Change Your (Boston) Perspective
by
Mark Jimenez
Sometimes it’s very hard to keep things in perspective. My first marathon had a time around 4 hours and 20 minutes. My second marathon was around 4 hours and 50 minutes. I have run 29 marathons now. Well, run and walked, because there was a lot of walking involved many of those marathons. I remember how excited I used to be when I would run a marathon in less than 4 hours. For a long time, that was my goal: just beat 4 hours.
I also know that running is a sport that doesn’t lie to you. I tell this to my cross country kids all the time. In this sport, you get out exactly what you put in.
For the 126th Boston Marathon, I didn’t put in much training.
Do I run every day? Yes.
Did I train very well? No.
I am overwhelmed. I’m running a business with 3 locations and teaching full time. I had a training plan, but in order to get my workouts in I’d have to wake up at 3:00am. Being so tired, that never happened once. I had one long run of 18 miles and another of 16. My weekly mileage dropped and I had no speed work to speak of. I wasn’t motivated at all. I was just tired.
I still am tired. I have never been this tired in my life. It’s a lot.
I have about 6 more weeks of teaching. I submitted my resignation. As of May 27th, my 23 year teaching career will be over. I just need to get there.
With all this in mind, I have no reason to be disappointed in my 3 hour and 47 minute Boston Marathon race. I knew going in that I wasn’t prepared. I knew I was going to be riding the struggle bus. I knew that my only goal was to finish the race and enjoy the experience. But I get lost in my head a lot.
Crossing the finish line at the 126th Boston Marathon
One of my biggest fears is that despite all my hard work everybody will think I’m a phony and a fraud. This extends to every part of my life, from running a business to being a father to teaching to my running. And let me tell you, it certainly extended to the Boston Marathon.
Have you ever been in a room and felt like you don’t belong? Have you felt like everybody in the room knew you didn’t belong? That’s how I felt the whole weekend leading up to the race. I felt like everybody would look at me and automatically know that I didn’t belong there. I realize these feelings are irrational. I ran a qualifying time just like everybody else there. And my bib number of 9330 was in the top 1/3 of qualifying times. But still, I felt out of place. I was scared. I was scared about how I would perform during the race and that really affected my perspective the whole weekend.
And because I felt out of place, I wasn’t able to really enjoy the experience.
Holy cow, what an experience.
You hear people talk about the Boston Marathon, but there really isn’t anything like it until you experience it for yourself. I should have flipped my perspective. I should have realized that the hard part was qualifying, and that I should soak it up and enjoy the ride. But I didn’t and so I wasn’t able to truly enjoy my time in Boston.
I won’t go through a race recap. There are a million of those out there. I will touch on how amazing the Boston marathon is and I will say this: I want to go back.
By the time we arrived in Boston the sun was down. I remember seeing the finish line and our hotel right by the finish line. Wow, what a feeling! Our hotel even had a banner that read, “132 steps to the finish line.” Staying at The Lenox on Boylston was one heck of an experience. New Balance had everybody working at the hotel decked out in New Balance gear from head to toe. And the staff was amazing. I’ve never been so pampered by a hotel staff. They took excellent care of us.
After we got checked in and they delivered our bags to our room (we tried to take them ourselves but they kind of ripped them out of our hands and took them anyway) we went for a little walk. I wanted to see Marathon Sports, the specialty run store in Boston that is right on the finish line. When I walked by I saw the store hours and it was well past the store hours but there were still people inside. There was a man standing at the door. I knocked and he opened it.
“Are you closed?” I asked.
“We are,” he answered in an Irish accent.
“No problem,” I said.
Then he saw my hoodie. “Red Rock Running Company?” he asked, “I’ve met you haven’t I?”
“Yeah, we’ve met a couple of times at a conference.”
“Come in, come in!”
We came in and looked around. I saw they had the official Boston Marathon jacket, the one that everybody has to wear, and I knew I was going to buy it there. Please, everybody, shop local. It makes a difference. I’d rather support Marathon Sports than go to the expo and pay for it there. I cannot begin to emphasize how important it is to shop local. But that’s a topic for a different blog.
I spent some time talking with Kevin, who let us in, and made some purchases at Marathon Sports. Then we headed out.
The team at Marathon Sports
On Saturday I spent some time walking around Boston. We did the Commonwealth, the garden, and the Commons. We got the original Boston Cream Pie. It was awesome having my wife and my twins with me. The twins are turning 18 soon, so this was their birthday present. We walked around and saw some amazing things. We ate some amazing food, and had a great time.
By the way, I gotta tell you, the lobster rolls weren’t that great. Maybe I got them wrong. I had them with butter instead of “New England” style. In fact, I think those two lobster rolls contributed to some gut issues I had on race day. But it is what it is.
Boston is a beautiful city. Every time I leave Las Vegas I marvel at the history that other cities have. Las Vegas has its own history and traditions, but it sure is fun to see what other cities have. I’m not sure that any other city in America can boast the history that Boston can. We walked around for a bit but I’m sure we only made a dent in the sites to see.
Thanks to Boston's Best for keeping us safe out there
The expo and packet pickup was a massive crowd of humanity. We went through it pretty quickly, especially since I was able to grab my jacket at Marathon Sports. It helped not having to wait in the massive line at the expo!
I tried to stay off my feet on Sunday and rest up. It was Easter, though, and Easter did make it to Boston! The girls did some more shopping and sightseeing. We had dinner and called it a day.
One of the things about this race I was most worried about was the staging. My start time was 10:25am Eastern, but I had to catch the bus at 7:30am. Then I had to wait at Athlete’s Village until my start time. James Emery gave me very valuable advice for this time. I won’t go into all the details, but I can say that his advice made that part of the Boston Marathon nothing to worry about. Staging over 3 hours before the race began ended up being not that big of a deal at all.
Geared up in clothes to donate on Race Day
On a side note, I am incredibly grateful for the friends that I have that ran the race. James showed me an amazing amount of friendship, patience, and grace. Before I even met James face to face he was answering questions and designing biking routes for me. He’s one of the good guys.
To Carl, Andrew, Alex, Anna, James, Michael, and anybody else I missed, thank you!
When they called our corral I started the one mile walk down to the start. It’s pretty cool because you literally just walk through a neighborhood and people are out in their yards handing you anything you might need. I was able to slap some sunscreen on, which was good because it was a sunny day.
I ran into Carl at the last staging area right outside CVS. Carl once again had a great race. It took me 25 marathons or so to get a Boston Qualifying time. Carl did it in his first. I’m just a little bit jealous. I walked to the corral with Carl and gave him a hug, certain he would pass me at some point in the race (he did, probably while I was in the toilet, but it’s entirely possible he passed me and I didn’t see him with so many people out there). Carl always passes me, but honestly that’s ok. We joke about it and I tease him but I’m out there to run for me, not anybody else.
In my corral I found Michael Crome. Our journey to Boston was similar in that we had pretty similar qualifying times. But Michael is the stronger runner. I ran with him for the first half mile or so and then text him at the finish. He had a great race.
I won’t bore you much with the race details. I will say that I ran ok for about 11 miles but ran into some gut issues at mile 11 and 12. After that it was a struggle. In hindsight, I expected the struggle to come. During the race I was very discouraged and I just didn’t enjoy myself. I should have. There is so much to see. Fans cheering you on the whole way, everybody happy for you, and 35,000 or so of your new best friends running with you.
The course is deceptively difficult. Slightly downhill for 16 miles then 5 miles of rolling hills. To be honest, the hills weren’t as bad as everybody said, and they kind of gave me something to do. Did I stop and walk? Absolutely. Did I walk during the hills? No way.
Now that it’s over and done with, I want to go back. I want to go back and soak in the experience rather than get in my head and shy away from it. I have a qualifying time for next year, but I’m not sure if it will be good enough. So that leaves me with an option: do I roll the dice and hope I make it with my qualifying time, or do I train through the summer and do a late summer marathon? Training for a marathon in the summer is difficult. But I don’t know if I want to roll the dice either.
To all the runners out there, especially those who are just getting started, you have it in you to do this. I’m living proof. I started my running journey at 240 pounds. If I can make this journey, you can too. It took me 14 years to get to Boston, but I did it. Life is about setting goals and then being relentless in pursuit of those goals. If this is a goal you want to achieve, don’t be shy about it. Get after it! I’m happy to help with any words of advice and encouragement you might need. More importantly, I believe in you.
Got that unicorn!
A special thank you to the two unicorns in my life. First my wife KJ. She is my biggest fan. She doesn’t let me get down on myself. She doesn’t put up with the negative nonsense. Thank you. Second, to Red Rock Running Company’s own unicorn, Michael Higgins. Michael’s enthusiasm is beyond contagious. I’m so happy he is a part of our team.
Every Run Is A Good Run