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Jon C. Boston report

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Post  jon c Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:20 pm

After the dust has settled a bit on the events of last week, I thought now might be a good time to reflect back on the race itself.

My journey since running Lincoln last year in May has been a bit sketchy from a running standpoint. A couple of major events came up in our lives. My grandmother passed away last May at the age of 102. Not totally unexpected due to her age, but my last living grandparent being gone is a milestone. And she has been missed. A great example of how to age gracefully without complaint.

In late June we were on vacation in San Diego, and Hannah became ill unlike which we had not seen before. It turned out that she has type 1 diabetes, which required a crash course in helping her cope with that in her life and all the changes that needed to be made in order to keep her healthy. And fighting some of the dogma of how that should be handled that is simply not good advice, at least from the standpoint of living a longer healthier life.

We had a long, hot summer like most of the rest of the country, and I just simply found myself not wanting to put in the miles that I had in previous years. So the mileage was cut back by about 20-30%. I trained for a fall 50K race close to home. That training was going well by September, but about 10 days from the race, I stubbed my left pinkie toe and broke it, which was enough to keep me from racing.

In November, I ran the Flying Monkey Marathon in Nashville along with Matt M. and some other close running friends. What a fun time that was! I cruised to a sub4 negative split finish and look forward to running it again this fall if Monkey Trent will have me.

Over the winter months, I trained enough to keep my base, and then began training for Boston in late January. The training seemed to go well, my weekly mileage varied between 35-55 mpw with a few tempo runs off and on. My training consisted of nothing too intense that would get me injured. And also tried to avoid stubbing my toe again... I did a ten mile tempo run about a week before Boston at a 7:50 average pace so I felt I was ready to break 3:40 and bq again in Boston like I had in 2011.

So as we took off from Hopkinton going downhill, I was hoping to average a bit under 8 minute miles and settle into a rhythm. My plans were thrown a bit when it seemed crowded the first couple miles which kept me closer to 8:30 miles. It had never seemed as crowded as it did this year for some reason. At the first 5K, I was about a minute behind my planned pace. I did finally settle into a rhythm, but not as soon as I had wanted. At the half, my time was 1:47, so I was in good shape for a 3:40, but I had hoped for a 1:45. I kept a fairly steady pace up until the Newton hills at which point I began to slow. However, at between miles 18 and 19, I seemed to get a second wind somehow which really gave me a boost to finish the last two hills including Heartbreak. As I began the downhill through Boston College, my quads were officially trashed, which was not unexpected. Since I've never been a good downhill runner, I relied on muscle memory and the understanding that this is how it's supposed to feel at that point in the race and we'll get through it and finish. At mile 20, I was around 2:45. So overall I continued to slow slightly and finished in 3:38 which was similar to my first two Boston finishes in 09 and 10.

After working my way through the finish area of seemingly blocks and blocks, I got to my bus, got my drop bag and changed into some warmer, drier clothing. I walked through to the Boston Common which is where I meet Connie and Hannah due to the extreme crowding at the finish area. I guess that was a pretty good idea. We then walked over toward the Park St. T stop, walked downstairs and waited for our green line train. It was approximately 45 minutes from the time I finished until the bombs went off. So we were apparently underground when it occurred. Having known and met some of you who were in close proximity to the blasts must have been a much more impactful experience to say the least.

As I had stated on another thread, we were evacuated out of the T at the Hynes Convention center stop which was just blocks away from the mayhem. When we got back up to street level, we began to find out what had happened. We slowly made our way away from the downtown through the hordes of people, grabbed lunch at a Qdoba at Kenmore square before being evacuated from there, and eventually after walking around 3-4 miles away from the finish found a nearly empty train to take us back to our car and proceeded back from there to our hotel in Waltham. We finally arrived there just before six. We were probably some of the first to make it back from downtown since we kept walking.


We do plan on coming back to run Boston next year. In light of the events of last Monday, any individual accomplishments seem very small and insignificant. What small things we can do is to do our best to continue to support the people of Boston, our fellow runners, and continue our spirit of perserverence and "continue to run the race set before us" as scripture points out. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones and friends, and to those who will have permanent scars from this day. Hopefully this report was done respectfully toward those who were not able to finish their race, to those that were injured, and to those who are no longer with us.

My future plans are to run Lincoln on May 5, and see if I can get a faster time. Not sure what the summer will bring yet, but I am planning at least one fall race, or two if I get in the Monkey again.


Last edited by jon c on Wed Apr 24, 2013 10:00 am; edited 1 time in total
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Post  Alex Kubacki Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:38 am

Great job on getting it done Jon. You didn't even do a full cycle and you still put down a great time. Glad you're safe as well.
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Post  Dave P Tue Apr 23, 2013 11:46 am

Congrats Jon, & great scripture ref.
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Post  nkrichards Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:01 pm

Great race but even more impressive is your ability to manage running along with the rest of the things that happen in life. Sounds like you've prioritized very well. Good luck as you move forward.
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Post  John Kilpatrick Tue Apr 23, 2013 12:15 pm

Hi Jon,

For the important part, I'm sorry that Hannah has to deal with this, but you are an awesome Dad and she has lots of love surrounding her.

Congrats on the running - you ran a pretty quick race (thank goodness) and a good perspective on the course. Glad you are safe.

How are you feeling about running now? Just curious if you have the desire to train higher mileage again (not that 35-55 is low!) or have settled into a good routine...

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Post  Michele "1L" Keane Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:01 pm

Congrats on a nice race, Jon, and it was great to see you again. Hopefully I'll be there next year too, but we will see.
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Post  ounce Tue Apr 23, 2013 7:39 pm

Well written, Jon. Take care.
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Post  jon c Wed Apr 24, 2013 9:54 am

I failed to mention in my report that one of the highlights of the weekend was meeting up at the food court on Saturday. Got to meet a few of you all for the first time and see others we met last year. Hannah was not having her best day that afternoon and was ready to head out long before we left. lol! We have hit the tweener years already. We made it up to her the next day as she spent quite a long time at the Aquarium touching the rays and small sharks. She just loved that time.

Alex Kubacki wrote:Great job on getting it done Jon. You didn't even do a full cycle and you still put down a great time. Glad you're safe as well.

Thanks, Alex! Hope that your race goes well. It would be great to see you in Boston next year.


Dave P wrote:Congrats Jon, & great scripture ref.
Thanks Dave! Appreciate the thoughts.


nkrichards wrote:Great race but even more impressive is your ability to manage running along with the rest of the things that happen in life. Sounds like you've prioritized very well. Good luck as you move forward.

Thanks for your comments. Not sure how well I have done prioritizing sometimes, but life is always full of challenges no matter what walk of life you happen to be in.


John Kilpatrick wrote:Hi Jon,

For the important part, I'm sorry that Hannah has to deal with this, but you are an awesome Dad and she has lots of love surrounding her.

Congrats on the running - you ran a pretty quick race (thank goodness) and a good perspective on the course. Glad you are safe.

How are you feeling about running now? Just curious if you have the desire to train higher mileage again (not that 35-55 is low!) or have settled into a good routine...

Thanks for your thoughts, John. After running the course five times now, I do have a bit of an idea what is ahead.
As for the future, I'm really not sure. First I will run Lincoln and see how that goes. At the very least, I will keep my base over the summer and start to train probably in late July give or take. I signed up for the 50K that I skipped last October. I may throw another full in depending on how ambitious I get regarding lowering a bq time. It is kind of a relief to at least know that I won't have to necessarily better that.
As of today, I don't really have a great desire to up mileage much more. I do kind of have a side mileage goal for the year though. I need to log around 1800 miles for the year to have accumulated 10,000 in the past five years. Don't know if it will happen. I am at close to 700 for the year so far. I guess I look at running as something I would like to continue to do for longevity, so the most important thing with that is to minimize injury. I have been largely successful up to this point, so I am going to continue to do the things I do to that seem to have been helping.
On a personal note, I hope that you heal up soon and that things continue to go well for you overall, John.

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Congrats on a nice race, Jon, and it was great to see you again. Hopefully I'll be there next year too, but we will see.

Thanks, Michele! I hope that you can get your bq in to return soon. Glad your daughter is happy at BU and that your move has gone well.

ounce wrote:Well written, Jon. Take care.

Thanks, oz! Appreciate the comment.
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Post  Nick Morris Thu Apr 25, 2013 10:49 am

Sounds like you ran a great race Jon and I am glad that you were able to finish with another qualifying time. I know that both the men's and women's elite races started off very slowly, I wonder if that is why it was crowded for the first 5k or so.
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Post  Seth Harrison Thu Apr 25, 2013 2:16 pm

Jon, first of all, it was great finally meeting you, and I was also glad for my "accidental" phone call so that I knew you and your family were safe.
You had an eventful year, and I hope that Hannah's diabetes is under control.
It looks like you ran a pretty perfect marathon, nailing your BQ goal with a couple of minutes to spare. That's not an easy feat on that course.
Again, it was great meeting you and sharing the whole experience, both good and bad, with you and the rest of our friends.
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Post  fostever Thu Apr 25, 2013 3:02 pm

Jon, congrats on your BQ on the Boston course, that's fabulous! It was a privilege to meet up with you and other 365 runners who share a commitment to running and family.
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Post  Ken Cushing Fri Apr 26, 2013 11:36 am

Great report. Congratulations on your time. You put in a great effort. I'm glad you were able to get in and get out before the tragedy occurred.
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Post  jon c Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:40 am

Nick Morris wrote:Sounds like you ran a great race Jon and I am glad that you were able to finish with another qualifying time. I know that both the men's and women's elite races started off very slowly, I wonder if that is why it was crowded for the first 5k or so.

Thanks, Nick! As I have thought about it, I think the crowding was due to my qualifying time being slower than my last two Bostons. As a result, there were more people starting out at a bit of a slower pace than when I started with the 3:30 qualifying time, thus being in a slower overall corral this time around. And of course last year it was just going out slow and surviving with the heat.

Seth Harrison wrote:Jon, first of all, it was great finally meeting you, and I was also glad for my "accidental" phone call so that I knew you and your family were safe.
You had an eventful year, and I hope that Hannah's diabetes is under control.
It looks like you ran a pretty perfect marathon, nailing your BQ goal with a couple of minutes to spare. That's not an easy feat on that course.
Again, it was great meeting you and sharing the whole experience, both good and bad, with you and the rest of our friends.

Thanks, Seth. I am thankful that none of us were injured, although some of you were actually there when it happened. Hannah's diabetes is mostly under control. It's a constant battle, but her A1C tests have been pretty good, so that is encouraging.

fostever wrote:Jon, congrats on your BQ on the Boston course, that's fabulous! It was a privilege to meet up with you and other 365 runners who share a commitment to running and family.

Thanks, Steve, I enjoyed briefly saying hello to you also. I am amazed by you, Kevin, Michael, and others who are close to my age that make bq look so easy. Guess I was never blessed with the extra speed you all seem to possess. Congrats to you on your race as well.

Ken Cushing wrote:Great report. Congratulations on your time. You put in a great effort. I'm glad you were able to get in and get out before the tragedy occurred.

Thank you, Ken for your comments. We were thankful for that as well. You always wonder why you were able to get out and others were not...
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Post  T Miller Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:44 am

Congrats on your BQ in Boston Jon and good luck in Lincoln.
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Post  KBFitz Sun May 19, 2013 10:35 am

jon c wrote:In light of the events of last Monday, any individual accomplishments seem very small and insignificant.
Yeah. Horror overshadows all. Boston 2013 will be remembered for the horror, the valor and the resilience. That said ... you did good, Jon. Well done.
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