Tour of Boston Marathon 2023-06-11

What happens when you try to run a marathon without formal training?

Mike and Victor don’t run, but for some reason they decided to see how long it would take them to run a full marathon around the Chestnut Hill reservoir in Brighton, MA. At 1.5 miles a lap, this would be 17.5 laps. What motivated this decision? God knows. Why does anyone try to run a marathon?

Having just barely recovered from of an on-and-off sickness that kept me from my normal base training for all of May, I was feeling out of shape and ill-prepared (in my own way). As such I decided to join them. My motivation was mostly to see if I could do it; in terms of road running, I’ve run half marathons (all on whims), but no serious races or longer distances.

I’ve been running my own version of aerobic base training, designed around the tenants of Training for the New Alpinism. With this training, I’ve seen huge improvements in my own aerobic fitness- I think my recent ski tour of the Desolation Wilderness is a testament to this. I was curious to see if this stronger base translates to pure road running. I was also curious to see how badly a month of sickness would have eaten away at this base.

Mike and Victor’s plan was to run the 17.5 laps around the reservoir starting at 10am. Given that the day was forecasted to be nearly 80 degrees, along with the fact that running 17.5 laps around anything sounds like absolute hell, I decided to try a different approach.

I’ve always tried to treat going on a run like a little adventure, so did the same thing this time. I scouted out a rough route on Google Maps Saturday night, and picked out a few landmarks I wanted to hit. Carson beach would be the first; the first leg of the route would be a straight shot from Maggie’s apartment to the ocean. From there, I planned to head north along the coast, then cut back through the seaport. I planned to run by the Autonodyne office on my way through. Then I would run along the Charles river esplanade for a while, before turning up the hill to Maggie’s apartment. Next would be a out and back towards Jamaica Plain to cover the remaining distance, and I would finish at the reservoir to cheer Mike and Victor on. To try to finish before the worst of the heat, I planned to start around 6:30 am.

I started off the run with preparation the day before. I ate a ton throughout the day, including but not limited to: pastries from Iggy’s Bakery, homemade pizza, a whole box of Honey Oh’s cereal, and a small bowl of pasta and meatballs. I bought Smartwater bottles to carry in my running vest, and made an electrolyte drink mix of Nu-Salt, salt, sugar, and caffeinated Mio. I made two bags of peanut butter M&Ms, sour patch watermelons and Advil for fuel though-out the run. I would carry one water, one electrolyte drink, and one food bag, toss them in a recycling bin when I was done, and then refresh my supplies when I passed by the crew at the reservoir the first time.

The morning of, I got up around 6 and got myself going. A cup of coffee, a light breakfast, and a good luck kiss from Maggie got me out the door and headed east. The first section of the run was relatively familiar, as I had run towards Brookline and beyond a couple times while visiting Maggie before. After 30 minutes of getting my engine going, falling into a comfortable cadence, and pacing myself conservatively, I was feeling good. I love running in new areas just to see what’s there; there’s such a wonderful sense of exploration. Allston turner to Brookline, which turned to Roxbury.

Halfway through Roxbury I ran into some trouble. I had to find a bathroom, and bad. The combination of coffee, lots of water and running all hit my stomach at once, and it wasn’t happy. I made a zig zag between what I could find on google maps: a 7-11, two Dunkin Donuts, a KFC and a convenience store. All turned me away. As a last ditch effort, I prayed that Carson Beach would have a public restroom for beachgoers, and I made a beeline from the last Dunkin straight there. To my great relief, they did. I think this might have been my fastest section of the run; nothing is more motivating than running for a bathroom.

From Carson beach I joined the flocks of Sunday morning runners up to Castle Island. I was met there with a Gazebo and a neat bridge that arced out into the bay and then back to the island. Next I ran back inland, heading through the industrial shipping zone on my way to the seaport.

I started the run listening to Common’s album Go, then Terrible Human Beings by The Orwells. Both albums are very familiar to me, and they were great companions for the run. Go flows so well and has such an undercurrent of positivity; perfect for feeling good along on an early morning run. The Orwells on the other hand are a wall of manic noise, but they’re euphonic enough to fade into the background if you don’t tune in closely.

Running through the seaport, I ran by Autonodyne and then through Faneuil hall, both quiet and empty given that it was Sunday. Somewhere around here I passed the halfway mark. I was still feeling good; my legs kept moving, and my heart rate was staying in-check. With how far I had gone so far, I decided to change my plan to meet Maggie at the the reservoir instead of their apartment. I anticipated that instead of getting there at 15 miles in, I would arrive around 20 or so.

I passed an art project at the Boston Aquarium called Portraits of Pride. I might write more about it in another post, but the project really struck a chord with me. The project was a number of professional portraits of queer people, displayed on huge banners. The photos had their own feeling and styles, but the focus of each portrait was the individual. Each exuded human-ness; they seemed to say, “I am this person, and I am confident and comfortable as this person in the world”, in a way that made their queerness almost a subtext to the work. In a world where queerness is either strongly condemned or celebrated at it’s nth degree out of necessity, these portraits seem to show queerness as a single aspect of the incredible, multifaceted people who claim the label.

With a warm feeling in my soul, I continued down to the Charles and along the esplanade. I came upon the Walk For Boston Children’s Hospital, and was suddenly surrounded by folks walking and running. I wish we had known about the event beforehand- It would have been nice to support a cause in this silly marathon.

Around BU, I cut back south and made my way up Beacon Street towards the reservoir. From the Charles up to the reservoir was a nice, long, sustained, soul-crushing hill. My heart rate skyrocketed and my pace fell off. I was just about out of sour patch watermelons and I was completely out of water. I was still doing well and feeling good, but it was quite demoralizing. As I ran up the hill though, I spotted a beacon of light: a lemonade stand! There was a young girl selling lemonade, potted plants and pride stickers. I stopped, and bought a sticker and some lemonade. It was exactly what I needed at that moment to recharge.

I powered through the rest of the hill, crested the top, and rejoiced in my head during the flat section that followed. Maggie and her friends were at the reservoir to bask in the sun and cheer the three of us on, and I was very excited to see them. I joined in the loop around the reservoir, and shortly after came across the group hanging out up on the hill on the east side. I checked my watch- 21 miles down! I grabbed water and food from Maggie, ran one lap around, and then caught up with Mike and Victor on my second lap. I ran with them for a little; even for their 5 laps in, they looked pretty rough. Maggie later filled me in; they started off super fast, and fried themselves early.

I wasn’t psyched on continuing to do laps around the reservoir, so I cut off of the loop to the north and ran around Boston College. First I ran around the lower campus, then headed up the hill to their chapels. The hill was absolutely killer. I had really started to run out of steam when I left the reservoir, and my heart rate was around 190 as I ran up the hill. I was so close to the end, but time had slowed down to an absolute crawl. I put on Bad Nerves’ self titled album and let the noise envelop me.

I turned around at the top, and the way back down the hill more than made up for the slog up. Time was still moving at a snail’s pace, but I was so, so close to finishing, and I was so psyched to be done. My brain wasn’t working quite right, and for some reason I thought that a marathon was actually 26.6 miles. I wasn’t going to make 26.6 miles by the time I got back to Maggie and company, so I was looking for ways to extent the run. As I passed the BC sports stadium, the gates were open, but it was clear that it was empty, so I ran in and did a lap around the interior. On my way out, I started questioning my thinking, and ended up googling “Marathon Distance”. Google informed me that a marathon was infact 26.2 miles.

I made it back to the reservoir loop and ran into Mike. I stayed with him for a good chunk of the loop, checking my watch for distance continually. When I had a quarter mile left, started to sprint for the finish. I went as fast as I could, and held the sprint all the way to the end. My heart rate hit 204 seconds before I crossed the 26.2 mile mark. My final time was 4 hours and 18 minutes, which I don’t consider too bad for not training at all. It was an excellent adventure if nothing else.

After finishing, I waited for Mike to catch up and I jogged the rest of the way back to the group with him. Maggie met me halfway there, and I picked her up and carried her over my shoulder for the 1000’ back to their hangout spot.

Mike and Victor both eventually finished their marathons as well! They each clocked in around 8 hrs. I spent most of the rest of the day lounging around on the hillside by the reservoir with Maggie, and I joined each of them for their last half mile.