Boston Chat - Spoilers!

[shauni27]

wow, what amazing races it sounds like you each had! cinco I am sorry you did not have the race you had hoped for, but YEEZUS you are fast! You should be so proud! runblondie26 and fryjack2 CONGRATULATIONS! you finished the BOSTON MARATHON! I am so proud of all of you

Cannot wait to read full recaps!

[no0b]

Apr 22, 2014 8:18:40 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

So, after watching the race yesterday, who else went out on their runs all Braveheart-like last night and this morning? ::sheepishly raises hand::

Haaa... yup!  I was on beast-mode for a bit there.



...And I shouldn't have as I felt the start of shin splints and I hit some uneven pavement in an attempt to dodge a vehicle so now I'm all "ouch."  

[jordylee]

Apr 22, 2014 8:18:40 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

So, after watching the race yesterday, who else went out on their runs all Braveheart-like last night and this morning? ::sheepishly raises hand::

lol I  laced up as soon as the race was over. I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face the entire time. Today is speedwork for me, and I'm sure I will end up pushing it a little more than I plan on.

[thom]

Congrats fryjack2!! That's still an awesome time. Boston sounds like such a hard course, but I'm sure the spectators were amazing.

shorewife -- hoping it went well for you too !

[libbygrl109]

Apr 22, 2014 8:18:40 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

So, after watching the race yesterday, who else went out on their runs all Braveheart-like last night and this morning? ::sheepishly raises hand::

I couldn't wait to get home yesterday to get out there, too!


Congrats fryjack2! Amazing job!

[melmel48]

Apr 21, 2014 8:53:36 GMT -5 bostonmichelle said:

This is crazy to listen to. I got so choked up listening to the start on the car ride into work. I have the radio tuned at the moment at work. Why didn't I take the day off again to go watch it?

Next year! Me and you!  It will be awesome.

[melmel48]

Apr 21, 2014 13:22:59 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Juli Windsor - the girl from the RW article that I posted yesterday - finished in 4:43. She is the first little person (if that isn't the correct term, someone please enlighten me). She is 3'9" tall, I think. Amazing.

John Young - the guy from the article - dropped out around the 20K mark. It wasn't his day.

I am friends with John. He had a lot of vomiting and had to drop out. He is devastated.  I actually ran into him in town on Saturday when I was doing the BAA 5k and he was really excited for the marathon. I feel terrible that he wasn't able to finish.  

[clseale]

Apr 22, 2014 12:35:07 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

Apr 21, 2014 13:22:59 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Juli Windsor - the girl from the RW article that I posted yesterday - finished in 4:43. She is the first little person (if that isn't the correct term, someone please enlighten me). She is 3'9" tall, I think. Amazing.

John Young - the guy from the article - dropped out around the 20K mark. It wasn't his day.

I am friends with John. He had a lot of vomiting and had to drop out. He is devastated.  I actually ran into him in town on Saturday when I was doing the BAA 5k and he was really excited for the marathon. I feel terrible that he wasn't able to finish.  

That's so heartbreaking.   RW did such a wonderful & inspirational article on both of them. I hate that he wasn't able to finish. 

[melmel48]

Apr 22, 2014 13:15:33 GMT -5 clseale said:

Apr 22, 2014 12:35:07 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

I am friends with John. He had a lot of vomiting and had to drop out. He is devastated.  I actually ran into him in town on Saturday when I was doing the BAA 5k and he was really excited for the marathon. I feel terrible that he wasn't able to finish.  

That's so heartbreaking.   RW did such a wonderful & inspirational article on both of them. I hate that he wasn't able to finish. 

Agreed. He is amazing! I love going to his house and looking at his bike.     It is really interesting. He is a fantastic person and has a beautiful family. I was really upset when I heard what had happened. 

[CallingAllAngels]

Apr 22, 2014 12:35:07 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

Apr 21, 2014 13:22:59 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Juli Windsor - the girl from the RW article that I posted yesterday - finished in 4:43. She is the first little person (if that isn't the correct term, someone please enlighten me). She is 3'9" tall, I think. Amazing.

John Young - the guy from the article - dropped out around the 20K mark. It wasn't his day.

I am friends with John. He had a lot of vomiting and had to drop out. He is devastated.  I actually ran into him in town on Saturday when I was doing the BAA 5k and he was really excited for the marathon. I feel terrible that he wasn't able to finish.  

I loved the Runner's World article about John and Juli.  Loved it.  I read it Sunday on the way to my mom's and I could barely tell my husband about it because I was crying so hard.  I hope he has his opportunity to finish Boston.  It sucks so much that he got so close last year but wasn't able to finish because of the bombings.   I'm a total fangirl now.   I'm sorry he got so sick yesterday. 

[gumi]

Apr 21, 2014 10:54:59 GMT -5 clseale said:

Apr 21, 2014 10:52:43 GMT -5 thom said:

Course record for the women. 2:18 something.,, Crazy!!! Bummed for Shalane & Desi, but so proud for Rita. I also like Deba after watching her in NY. Crazy fast times!

This actually makes me feel a bit better for Shalane. It's not just poor execution, I don't think she had that time in her. At all.

i wonder if there could have been a better execution?

Meb won against faster runners because he realized he had to have a certain lead at a certain place or else they would catch him. The marathon is a tricky race, it always involves a little luck (luck that you will have a better day than the rest of the field). I was skeptical that leading the race was the best idea.  But ya know, she trained to run a 2:22 and she did run a 2:22 so perhaps her fate was sealed.

Congrats to cinco and blondie and fry!!!

[clseale]

Apr 22, 2014 17:16:40 GMT -5 gumi said:

Apr 21, 2014 10:54:59 GMT -5 clseale said:

This actually makes me feel a bit better for Shalane. It's not just poor execution, I don't think she had that time in her. At all.

i wonder if there could have been a better execution?

Meb won against faster runners because he realized he had to have a certain lead at a certain place or else they would catch him. The marathon is a tricky race, it always involves a little luck (luck that you will have a better day than the rest of the field). I was skeptical that leading the race was the best idea.  But ya know, she trained to run a 2:22 and she did run a 2:22 so perhaps her fate was sealed.

Congrats to cinco and blondie and fry!!!

Ya know, I was thinking about this earlier. She obviously faded. Up until the point that they dropped her in the hills, they were still at record breaking pace, so she obviously faded. Originally I was thinking that if she had tucked behind a bit, maybe she could have saved a minute. Of course that wouldn't have made a difference in the end. Still, she nailed her goal time.

Today, I was reading an interview, and she said how she was just shocked at how many women jumped out there with her, and how long they stayed out there. At that point, I realized that she probably nailed her execution. I think she probably planned for her pace to fade, she just figured that by that point, she would have trashed the competition, and they would have faded as well. She never saw those sub 2:20s coming.

Gutsy move, and while it didn't land her a win, it did get her a nice PR, and an American course record. I still feel so bad for her, though.

[katinthehat]

Shalane's time was fast enough to win all but three previous Boston marathons (including this year, obvs.) I think the years she would have been beat were years course records were set.

TWO women actually came in under course record time, that's pretty amazing.

But yeah, in the end, I just don't think she expected the competition to be in the shape that they were in.

And Desi still finished in the top 10 - that's pretty amazing as well.

[clseale]

katinthehat, I was thinking of you when I was reading the article today, of the point in the race when you said, "She can't hold this. She knows she can't hold this. She just hopes she can hold it longer than they can." I think that was pretty spot on. You don't win the Boston Marathon without going for broke. Hell of an effort.

[jordylee]

Apr 22, 2014 18:54:39 GMT -5 katinthehat said:

Shalane's time was fast enough to win all but three previous Boston marathons (including this year, obvs.) I think the years she would have been beat were years course records were set.

TWO women actually came in under course record time, that's pretty amazing.

But yeah, in the end, I just don't think she expected the competition to be in the shape that they were in.

And Desi still finished in the top 10 - that's pretty amazing as well.

I was kind of surprised at the lack of coverage on Desi at all. I mean, I know she wasn't in the lead pack, but she was the second American and top 10. That is still fantastic. I didn't really hear any commentary on her during or after the race, and actually had to look for her time after the fact. I know I'm biased because I adore her, but I really feel like they could've given her a little more coverage. 

[gt7301b]

I may have missed it in the 16 pages of Boston chat, but did y'all see this article about the Americans workign together to give Meb a chance to win.

www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/

[katyintx]

Apr 22, 2014 20:41:53 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

I may have missed it in the 16 pages of Boston chat, but did y'all see this article about the Americans workign together to give Meb a chance to win.

www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/

I'm so undecided how I feel about this. Did none of the other Americans have a shot to win it?  I mean, nobody thought Meb was going to win, so who says none of the other Americans wouldn't have been able to, had Ryan not told them not to push?

On the other hand, I love that they all worked together to support Meb and try to help get him the win.  And that they put an American getting first over their own race strategies and goals.  

ETA: I had thought Abdi and Jason Hartmann had more of a chance to win, but looking at their times it seemed kind of a long shot.  Obviously I paid waaaay more attention to the women's field than men's this year! 

[clseale]

Apr 22, 2014 21:30:08 GMT -5 katyintx said:

Apr 22, 2014 20:41:53 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

I may have missed it in the 16 pages of Boston chat, but did y'all see this article about the Americans workign together to give Meb a chance to win.

www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/

I'm so undecided how I feel about this. Did none of the other Americans have a shot to win it?  I mean, nobody thought Meb was going to win, so who says none of the other Americans wouldn't have been able to, had Ryan not told them not to push?

On the other hand, I love that they all worked together to support Meb and try to help get him the win.  And that they put an American getting first over their own race strategies and goals.  

ETA: I had thought Abdi and Jason Hartmann had more of a chance to win, but looking at their times it seemed kind of a long shot.  Obviously I paid waaaay more attention to the women's field than men's this year! 

Yeah, they knew they didn't have a shot. A big part of Meb's success was strategy, but none of the other Americans could have pulled that move off, and had it be successful. He got lucky that it paid off. He's such a smart runner. 

If the other Americans started pushing, the Africans would have too, and in a field where there are runner's with PRs 10 min better than the Americans (Kimetto just ran a 2:03 in Chicago! Smokin' fast.),  they knew they couldn't out run them. Still, they did sacrifice running their own race, and that's pretty awesome. 

[katinthehat]

I'm annoyed that the official White House tweet only mentioned Meb & Shalane. What about Ryan (who DIDN'T drop out) and Desi and all the others? I have no hard data to back this up but it seems like it was one of the best American showings in the marathon we've had in a long while.

[gt7301b]

Apr 22, 2014 21:30:08 GMT -5 katyintx said:

Apr 22, 2014 20:41:53 GMT -5 gt7301b said:

I may have missed it in the 16 pages of Boston chat, but did y'all see this article about the Americans workign together to give Meb a chance to win.

www.letsrun.com/news/2014/04/untold-story-american-teamwork-ryan-hall-helped-meb-keflezighi-win-boston/

I'm so undecided how I feel about this. Did none of the other Americans have a shot to win it?  I mean, nobody thought Meb was going to win, so who says none of the other Americans wouldn't have been able to, had Ryan not told them not to push?

On the other hand, I love that they all worked together to support Meb and try to help get him the win.  And that they put an American getting first over their own race strategies and goals.  

ETA: I had thought Abdi and Jason Hartmann had more of a chance to win, but looking at their times it seemed kind of a long shot.  Obviously I paid waaaay more attention to the women's field than men's this year! 

I love it!  The other Americans could have gone ahead and pushed it if they wanted, but for sure the Africans would have gone with them. The Africans would have dropped Meb, and the rest of the Americans, like it is hot.  I haven't looked at their PR's, but I doubt the other Americans have run many, if any, sub 2:10 marathons.  I'm not a huge Ryan Hall fan, but this melts my heart.  He knew the best chance for an American to win was to hold off the surge.  I love how even in an individual sport it sometimes takes a little help from your teammates to win.

[melmel48]

Apr 22, 2014 14:16:38 GMT -5 CallingAllAngels said:

Apr 22, 2014 12:35:07 GMT -5 melmel48 said:

I am friends with John. He had a lot of vomiting and had to drop out. He is devastated.  I actually ran into him in town on Saturday when I was doing the BAA 5k and he was really excited for the marathon. I feel terrible that he wasn't able to finish.  

I loved the Runner's World article about John and Juli.  Loved it.  I read it Sunday on the way to my mom's and I could barely tell my husband about it because I was crying so hard.  I hope he has his opportunity to finish Boston.  It sucks so much that he got so close last year but wasn't able to finish because of the bombings.   I'm a total fangirl now.   I'm sorry he got so sick yesterday. 

I actually didn't see the RW article.. but I did see the article in the Boston paper last year. Did the RW article show pictures of his wife and son? When I saw him on Saturday he said he was meeting up with Uma Pippig. He was funny. He said it like it was no big deal.