"PRIOR PREPARATION PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE"

The day before the Boston Marathon I ran, well kinda' ran, the BAA 5K! It's a nice fun run around the Boston Commons past the capitol and back down to near the Boston Marathon finish line on Boylston.

"The real contest is always between what you've done and what you're capable of doing. You measure yourself against yourself and nobody else."--Geoffrey Gaberino

Wow! I don't even know where to start this belated race report of my experience at the 116th BOSTON marathon for 2012. I think I have to load up the "Way Back Machine" and remember what got me to my first Boston Marathon. For me I would say that it was my very first marathon in 1998, The St. George Marathon, that aimed me at even thinking that I could do The Boston. In 1997 at the age of 46 I took on the challenge of running a marathon with my best old friend Joe. He had come to me with the bright idea that we could actually run a marathon at least once in our lives. I trained up and run the SGM, with Joe, in 1998 in 3:39:44 at 47 years of age. Just after the race I told myself and Joe that I'd never do another marathon as long as I lived. Then two weeks later I found myself looking at my time at the SGM '98 thinking that if I had run it just a few minutes faster I could qualify to apply for the Boston Marathon. So what I guess I'm trying to say is, this is where the dream of doing Boston started and now I've completed 10 Boston marathons!

For me the Boston 2012 started on October 2, 1999 when I ran my second St. George Marathon at 3:21:26 at the age of 48 and qualified to apply for my first Boston Marathon in 2000. I really trained up hard to achieve my goal and ran Boston 2000 in 20 degree weather with a 3:52:34 at 49 years of age. What a nightmare running in the cold was that year!

Boston Marathons: 2000-3:52:34 2003-3:54:30 2004-3:56:00 2005-3:37:46 2006-3:29:57 2007-3:34:34 2008-3:30:25 2009-4:42:27 2011-3:45:01 2012-4:10:16...

So here I am at the Boston 2012 at age 61 running the Boston in the second hottest marathon monday in the 116 year history of the Boston Marathon. I had already run the third hottest Boston Marathon in 2003. The experience of running the Boston Marathon is something that I will cherish for the rest of time. I know that I am not an elite marathon runner by any stretch of the imagination and at my best I barely qualify to be classified as a good recreational runner. But none the less, I've qualified and ran "10" Boston Marathons.

I couldn't believe that the Boston 116 th was going to be such a hot one. I started the weather watch about two weeks before race day and was totally amazed at the different weather gypsies forecasts that were being give. The one thing they kept coming back to was the fact that April 16th was going to be hot, just how hot they couldn't make up their minds! In the past I've run "hot" marathons and I knew full well that this Boston was going to be trouble for me and everybody else in it!

At the St. George Marathon 2010, where I ran a 3:30:53 in the blistering heat of the high desert and used this time to qualify for the 2012 Boston, I related the high heat situation to the 2012 Boston Marathon and tried to plan accordingly to survive the 2012 Boston.

It was amazing walking over to the bus loading zone to head out to the athletes village and you didn't need a jacket or long pants.....I knew we were all in some kind of trouble at that point.

In the village I tried to sit quietly by and try to contemplate running the Boston Bataan Death March run.

About 10:am we packed up and headed for the gear bag bus and then to the starting area. I was in the second wave, fifth corral, I just made it there when it was time to head out down the long winding hot road to Boston. I thought I had a pretty good plan to get me there!

Our race started and we were off. I planned to start slow and remain in control hoping for a 3:45:00 race that day.....wow, was I in for a big fat hot surprise.

I was pretty much in control for the first 7 or 8 miles and then the heat really started to pick up. I had previously upped my hydration intake and was feeling good even as the heat started up. Later reports say that it was 88 degrees in the air and about 95 degrees on the black top.

I was doing pretty good, but slowing down as I reached 14 miles. The heat was getting bad and the direct sun was starting to burn the exposed flesh on my shoulders. That’s when out of nowhere Hillbilly Runner (Ronnie) popped up and said that he was having some heat problems and I should just keep on running, see ya at the finish line.

From about the 14 mile area I started taking double cups of water and Gatorade and then pouring two cups over my head at each water stop. the March continues....

The rest of the race then got to be a blur, it was so hot and all I wanted to do was get it over with. It seemed like I couldn't get enough water and I couldn't keep my hands cool, and the heat kept building.

I tried to keep my pace up but it just wasn't happening. It just kept getting harder and harder to keep pushing forward. It didn't take too awful long to figure out I wasn't going to make my planned race time.

I couldn't believe all the runners that were dropping out around and from in front of me. It was awful to see some of the misery that was going on. It almost makes me think that that I could have taken a pass and got into next years race.....too late for that, I was already on the course.

Oh ya before I go on, I got on the left hand side of the road just before the 2 mile mark and met up with my peeps at the biker bar. Considering the outcome of my race I should have stopped and had a 20 oz beer with the gang. Instead, I high fived a bunch of them and grabbed a small cup of beer for the road and kept on moving. Then again at the bottom of Heart Break Hill the Hash Hound Harriers were having a really big beer party, I really wanted to stop but I really wanted to get this race in the books before it cooked me.

Anyway, I just suffered through to the end of the race getting a pretty good round of applause when I pulled out my cigar and beet feet for the finish.....right at Hereford, left at Boylston, go for the finish line.

I clocked in a 4:10:16. Wow, that was a good 25 minutes slower that my planned finish time. The heat was brutal!

At the end I felt pretty good, I felt like I had planned fairly well and didn't dehydrate too badly on my journey. But I was trashed, that had to be the hardest marathon I've ever had to finish.

Oh well, that’s life in the slow hot lane. Now it's time to get ready to run the Ing New York Marathon in November 2012. Take care everybody.....................

One last thought. I can't help thinking that everything we do as runners is calculated right down to the smallest detail and is controlled with precision. Then when race day shows up we all line up at the starting line and run in what ever weather shows up. All that control out the window with the only thing that we have no control over. "The Weather"!

Tom Slick out...

rest and sight seeing in the Boston area

more rest and travel back to SLC.

more res at home, all day.

another rest day......1/2 day at work

I'm getting pretty used to this rest and eating everything in sight!