brookline and I’m not completely miserable which is a treat at mile 23. I can’t trust the pace on my Garmin (5 min/km), but the elapsed time is accurate and it says 3:26:08 which means if I can maintain a sub 6 min/km, I could finish in under 4 hours. I’ve only managed that once in my past 6 Boston marathons.

2:22 PM Back to email

2:40 PM 40.6 km (25.2 miles) running past the Citgo sign in Boston. One mile to go and elapsed time on my Garmin is 3:44:15. I am solidly on pace to finish under 4 hours and I’m actually on pace to run my first ever BQ in Boston! Fuck yeah, time to leave everything on the course.

2:40 PM Take a break from email and meetings to pet the cat who has settled in on my lap

2:48 PM Cross the finish line. I just ran my first ever BQ in Boston! 3:52:15! Start to feel dizzy, make sure I keep moving so I don’t pass out.

2:48 PM Unexpected chat with co-worker, kicked Cluseau off my lap because he was being a nuisance

3:22 PM Kept moving and got my medal and mylar blanket. Picked up my gear check time to put on warm clothes because as soon as you stop running it is COLD! Wonderful surprise as Yvonne, Mike and Judy find me. Don’t care whose watching, I rip off my running shirt and put on long sleeve lifa and Run K2J Hoodie. I give Yvonne my sweatpants since I have both sweats and jeans in by bag. Finally I put on the 2023 Boston jacket. Shortly after we find Rita, Faye, Dianne and Vincent as well! We did it! Now lets go find somewhere to get warm before someone gets hypothermia.

Back to email

4:02 PM I find Christopher who crossed the finished line at 3:33 PM, his hotel is walking distance from the finish so he didn’t check a bag and he is shivering! He informs me I need to walk him back to hotel and untie his shoes so he take a hot shower . Hopefully the hotel has an industrial boiler from all the runners thawing out with hot showers.

4:02 PM Still getting work done but Cluseau is starting to get hungry and is dropping hints that I should stop work and feed him

4:55 PM Christopher’s support team (Karin, Abram & Julia) finally get back to the hotel despite the derailed train. It was wonderful to see them at mile 6. We pose for a quick pic before they head out to the pub for celebratory drinks (the carefully selected pub has Christopher’s preferred NA beer) and I head back to my hotel

4:55 PM Cluseau says feed me now!

8:35 PM Stumble from Christopher’s hotel to the red line since train lines are still messed up from the derailment. Take the train back to the hotel. Judy picks me up at the train station in the car so I don’t have to walk the extra 800 meters. We drive to a celebratory dinner with Yvonne, Mike & Pat at Gyu Kaku where I can have my traditional pre or post marathon dessert Smores! Smiles all around. Sneezes and sniffles from Yvonne because she is allergic to cats and in case you hadn’t noticed, I have cats and the sweat pants she borrowed apparently had cat hair on them.

8:35 PM Watching John Wick 2 with Trevor and the cats. No Smores, no medals… but on the other hand I can walk down the stairs without a railing.

Thanks to all the crazy runners who joined me training or running this adventure and of course a huge thank you to all those who cheered on site and remotely! Any resemblance to persons real or fictional is entirely intentional but highly unlikely given my artistic ability

Berlin Marathon 2022 Race Report

I just completed the 2022 Berlin marathon, my fourth Abbott major marathon. I’ll write a separate report on what you want to know if you decide to run Berlin, this report is about my race!

First you need a bib

I’ve entered the Berlin marathon lottery multiple times to no avail. So, I was pleasantly surprised when Christopher and I received the You made it email! As an added bonus my sister qualified for Berlin so yay group road trip! Berlin is clearly more interesting than most race destinations because all our spouses came along for the ride as well!

Gel trauma

For the past two years I’ve been running with Tap Endurance. I love maple syrup, so a gel that’s basically maple syrup equals happy Susan! But crisis! In 2021, they changed the packaging. I spent the entire CIM marathon swearing at Tap Endurance as I tried to rip open the new packages with my teeth. Throughout my Berlin training, my run-buds listened to me complain and made sympathetic noises when the package finally tore open squirting maple syrup all over my shirt and hands. So I decided it was time to jump on the Maurten gel bandwagon. I ran my last two long runs with Maurten gels. It’s a bit like taking a flavorless jello shot every 6 km so not as tasty, but my stomach didn’t mind, and I no longer spent half my run trying to use my sweaty shirt to wipe syrup off my hands so I decided I was good to go with a new product on race day (what could go wrong?) and ordered the Maurten supplies listed on their marathon fuel guide for my race.

To cheat or not to cheat

Okay cheating is the wrong word, as it’s completely legal, but I have now run a 5 km race and a 15 km race wearing Nike Vaporflys. These are the crazy expensive shoes with carbon fiber plates that wear out faster than regular runners. There are no shortage of articles explaining how these give you an advantage, and I did notice a difference in my 5 km and 15 km races. However…. I generally run in mild stability shoes. All the carbon shoes are neutral, so this means I’d be running in a shoe with a different profile for 26.2 miles… you know what they say about don’t try anything new on race day… I’ll pack my regular runners as well just in case I change my mind (what could go wrong?)

The race expo – Sh*t is getting real

I arrived in Berlin with husband on Sunday a full week before the race so I can play tourist and completely adjust to the time zone. Judy and Christopher arrive Thursday so we meet at the race expo at 5 PM. The expo is in Tempelhof, an abandoned airport with a fascinating history that includes Operation Vittles/ The Berlin Candy Bomber. We walked past the abandoned check in counters, out onto the tarmac and into the hangar for the expo itself, we were wandering around trying to find bib pick up, and finally asked a volunteer who sent us in the right direction. I got a gear check bag with my bib because I did not select the poncho (Berlin is kinda like the New York Marathon you have to choose one of the other). T-shirts are not included with race fee, but I had pre-purchased the finisher shirt so was sent to the pre-purchased clothing area to get my shirt. Now time to enter the madhouse that is the official marathon race shop for some serious spending! The jackets are Adidas and similar style to Boston jackets, but they have a cute little windbreaker that clearly needs to come home with me. There’s also a nice running shirt. There’s the usual fun of scouring the racks to find the correct size. Super glad we got there Thursday night, because some sizes are already in short supply. Once you exit the official gear store you have a lot more space. The expo is located in a hangar so there’s a good amount of room between booths.  We spend a pleasant hour or so visiting different vendors before walking back out onto the tarmac for one last photo op with the Candy bomber plane in the background before we leave.

And now for the final touch…

For pre-race throwaway clothes I researched German thrift shops. Christopher and Karin join along with the Piel clan. Christopher and I find our go to pre-race outfits… bathrobes!

While at the thrift shop Christopher tried on a hoodie and when he took his hand out the pocket, pulled out two used masks. Traumatized he went in search of Judy who fortunately had hand sanitizer in her purse (thank you Judy).

Pre-race traditions must be observed!

Christopher and I have a pre-race tradition of walking the last mile of the course, so we meet at Brandenburg gate to scope out the finish area. We locate our names on the hall of fame, and as an added bonus Christopher locates a pretzel and a NA beer. After we walk the last mile we meet up with Judy, Harold, Christopher and Sam. Judy and I find a bear for our traditional pre-race photo!

Scoping out the start area

The printed map in our race kit showing the course, is unhelpful with regards to the start/finish area. It doesn’t show where runners enter, the corrals or gear check locations.

The website and mobile app all direct you to the “interactive map” Well the interactive map shows a bunch of tiny icons that stay tiny even when you zoom in, it doesn’t rotate when you try to display it in landscape, and tapping the icons doesn’t do anything, and there is no legend explaining what all the tiny icons mean. That’s a few too many unknowns for me on race morning, so Trevor and I go off to scope it out in person. We find the runners entrance and family meeting area and we find a giant map of the start area posted on the fence with a legend! Apparently the little coat hangars are gear check. There are two of them in completely different areas (what could go wrong?), but at least I know which tiny icon is gear check now.

The day of rest

Saturday is dedicated to staying off my feet and race prep. According to the Maurten fuel guide I should drink 500 mL of water mixed with my Maurten 320 drink powder. I mix it up, take a swig and OMG what is this stuff! And why won’t it fully dissolve? It’s got floaties in it! It triggers my gag reflex. Still, I am determined to follow the nutrition guide so I take another sip. I do some stretching. I take another sip. I read for a bit. I take another sip. I charge my Garmin. I cut my toenails. I take another sip. I check the hourly forecast (cloudy and 12 degrees at 9 AM). I take another sip. I take a bath. I take another sip. Eventually I manage to drink all of it. I’m dreading the 500 mL of the Maurten 160 I’m supposed to drink tomorrow morning pre-race according to the marathon nutrition plan, but I premix it in an empty Coke bottle and put it beside my oatmeal and bowl for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Time to lay out my flat runner and pack my gear check bag. Now remember when I mentioned I packed my normal runners, just in case I decided not to risk the Vaporflys on race day? Smart right? Well yes, that’s smart if your luggage arrives with you. That’s right, It’s 6 days since we landed in Berlin and our luggage is nowhere to be seen. Our bags arrived in Berlin Monday, but the delivery service is apparently very very slow, and no, you can’t pick it up from the airport yourself. Fortunately I packed the absolute minimum to race in my carry on: Vaporfly shoes, Maurten gels and powder, shorts, compression tights, bib belt, hat, running bra, socks, shirt, arm warmers. I managed to find the German equivalent of Body Glide at a sports store in AlexanderPlatz, I got a new pair of Oofo recovery sandals and some gloves at the race expo, and I’ve bought lots of new clothes in general to get me through the week.

I lay out my flat runner with the Vaporflys. I pack my gear check bag with my new Oofos and I head out to meet Christopher and Karin for dinner at a Japanese restaurant because rice and fish or meat works for me as a pre-race meal. Christopher and Karin arrive a little late because they accidentally went to a different location/same chain, but I amuse myself trying to read the articles in the German version of Rolling Stone magazine and we still finish dinner well in time to get to bed early.

Sunday – Race day!

Berlin is a pretty late start for a major marathon. After copious searching of the marathon app, I finally find an FAQ that tells me specifically: the Elites start at 8:50 AM, corrals ABCD start at 9:15 AM, I’m in corral F so I start at 9:35 AM. I set my alarm for 6:30 so I can have my oatmeal and banana in plenty of time for it to digest pre-race. I even manage to drink my Maurten 160 and refill the Coke bottle with water to sip on the way to the start. Trevor decides to accompany me to the runners entrance. Christopher will meet me on the way. I don my stylish bathrobe and off we stroll.

Where are you?

At least I thought Christopher would meet me on the way. When we get to the designated meeting spot I get a message “I went to the wrong place because I’m an idiot, let’s just meet at the runner entrance”. When I get to the entrance I get another message “I’m at the meet area.” Turns out he’s at the family meeting area. “Lets just meet at the gear check”. While all this is going on Trevor has located a map of the start area with a legend mapping bib numbers to each gear check tent, so at least I know where I need to go check my bag. Trevor gives me a good luck kiss, I enter the start area. I head for bag check keeping an eye our for short port-a-potty lines (the next priority). I get another message from Christopher “At Bag check 26000” . Christopher has literally been getting the run around! Susan took the purple path. Christopher took the red path. Unfortunately, I’m at bag check 25000 which you can see from the image below is nowhere near bag check 26000.

Because I had looked at the gear check tents on the map earlier, I know where he is, so so off I go and YAY there are Christopher and Molly (Molly who I met at the Shamrock Shuffle).

The all important final pre-race pee!

Now that we are united, we all have one thing on our minds… where are the port-a-potties! As I was walking around I scanned the start village for the port-a-potties with the shortest lines. Unfortunately, there are nowhere near enough port-a-potties for this many runners. Not even close. I have never seen lines this bad! Someone said the lines are shorter near the corral, so off to the corral we go. As we walk Christopher scans for water, but no luck there either. I have an old Coke bottle in my pocket filled with water. COVID fears be damned, the three of us share it because we can’t find any other water or electrolytes in the start village. The port-a-potty lines continue to be atrocious. We notice a gap in the fencing where security is letting runners sneak into the woods to pee. We decide we aren’t that desperate…yet. We are almost at the corrals, we notice four garbage trucks along the fence and a few runners sneaking behind the trucks. We look at each other and nod. Behind the trucks are male and female runners squatting or standing as needed. It’s full frontal or full rear view depending on the gender. It’s also a narrow gap between the trucks and the fence so runners carefully step around each other to avoid being hit by an active stream. We do what we need to do and I can now tell you those puddles you see on the other side of the garbage trucks…that’s not water. Laughing we decide before we split up to take a selfie in front of the garbage trucks, and laugh even harder when we realize we are photobombed by a guy coming out from behind the trucks who was doing the same thing we did. FYI, We did find a few port-a-potties near the corral along with urinals for the men right beside the path. Not the discrete hidden behind a wall urinals you see at some North American races, these are just urinals right beside the path. This is Europe people, yes that guy has a penis, yes he needs to pee, get over it.  There’s a lot to be said for the practicality of that at times like this.

The corral

Christopher and I are in Corral F.  The lady checking bibs at the entrance is highly amused by our bathrobes. After all the complications, we have about 15 minutes until we start. They have a big jumbotron at the front of the corral and they show us clips of Eliud Kipchoge and the lead pack already out on the course. It’s warm enough I ditch the bathrobe right away (foreshadowing #4). We spot the 3:45 pacer but no sign of the 4:00 pacer that Christopher was hoping to follow. I have decided to try and run somewhere between 3:50-3:55 which means maintaining between 5:27 and 5:35/km pace.

We’re off

It’s time to start. Christopher and I walk to the start line together then split up, we need to run our own races. I feel good. I feel rested. It’s crowded for the first couple of km, but that’s not unusual for a big race. I take off my arm warmers right away and tie them to my bib belt, it’s warmer than I expected.

0-10 km

Did I mention it’s warmer than I expected, it’s actually a little humid as well. There are several spots where the road narrows and I get stuck behind other runners, but I’m feeling good. Easily keeping a sub 5:35 pace. Be nice if there were more water stops though.. first water stop is at 5 km, just water. I have my Maurten gel at 6 km as planned. I’m feeling pretty good, our bibs have our names on them. A random spectator calls out “Go Susan this is your day!” The second water stop is at 9 km. This one has water and the Maurten drink. Given the gag reflex it caused me Saturday, I pass and stick to the water. My pace varies from 5:23/km to 5:35/km I’m on track.

10-20 km

Wow this course really is flat! Still keeping pace, a few spots where my Garmin is slightly off, but my splits seem to be solidly on track. Passing lots of runners. Feeling good. 12 km is another water stop so I take another gel. I wish they had the paper cups instead of plastic ones, I’m spilling half the water all over my shirt. Hey look a Canadian flag, first one I’ve seen! Woo hoo Go Canada! At 15 km another Maurten stop, I stick to the water. That sun is getting warmer. A good number of spectators, not many silly signs though. At 17.5 more water, the water stops are busy but manageable. My pace is 5:25/km to 5:35/km still feeling good.

20-25 km

20 km is the next Maurten stop but I’m still sticking to water. Trevor and Karin said they would be at 23 km on the left. At 22 km I meet some guy from Spain, we run together and chat for a bit, both shooting for around a 3:50 both feeling pretty good.  We hit the 23 km water stop together and he’s still with me when we meet Trevor and Karin! Hi! Always a huge boost to see family and friends cheering you on the course!  Pace is varying between 5:25 and 5:30. Even at 23 km the course is still fairly crowded. Another water stop at 25 km, glad they are getting more frequent!

25-30 km

There’s a fair number of bends and turns, my watch is about 400 m ahead of the km markers so I start following the blue line. It’s not easy given the steady crowd of runners, but it’s manageable. Gels and water are falling into a pattern: 24 km gel, 25 km water, 28 km water, 30 km gel and water. At this point water stops only have tables on one side of the road. Since the Maurten stops only have water at the first few tables you have to spot them and move over quickly. At the 25 km Maurten stop, I overhear a runner who missed the water table and at each of the subsequent tables she’s calling out asking for water to no avail. Since the cups are quite big and always filled to the rim. I’m still holding mine. I’ve had my usual three gulps and was about to throw the rest away, I look over at her and say “If you are desperate, you can take the rest of mine” COVID be damned she needs the water and gratefully accepts the rest of my water. About a km later she catches up to me and says thank you, we chat and run together for a bit. We pass the 27 km marker, “we are on track all we need to is just need to hold this pace for 90 more minutes” she says cheerily! But I’m starting to slow down, the last two km are a 5:40 pace.

30 – 35 km

I take my gel at 30 km and it triggers my gag reflex. I manage to keep it down but that’s a bad sign. Trevor and Karin will be at 32 km. The heat and lack of electrolytes is beating me up, I stop for a short walk, my next two km are slower than 6 minutes. It’s humid, that cloud cover we had at the start is long gone, and I have not been treating this as a warm weather race. There’s Trevor and Karin, great to see them. Trevor’s sign is a huge hit! There’s a shortage of fun signs on the course today. I let Trevor know that the BQ is not going to happen today. At the next Maurten stop I try drinking some of the warm tea (no idea what benefits this has during a run, but clearly I need something other than water) and I manage to take a sip or two of the Maurten.  At the 34 km stop I dump water on my head. My pace is now closer to 6:30/km.

35-40 km

I start getting muscle cramps. For me, running at this pace, that’s a sign of heat/salt/electrolyte issues. First my hamstring threatens to cramp, then a couple of foot cramps (which I’m able to run through) but when my calf cramps, I have to stop to stretch it. On one occasion, I smile meekly at the two medics who are sitting right beside the fence evaluating me as I stretch. Clearly I pass the test as the don’t even bother moving in my direction to ask if I need help. I turn on my music to keep myself motivated. The number of people passing me has dropped considerably, maybe I’m not the only one out here hurting. I manage one full km without stopping. I don’t take my gel at 36 km because I’m worried I won’t be able to get it down and keep it down. At around 39 km beside  the Mall of Berlin there is a table giving away Coke… OMG yes please! I needed that. I want to keep going the last two km without stopping I really do, but my calf does not co-operate, so I average about 7 minutes/km as I approach the Brandenburg Gate. With 200 meters to go, my right calf tightens again and I start to limp, this will look amusing on the finisher video, but at this point I’m not stopping.  At around 100 meters to go, my other calf starts to seize as well. My running style looks a bit like Forrest Gump when he still has the leg braces, but I make it across the finish line! Woo hoo!

The finish

I get my Eliud Kipchoge medal and notice a handmade cardboard sign “New WR 2:01:09” .That’s really cool! Eliud Kipchoge did set a new world record today! Part of my brain notices a single table giving away mylar blankets, I’ll just grab one further up (oh apparently that was the only table giving out mylar blankets, good thing it’s warm). There’s a table with water. No thanks honestly I’ve had enough water today. I focus on getting to bag check where they read my bib and quickly hand me my bag. I collapse on the grass feeling slightly dizzy. I change into my Oofos, and manage to remove the timing chip from my running shoe. Did I mention they use the old school timing chips you put on your shoe? And they don’t give you zip ties to attach them, so you have to tie them onto your shoes and therefore untie your shoes to get them off after the race. After some amount of time has passed, I find the energy to get up and go in quest of food which I also seem to have missed. There are some runners walking around with white plastic bags. I spot a table with white plastic bags near the NA beer tent. Success! I now have the all important free banana along with an apple and some junk foods.

I start wandering to the exit so I can go meet up with Trevor. I can’t see anywhere to return the timing chip, I ask someone with an info flag, she says she can take the chip for me, thank you! I stumble out of the area and make my way to the “i” in the family meeting zone where Trevor and Karin are waiting. There’s a concrete post to sit on and Trevor has a coke for me. Happy Susan. Christopher isn’t far behind and soon the two of us are giving happy but exhausted grins for the camera.  I check the online results and see that Judy finished 4^th in her age group, amazing! My official time is 4:10:57.

Post-race celebrations

We celebrate at a German beerhall with Una and Todd who I met at CIM and also ran today. We finish the evening with a photo of the runners and a photo of our always important support crew!

Now we just need to pack up for our flight to Barcelona the next morning. Packing doesn’t take long since we still haven’t received our luggage. I give Judy a call to talk about her race, and while we are chatting Trevor gets a message on his phone from the front desk. They have our bags! What! Really! Trevor rushes downstairs and returns with all three of our suitcases!

No BQ today, so, I won’t be running Boston 2024, but I have my luggage back. I’m content. I did just finish the Berlin Marathon, and my 4^th Abbott World Major. For whatever reason today wasn’t the race I hoped for, I don’t think the Vaporflys messed me up, maybe I underestimated the heat and humidity, maybe I screwed up my nutrition, but maybe (none of like to admit this possibility) I was just undertrained, you never know for sure. It’s all those little mysteries that cause the strange addiction to the marathon distance. If it was easy and you always knew what was going to happen, it wouldn’t be such an achievement when you do run a good race. If you are thinking of running it, check out my (coming soon) practical Guide to the Berlin Marathon for the nitty gritty details a runner will want to know. If you enjoyed this you may want to check out my practical guides to various marathons, training tips, and other fun run related posts.

Vielen Danke Berlin!

Boston Marathon 2022 Race Report

I’ve often said, half the battle of marathons, is getting to the start line. Boston 2022 was a stark reminder of that reality!

The training…

• Go me! I did real hill training for this cycle +10 points (thanks for the company Judy)
• Not only did I buy kettle bells but I used them to get in some regular strength work +10 points (listen to your Physiotherapist, right Richelle?)
• Made sure to have fun running by going to Chicago to run Shamrock Shuffle +5 points (thanks Molly & Christopher)
• Cut my long run short the day after the Shamrock Shuffle, because I was just feeling lazy -5 point

• Realize all that good food in Chicago + pandemic, I am a full 10 lbs heavier than I was just before COVID. – 5 points
• Hard to believe I did 3 long runs on the treadmill (the weather was that bad) +10 points
• Uh-oh ran out of musicals and concerts on Youtube to motivate me when running on the treadmill, weather sucks, skip at least one long run completely -10 points
• Yikes! Sidewalks were so icy I had to walk for an entire km -10 points (+20 points to Terry and Harold for waiting for me, so I didn’t just go straight back to the car and bail on the run completely)
• Post-Chicago, managed to drop 2 lbs before race day +1 point

Getting to Boston…

• Sorry Air Canada, we are allowed to drive across the US border now +10 points and save $$$$
• Sweet! No COVID tests required if you are fully vaccinated +20 points and save $$$
• Ottawa is in a 6th wave of COVID, with a record number of COVID cases, turn into a hermit for 14 days before we leave -10 points
• Whoah, that’s a serious line! Easter weekend Boston means everyone is cross-border shopping, and the NEXUS lane isn’t open -10 points
• Why are we stopped on the highway? A truck caught fire and they had to close a lane of the highway in Vermont – 10 points for us, -100 points for the poor truck driver
• Why are we stopped again? Three more lane closures in Vermont because they are picking up litter -30 points
• What can I say, depending on my mood I pick different beverages, so yay! the New Hampshire liquor outlet gives me a chance to buy my go-to non-alcoholic gin, a four pack of canned bubbles, and some great scotch +10 points
• Despite all the delays, we made it to the expo before it closed Friday night +10 points

• Oooh! Boston marathon running tights +10 points -$50
• That’s cool, after the expo closes, the fan fair is still open and there is no line to get a free custom badge on your Boston jacket + 20 points
• Oooh they also have a really nice hoodie at the fan fair +10 points -$50
• The hotel reception has awesome “welcome runners” signage and super friendly staff, and unlike the downtown hotel rooms, our room is spacious, has a view of the water and it’s sunset +10 points
• Hotel bar has decent food +10 points
• My husband hid Easter candy in my luggage +5 points

Marathon weekend…

• Thanks to my awesome sister Judy we snag an invite to the 261 get-together, maybe we can meet Katherine Schwitzer, lots of cool, passionate women at the event, free smoothie and oooh nice bracelet, singlet and arm warmers +10 points -$75
• Fun, but no sign of Katherine Schwitzer, so can’t get our jackets signed -2 points
• Find this guy in the Boston Commons, +10 points
• We make a donation and he asks if we’d like to request a song which results in me accompanying him to Sweet Caroline +5 points
• Find Yvonne and Pat immediately afterwards and convince them to come back so we can all sing Sweet Caroline +20 points

• Desperately need new jeans and there is no Lucky jeans in Ottawa, but there is one in Boston, oooh and a nice jean jacket too, I’ve been looking for a jean jacket +10 points -$90
• Hotel is cheap but too far away to have time to go back before supper -5 points save $$$$
• Need something to do until supper. Stand in line to visit secret store hidden behind a Snapple machine (no really it’s a thing, not a very well kept secret though) +10 points for being cool enough to find this store
• Still got time before supper so visit the Christian Science library which has a 30 foot high stained glass globe of the world you can walk inside +10 points for finding new weird things to do in Boston!
• After trying a Unitarian, Baptist, and United church realize dinner is in the Italian district and there must be a Catholic church here where we can light a candle for a friend’s mom who recently passed. We did leave a prayer request for a few friends and family who are either dealing with loss or dealing with other challenges at the big church on Boylston as well (worth going inside, quite beautiful). Take a moment to appreciate being healthy. Can’t score points for that, just take a moment and appreciate it and say a little prayer for someone.
• Dinner with Run K2J members and friends, the dish that fell on the floor was not Judy’s supper, Pat has big balls, the owner has big Italian hair, and they were nice enough to do separate checks +10 points

• Amazing location for a shakeout run Sunday morning along the beach, 2.5 km of shoreline +5 points
• Stop to write Run K2J in seashells +5 points
• What the F****? Turnaround and start running back to the car, 300 meters in my upper back start to spasm causing considerable pain and preventing me from running at all -50 points
• Oh SH****! Walk all the way back to the car, and have Yvonne and Judy do the shoulder checks because I can’t turn my head without considerable pain -20 points
• Panic! Spend the next hour freaking out and asking Yvonne (who is a PT), and Christopher (who has had back spasms) what the heck I can about my back +10 points
• Fortunately I packed Advil +20 points
• Fortunately our hotel room is big enough I can lay out my yoga mat and go through a 60 minute gentle yoga class +20 points
• Fortunately the guy at the hotel bar is great company, and it’s just me there for lunch, and he tops up my wine for free, +10 points
• Stoned on Advil and free wine I feel up to going into town for the team photos at the finish line +10 points???
• Confusing my family, I spend the family zoom call from lying on my yoga mat using my yoga tune up balls to roll out everything connected to the back muscle that is messed up +10 points
• Controlling what I can, I go to bed carefully positioning pillows to be kind to my back +5 points
• Lie in bed thinking, damn I can’t return the jacket because it has a custom patch on it. If I can’t run, how far can I actually walk before they kick me off the course? How long do I have to walk to feel I earned the right to wear the jacket?

Marathon Monday…

• Well my back is no worse now than it was when I went to bed, so time to break out the stylish zebra bathrobe and head to the start with Judy and Yvonne +10 points
• Wow, dropping off bags at gear check and getting back to the buses was crazy slow -10 points
• Holy cow our bus driver is cruising, we passed at least 10 other buses +10 points
• Whoah! we are at the back of the bus and at this speed really feeling those bumps -10 points
• Bwahahaha! That last bump triggered my Garmin to say I reached my step count for today +1 point
• Yikes! they are calling Wave 3 to the start and we haven’t even got to a port-a-potty yet -5 points
• Score! I still remember where the shortest port-a-potty lines are located +20 points
• I forgot my sunscreen, and the sunscreen dispensers are all empty -10 points
• Found one dispenser with sunscreen and a huge crowd of people around it but manage to get a tiny bit for my face and Judy’s shoulders +5 points
• I guess I’ll find out soon if my back is better, hello corral 5
• Pretty happy with the name bib I made so people can say “Go Susan” +5 points
• Cross the start line, start running, every km I manage to run is one less km to walk

The race

• Wheeee I do love the downhill at the start
• Maybe I’ll start counting the uphills as a way to distract myself
• That’s one hill
• “Go Susan” – excellent, the name bib is working
• That’s two hills
• “Go Susan you’ve got this”
• That’s three hills
• Wait that’s the 5 km mat, I ran 5 km, my back is okay, I think I’m running a marathon today, woot!
• High five all the people!
• “Not far now, Susan” – dude I’ve barely started that’s cruel
• Oh how I wish I was on the other side of the road where they have a giant Will Smith carboard face for runners to slap
• “You can do this Susan!” – from a little 8 year old girl I was giving a high five, okay THAT was awesome
• I have totally lost track of the number of hills
• At this point I think the back will be okay!

• Oh wow, there was so much news about Spencer the dog that you can’t even see him so many runners stopped and surrounded him to take pictures
• “Looking good Susan” – so sweet when spectators lie and tell us that
• Santa Claus!
• Diane hi! great to see you, you are running faster than me have a great race!
• “Susan! Susan! Susan”
• Oooh there’s Karen ahead of me, she’s having a good race, I won’t catch her she’s pulling away
• Big Bird! Was Big Bird there last year? I feel like he was but I can’t remember
• 20 km mat which means must be time for yes, Wellesley college and the scream tunnel
• I miss having Jonathan on the right hand side in his CBC shirt after Wellesley cheering us on
• “Oh my god there she is we found her, Susan, Go Susan, you’ve got this Susan!!!” – from a total stranger, okay that made me laugh
• Yvonne? shouldn’t you have passed me a while ago? oh stomach issues, yikes! Go Yvonne Go! Bye Yvonne

• Hi Diane good to see you again, just in time for… ‘dramatic sound effect’ the Newton hills.
• Okay the first hill is a long one, I know this, I got this
• It really is long!
• I’m going to keep running beside Diane, hope that works for her but it’s helping me on these hills
• “Go Susan”
• Second hill, this one is nice and short, is this actually one of the Newton hills or just a bonus hill
• “Go Susan you’ve got this”
• Okay now this one is definitely a Newton hill, there are three right?
• “Susan, Go Susan!
• Well this is another hill so at that’s definitely three solid hills in Newtown, but is this heartbreak hill or is there another?
• “Woo Hoo go Susan!”
• I’m thinking all this Go Susan stuff might be getting irritating for Diane
• I Hate Newton! Seriously how many hills are there?
• Okay THIS one has a banner at the top saying heartbreak is over, so that MUST have been heartbreak
• Diane – look a photographer let’s get a pic!
• Boston College has great cheering, but having a guy in a Boston college t-shirt in front of me is causing next level screaming!
• Ha! As soon as we got past Boston College the guy in the Boston college shirt started walking

• Hey that’s a Run K2J shirt up ahead. That’s Chris!
• Who is that tapping Chris on the shoulder, it’s Vincent, Diane’s husband!
• That big downhill after heartbreak helped me a lot I’m feeling pretty good for 35 km in I’ve got enough in me to pick it up and catch Vincent
• Hi Chris! (who apparently when realizing he would not have a great race decided to get his money back by collecting extra Maurten gels at all the gel stops)
• Vincent! Diane is about 20 meters behind you
• Diane says run with Vincent, okay.
• “Go Susan” wait a sec that’s JR not just a random stranger!
• Vincent points out “all the times I’ve run this race this is only the second time I’ve noticed the Citgo sign”
• I realize this is the first time I’ve noticed the Citgo sign up close, and I would have missed it if Vincent hadn’t pointed it out
• I feel good, I’m going for it
• “Go Susan”
• I kid you not, my arm is actually getting a little sore from waving back to all the people calling my name.
• Hey there’s Karen, Hi Karen!
• One mile to go I know this stretch, follow the blue line, go, go
• Right on Hereford
• Left on Boyleston
• That Boyleston stretch is always longer than you think

Cross the finish line of the Boston marathon!

• Feel light headed, trying not to pass out -10 points
• Wow long walk to the heat sheets -5 points
• Oooh cookies in the goodie bag + 20 points
• Gyu Kaku complete with smores with my run buds to celebrate +20 points

Thanks to everyone who got me through the training and the race! 21 km into the race all I could think was I never want to run another marathon, but now that it’s over, I’m hoping my 2021 run at California International Marathon will get me a bib for 2023 (1 minute 39 seconds faster than my required BQ ). If not, I’ll be there to cheer!

If you enjoyed this post, check out my other Boston related posts and race reports

Shamrock Shuffle (8km) 2022 race report

The Shamrock Shuffle is a very popular 8km race in Chicago. This post will give you an idea of what to expect if you choose to run the race. The key takeaway: It’s a fun race, I highly recommend it.

There’s something to be said for going out to run big races that are NOT marathons. If you fly or drive to a town to run a marathon the 24-36 hours leading up to the race you find yourself constantly wondering did I walk to much? am I drinking enough water? too much water? meals are carefully selected to provide the calories you need without upsetting your digestive system. You lay out all your gear ahead of time to be sure you haven’t forgotten the tiniest detail and you are usually in bed by 9! The Shamrock Shuffle gives you a lot of that big marathon experience without all that added stress. You can go out and eat deep dish pizza or cannolis the night before along with your beverage of choice and all you need to do is get to the start by 8 ish to get into your corral.

The Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago may only be an 8 km race but with 16,000 runners to organize, the pre-race experience is reminiscent of a major marathon. My friend Christopher was picking up a bib for feelow Seattle Greenlake runner Molly, a Shamrock Shuffle regular. So we walked to the race with her and she summed it up perfectly “All the fun and energy of the Chicago Marathon without the pesky 20 miles in the middle.” Both races you’ll see random reminders of the race around town. Both races have the same sponsor, Bank of America. Both races start beside the fountain in Grant Park, with corrals lining up on the same stretch of road with that stunning view of the Chicago skyline from the start corral.

The two races also follow the same route for the first mile, and both races finish with the infamous hill on Roosevelt 🙂

The race is extremely well organized with an impressive number of volunteers taking care of packet pick-up, t-shirt pick-up, t-shirt exchange, info desks, gear check, managing start corrals, and all the other details that go into a great race. They even have a small store beside the t-shirt pick up where you can buy branded race gear.

At marathons and half marathons it’s rare to see people wearing their race shirts on race day. But this race is all about green! The majority of runners are sporting their emerald green race shirts. I had not realized what a faux pas I had committed by wearing my usual out of country red Canada t-shirt. Even the race announcers at one point were making jokes about the sea of green and the 5 people wearing red. At least, I was wearing the green race hat and bandana.

I was worried with only two aid stations and not much opportunity for runners to spread out over 8 km that it would be difficult to get hydration. I was happy to see the tables were well spread out and were set up on both sides of the road so it wasn’t difficult to get water or Gatorade at either of the two aid stations located at mile 1.6 and 3.6. Now to be fair, it wasn’t particularly hot today, that may have reduced demand, also it’s 8 km, so not all runners will bother hydrating (I didn’t) .

One other important thing to mention in any race report! The port-a-potty situation! There were port-a-potties at both aid stations and in ample supply at the start/finish area. We actually found port-a-potties with no line up on our way from gear check to our corral

The race was generally a lot of fun! if you want to go fast, there are plenty of people running fast, but if you want a PB you need to be right at the front of a corral. They pause between corrals, so that provides an opportunity for those trying to go fast to avoid getting caught behind other runners in that first mile before runners start to spread out. You will likely post a faster time at the front of a later corral than at the back of a faster corral. Remember the race is only 5 miles, so if you struggling to find space to pass people for a mile that’s 20% of the race!

Of course, you don’t have to go all out! This is a great race to just jog and enjoy yourself. Regardless of your pace, you will be surrounded by runners the entire race. There are also options for family or friends who aren’t runners to dip a toe in the green water (side note: green water in Chicago around St Patrick’s day is a thing.) There were plenty of people walking the 8 km, and there was a 1 mile race and a 2 mile walk.

Of course there were lots of runners who took green to the next level with costumes and accessories. The most famous among them is “The Green crew.” The Green Crew are such a staple of the race that they have one of those photo ops with cutouts set up in near bib pick up. I took a quick pic after I picked up my race packed and was thrilled to meet two members of the actual Green Crew at the finish line for the live version of the same photo op 🙂

Like any big race you have the option of buying race photos, but like any big race, if you want to get good race photos you will need to keep an eye out for the photographers and make sure you get in front of that lens! I will say the red shirt made it easy to figure out where I was in the group shots! At $24.95 for a single print, I didn’t feel the need to purchase an official download. But maybe I’ll talk to Molly and Christopher and see if they want to split the cost of buying 1-3 prints, since we have several with all three of us in the shot and it passes the Marie Kondo test, the photo will bring me joy.

So if you are looking for a race that’s got big fun without the big miles, get your green on and head out to Chicago! If you’ve run Chicago and are looking for other unique or big destination races where the main event is shorter than a half marathon, you might want to check out Bay to Breakers in San Francisco, the Perth Kilt Run in Ottawa, I can also recommend City2Surf in Sydney Australia (haven’t written a race report for that yet.) If you have suggestions please add to the comments below! I’ve already added Vancouver Sun Run, Atlanta Peach Tree, and Bolder Boulder in Colorado to my wish list.

You don’t need to be a marathon runner to be a runner and you don’t have to run a half or full marathon to justify a trip for an amazing race experience!

If you enjoyed this post, check out the rest of my running related posts with everything from gear reviews, to running disaster stories!

CIM, Susan’s quest to BQ

If you are thinking of running CIM and want the low down on what to expect that’s over here in my serious race report. This race report is Susan’s musings on her own race! Mostly to amuse myself but if it amuses anyone else, enjoy!

The quest for a BQ

It’s not that you aren’t fast enough for Boston, you just aren’t old enough! Fortunately, I am old enough and female enough that I have run Boston. But I need a BQ for 2023! Qualifying for Boston is a mixed blessing, once you’ve been once, you want to go back, over and over! Extra fun for a Squeaker like me! (Squeakers are those of us whose qualifying times are at risk of not making the Boston cut-offs)

In February 2021, my Seattle running buddy, Christopher, and I were living the pandemic race drought, and decided for mental health reasons we needed to register for a race we believed would happen in person. Enter the California International Marathon. It’s in December, surely, please, by then we will be racing in person again, pretty please? As an added bonus, CIM has a reputation as a great place to BQ. Book it!

It just so happens I had my marathon PR at Hamilton in 2019, so I also had almost 14 minutes below my BQ time for Boston 2021 registration (I know, I know, hand in my squeaker card but I promise I’ve slowed back down to squeaker status). Because of the pandemic, Boston was a fall race in 2021, and of course it might be virtual like it was in 2020, and who knows if we will even be able to enter the US to run it, but as it turns out, I had a bib for Boston in person in October 2021, 7 weeks before CIM.

Boston happened

Now as an experienced Squeaker I can tell you, you don’t try to BQ in Boston, are you nuts? Boston is a tough course and it’s also a fun race (if any marathon can be called fun) to just run without stressing out over your time. So I figured run Boston, race CIM! My sister and I navigated the COVID border crossing fun and managed to run Boston in person. I didn’t stress over the time, it was great!

CIM Training

So, now I have 7 weeks. 2 week rest, then start training again? Sadly my body had other ideas. Patellofemoral syndrome, and a wicked hamstring cramp did allow me to check two new running injuries off my bucket list but resulted in my first physio visits in 3 years (Hi Richelle!) I ran maybe 100 km total in the entire 7 weeks between Boston and CIM.

Pre-race rituals

I complete my COVID test (come on negative, come on negative, yes!!!!) and Wednesday Christopher picks me up at SFO (that’s San Francisco Airport in frequent flyer speak). All runners have a few important pre-race rituals and superstitions, especially before a marathon. One of our pre-marathon routines is going out for Gyu-Kaku (Japanese restaurant where you grill your own food). The race is in Sacramento which is sadly a Gyukaku-free zone, so we hit one in San Francisco and binged on beef and rice then the most important part. We sacrificed marshmallows to the running gods with a dessert of smores

CIM Expo

We drive to Sacramento Friday and there is a runner doing As and Bs in the parking lot as we pull in. I think this is the right hotel. The plan was to arrive Friday so we can do all the rushing around now and spend Saturday with our feet up! First stop race expo!

COVID is still a thing so we had to book a time for when we would pick up our bibs. To pick up our bibs we need to show our proof of vaccination, the volunteers are wonderful and within minutes we are trying to find ways to spend our money in the expo.

Clearly I need these two t-shirts, and a new pair of compression socks, Yes Christopher you definitely need another pair of Goodr Sunglasses, and yes I know CIM is one of the best places to BQ but I am *not* buying this shirt that would surely anger the marathon gods!

We continue with the usual pre-marathon rituals, we hand strangers our phones to take our picture (selfies in a race expo anger the marathon gods!), we take pictures of random strangers standing in from of banners, holding up their bibs, while friends yell out take off your mask for the photo (ahhh COVID!)

For the first time I look at the course map and I notice the elevation chart in the corner, ooooh I like that!

Around this point Christopher and I start having *the* talk. “So what pace you thinking of running Sunday? ” Don’t be fooled by the casual tone! Somehow you have to extrapolate a race day goal from your performance through 16 weeks of training with paces and performances that varied dramatically and probably culminated in a long miserable 20 mile run at a pace far slower than you hope to maintain for 26.2 miles on race day. It would be nice to run a BQ, and the weather forecast is good, should I? could I? Will the gods allow it? I need a sign!

Then I see the sign, an actual sign, a sign about a bell!

Well that’s it for me, I’m going to try and run a BQ! I want to ring that bell on Sunday. They have pacers for every BQ time, did you see the hill profile on that map? the weather forecast is perfect, F*K it I’m going for the BQ! Tempted by that hill profile, pacers, and weather Christopher also decides to try for a PB.

Laying out the flat runner

Saturday involves a lot of time in my room with my feet up, sipping Nuun, eating chips, watching whatever will pass the time on the hotel TV. Oooh back to back episodes of Christmas bake-off! Then it’s time to lay out all the running gear for race day. I don’t want to be making decisions about which socks to wear at 4:30 AM! a couple of months ago I ordered a shirt and tank from Athletics Canada so random strangers could yell “Go Canada” at me as I run by in US races. I also have my favorite pre-race throwaway bathrobe and some styling zebra pyjama pants from the thrift shop to keep me warm until the race starts.

The start line

The race starts in Folsom, in fact it’s right next to Folsom Prison of Johnny Cash fame. You can see the barbed wire of the prison yard when you get off the bus. After drinking copious amounts of Nuun Saturday all I can think of after we arrive is where are the port-a-potties!!! Fortunately, they literally have port-a-potties as far as the eye can see. Now, I can take a minute to look around the start, don’t trip over the rope between corals…and hey we can actually get back on the bus to sit down and stay warm… what was that crashing noise? Oh that was a runner who did trip over the rope between corals and pulled the fencing down with him. That would be a sucky way to get injured just before starting your marathon. Hmmm, not that this affects me at all but just wondering where do the 3-3:30 hour marathoners corral?

The race

With the limited mileage and injuries, I honestly have no clue how my body will hold out for 42.2 km! I remind myself of Christopher’s rule: Dead Last Finish > Did not Finish > Did not Start. Time to shift the mindset from I don’t “have” to run this marathon, I “get” to run this marathon!

I line up with the 3:55 pace team, make polite nervous conversation with the other runners in the coral, duck under the clothes being thrown over my head towards the fence and we are off! The weather is perfect, let’s do this.

The kms go by, and of course at various points I feel my knee injury is acting up, no wait my hamstring is acting up, but wait it was my right hamstring I injured not my left. So basically I had a pretty normal race experience thinking some random injury was going to sideline my race but each twinge faded away with the mileage.

There are some crowds along the way but instead of hearing “Go Canada” all I hear is “Go Karen!”, endless shouts of “Go Karen Go!”, “Way to go Karen!” “Yay Karen!” Apparently our pacer has a LOT of friends.

Karen starts giving advice on how to run up the hill, and the next hill, and the next hill, wait a second!!! Where did all these hills come from did they not see the hill profile on the map? Fortunately, I had trained for and run Boston so each hill I just kept thinking okay well not as steep or as long as Boston’s hills but wow what a LOT of hills! Anyone who expected this race to be downhill or flat could be in big trouble! (side note Strava says I ran 292 m of elevation in this race, Boston is only 340m of elevation so yeah that was not my imagination it WAS hilly).

Water stops magically appeared at distances like 4.2 miles and 6.7 miles. I crossed a couple of timing mats and called out hello to family members and my physiotherapist letting them know I was still on pace for a BQ. At the half way point I put on my metal playlist to give me an extra boost ( Iron Maiden Run to the Hills wasn’t the first song I heard, but I did get to hear it before the end of the race 🙂 Here are some of the random thoughts that went through my head as I ran:

• I wonder what a random passer by would make of the volunteers constantly yelling out “WATER” “CAFFEINATED” “NO CAFFEINE” “BANANA” for hours on end.
• Okay this new Endurance Tap packaging is hard to open, let’s try ripping the corner with my teeth
• Seriously does everyone know Karen? Why did I even bother with the Canada shirt?
• Oooh Banana!
• 21.1 km to go, I ran 21.1 km last weekend with Terry and it felt okay, I can do this
• “Run like your mother just called you by your first name” okay that’s a good one
• Yay I get to see Karin and Stephane at mile 16!
• got a tiny hole in the top of the Endurance tap gel packet, maybe if I squeeze it like a tube of toothpaste rolling it up from the bottom?
• Yay I get to see Karin and Stephane at mile 20!
• Oh no, missed the banana!
• another hill? wow! they just keep going
• blister on my toe, blister on my toe, oh better now, probably burst and I’ll have a nice bloody sock at the finish
• How miserable was I when I ran my PB in Hamilton.. I’m not that miserable yet keep going
• Oooh banana, not missing it this time!
• I am going to ring that Bell
• New York marathon hurt a lot, I can take this
• I am going to ring that F*** Bell
• I hate the new endurance tap packaging!
• I am going to ring that F*** Bell

We crossed a bridge around 21.5 miles. At this point the pace pack was starting to catch up to runners who had gone out too fast or who weren’t expecting all those hills. It gets flatter after the bridge, but oh my foot is trying to cramp, relax breathe, settle in, 3 miles to go still with the pace group calf is starting to cramp nooooooo not now… 3 miles, I’m so close, but no, I can’t keep up with the pacer I’m going to have to slow down or walk, I slow down the pace group starts to pull away, the change in pace settles my calf and I am able to pick it up and rejoin the pack. 2 km from the finish, I’m tired, I’m sore, but I’m not dying. Time to use up anything I have left and go! That runner I can catch that runner, now that runner, now that runner, “Go Canada!” Hey finally one spectator noticed my shirt. Extra 10 points for passing that runner in the Vaporfly shoes, that runner, that runner, 800 meters to go, Christopher and I walked the last 800 meters, every second I gain here is a better chance of making the BQ cutoff, every second counts, go, go, and then a song comes on my playlist with a wicked fast beat and includes the following lyrics:

Time, got the time tick tick tickin’ in my head
Time, got the time tick tick tickin’ in my head
Time, got the time tick tick tickin’ in my head
Tickin’ in my head, tickin’ in my head, tickin’ in my head
If I, tell ya what I’m doing today
Will you, shut up and get out of my way
Someone ask me what the time is, I don’t know
Only know I gotta go now

Anthrax – Got the Time

That’s exactly the song I needed right now! Straight down the chute fist in the air, I even attempted to do a jump as I crossed the finish. (I got about 2 cm vertical and almost fell over when I landed 🙂

Just keep moving…Medal yes thank you.. just keep moving…Finisher jacket, yes thank you… keep walking… water bottle thank you…. keep walking.. goodie bag thank you… okay now get to the gear check… If any of you have ever seen me after a marathon I am a complete and utter wreck, I hyperventilate, I can barely stand or walk, I cry, seriously the medics always watch me carefully as I go by wheelchair at the ready. I get to the gear check bracing myself to walk past all the tents to the 4000-4500 gear check tent. The volunteer takes one look at me and says “Would you like me to go get your bag for you” YES GOD YES PLEASE! I stop moving. I force myself to try and swing my legs a bit. She comes back with my bag. My angel!

The Bell I must find the bell. I hear it ringing, I slowly stumble towards the bell, past runners, single minded, the bell, I ran a BQ I must ring the bell. Oh crap! all these runners I am walking past are in line to ring the bell! Yeah I cannot spend 30 minutes standing in a line right now. Grass lawn, gear check bag, sweatpants, mylar blanket spread eagle on grass. I’m done. I am so so done.

At some point in the future I did find the energy to get in line 🙂 Totally worth it. Thanks to all my running buddies and my Ottawa running group Run K2J for the helping make it happen

If you enjoyed this race report, check out the rest of my running posts everything from a fun quiz, to running disaster stories, gear reviews, and race reviews.

California International Marathon 2021 Race Report

This post will give you details on what to expect if you run C.I.M. the California International Marathon. This a popular fall race for runners hoping to achieve a Boston Qualifying time. So let’s see how it holds up!   If you want to know how my race went, that’s in a my personal race report.

Where and When is it?

The California International Marathon (CIM) is held in Sacramento, California. If you are not familiar with Sacramento, it’s the state capital and is located about a 2 hour drive inland from San Francisco (depending on traffic). The race is usually held the first Sunday in December and the race starts at 7 AM.

What’s the race route?

The course is point to point so you have to get to the start line. To reach the start you have two options. Option one take a bus. Most buses leave at 5 AM so it’s an early start to the day. Option two, have someone drop you off at a shuttle stop. A shuttle will bring you to the start. One very important advantage to taking the bus is that after you get to the start line you can stay on the bus (and yes you are allowed to get off the bus, go to the port-a-potty and return to the bus). Shuttles go back and forth continuously so you don’t have that option of hanging out on the bus if you choose the shuttle option.

You start in Folsom and basically follow the river to the Capitol Building in downtown Sacramento. The start line is right next to Folsom Prison, yes *that* Folsom Prison, made famous by Johnny Cash. You run through Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks, then into Sacramento. You cross a bridge around the 22 mile mark bringing you into Sacramento. You are not running along a river path, you are running on the streets so it’s basically a run through suburbia.

Do take a close look at the last mile. See the little hook at the end? I recommend walking that last half mile before the race so you know what to expect. You will be running along L street, you will pass 10th street where the runners exit from the finish area, you keep going and turn left on 8th street. Then you will see two finisher chutes on your left, the first chute is for the women, the second is for the men. The women’s finish line is a touch further down the chute since you make the turn sooner so they can even out the mileage.

Is it hilly?

Great question! It is a net downhill of 366 feet as you can see from this little picture in the corner of the race map. Doesn’t that look like a great downhill course? Yeah… so let’s dig a little deeper into that.

The Boston marathon is also a net downhill course, in fact Boston has a net drop of 447 feet. I have never heard anyone say Boston is a great downhill race! Net downhill does not necessarily translate to easy downhill race!

What you cannot see in that elevation map are all the tiny ups and downs all along the route. Take a look at the hill profile below that shows up for my race in Strava. See all those tiny ups and downs along the way? This race is not flat! This race does not have long downhill stretches! Don’t be fooled by that smoothed out hill profile on the map. According to Strava I ran 292 m (958 feet) in elevation. Based on my Strava for Boston, the Boston marathon is 340 m (1115 feet) Boston is known as a tough hilly course! Let’s be clear, CIM is easier than Boston. None of the hills in CIM are as long or steep as the Newton hills and you don’t get those big nasty hills in the second half like you do in Boston. At CIM you are constantly running light rolling hills. But, if you go in expecting downhill and flat you are in for a shock. Do your hill training and you will be fine. I actually liked the rolling hills because it allowed me to use different muscles (full disclosure: I ran Boston 7 weeks earlier so I just kept thinking oh well these hills are easier than Boston)

If it’s hilly why is it known for Boston qualifiers?

That’s a great question! First of all lets dig into their Boston qualifier reputation.

According to the race program they have a higher number of BQs than the Erie marathon, or Tunnel marathon both of which I know are popular for BQ attempts. Erie has the advantage of being one of the last races before Boston registration opens and had 1302 finishers in 2019, and the Tunnel marathon is famous for it’s downhill but is generally less than 1000 finishers. CIM 2019 had closer to 7500 runners so bragging you have a higher number of BQs isn’t really an indication that an individual runner has a better chance of qualifying at CIM.

What I find more interesting is according to the race program they have a higher percentage of BQs than Grandma’s marathon, Philadelphia, OR Chicago. Conveniently I have run all those races so I can compare them to CIM based on my personal experience. All of them are great races! Chicago is flatter than CIM and Chicago has better crowds (it is one of the world Abbott majors after all!) but Chicago has a lot of twists and turns and forget using your Garmin to pace in Chicago, the skyscrapers really mess up your Garmin. Philadelphia I remember as being similar difficulty in terms of hills but has this out and back on the second half with very few crowds to cheer you on and is very exposed so you can get strong headwind for a solid 6 miles. I think Grandma’s was flatter than CIM, and has good crowds near the finish, but the first part of the race the crowds are a pretty thin.

Would a few twists and turns or a few less crowds really make the difference? On their own probably not, I think one of the biggest reasons CIM rocks the BQ is the weather! How many times do you obsessively check the forecast pre-marathon praying that rain will end before the race starts, or that the heat won’t arrive until later in the day? I had the bad luck to run Grandma’s in 2016. The high that day was 84F (29C) suffice to say I did NOT run a personal best that day. I had a friend who ran Chicago 2007, the year they ran out of water because it was so hot the early runners used it all up trying to keep cool. The year I ran Philly, the temperature was good, it was a little windier than I would have liked, about 14 mph as a headwind uphill from mile 14-20 (still got a PR and BQ, as I said, those are all great races and you could BQ at any of them on the right day).

Take a look at the weather conditions the last 5 years for CIM

• 2021 Low 38F/3C High 60F/16C partly cloudy winds 5 mph
• 2019 Low 51F/11C High 62F/17C partly cloudy with drizzle winds 8 mph
• 2018 Low 39F/4C High 53F/12 C partly cloudy winds 4 mph
• 2017 Low 44F/7C High 58F/14C clear winds 2 mph
• 2016 Low 38F/3C High 59F/15C clear winds 2 mph

Yeah! Seriously I had to go back to 2012 to find a day which could be considered even vaguely bad weather (It rained and the winds reached 20 mph, but temperatures were low 55F/13C high 62F/17C). I couldn’t find a race with highs over 70F! According to researchers the perfect temperature to run a marathon is between 50F/10C and 62F/17.5C. Go back and look at those race day conditions for CIM again. When you are running 26.2 miles the weather plays a huge factor and CIM is the Vegas odds on favorite for perfect race day weather.

Okay this sounds intriguing is it a lottery to get a bib?

CIM usually sells out but it is not a lottery and at least this year (2021) it did not sell out the same day registration opened. That means with a little up front planning it’s a race  you can  do with friends and running buddies.

How was bib pick up and the expo?

Let’s cover the essentials here. Bib pick up was efficient and easy. The race expo wasn’t huge but had all the basics you would want and expect: last minute running supplies like gels and Nuun, CIM shirts, backdrops for photo ops, they do have panels and seating to listen to the panelists. There was also a poster display with details on all the past CIM races.

Did they have enough port-a-potties at the start?

Yes! I am not exaggerating when I say there was a line of port-a-potties as far as the eye could see. So if the lines at the first ones are too long, just keep going until the lines get shorter

Bag check?

As of 2021, bag check is at the finish line, you cannot check a bag at the start. So you need to check your bag Saturday during the day or before you board your bus at the finish line on race day.

Aid stations?

The race had 17 aid stations. All the stations were well supported in terms of amenities. Each had medical, toilets, electrolytes (Nuun) and water. 4 stops had Gu Gels, Gu Chews, and bananas. The last 6 stops had Hylands Anti cramping. They always had the Nuun tables before the water tables. At most stations the Nuun was served in the white & blue Nuun cups, and the water was in white cups which made it easy to spot where the Nuun ended and the water began. At a couple of aid stations they served Nuun in white cups but the volunteers at all the stops did a great job yelling out “Electrolytes” “Nuun” and they were always the first tables so even my running addled mind was quickly able to determine which volunteer had what I needed.

The spacing between water stops was inconsistent and not always on a particular mile or km marker. In a personally prefer having water stops at specific mile markers so that was a small minus for me. But the race absolutely has enough aid stations, and they do get closer together as the race progresses which I also appreciate. You will find aid stations approximately every 2 miles for the first half of the race , approximately every 1.5 miles from 13-19 miles, then approximately every mile from 19 miles to the finish.  In 2021, aid stations were located at miles 2.2, 4.2, 6.4, 8.5, 10.0, 12, 13.6, 15.1, 16.5, 17.9, 19.4, 20.4, 21.4, 22.3, 23.5, 24.5, 25.3 

If you are a runner who wants to be sure you take your gel just before a water stop, watch for the Elite fueling station signs those come just before the water stop and can be a good visual cue for when to take your gel.
One other small complaint, almost all the water stations were only on the right side of the road. I was running with the 3:55 pace group which was a pretty big pack of runners and it was a bit chaotic trying to reach a volunteer to get a cup.  Ideally they would stretch those tables out a bit more or have water stations on both sides of the road.  I did find myself having to mentally “prepare to go in” at every aid station. (Side note the last marathon I ran was  Boston which has aid stations on both sides of the road and has lots of tables stretched out, so that’s the bar I compare all races to). 

So if you are a runner who gets really nervous about hydration timing, you might want to consider wearing your hydration backpack. Unlike many of the big marathons you are allowed to wear hydration backpacks at CIM (at least I assume you were since I saw a good number of runners wearing them).

Volunteers?

Yes they had volunteers and they were amazing and wonderful! THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS!

Spectator friendly?

If you have a car it’s relatively easy to cheer on your runner at multiple locations and relatively easy to stand somewhere your runner will see you (as always, I recommend making sure your runner knows what side of the road you will cheer from, and at what mile markers you will be cheering). There were thin crowds the entire way and a few spots with some great loud cheering. It’s not New York marathon crowds (let’s be clear I’ve yet to run a race in North America with better crowds than New York), but for a race this size, there are decent crowds cheering you on.

Pacers?

In keeping with their theme of come to CIM being the best place to BQ, they have pacers for the BQ time for every gender and age group. I ran with the 3:55 pace group. 3:55 translates to a 5:34/km pace. Staying around the pacers my slowest km was 5:38 and my fastest km was 5:17 (remember there were hills so that variation is an indication of consistent effort throughout the race). I don’t know about the other pacers, but my pacers were great. Not only did they run a steady pace but they did a good job talking everyone through the race, the hills, even suggesting when you might want to take off if you still have something left approaching the finish (for the curious, they suggested stay with the pace team at least until you cross the bridge entering Sacramento which is just past the 21 mile mark).

The finish

Once across the finish line you get your medal and instead of the usual mylar blanket they give you a lightweight jacket with sleeves and a hood which helps you warn up and keeps your hands free. Then once again they go above and beyond. Instead of handing you a disposable plastic water bottle they give you a re-usable CIM Finishers water bottle pre-filled with water. They also hand you a re-usable shopping bag with some nibbles. There was a hot food tent and beer tent, and they also had a race shirt size exchange.

It wasn’t too difficult to find friends as there is open field on the lawn on the capital building.

For those who stayed at race hotels further from the start line there are also shuttle buses to take you back to your hotels.

Race Hotel options

There are three popular areas to stay. You likely want to pick a hotel that is near a bus pick up location.  There are hotels near the finish line (convenient for dropping off your bag check  on race day) and there are several hotels near Calexpo .  One word of warning, if you are hoping to get a late checkout so you can shower post-race before driving home, you may have to pay additional fees and there may be a limited number of late checkouts are available. Clearly the hotels are used to race weekend and the massive influx of runners requesting late checkouts. My hotel charged $50 for late checkout on race day.

Fun ways to celebrate if you do BQ!

This race is so well know for BQs they actually had shirts for sale at the expo that say ” California International Marathon Boston Qualified”. It takes serious confidence to buy that before the race (They do have a place to buy shirts in the finish area as well, I’m guessing that’s when most of those shirts are purchased)

I didn’t buy a shirt (and I did BQ) but…they have a fabulous photo op/ celebration moment at the finish line for runners who BQ. You get to ring the BQ bell. They have the bell on display at the race expo, but of course no-one rings the bell in the expo because they haven’t run a BQ yet. The thought of ringing that bell was actually one of my mantras when I started to get tired in the race. I found myself thinking “I am not giving up, I am going to ring that bell” (full disclosure there may have been a few expletives inserted depending on how I felt at that point in the race).

I was clearly not the only one who became obsessed with ringing the bell, because when I did finish there was a line of 50+ runners waiting to ring the bell. But despite my tired legs it was worth standing in line for 30+ minutes with all the other exhausted but very happy runners waiting their turn to ring that bell. I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate a successful CIM!

If you enjoyed this race report check out my other running posts and race reports. Leave a comment if there is additional information I could have shared to help you evaluate this race as a potential destination!

Boston marathon 2021 the Role Playing Game Race Report

Welcome to Boston Marathon 2021  – the newest role playing adventure game.

Due to COVID, Boston 2020 was entirely virtual and just about every other in person race was cancelled. Many of us couldn’t even train with our run buds any more. When they announced registration for in-person Boston 2021, I really wasn’t sure I would ever reach the start line. Only 20,000 runners means tougher qualifying times, the in person race could be cancelled, and I didn’t know if I would be able to enter the United States. Getting to Boston this year has been like a complicated adventure game filled with puzzles, obstacles and setbacks, so that’s how I’ll approach this race report.. as an RPG (role playing game)… will you get to the start of the Boston marathon?

Stage 1 Getting a BQ

Begin your adventure with a wisdom check. Any wise person would realize going to Boston this year is not worth the hassle, so many hurdles to overcome, but if you are thinking of registering then you must have run at least one marathon already so therefore your wisdom score is probably low enough that you may register. If you are in the hospital with COVID when you register subtract 5 from your wisdom*

*We met a runner from India who was in the hospital with COVID when registration opened for Boston, but she had a BQ and she told her husband to bring her credit card to the hospital so she could register.

Roll 3d10 (that means roll a 10 sided dice 3 times), the first roll is the number of minutes, the next two rolls determine the number of seconds for the cut-off. 7, 4, and 7. If you ran your marathon 7 minutes and 47 seconds faster than the qualifying time for your age group proceed to Stage 2 Planning the trip. If you did not, you may register for the virtual Boston marathon or you can end your Boston adventure and choose an alternate marathon adventure.

Stage 2 Planning the trip

You met the cut-off time congratulations!

Book yourself a hotel. Make a wisdom check, if you pass your wisdom check you book a refundable hotel room, if not, do a wealth check to ensure you can afford to risk losing $600-$2500 for those outrageously priced marathon weekend hotel rooms if something goes wrong. Roll a d4 (four sided dice) to determine the number of nights you book. Subtract one from your roll if you failed the wisdom check (people who fly or drive home the day of the marathon are definitely a little crazy*). 

*Mike

We passed the wisdom check and rolled a 3. My sister booked an airport hotel ($150/night cheaper than downtown) for Saturday, Sunday & Monday.

Roll a d6 (six sided dice) to determine travel restrictions to Boston at the time you found out you got a bib.

• 6 you may travel freely to Boston
• 5 you may fly to Boston
• 4 you may drive to Boston
• 3 you may fly to Boston with a two week quarantine
• 2 you may fly to Boston with a two week quarantine in another country before you arrive
• 1 forget it they aren’t letting you in right now, better hope things improve by the October!

We rolled a 5. But it’s April and the race is in October, no doubt the Canadian/US border will be open by then, I’m not flying, that would be expensive and a hassle. Move on to stage 3 Training

Stage 3 Training

Roll a d6 to determine how many workouts you will complete this week. Do a wisdom check. Add 1 hill workout to your schedule if you passed your wisdom check. Do a motivation check, add 1 to your workout schedule if this is your first Boston, or if you are planning to PB at the marathon. Subtract one from your number of weekly workouts if you are just happy to run a race in person again, and don’t really care what your time is.

At the end of each week, complete a training check. Roll a d20.

• 20 critical hit, you had a fantastic training week, you are rocking it increase motivation by two.
• 15-19 training went well, your workouts went well, your motivation increases by one.
• 10-14 you got your workouts done, feeling a bit tired but basically okay continue training as usual.
• 6-9 that one workout did not go well, reduce motivation by one.
• 2-5 something went wrong roll a d10 and check the injury table to determine which body part feels off. 1 Critical miss! You have an injury that prevents you from running next week roll d10 and check the injury table to determine the injury, roll another d10 to determine the number of weeks training lost.

Injury Table

• 1 Toe*
• 2 Foot
• 3 Ankle
• 4 Achilles/calf
• 5 Knee
• 6 IT Band
• 7 Hip
• 8 Back
• 9 Shoulder
• 10 Gash in the head**

*Randy **Judy

If you had an injury, do a wisdom check, if you fail the wisdom check, you are ignoring your injury subtract one from next week’s training check. If you pass the wisdom check you add some stretching, yoga, physio, to your workout routine and continue to train as usual.

Repeat for 10 weeks then advance to stage 4 It’s getting real

Stage 4 It’s getting real

Roll a d6 (six sided dice) to determine travel restrictions to Boston six weeks from race day.

• 6 you may travel freely to Boston
• 5 you may fly to Boston
• 4 you may drive to Boston
• 3 you may fly to Boston with a two week quarantine
• 2 you may fly to Boston with a two week quarantine in another country before you arrive*
• 1 forget it they aren’t letting you in right now, okay now might be the time to start panicking

*We met a runner from South Africa who had to complete a two week quarantine in Namibia to get to Boston.

I rolled a 5. Well that sucks! We were planning to drive, time to look up flights. Roll a d2 to determine flight options.

• 15+ you find a flight that is fully refundable at a decent price
• 10-14 you find a flight that will provide you with travel credits or a reasonable price
• 5-9 you find a decent priced flight but non-refundable
• 2-4 ouch that’s expensive but no real alternative.
• 1 forget it! I’m switching to the virtual race

Next perform a hotel check to ensure your hotel nights line up with your flights.

We rolled a 13 and got flights on Air Canada which can be traded for full travel credit if we have to cancel, but we failed our hotel check because we land Friday night and don’t have hotel for Friday. We pass a luck check and are able to book Friday night at the same hotel we have for the rest of our stay but lose an additional $100 over what we would have paid if we had booked Friday initially.

Once you have your travel and hotel sorted advance to stage 5 COVID testing

Stage 5 COVID testing

You have a flight and you have hotel booked, now it’s time to research the current rules for entering the US. You require a COVID Rapid Antigen test within 72 hours of your flight entering the US. If you are travelling through another country to arrive in the US, do a luck check to determine if you require a different test to enter the country in-transit.

For each COVID test roll a d10 to determine the degree of Q-tip penetration into your nasal passage required to take a sample.

Roll a d20 to determine if your COVID test is negative, add 10 to your score if you are fully vaccinated, add 5 to your score if you wear a mask in public locations, subtract one for every meal indoors at a restaurant, movie, or large public event attended in the past 14 days. If you fail this throw your adventure ends here. If you pass this throw advance to stage 6 fly to Boston.

Stage 6 Fly to Boston

Complete your online check in, roll 2d10 to determine how many minutes you spend figuring out all the documentation you must submit to check in for your flight.

It’s time to fly, but airports as we know are fraught with complications, so for each flight roll 2d10 for wild magic and hope you make your connections and arrive successfully in Boston in time to get your bib**

**Each and every scenario below is based on actual incidents that happened to myself, friends, or family. You know who you are 😊

• 99-00 Everything goes fine
• 97-98 You read all the dire warnings about arriving early during COVID and arrive at the airport before the check-in counters are open, subtract 2 from endurance due to unnecessary lost sleep.
• 95-96 Rain (d10 minutes flight delay)
• 93-94 Fog at arrival airport (d20 minutes delay circling and 50% chance of aborted landing adding additional d20 minutes delay)
• 91-92 Flight crew has worked too many hours (2d10 minutes delay waiting for new crew to arrive)

• 89-90 Mechanical issues with the plane (2d10 minutes delay waiting for repair and sign off)
• 87-88 Small overhead bins (d20 minutes delay as they keep begging everyone to check bags at the gate and everyone ignores them and they have to check all the bags when they board and discover their bags don’t fit)
• 85-86 The seat beside you on the plane is occupied by a 4 year old who spends the entire flight telling you all about his favorite Pokemon in great detail
• 83-84 You have a middle seat between two squabbling siblings, half way through the flight one throws up in the air sickness bag and shows it to his brother  
• 81-82 You get an upgrade to first class
• 79-80 You are in first class but end up sitting next to a bratty 5 year old and have to cut his meat for him
• 77-78 You accidentally board using the boarding pass for the wrong flight causing mayhem because your boarding pass did not scan properly when you boarded and now number of passengers on the plane does not match the number of scanned boarding passes.

• 75-76 You carefully packed your race gear in carry on but your carry on does not fit in the overhead and they check your bag after you board the plane. Roll a d20 if you roll 5 or higher your bag shows up on the luggage carousel.
• 73-74 They lose your checked bags
• 71-72 You open the bag of pretzels and they fly open showering pretzels on your seat mates
• 69-70 You have a 7 year sitting behind you who keeps kicking your seat
• 67-68 You get an exit row seat with extra leg space
• 65-66 You get a seat that does not recline
• 63-64 Flight is overbooked you are bumped to the next flight.
• 61-62 They changed planes, your exit row seat is now a middle seat in the back of the plane
• 59-60 Thunderstorm at arrival airport (roll d20, if you roll a 1 they turn your plane around and fly back to your place of departure and you have to rebook on another flight, otherwise 2d10minutes delay)
• 57-58 You flew Southwest Airlines and they cancelled your flight due to staffing shortages during COVID
• 55-56 Bumpy flight
• 53-54 Smooth flight
• 51-52 Person in front of you reclines their seat so far back their head is in your lap
• 49-50 Short line at security, get an extra drink pre-flight
• 47-48 Long line at security, subtract one from endurance for sprinting to the gate
• 45-46 TSA Pre-check for security, get two extra drinks pre-flight
• 43-44 You have TSA pre-check but TSA pre-check is not open, subtract one from endurance for sprinting to the gate
• 41-42 Long customs line, subtract one from endurance from stress thinking you will miss your flight
• 39-40 Short customs line, get one extra drink pre-flight
• 37-38 Nexus or other express customs clearance, get two extra drinks pre-flight
• 35-36 You have Nexus or other express customs clearance, but the kiosks are not working, subtract one from endurance for sprinting to the gate
• 33-34 The paperback book in your carry on triggers a manual search of your bag at security
• 31-32 You get a pat down because you set off the metal detector
• 29-30 You forgot you had a bottle of sunscreen in your carry on, throw out your sunscreen because it’s a liquid over 50 ml
• 27-28 You get pulled aside for the explosive test on your hands and laptop
• 25-26 You spot another Boston runner at the gate, compare notes on marathons
• 23-24 Strong headwinds (d20 minutes flight delay)
• 21-22 Strong tailwinds (d20 minutes early)
• 19-20 In flight entertainment system has a movie you haven’t seen before and want to watch
• 17-18 You have in flight entertainment system but you only have Bluetooth headphones and can’t bring yourself to purchase in flight ear buds
• 15-16 Gate crew is not ready when you land (d20 minutes delay deplaning)
• 13-14 Dust in the door handle of the emergency exit in the exit row causes the door to emit a high pitched squealing noise, roll d20 to determine if sound stops after you reach cruising altitude
• 11-12 Plane is struck by lightning, no flight delay but add 10 to stress level
• 9-10 Propeller plane and you got the seat beside the propeller lose 5 decibel of hearing unless  you have noise reducing headphones, in which case lose 2 decibels of hearing
• 7-8 A fleet of antique airplanes is landing at your airport (d20 minutes delay)
• 5-6 Spot a celebrity on your flight
• 3-4 Your boarding pass says SSSS roll a d20, if you roll 11-20 you make your flight, roll 1-10 you miss your flight and have to catch the next one
• 1-2 Your name matches someone on the watch list – miss your flight into the US and catch the next one

If you survived the airport wild magic and arrived in Boston in time to pick up your bib advanced to Stage 7 Bib pick up

Stage 7 Bib pick up

Congratulations you have arrived in Boston and hopefully you arrived with your running gear. Proceed to Boylston Street and enter the Proof of Vaccination tent. Roll a d20 to determine if your vaccination is approved by the WHO and you get your runner’s bracelet. If you fail your throw, advance to the COVID test tent and roll a d20 to determine if your COVID test is negative, add 10 to your score if you are fully vaccinated, add 5 to your score if you wear a mask in public locations, subtract one for every meal indoors at a restaurant, movie, or large public event attended in the past 14 days. If you fail this throw your adventure ends here. If you make the throw accept your runner’s bracelet and proceed to the Bib pick up.

Look up your bib number. Roll a d4 to determine the number of people in line in front of you. Take a moment to appreciate how incredibly efficient the vaccination check and bib pick up were this year and don’t forget to thank the amazing volunteers.  Then look down in your hands and realize you are holding your race bib. Let it hit you, get a little emotional, it’s okay. Enter the expo. Roll 3d10 to determine the total amount of money you spend  on official Boston race gear and souvenirs. If you wear a Women’s size Small or Extra Small roll a d20 to determine if they have what you want in your size. Subtract 2 from your roll for every 6 hours the race expo was open because all the other women already bought the smaller sizes. Do a wisdom check to see if you can restrain yourself from buying the Medium because it is too big for you, but you really like that blue windbreaker with the dark blue sleeves.*

*My sister passed the wisdom check and did not purchase the size Medium windbreaker and I was relatively restrained this year only purchasing the Celebration jacket, a long sleeved shirt, two pint glasses, a pin, and a badge.

Roll a d6 to determine the number of hours you spend going to sporting goods shops across Boston because the reduced size race expo does not have ANY running shoes, gels, nip guards, socks, etc… anything you needed for race day will have to be purchased elsewhere, but, if you want a Sam Adams beer they’ve got you covered*

*Did you know there is a Marathon Sports store out by Harvard Square? They didn’t have my size at the Marathon Sports on Boylston.

Advance to Stage 8

Stage 8 Take it all in!

You’ve done all your running around, it’s time to take in the sights, maybe go find a cannoli or some clam chowder. Do a wisdom check, if you fail the wisdom check you eat the cannoli* or clam chowder the night before the race and make a port-a-potty stop mid-race. If you arrived Saturday, go for an easy run Sunday morning along the river or if you are staying by the airport, along the ocean at Revere Beach.

*James

Take a photo at the finish line, then get back to your room and lay out all your race gear. Tomorrow you run the Boston marathon! Advance to Stage 9 Get to the start line

Stage 9 Get to the start line

Get up early, dress up in your best throw away pre-race outfit and make your way to the school bus to drop off your gear check if you don’t have a convenient hotel or generous friend or family member to lug your stuff around. Then begin the walk to the bus, board the bus at the scheduled time for your bib colour. Roll a d20, if you roll a 1 the bus driver gets lost and you arrive at the start an hour later than planned*

*Yeah one of the bus drivers got completely lost on the way to the start, and took an extra hour to get to the start line

Once you arrive in Hopkinton, start walking to the Start line. Stop at the port-a-potties, roll a d10 to determine the number of people in front of you in line. Gain 10 minutes if you are a guy and use the open urinal zone.

Begin to discard your throwaway gear into the clear bags, garbage in the black bags. Do a wisdom check to determine if you do any stretches or warm up. Continue walking to the start line. Take one last photo if you have your phone because with the rolling start, as soon as you reach the start line your Boston marathon is underway! Advance to Stage 10 Run the marathon

Stage 10 Run the marathon

Oh my god, I’m here, I’m running the Boston marathon, there are runners all around me, there are fans cheering, try not to run too fast on that initial downhill. Hey look there’s the Ashland Biker bar. Oh wait, uphill now, but look at that cute Labrador holding the Boston Strong flags. Natick… more hills and there’s Santa Claus at the top of the hill. Framingham, more cheering crowds, more hills. Wellesley another hill and the famous Wellesley college girls scream tunnel but no kisses from the girls this year, I guess COVID has changed some aspects of the race itself. Water stops are soooo well organized, amazing volunteers, and here we are in Newton for even more hills! Lots of crowds to cheer you up the hills, good thing because that first Newton hill goes on and on and on. Boston college has a great cheering section too! Brookline and wait I’m confused is this section flat??? Haven’t seen much of that today, I really should have done more hill training.  Now entering Boston, one mile to go, Right on Hereford, left on Boyleston and it’s time to smile for the camera, you are about to finish the 125^th Boston marathon! The weather was not as hot as forecast you might even PB*

*Stephanie, Rachel

Stage 11 You did it

My feet hurt, my legs hurt, I just ran 42.2 km / 26.2 miles but as soon as I hit that finish line, the 400 m walk to the gear check feels like another marathon. I make it to the exit, my sister Judy is waiting for me, I greet her briefly and inform her when she wants to find me I’ll be collapsed on the grass in Boston commons. This picture was taken at least 20 minutes later because I found the strength to sit upright again 🙂 Congratulations you have completed the 125th Boston marathon!

For more of my race reports, including comparisons of Boston and New York marathons, the practical guide to Boston marathon weekend (pre-COVID), or Boston marathon treadmill settings visit my page of running related posts.

Army run 2019 – I love you BUT …

I am deviating a bit from my usual race report format, because this year the Army run made some big changes, and I wanted to touch on a few of them specifically while they are fresh in my mind.

This post is broken in two – WHAT I LOVED and WHAT YOU NEED TO FIX for next year.

What I loved

Partnering with OC Transpo

Having the ability to take OC Transpo to the start, instead of driving downtown and trying to figure out parking. I left my car at the Park N Ride in Fallowfield, hopped on a 95, got off at Pimisi and it worked great. On the way back, I took the O-Train to TUnneys Pasture (just so I could ride the O-Train), there were volunteers when I got on the O-train giving directions on where to baord, and volunteers when I got off the O-train letting us know which way to go to catch a bus or exit the station.

I ran the half marathon, so not having the LRT running until 8 AM really wasn’t a factor for me, and I just took the 95 all the way to the start. So it really didn’t bother me that OC transpo wasn’t in a position to open the LRT early. It was the first week of operations for the LRT after all.

The atmosphere of the race

Army run has a great atmosphere. Starting at the war museum and running through Beechwood cemetery all fit in well with that atmosphere. Personally, I don’t mind the extra hills on the route. This is not a good course to try and set a personal best (hilly, crowded, lots of turns), it’s a race to run and soak in the atmosphere. I still love the shirts. Cool hoodie style shirts for the Commanders challenge. Was nice to have the cannon back at the start line again this year. I adore the dog tag medals and all those touches that make the Army Run special.

The pacers

The pacers I met did a great job! Staying solidly on track for their predicted times. They even had their planned per km pace written on the signs, which was helpful for the 1:45 since the two pacers took different approaches, one did a 4:59/km pace, the other did a 4:55/km pace. So depending on whether you wanted to be aggressive or conservative you could pick your pacer.  Thank you, I met my race goal, and the pace bunnies helped with that.

Port-a-potty lines

For a race this size, I was impressed with how short the lines were! I just kept walking towards the back of the corrals until I found a shorter line. And my stops pre and psot race they still had toilet paper. Thank you.

WHAT YOU NEED TO FIX for next year

Okay, that’s all the good stuff, now I have to bring up some of the problems. There were some issues with the new location and route, that if not addressed will affect whether or not I recommend this race to others in the future.

Signage at the race expo and start area

I know that Friday noon is a madhouse to pick up bibs, so I specifically went at 2:30 PM Friday. It was nice and quiet. Due to construction traffic was a mess, but that’s not something the Army run can control. I found a parking spot on the street near the war museum and grabbed it, so I cannot comment on how parking worked if you drove into the actual museum grounds.

What I can say is once I got out fo the car, I had no idea where to go. There were tents and fences and people all over the place. But There were no signs outside saying Bib pick up this way – T-shirt pick up this way – Race Expo this way. Given that the bib expo was inside the museum, down the hallway, aroudn the corner, that would have been helpful. Then I was tol pick up your tshirt at the expo. Okay… so I figured out how to get to the expo and walked a loop around the expo but still could not find the t-shirt pick up, oh apparently I missed the little turn off 2/3rds of the way down the second tent which is a little tunnel that takes you to the t-shirt pickup. Again SIGNAGE PLEASE! Honestly, it took so long to figure out where everything was that I spent absolutely no time in the expo itself. I have been known to spend money in race expos buying shoes, sunglasses, shirts, gels, I didn’t even look around, I was so focused on trying to figure out where the heck to get my shirt. When I did get my shirt, I just wanted to get out of there before rush hour traffic set in.

Bag check

Signage on where to find bag check would have been nice as well. Once again I arrived with a bag, and no idea where to go. I did find a volunteer who told me it was where I picked up my t-shirt. So the volunteer was helpful, but really some basic signage would go such a long way!

It was a bit confusing when I dropped off the bag, do I ahve to drop it off a the booth with my race distance? OR can I drop it off with any of the volunteers?  It felt like you were supposed to go to the booth for your distance, but of course all the half marathon runners were dropping off bags aroudn the same time and the other volunteers had no-one coming up to them… you know what would be helpful? signage or a volunteer at the entrance letting you know the scoop.

I did not have a very long line for bag pick up or drop off, and the volunteers were great, but I did have friends doing Commanders Challenge and some of them were unable to get their bag between races. That’s not good! If you set the expectation that I can get my bag between races, and then I can’t get it… that’s a bigger problem than just telling me hey don’t expect to get your bag between races.

Hand cycles mid-race

I am 100% supportive of hand cycles and wheelchair racers! I also think it’s great to have people of all different levels of ability running the race, slow fast, doesn’t matter, you did it! good for you! You rock!

I don’t remember this problem before, but maybe it just happened to be around me, but I caught up to a couple of hand cycles around Beechwood cemetery. They were slower than me going up the hill. They were faster than me going down the hill. Faster than me and everyone else around me. This meant cries of “cycle on your left, cycle on your left” were a regular occurrence for about 8 km as we would pass him on the uphill, and he would pass us on the downhill. Of course the hand cycle was near the curb and lots of runners were running along the edge of the road (it’s a popular place to run for cutting corners, or just to find space on the road). Some runners heard us when we yelled out cycle on the left, some did not. We would yell over and over, and sometimes we had to jog over and tap a runner on the shoulder because they were in the zone, or just wearing headphones. Frustrating as it was for us, it must have been even worse for the hand cyclist who must have been constantly adjusting speed to avoid hitting someone.

The 5 km finish

A friend of mine had 2 kids running the 5km, he went to the finish to watch them run in and what he saw was a solid wall of people. You could not actually run to the finish line. I quickly did the math and wondered what happens when the fast 10 km runners start coming in to that mess? I gather things cleared up engouh or they made a path to the side for the 10 km finsihers zooming in which is good, but wow that 5 km finish was a mess!

The water stops

Okay I’m torn about mentioning this one. The volunteers at the water stops were great! They made sure you knew if they had Nuun or water. There were a good number of water stops on the course, and there was a sponge station and misters. ALL OF THIS I APPRECIATED THANK YOU! It was hot, and it all helped.

It was a little tricky to get water at some of the stops, and I wasn’t in the thickest pack of runners. There were a few water stations that were only on one side of the road, and the number of tables and how spread out they were seemed to vary. SO if it’s possiblew to have water stops on both sides of the road for all water stops and spread the tables out a bit more so we have a little mroe space to grab a cup that woudl be great. But this isn’t a MUST fix, this is a “if you want suggestions on how to improve this is somethign that could be even better.” I’ve seen WAY worse at other races.

Summary

So hey Army Run – I am sure you are getting feedback from other runners. There were some issues with the new location, but I think you can fix a lot of it with a little planning. These types of issues can really discourage someone who was doing their first race, or will make them look to other races instead. I hope we hear in the news about ‘improvements’ for 2020.

Sincerely – a 5 time Army run 1 time Commanders Challenge runner who has frequently convinced others they should run the race and wants to continue doing that in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beat Beethoven Race Report

The Beat Beethoven Race is a theme race in Kingston, Ontario. Runners are challenged to complete 8 km before the Kingston Symphony orchestra finishes playing 50 minutes of Beethoven’s best. I love a well organized community race, and this one was a lot of fun.

If you don’t keep an eye on the time, you could find yourself sprinting to beat the finish unnecessarily. I remember my mum telling me Beethoven pieces always sound like they are about to finish but then keep going.

Here’s the scoop on what to expect if you decide to take on the challenge.

The races

They had a kids 1 km race, a 4 km fun run, and the 8 km ‘main event’. Only the 8 km race has timing chips. The distance was a bit short this year for the 4 km, but since it’s not timed and the prizes are given out ot top 3 male and female based on gun time, it wasn’t that big a deal. The race organizer offered to add extra distance to the race next year so it averages out to 4 km both years 🙂  There are no finisher medals, only age group winners receive medals, so if you bring the kids you might have to go for ice cream post race as reward (or stick around for the draw prizes)

Logistics

With a race start time of 10:30 AM, and the option of race day registration and race day pick-up, this race is quite do-able from nearby towns like Ottawa, Cornwall, Brockville, and Belleville. Street parking is free in Kingston on Sundays, and it was not difficult to find parking an easy walk from the start line. This proved especially helpful as I could not find any sort of bag check. My car trunk made a convenient bag check.

Port-a-potties

There are no port-a-potties, but there are washrooms in the back of the tourist information building. I did the standard 20 minutes pre-race stop and was only in line behind 3 women waiting. The gentlemen did not have a line at all.

The shirts

I registered late so did not get a t-shirt. They had some wonderfully bright orange shirts, which the race organized blatantly admitted make for great advertising when you wear them around town. I have plenty of t-shirts, and I have no issues with races not printing a bunch of extra shirts for late registrations just in case. Like I said, most runners have plenty of t-shirts anyway.

The competition

I initially thought this might be a good race to place in my age group or maybe sneak in a podium finish. At smaller races I have placed in my age group, and at *really*small races I have managed a top 3 women overall (by really small I mean < 50 runners in the whole race). The website had a link to the 2018 results.

The top male runners in 2018 finished in 24, 25 and 26 minutes. The top women finished in 30, 31, and 32 minutes. Okay zero chance of a podium finish, how about the 40–49 age group? 32, 32, and 34 minutes! It appears this race brings out some very fast runners. I did not expect times that fast in a race with under 400 people unless they had prize money like Emilie’s Run (https://hockeygeekgirl.com/2019/05/01/emiles-run-race-report/).

The Kingston Symphony Orchestra

Unfortunately it was raining and the orchestra was hidden away inside a tent. We could hear but not see the orchestra as the tent walls had to be kept up to protect the musicians and their instruments.

The 8 km race

The town crier with a fine rainbow umbrella welcomed us all to the race, the gun went off, and off we went. The light rain was actually perfect for running. The route has a few odd little turns, no doubt to ensure you do the correct mileage, and it had a few decent uphill climbs. Since the race is a loop, all the uphill is rewarded with downhill later in the race. There were two water stops along the route, I think the first was around 4 km and the second was around 6.5 km.

The volunteers as always were much appreciated and cheered us on. Thank you volunteers!

I finished well under 50 minutes, but like many other runners I stayed around, intrigued to see how close to 50 minutes the orchestra would finish playing. There is only one pace bunny on this course: the 50 minute pace bunny! We saw him coming toward the finish line and we could hear the closing bars of Beethove emanating from the tent. The pace bunny’s foot hit the timing mat, the last note came from the tent and the clock turned to 50:00 at exactly the same time. I’m impressed!

Race results

Sportstats had results up almost instantly after you crossed the finish line. I was pleasantly surprised to see myself listed in 3rd place in my age group. The website did not mention whether there were age group awards but as I strolled over to the food table to grab a clementine and a roll (no bagels just rolls), I saw them laying out medals and envelopes. There were no finisher medals for the race, but the medals for the age group winners were really nice!

So, I waited around for the award ceremony. It was cold, and it was a bit of a wait. I think they started just after noon. Not unreasonable, I just wish I had known I had time to go put on warmer clothes, all I had done was grab a warm jacket.

Draw prizes and age group awards

Awards were given out for the 4 km first, and then a few draw prizes, then they worked their way through the 8 km awards, interspersing draw prizes in between age groups. draw prizes were awarded by bib number. It took me a couple of rounds to realize they were looking out into the crowd and calling out bibs they could see. He did tell everyone after giving out some draw prizes that everyone with jackets zipped up might want to unzip them 😉 Hey, I think that’s a great way to do it, I don’t want to sit there while they call out bib numbers for people who have left, and that way if there is a kid who ran a race lookign really excited about the draw prizes, or a runner wants to blatantly walk up and stand in front of the stage with their bib prominently displayed to try and win a draw prize, go for it! The prizes were a mix of shirts, water bottles, and race entries. Most of the medal winners had the opportunity to grab one of the prizes as well.

Summary

This is a fun but quite competitive community race. Race registration can be done right up to the day of the race so it’s great for those of us looking for a couple of fun runs to do after our big spring races. There are plenty of little shops and restaurants around the finish area if you want to make it into a day trip. If you stick around until awards I’d say there’s a good chance you can win a ‘draw’ prize just by standing in front of the stage with your bib clearly visible 😉

If you are interested check out my other running related posts and race reports.