Rick Report: Breakers Newport Marathon

Here's a great race report from our roaving reporter, Rick Cleary:

Hello running fans:

A report on today's Amica Breakers Newport Marathon in Rhode Island: I ran 3:46:20, so I didn't qualify for Boston (needed 3:35). For a while I thought I had it, I made it 20 in 2:38, right on schedule, but I suddenly got very tired and there was a big hill. I walked a little and almost gave up but got a second wind and ran OK from 22 to 24, arriving at 24 in 3:16 and thinking, "Hey, two nine minute miles and a can squeeze in there!" I ran the next 3/4 of a mile fast enough, I think, but there's a short steep up just before 25 and my legendary lack of mental toughness kicked in. Once 3:35 was out of the question (and my legs really hurt a great deal, not cramping exactly but powerfully achy all of a sudden) I gave up and walked quite a bit leading to the finish time that made it sound like I missed by a lot.

Conditions were OK, not great. High 60s and almost 100% humidity at the start so that by mile 1 (in 8:17) I was dripping and by mile 2 water was sheeting off of me. The sun never came out, though, so it never get worse.

My lead excuse is that Tommy, normally an all-American super sleeper, woke up last night and wanted to play from roughly mid-night to 3:30. Ann tried to do a long shift but he was loud enough that even I, another excellent sleeper, got up to consult. He didn't seem sick (and is fine today) but we gave him Tylenol anyway. Didn't work, as predicted on a front page article in yesterday's Boston Globe, ironically enough. I was up with him from 2 to 3:30, 30 minutes of book time, 30 minutes of TV, 10 minutes of trying to get him back to sleep in his bed, and finally I had the great idea to take him for a car ride, which worked. Nearly four before I was back to bed, and I got up at 5:20 to make it to the 8 AM start. Definitely my first marathon on about three hours sleep, but I'm not sure it made much difference. (I roomed with Alan Bowman and Shawn McDonald before a couple of Bostons and those guys were so nervous and excited that they didn't sleep at all and still routinely beat me.)

A graph of my personal "probability of re-qualification" would show it starting near zero and growing linearly to almost one by mile 18. I decided to look at the watch after the first and second miles, but then only ever three miles from 2 to 20 ... I hate information overload. From 2 to 17 my three mile splits were 22:31 (way too fast), then 23:36, 23:38, 23:38 and 23:42; perfect! Just what I was hoping, a little under eight per mile, and I was feeling stronger all the way. I maintained faith to mile 20, though 17-20 had slowed to about 8:30 almost the entire section was uphill, moving away from the coast. As noted above I gave up at 20 but by 24 I was back in good form and thought I was going to do it. The combination of not having run more than 17 miles since Boston (when I probably only ran 16 and walked 10) and that slightly too fast early start probably did me in when coupled with the sleeplessness.

At this early juncture I'd pretty much rank the four choices below as equally likely:
1.) Run another marathon this fall/winter and try again to qualify.
2.) Forget it, take a year off from Boston, and try to requalify next year while on sabbatical.
3.) Get into this year's Boston some sneaky way as fund raiser or playing the "it will be my 30th" card.
4.) Run Boston as a bandit.

I feel great as I write this at 4:30, just a little fatigue but can do things around the house, play with kids, etc. It's a very interesting mix of feelings of accomplishment (I was not at all sure I had a chance to qualify, so this was a pretty good effort) and disappointment (was hoping for good reason to quit being a good boy and losing some weight, as I have recently managed to get from 200 to 190, now it's clear I should keep aiming lower instead of bulking up for the Holidays!)

OK, up for a quick nap (thanks, Ann!) before hoping that the Red Sox make us 1 -1 in today's "athletic events of interest!" I'll be the guy sleeping in Section 6.

Rick