By Joe Perry – Special to the Sydenham Current
While the memories are still fresh in my aging brain, I should record the events of my Boston Marathon weekend experience. My legs can’t move very quickly but I can still type so this is bound to be another of my infamously long-winded stories. You are under no obligation to read this unless you lost a wager and this is your punishment.
I have so many people to thank that this might sound repetitive. I have so many people to thank that this might sound repetitive. I have so many people to thank that this might sound repetitive….
Still with me?
My Tough Mudder family really came through yet again and helped me out. Whether it’s in or out of the mud, we always help each other complete the course!
MJ and I left home around noon on Thursday and drove to see our pal Ned Atwater and his wife Jane who graciously fed us and gave us a bed for the night. We had a splendid visit with the man, the myth, the legend: TNT aka Darth Vader or whatever you prefer to call him. The sun was nearly up by the time we finally called it a night even though we still had plenty of stories left to share. There WILL be a next time…
A six hour drive brought us to the home of another Tough Mudder giant, Lauren Andrews. Like the wild woman she is, Lauren spent an entire day preparing a feast for us. The next day we were joined by Joe Zack and his lovely gals: Emily and Liv. Lauren spent the weekend spoiling us and making us feel at home.
On Saturday, MJ and I went to the Expo and met up with my running friends who prefer not to play in the mud. Long-time friend and fellow Wallaceburger, Brian Horrobin, brought his entire family to Boston. We joined up with our great pal Wes Harding and his uber-wonderful girl gang. Wes is the key person who opened a magical door and let Brian and me experience Boston in a way well beyond our wildest dreams.
Wes introduced us to the world-famous Rick and Dick Hoyt, Kathy, and the rest of Team Hoyt. Oh, and let’s not forget the 3 time Boston Marathon winner, Uta Pippig. (If you aren’t familiar with these names, open a new tab in your browser and Google away. If I attempted to describe their mind-blowing exploits, this tale would quadruple in length.) Not only did we meet these amazing people but we got to eat a meal with them and hang out!! A special thanks needs to go out to the John Hancock people for hosting the evening. Being in the presence of these superstars would have normally caused my little brain to overload and pass out. However, since they are so gracious, friendly, generous, and humble I was able to remain conscious the entire evening. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing their epic stories of how they defied the odds over the years and overcame all kinds of adversity. I was lucky enough to have a couple opportunities to talk to Dick one on one. I told him about my cousin Krista, the real athlete in my family, who will be representing our country (hopefully!) in the next summer Olympics. This was the first time Dick wasn’t going to push Rick during the marathon. That honour would be done by Bryan Lyons while Dick got to lead the race as grand marshal. Again, I urge you to read up on the Hoyts. Be prepared for goosebumps.
Let’s jump ahead to Marathon Monday. As the forecast projected, it wasn’t ideal running weather. It was wet, windy, and a bit chilly. Fortunately I packed plenty of gear so I was prepared for anything. Initially, I planned to wear just my Team Hoyt Canada singlet but ended up putting on a long-sleeve compression shirt for extra warmth. Since my hands tend to get cold, I wore two pairs of gloves. Of course I had to wear my Toughest Mudder socks I got from Matty Gregg. In addition to that, I decorated myself with a couple of accessories to help keep some key people in mind throughout the race.
On my left wrist I wore my Soles 4 Souls rubber bracelet given to me by bud, Maggi Thorne. I also wore this through the World’s Toughest Mudder 2014 since Maggi wasn’t able to join us last year. In March, our son Allen had a life-changing experience travelling with Maggi and the Souls 4 Soles group on a trip to Guatemala. Maggi is an awesome pal and I owe her a lot. But it’s still my goal to outlast her at our next WTM!
On my right wrist I wore a Tough Mudder headband: but not just any headband. This one was given to me last October by TNT. I knew that having something of his with me would keep my engine firing. If I had the urge to slow down, I knew he’d kick my butt so this headband served as extra incentive not to fail. Had TNT been there he would have raced with a gas mask and chains around his neck. Wearing his headband around my wrist seemed a tad easier.
Safety-pinned to my shorts was a ribbon given to me by aunt so I could honour the memory of my cousin, Anita. She passed away in 2012 around the time I started training for my first Tough Mudder. I wanted something of hers with me to remind me how precious life is and how we need to make the best out of any situation. Not everyone is as lucky as I am to enjoy all these events. I never want to forget that. If you ever catch me sounding too arrogant or cocky, you have permission to slap me.
Joe and I left Lauren’s house and took a subway into Boston. Since we were in different waves, his bus left early. I spent time looking for Brian and Lindsey but I knew my chances of spotting them in a crowd of 30,000 might be a wee bit tricky. (I never did see Lindsey all weekend although we played a lot of text-tag). I visited with police officers and volunteers and other runners and enjoyed hearing their stories. Some of them went into detail of what happened during the tragic events of 2013. I met a guy who was right at the finish line area when the bombs went off. He was one of the final people to officially finish the race that day. The people of Boston are as amazing as the stories say. No one I met lived in fear. They were proud of their community and would never miss the chance to be part of their annual marathon tradition.
After the bus dropped us off, we huddled inside a shelter to stay out of the wind and rain for a while. I had on extra clothes, including a couple of garbage bags that Lauren customized for me. When my wave and corral was called up (5th corral in 2nd wave), about 7500 of us moved together, keeping close together for warmth. Just prior to 10:25 I shed my outer layers and got ready to run. The start was oddly anti-climatic. We just started moving forward and before we knew it we crossed the start-line timing mat. It was go time.
To be honest, I didn’t have much of a race strategy. I intentionally kept myself preoccupied with other thoughts so I wouldn’t freak myself out. I just wanted to maintain and hold a steady 4:30 minute/km pace as long as I could. I knew the weather wouldn’t make it easy but fortunately I managed to hold this pace for the first 12km.
Something else happened along the way that I didn’t plan to do. Shortly into the race I started hearing people yell “Go Team Hoyt” when they saw my singlet. I started counting how many times I heard the word “Hoyt” yelled out at me during the race. It became my main focus. Since the cheering was SOOOO loud, it was often hard to hear anything. I also made it a point to stay on the far left side of the runners so I had some freedom to pass at will. It also let me easily grab drinks along the way. I drank at every water station they had even though I was never thirsty.
The hills didn’t bother me too much. Obviously I couldn’t accelerate going up but coming down I tried to maintain a steady pace and pass people when I could. According to my bib number and final result, I figure I passed approximately 4725 people (give or take a few) throughout the race.
As the race went on, I came across many people who were hurting. Many cramped up or hit “the wall”. Just before the 9km mark I was shocked to see Brian Horrobin. In fact, I nearly ran into him. At first I saw Team Hoyt on his shirt and then noticed the Canada part. We were the only two in the marathon wearing this particular singlet so it had to be Brian. Unfortunately this wasn’t his day and he was struggling. But since Brian is a determined fellow, there was no way he was going to quit. He kept plugging away.
Around the halfway point, I heard the Welleseley College girls hooting and hollering. I had been warned they were loud. And despite the miserable weather, they were out in full force, screaming at the top of their lungs. Their signs were very creative and made me chuckle. And no, I did not receive any of the kisses they offered!
The crowd was pretty thick throughout most of the course. Boston people love supporting the runners. In addition to shouts of “go Team Hoyt”, I heard plenty of people yelling, “Yeah Canada!!”. I was lucky enough to get inspiration from these two sources. However, I only counted the number of times I heard “Hoyt” because I knew they read my shirt.
At times, the rain poured down pretty hard. I didn’t really feel it on my head. I’ve been called a numbskull on plenty of occasions so this only furthered that claim. I could see the rain bouncing off the spectator’s umbrellas along the course. I could tell many of them were freezing. At one spot they actually had a fire burning for warmth. People offered us a variety of treats along the course including paper towels to dry our faces (which would have lasted 14 nanoseconds). Some offered fruit. One guy even offered me a beer. I didn’t even pause at the lemonade stand. I stuck with Gatorade.
As many of you know, I have a tendency to get lost in races. Fortunately that wasn’t a possibility here. In the other big races I’ve done, I often follow particular people who have a good pace. I kept trying to do that here but there were so many runners that I easily lost track of the person I targeted. I was on my own.
I was happy with my 5k and 10k split times. I stuck to the plan and didn’t go out too hard in order to save some energy. At the 21k point I was exactly at half of my goal time. Since the hardest part of the course was coming up and I was always fade at the end, I knew I wouldn’t be getting 3:15 on this day. My next goal was to just finish under 3:25 so I could re-qualify for Boston again next year. In order to set a personal best I needed to crack 3:22:27. I stopped looking at my watch for my cumulative time. It was either going to happen or it wasn’t. I didn’t want to drive myself nuts, fretting over my time. The crowds got to be so loud that I couldn’t even hear my watch beep at the km marks.
At the end of Heartbreak Hill, I heard and saw Lauren Andrews. I even turned around and waved at her after I passed. The crazy thing is MJ was with her and I didn’t know it! You know the crowd is loud when you can’t hear MJ yelling!
With 10k to go I had a bounce to my step. Once the hills were done, I felt like I could fly. At my one and only other marathon, this is where I started slowing down. But not this time. I picked up my pace and started passing more people. 10 km is nothing. I was energized. The crowd was cheering like mad. I was hearing lots and lots of “Go Team Hoyt”. Nothing could stop me.
Then with 3km left to go, I felt myself fading. My pace crept up over 5 minutes/km. Not good. I was starting to struggle. Now this part is crazy. I had to look at my watch to mark the moment just because I knew I’d be re-telling this story. At 40.7km in, when I was running out of steam, I came upon none other than Rick Hoyt and Bryan Lyons! What are the chances?? Other than Brian Horrobin back before the 9km mark, I didn’t see any other Team Hoyt members out there. But here I am, near the very end and here’s the heart of Team Hoyt. Seeing them boosted me. I gave Bryan a pat on the back and waved at Rick. This is the strength I needed to get me to the finish.
Normally at the end of a race I can pick it up for the final km. Not here. Not this time. My 42th km was actually my 2nd slowest of the entire race. However, I was able to find some buried energy for the final 450 metres and sprinted across the finish line.
I have no distinct memory of crossing the line. I wasn’t even sure if I had finished or not. But everyone else around me had stopped so I figured I was done. I looked down at my watch and saw 3:21:30. I beat my previous time by nearly a minute! I knew that this time was good enough to re-qualify me to come back next year! Bonus.
As I walked forward I looked to my left and who do I see? Wes Harding! He had just finished and happened to be standing there. I told him that Rick and Bryan would be crossing the line at any moment. We heard the announcer call their names out and the crowd cheered even louder. When we found them they were already with Dick Hoyt and Uta Pippig. Uta gave me a big hug. I gave a thumbs up to Rick. The six of us walked together a ways and I even pushed Rick’s chair for a tiny bit. What a thrill and honour. Even though it was only a short walk together, that’s a absolutely priceless memory of being with those five amazing people at the end of marathon. Unbelievable.
By this point my legs were getting stiff. Wes and I got our medallions together and posed from some pictures. It was getting pretty chilly so we were happy to put on some warm ponchos to keep in some heat. Shortly after we got our goody bags, Wes and I got separated. We just turned our heads for an instant and lost each other. Everyone looked the same wearing the same ponchos. It took me quite a while and I had to ask for directions several times (yeah yeah, I know), but I finally made it back to the Sheraton where I was to meet Brian and MJ. I even got lost when I was in the hotel. It took me 3 trips up elevators until I finally found Brian’s room. The warm shower after the race was just what I needed. I felt much much better. And apparently I smelled better too. Brian made it back to the room and you could tell he was hurting as well. From there we hopped on the subway, found our car, and the incredible MJ miraculously drove 11 hours and we arrived home by 4 am. We got a couple of hours of sleep and then we both had to get up and go to work.
You might think I’d be done typing by now but you would be incorrect. On the ride home, I turned on my phone and I was completely overwhelmed by messages from people. I spent hours reading and responding. I am touched by how many people tracked me online throughout the race. I appreciate all the positive vibes that everyone sent me. I’m convinced that I did so well because of people like you. It doesn’t matter whether we met somewhere in the mud or a soccer field or you have the misfortune of being related to me, chances are you’ve done or said something along the way to inspire me. Thank you for that! My Boston Marathon experience was utterly fabulous and I wanted to share it with you. Hopefully it wasn’t too nauseating to read.
So there you have it. My story. The end.
Here are some numbers for those of you who are geeky like me:
– registered runners: 30,251
– runners who started: 27,165
– runners who finished: 26,610
– my bib number/pre-race ranking: 12,106
– my overall placement: 7,381
– my time: 3:21:30
– splits: 5k: 22:29, 10k: 45:10, 15k: 1:08:16, 20k: 1:31:50, half: 1:36:55, 25k: 1:55:34, 30k: 2:20:43, 35k: 2.45:51, 40k: 3:10:37
– my average pace: 4:45 min/km or 7:42 min/mile
– best km: 4:12 (5th km)
– worst km: 5:15 (34th km and steepest elevation climb of the race)
and last, but not least….
– final count on the number of times I heard “Hoyt” shouted at me throughout the race: 265.
Ok. Now I’m really done. Thanks for reading. You may resume your life now.
