boston 2007 part3

Result; 3:26:27 (Thanks to Steve for caluculating this)

Distance	Time	Race Pace	Split Pace
5	0:24:27	0:04:53	0:04:53
10	0:48:36	0:04:52	0:04:50
15	1:12:29	0:04:50	0:04:47
20	1:36:35	0:04:50	0:04:49
21.1	1:41:44	0:04:49	0:04:41
25	2:00:24	0:04:49	0:04:47
30	2:25:08	0:04:50	0:04:57
35	2:50:09	0:04:52	0:05:00
40	3:16:07	0:04:54	0:05:12
42.195	3:26:27	0:04:54	0:04:42

I was in the corral 10, people who had bibs from 10000 to 11000 were there. Most of people wore a poncho or a light jacket to protect own body from rain. I took off my old jacket and pants to donate, I've heard that's a tradition of Boston marathon.

I was warmed well by stretching with Namban singlet but I should had to wear the national flag "Hinomaru" to run bravely as a Japanese. It was so lovely some people were running with their own flag, I will try to do it next time.

I needed to pass an up-hill before start, people were standing around me, encouraged each other, "Good luck", "Good luck you too" etc. Gun had shoot at 10am, then everyone screaming "WOOHOO" "OHHHH", I was also exciting! I started slowly to maintain my running pace between miles and kilometers. Rain had stopped around 4 miles point, but I got against wind beside of lakes.

Some time I could hear theme song of Rocky, people on side walk were encouraging like "Go!", "Keep going!", "You are great", etc. I got energy from them. I thought I made split too slowly, so just speed up a little at 4:45 after 6 miles. I saw lots of encouraging board said "Go Steve". Is the name "Steve" the most popular name for boy?, just curious.
Rain had stopped at all, but still couldn't through it to trash because of possibility of raining again.

Before passing 12miles, I could hear Girl's screaming. I'm very happy to see good scenery which most of Men is expecting to kiss with girl's. Actually an Italian guy was kissing on the lips! even he was running for marathon! Aya's mom in law told us Former American first lady Hillary Clinton graduated from there.

Just kept going, my legs felt tiredness until half point, but they didn't feel anything after that. So I tried to run a bit of faster with my patient. I just entered four uphills area around 16miles, first one was not so steep but not so easy. And received free energy gel, taste was Cafe latte, fruits flavor is better I think. Before 18miles and after 19miles, I had the others.
I was thirsty around 20miles, so wanted to drink water, even extended my warm, couldn't get it. One girl offered me a cup of drink after that, I got it and drunk, but spited it out since it was BEER.

I got water and washed my mouth soon, it was cold water, then started finding restroom...
I took a break inside for a couple of minutes, that's why I could speed up apparently. Just ran and ran, dash and hurry, I passed many many people, it was good feeling.

"Heart break hill" is too steep for marathon course after running for 20.5miles and there are 5miles more. Fortunately there were lot of people on sidewalk, some people called me "Chinese character" because of wearing Namban singlet, "Konichiha---" "Ganbatte--", "がんばってくださーい" in japanese etc. I just kept running and focused on my running. Then my legs had some energy to get speed up a bit faster more, I thought.

Around 24miles, I just speed up for 4:35 to 4:40 pace, nobody passed me. Just ran and focused on. After the sign "1mile more", I could be faster more. Ran, ran and ran, it was hard but I was feeling so great!

It was the best moment when I saw the finish gate, then my tears came down. My finishing time was 3:26:27, not so fast but not so bad result. I really had good experience as tougher, colder and best marathon. I'd like to try this again sometime if I have time and money, absolutely this was valuable for me.