Hyannis Marathon - 2/24/13

For those who have watched "Gone in Sixty Seconds" probably remember this moment, when Memphis's Crew talks about Memphis and his apprehension of Eleanor (1967 Ford Mustang).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RedV7vhVKHY)

Why am I talking about Eleanor? In 2013, I was apprehensive of the 19th mile in Vermont City Marathon and SSQ Quebec City Marathon. Although the BayState Lowell Marathon helped shatter this wall, I still thought about it while running the Honolulu Marathon. 19th mile of the 2013 Hyannis Marathon is where I met my Eleanor of these marathons. 

Hyannis Marathon was my first ever marathon. For me, it was 26.2 miles of an extreme physical and a mental challenge, that I was not ready for when I participated in it. Imagine, locking yourself in a room for 5 hours without any mental stimulation except music that gives up after the first hour and a half. Now add physical stimulation in the form of freezing temperatures (sub 20°F), high winds, a wintery mix of a rain and then force yourself to run in it for 5 hours. I also remember frozen fingers (both feet and hands) and a body that was exhausted both physically and mentally when I was about half a mile away from the finish line. But this yin also had a yang in this marathon. The yang was an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and an endorphin rush that I felt when I saw the finish line and the speed at which I crossed that finish line.

On June 30, 2012, my buddies (Rahul, Stanley and Pavan) and I climbed Huntington Ravine Trail and Boot Spur trail on Mount Washington. Climbing Huntington Ravine trail was the most challenging activity I had every participated in years.

On October 21, 2012, We finished the Baystate Lowell Half Marathon.This was my first long distance racing event in life.

After the Baystate Lowell Half Marathon, I was itching for another challenge. We started talking about Hyannis Marathon in the fall of 2012 but never took it seriously. On December 31, 2012, Rahul forwarded an email informing us that the price of the Hyannis Marathon was set to go up on January 1, 2013. After much virtual back and forth, we signed up to run the 2013 Hyannis Marathon on February 24, 2013.

I was relatively new to running when I signed up for the Hyannis Marathon, so I did not know how to prepare it. We did the basics, which was to keep running as much as we could and as often as the weather permitted. There was a time in January, when we ran around 8 miles in 4°F temperature outside. Now, when I am not running, I would think many times before stepping outside in such a temperature. This is however not true when going out for a run. The endorphin rush and the body heat generated from a run is enough to counter the coldness outside.

We booked our hotel in January. Our hotel  was the official hotel of the 2013 Hyannis Marathon (Resort & Conference Center at Hyannis). The start line of 2013 Hyannis Marathon was situated right outside this hotel.

As we were getting closer to the marathon date, we started checking the weather in Hyannis as if we were living there. Nor'easters are common in our region around this time of the year. The weather experts were predicting a nor'easter during the marathon weekend. These predictions were confirmed a few days before the marathon weekend. We (my buddies and I) were nervous about running a marathon in this winter storm. We also kept checking the weather web sites, marathon web site and were anxiously waiting for emails from the marathon office to understand the status of the marathon. We were planning to drive over to our hotel on Saturday morning and then head out for lunch and then wrap up the day with a satisfying pasta dinner. We woke up Saturday morning with anticipation of an email confirming the marathon but we didn't get any. The race officials were probably busy monitoring the weather and working to get permission from the town office to let the marathon happen. The conditions were expected to be really bad with dangerous winds and nasty wintery mix on the marathon day. In my town (Chelmsford, MA), we were expected to get 10+ inches of snow. Rahul sent us this screen grab with weather prediction.

I believe that the decision to hold the marathon came down to the speed of the wind during the marathon times. The worry was that if the wind speed was beyond a certain limit, it increases the chances of an electrical line or a tree etc. to come down causing a hazardous condition for a runner. 

We received an email from the marathon office at 3:16pm on saturday (day before the marathon day) confirming that the marathon was ON. 

Hola Runners;

we are on..full schedule including the expo today till 5:30pm...pasta dinner at 6:30pm.

Thank you for your patience, understanding and from most of you kind words.

Cheers
Paulie

I can only imagine the excitement in the heart of every runner that was participating in this marathon. I know I was nervous of the weather but also excited to see this email.

We were now en-route to the Town of Hyannis to participate in the 2013 Hyannis Marathon.

We reached the hotel in about three and a half hours. We unpacked, coordinated and went to Pizzeria Uno for dinner. It was the only restaurant in town that could take our group and still have room for us to hangout and enjoy the night before the marathon. We ate well and slept on time.

We woke up early. We walked down and had a breakfast of pancakes and eggs. I was amazed to see the number of runners that were packed in that hotel's lobby. I had never run a marathon before and thus had never seen so many runners packed in a very small area. It was truly an amazing site to look at and it took a while to sink in. It was now 9:55am and the runners started to clear the lobby and walk over to the starting line. It was raining and it was cold outside. Standing out in the rain was not fun. I started to shiver. I could not wait to start the marathon and warm-up while running.

The gun went off and the marathon officially started. I started off at a slow pace and was going to stay at that pace the entire time. I was not sure if I could make it to the finish line, which was 26.2 miles away. I was nervous and didn't know my body and its capabilities, so I was very cautious.

Hyannis Marathon is a two-loop marathon. Each loop is 13.1 miles. The marathon runners were going to run the same route two times. On a nice day, the route is supposed to be picturesque as it runs through two beaches (Craigville Beach, Kalus Beach), Hyannis harbor, Lewis bay, a few parks, downtown and nice neighborhoods. While running the marathon, all I could see around me was white snow and wintery mix hitting my face with high winds.

I have to give credit where it is due. Given the short notice, the marathon officials did a good job of organizing the race and marking up the routes. The first loop was full of cheering crowds, marathon officials and general support that a runner needs while running a marathon. The second time around, I felt that everyone forgot that the runners were still running. The only people on the routes were the marathon officials and the volunteers manning the aid stations. Everyone else went to a warmer place. 

I enjoyed the first 13 miles. It was hard to run the first few minutes after I crossed the 13th mile marker. The finish line was right there on my right and my mind wanted to stop and finish my race instead of running the next 13.1 miles. I saw my dad and mom cheering me on at the start of the second round and that really helped me get back in the race. After the 13th mile, every mile was tougher than the previous. It started to get tougher as the miles piled up and the weather turned nastier. My hands and feet felt as if they were going to get a frostbite. I had cold water in my shoes and that made it that much harder to run. Around the 16th mile, my mind started to doubt my strength and my will to make it through. 

I kept running. The mile markers were hard to find. I remember asking a race official of my location and he said that I was at the 19th mile marker but he was a bit rude about it. I was already a bit tired and the rudeness didn't help me much. However, I felt better that I only had 7 miles left and I used that to cheer me up. I kept running. After about 15 minutes or so, I asked another race official of my location. This guy was nice and he said that I was just crossing the 17th mile. I was deflated when he said that. I kept running thinking that I was very close to the finish line but in fact I was very far away. I never saw the 19th mile marker.

Later, I saw Stanley ahead of me who had stopped to tie his shoe laces. I was glad to see him, as I needed a partner to make it through the rest of the miles. I joined Stanley. We decided to run together. I had been running with Stanley for a long time so it made the rest of my miles easier to run. We were now approaching the finish line. As soon as I saw the finish line, I felt a boost of energy that was somehow hidden in my body all this time. I started running extremely fast. Now that I think about it, I was probably doing a 4-5 pace towards the finish line. 

I crossed the finish line strong. As soon as I crossed the finish line, I felt this overwhelming sense of accomplishment that made all my pain and the cold disappear from my body. That was amazing. 

My official timings were: 04:56:49

I didn't feel an addiction of running marathons until about a week after I completed the 2013 Hyannis marathon. It hasn't been the same since.

We are now going back to Hyannis but this time for a half marathon. If Hyannis Marathon were not a two-loop marathon, I'd likely run it again. 

My first 1000 miles

185lbs, 226, 136 and 219. That was my weight & my lipid profile on 4/25/2011.

On one of the evenings, in June, 2011, I was walking back home from a trip to the mailbox, when I stopped and got into a casual discussion with Stanley who lives a few doors away from me. One thing led to the other and we decided to run a route of about 3.69 miles around our neighborhood at 7pm. It felt good!

3.69 miles (Kronos Run)

 I had never run a single mile or 0.1 miles anywhere on the road. The entire concept of running was different to me. I thought running was a form of exercise and not a sport. I thought why "road" when a treadmill can do the same thing. That run changed all that...

But we realized that it was not safe to run that late in the evening. Dark roads and runners are a bad combination. We decided to run again,  but this time around, in the morning at 5:30am. I was never a morning person. Getting up at 5:30am was at least 2 hours of less sleep for me in the morning. I was used to staying up late and getting up right before I absolutely had to get up for anything. That morning, I got up at 5:25am and was outside in about 5 minutes. Stanley was also outside at 5:30am. We went for a quick run. It felt good!

So, we started running early in the morning, every other day. We were running between 7-10 miles every week. After a month of running,  I started to notice pain around my knees, every time I crossed the 2 mile threshold. After googling a bit, I realized that running in a pair of 10 year old shoes is not a good idea. It turns out that if you run in old worn-out shoes, you are causing your skeletal system to be mis-aligned in the same way that your car suffers from jitters when you drive with mis-aligned tires. Something had to give. For me, my knees were giving up and thus the pain around the knees. I found plenty of recommendations on the Internet. I settled with asics GEL-Kayano. It was love at first wear. It felt good!

There was no stopping me now. I could run as long as my body allowed me to run. I started running a little more than 10 miles a week, every week. The runs during the weekdays were averaging between 2-3.5 miles/day while the weekend run (on Sundays) were between 4-6 miles. We built up strength and perfected our running form during these runs. Rahul, also my neighbor, started to join us for our Sunday long runs. We started to challenge ourselves with longer distances and faster paces every Sunday. What started out as a casual run of 3.5 mile on an evening in May, soon became 6.07 miles...7.18 miles...9.86 miles over a period of 3-4 months. Longer distances were always on a Sunday. After much trying, we finally broke the 10mile threshold, 10 months later on May 28, 2012. That was BIG! If felt good!

Our long Sunday runs were now averaging 8-10 miles. Rahul's friend Pavan also started joining us for long runs. We were now four strong every Sunday morning. During one of the Sunday runs, Rahul asked if we wanted to run the Baystate Half Marathon. For me, it was breaking new grounds. 10 miles was not easy for me. How could I run 13.1 miles? I decided to give it a try but with a very real risk of not bieng able to make the 13.1 miles unless I seriously ramped up my training. I signed up for Baystate half marathon on August 30, 2012. Stanley, Rahul and Pavan also signed up.  On October 21, 2012, we ran our first Half Marathon. My new PR was 1.52.00. It felt good!

We kept running. Our long runs were always on a Sunday. Every once in a while, a marathoner would cross us on the road/trail and we would be in awe of this person that actually ran a marathon (26.2 miles). I knew that I could never run a marathon. 13.1miles itself was very tiring. What would 26.2 miles feel? I could not comprehend that distance and its running.

We decided to push ourselves to see how far we could run before exhausting ourselves. On December 15,2012, We ran 19.42 miles. That was BIG! It felt good!

19.42 miles (Nashua Mall Run)

On Dec 31, 2012, Rahul emailed us and said that the price for Hyannis Marathon was going up by 5 dollars on January 1, 2013. After a lot of virtual debate, we all signed up for Hyannis Marathon on January 1, 2013. We signed up to save $5 dollars but did not fully think it through. Hyannis Marathon was scheduled for February 24, 2013. We had less than 2 months to train for a marathon. It is generally recommended that any normal person should spend at least 4-6 months training for a marathon. We decided that we would train in less than 2 months. To make things even more exciting, we were in the middle of a cold winter with random snowfalls and random days of freezing or negative windchill temperatures. We kept running shorter distances during the weekdays and longer distances on weekends. Snow or cold did not have enough to stop us.

On February 24, 2013, I ran my first full Marathon. Hyannis Marathon, 2013. My PR was 4:54:49. It was 20 degrees (single digit windchill), high cold winds, freezing rain, cold puddles and no one to cheer us on for the last 13.1 miles. Some would consider this marathon to be one heck of a challenge. For me, it was my first marathon. Running with my buddies (Stanley, Rahul and Pavan) made it even more memorable. It felt good.

I kept running all winter craving for another marathon. Running a marathon is a drug that needs constant feeding. Once you run one, it is hard to think of not running one. The challenge of running a marathon is more than just physical readiness, it is mental preparation, breaking the limits and the constant push to discover new limits. These challenges don't mean much when compared to the overwhelming sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a marathon. It is hard to explain in writing. It just feels good!!

On March 20, 2013, we signed up for our second marathon. KeyBank Vermont City Marathon. I ran the Hyannis Marathon to test if my body could run a marathon. Now that I knew that my body could run a marathon, it was time to run a faster marathon. My goal was to beat my PR of 4:54:49. I trained hard. Training meant running weekdays between 6-6:30am and long runs on Sundays morning at 7am.

On May 26, 2013, I ran the KeyBank Vermont City Marathon. My PR was 4:14:41. It felt good.

On June 5, 2013, my Runtastic app displayed 1004.92 total miles. That felt really good!!!

It took 169:48:42 hours and 30 lbs to run 1004.92 miles. On August 27, 2012, my lipid profile was 180, 117 and 79.

My first road run was an attempt to stay healthy. Now, I run to feed my addiction of running. Running is a lot of fun. It feels good!