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 "I remember one guy on the side, just before what I heard people saying was heartbreak hill, saying – I want to be a runner. And I thought ‘that is exactly the reason I run! To inspire people to be fit and healthy’ I love running!" |
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Tonja Leach, Boston Marathon 2008
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Boston Marathon 2008 A race I will never forget Preparing for Boston The snowiest winter in Ottawa since I was too young to remember didn’t bode well for training for the marathon of marathons. My training was less than perfect – two full one week breaks each followed by a recovery week to try and get back on track due to knee injuries – made for a tough mental challenge getting to Boston. There was two times where I thought I would have to defer my 2008 qualification to 2009 but a visit to a sports medicine doctor put me in the right mind set. You can run now and worry about what your knee will feel like when you are 80 or you can not run now and still have knee issues when you are 80. You chose. The kick in the pants I needed! My training from that moment onwards was cautious. If I felt anything in my knee, I walked. Up every hill, especially if they looked slippery with all the snow and ice. Every run was planned around the weather – ensuring to get my runs in when there was the least amount of snow on the roads and twice running on that dreaded treadmill. And not worrying if I had to miss one or two due to weather. My doctor reinforced that before marathons were tackled by all walks of life, training involved almost as much walking as running unlike what we do today. Her advice, if you can’t run, walk no matter what the mileage you have left that day, it is the mileage on your legs that matters not the pace. Cautiously, I finished my training and was headed to Boston. Off to Boston The day before we left I felt like I had 8 cups of coffee in me, all the well wishes from my family and friends had my nerves in a tizzy and knowing that they were able to track me online made me even more anxious. It wasn’t till my friend Julia emailed to say she would be tracking bib #15538 from her desk did it strike me that I was going to run the Boston Marathon! AH! Gulp! What am I doing!?!?! Mark and I flew down on Saturday afternoon, settled into our hotel room and went for a walk around Boston – what a terrific city! Magnolia’s and flowers in bloom everywhere, especially in Boston Common – the central park. Beautiful! We of course had to visit the famed Cheers bar, and discovered that there was more than one… ‘the inspiration’ and the one replica of the set. We stopped in for a drink on our way back to our hotel. Sunday was Race Expo day – what a zoo! The women’s Olympic trials were going on at the same time, finishing exactly where the Boston Marathon would finish the following day. I managed to get my token and coveted Boston Marathon jacket and hoped to god, I would have a medal to accompany it the following day. After a long walk around Boston, we had an afternoon nap and proceeded out to dinner with Mark’s cousin Ian and two of his friends. Ian was running Boston for the seventh time, amazing. His friends – absolutely inspirational. One was running Boston for the 18th time and the other his 23rd! They helped calm my nerves. Race Day Up at 5:30am after a decent sleep in pre-marathon race terms – probably the two glasses of wine the night before that made my sleep decent. A quick wake up shower and quick hop into my clothes that I laid out the night before. A double check that I had everything I needed with me; race chip, number on my shirt, food, water and my official bag that would be shipped from start to finish for me. Much needed hugs and kisses from a sleepy Mark and off I went. I met up with my new friends from dinner the night before and hopped on a shuttle bus to the start line. Aren’t we there yet? Holy crap 26.2 miles is a long way! My legs were shaking the whole way to the start and I kept thinking – I must stop the shaking, I am wasting energy but I can’t, they won’t stop. In desperate need of a washroom, we arrive at the Athlete’s village. There are hundreds upon hundreds of go huts and each one has a line up 40 people long… Oh well, gotta go before the race starts so we wait in line. We hear jets pass overhead and an announcement that the first wave of runners is off, I am sitting on the grass in the Athlete’s village with 14,000 other people waiting to be told to walk the mile to the start line for Wave 2. The energy is buzzing all around me. Then, the sun comes out. Ah! I didn’t expect sun, the last weather report was 13 degrees and cloudy… I haven’t run in shorts yet this year, never mind a t-shirt and hot sun! Oh well, no turning back now and it is better than last year 2 degrees and raining! It is time, off come the extra layers of clothes, I drop off my bag and head off to the start line. 14,000 people fills two city blocks – luckily for me, I was in the second coral very close to the start line. 2 minute warning (nervously I stretch my quads), 1 minute warning (nervously I stretch my hamstrings), 30 second warning (praying that my knee will make the full 26.2 miles, give it a rub). The gun goes off, I am across the line in 20seconds or so – unlike those at the back which will take up to 15min to cross – being the fastest of the second pack seems much better than the slowest of the fastest pack. It is downhill, seriously downhill. I have my brakes on, looking at my GPS sticking with my five minute kilometers, people are flooding past me. I keep telling my self that I will pass them later. There are crowds along the side of the road all screaming and cheering for us. Funnily enough with 14,000 people you would think that you would be really crammed in on a narrow road but there is space for me to run – perhaps it is because I am creating an eddy around me as I am going slower than others. Before I realize, I am at the 5K mark. I am almost brought to tears realizing that all my friend and family are tracking me and will know that I have made it this far and I am on pace. Crowds are still lining the streets, tons of little kids hoping to get a high five from the runners as they run by. I give it a whirl, huge smiles on their faces as they see my hand coming, more hands pop out. I can almost feel their energy transfer inside me – must do that again later in the race! There are people with orange wedges, candy, wet ones, napkins, water etc. it is endless support. Settling in, I can’t remember where in the race, a guy beside me goes down, a girl hops over him. I sounded awful, like the wind is being knocked out of him, a quick look back – he is up, the girl and I look at each other and keep running. We both hope he is ok, but you can’t just stop in a crowd this thick. I pass the 10K mark and think, ok, 3 and a bit more of those… Then a yikes! 3 more and a bit – that is far! I realize that I haven’t walked yet. Hum, what is my game plan. The only plan I had was to get to the finish line, I hadn’t really though about the in between part. I tell myself that I should walk the next water station and walk for a full minute. I grab some water and scoot off to the side, check my watch and start walking and drinking and taking some gel. I look at my watch – 30 seconds have gone by and a runner says – come on girl you can do it. I laugh and say - yes I can, I am coming - and I start running again. That is when I realized that I wasn’t doing a run walk this time, and hoped I could make the full distance. From then on I only walked to get a few gulps of water down the hatch, every now and then. Coming down a hill near the half way mark the sound of the crowd changed – I thought there has got to be a ton of people down there but I can’t see more than normal. All the men seemed to stand up a little straighter and then I clued in – Wellsley College! The girls were screaming, it was so loud that I felt like I needed to cover my ears. Luckily they were only on one side of the road. They all had signs – kiss me I’m single! I had a good chuckle. I crossed the half way point – I realized I was starting to like miles more than kilometers, 13 to go sounded much better than 21… The second half was a bit of a blur. I know I was running, ensuring to cross the road to cut off as many of the corners as possible but I don’t remember much about kilometers 22 to 35 other than lots of screaming people. One of those hills was heartbreak but I don’t know which one. I remember one guy on the side, just before what I heard people saying was heartbreak hill, saying – I want to be a runner. And I thought ‘that is exactly the reason I run! To inspire people to be fit and healthy’ I love running! Someone around me had Canada written in ink on her arms, there were lots of screams for Canada which was great. Some guy yelled my number 15-5-38, 15-5-38, 15-5-38, he was practically in my face before I realized that that was my number. 35K and on was the tough part. I kept telling myself to keep running, Mark was at the finish line and I really wanted to share this amazing experience with him. He had been tracking me all along, as emails were sent to my phone that he was carrying every 10K. This is when I got my payback for staying on pace from the start. I was passing people. People were walking and running very slowly – feeling the effects of all those rolling hills from the start. I persevered, kept pushing. 4K to go – 20min or so and I would be crossing the finish line. The road turned right, and then up a little hill and a sharp left to the home stretch (which is about a kilometer long…). The crowds and the cheering were beyond anything I could imagine. Then I heard my name – the first yell for a Tonja in the race. It was Mark, I tried to find him in the crowd but couldn’t there were just too many people. Looking up, there was the finish line and the clock – oh my god, I’m going to re-qualify! I never thought that could happen. The hardest, hilliest course I have run, the injuries and reduced training all winter long, I didn’t think it were possible. Marathons come from within, a sheer determination to succeed, to push through pain and adversity, you have to suck in the energy of the crowd and all those people that support you in your training and just commit to yourself, believe in yourself. The outcome is irrelevant, the journey is the challenge, the friends you make and the encouragement and inspiration you give to others is the reward. A huge thank you to my family (Mark, Mom, Dad, Kat & G and of course Stella & Hunter my occasional but dedicated training partners), all my running friends (especially the angels under my feet at 31K), all my other friends (including those that think I am half insane) and the four associations that sponsored my way to Boston. Your encouragement is what makes this possible. I couldn’t do this with out you! I will never forget Boston 2008!
Tonja Leach, Ottawa, Ontario, April 2008
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