I didn't get any pictures from race day, I'm so bummed but I did take this one. I hung my finishers medal with my final time sticker at the bottom of my garage stairs. It will remind me every time I head out to train how hard work pays off.I did it! i qualified for Boston with 1 min. 17 seconds to spare. My final time was 3.49.43. I was surprised considering at mile 23 I totally bonked. Runners were flying past me and I wanted to do nothing more than stop. I hurt sooooo bad. I started the race a little ahead of my goal pace 8.23 so I was able to "sand-bag" 2 minutes. These precious 2 minutes were the cushion I needed at mile 23 when my pace slowed down to (I'm guessing) 9.30 min. pe mile. As for the course-stunning, volunteers-first class, weather-superb! I couldn't ask for more. Well, I guess a 3.20 would have been nice. I did wake up feeling great and thought that I'd love to blow my goal (3.40) out of the water but I am happy meeting my goal. I stayed with the 3.40 pace team up until mile 23 when my pace fell. There were 7000 racers and 5700 finishers. I came upon a good-looking guy at mile 16 and felt bad that he was walking. I knew he was an A plus racer and was capable of a much faster finish time. I was proud that he didn't get a DNF on his racing resume. Soooo Justin- you can BQ next year- Boston will still be there in 2011 and so will I. We do things together!
Happy recovery-
Michelle
