Successful Boston Marathon

Crazy, difficult, fun, challenging, and awesome race!  Way slower than hoped for and way more difficult than expected, but also such a unique and exciting event.  I'm just so happy to have made it. Had my doubts early on when I didn't feel great, even at 6 and 7 miles in.  But readjusted my attitude and goals and decided to make it about surviving and enjoying the day.  Thought a lot about my mom, my brother, my life 40 years ago the first time I ran this race, and about all that has happened since!  So lucky to have an amazing wife, wonderful children, a supportive family, and a great life! 

Boston Marathon, 2024

 It's only 10 days away from the Boston Marathon!  This will be an exciting and also emotional return to Boston for me.  While I've been back to Boston quite a few times since I moved away from there in 1985, doing the marathon will really mean I've come full circle!  When I lived in Boston from 1981 to 85 (not entirely sure about dates) my life was going nowhere. I worked various crappy restaurant-related jobs as a cook, busboy, and waiter and my life consisted of living in broken-down apartments or worse, in scary neighborhoods, getting drunk and high, and that was about it.  A friend challenged me to run the Boston Marathon with him even though neither of us was much of a runner at that time. I recall we started training in the late fall and ran longer runs through the winter on weekends, taking the green line further and further west and running the course into the city from there.  I think we got as far as Newton, about 13 or 14 miles for our longest run. 

The morning of the race, I think it was 1983 or 84, even though we weren't registered, they let us take the bus out to Hopington for the start.  They even gave us numbers that said "back of the back", but we had to wait until all of the official runners had left the start area before they let us start. That was the first race of any kind I ever did! It was a blast, even though we weren't official. We were so far back that it was more of a party than a race. I recall running down the main street through Ashland, MA.  We had cousins who we were close to growing up but I had lost touch with them by that point. I knew they lived in Ashland since we had visited them many times, but I didn't realize they were right on the race course.  As I ran by, they were all out in the yard cheering on the runners. I'm not sure who was more surprised to see each other, them or me.  We waved and they cheered for me. I also recall going by the Wellesley Women's College (I think it's just Wellesley College now) and having beer spilled on my head by partyers in the crown. It was literally only wide enough that we had to run through, single-file.  

Maybe the best part was finishing at the Prudential Center (or was it the John Hancock building back then?) and seeing my brother, Kim, and his partner Dennis, waiting for me.  

That was '83 or '84, so I'm sure a lot has changed. Now I have an amazing coach, I'm in far better shape even at 66, and I actually have a life with people who depend on me! It won't be the same race at all, but still, that race marked a huge turning point in my life!  I owe a lot to that friend, Jim. I tried contacting him. He worked at Tufts University and I found his email and phone number and tried both. But he never replied. That's ok, it wouldn't be the same and likely he doesn't attach the same significance to me or that race. I'll definitely be thinking of Jim, looking for my cousins' old homestead when I run through Ashland, thinking about how my life has changed since 1984 as I run, and looking forward to seeing my brother at the finish line!   

    

New Years 2023/24

 I'm never really sure how you label the new year: is it named for the last day of the old year (like you're celebrating New Year's Eve) or the first day of the new year? Anyway, its December 29th, 2023 and I'm thinking about 2024 and what lies ahead.  I'm so down right now. I just can't find the motivation and not sure I want to be around for next year or the one after that.  Its great having the kids home for the holiday and I enjoy their company, but for some reason, that's not enough.  I just feel it's all pointless... Need to regroup and find something to hang on to.  I have racing goals, like the Boston Marathon and Duathlon Nationals. But somehow those don't mean much now.  Will have to see if I feel different in the new year.  

Twenty One

Lance and Mikaely turned 21 last week... so hard to believe they are actualy adults! I know, I've had 4 years to accept that since they turned 18, but it's still so hard! We had a really fun weekend in Tampa, FL celebrating their 21st and it is only hitting me now that this is it: they are no longer "kids" in any real sense. They are adults with the ability to make their own decisions, control the course of their lives, and make all of the mistakes that we all make in this thing we call life. I'm so proud of the people they are: kind, considerate, smart, athletic, determined, and respectful! It just sucks though that life goes so fast, that you never really appreciate the moments and stages of life while you're actually living them, but only afterward. 

They are amazing people!

Chimarathon 2023

Was this #20? I'm really not sure. I can't find resutls for me past 1994 but I think this was 20??? It went "ok". I probably had too high of expectations, given earlier success this season in duathlons and some triathlons. Finished 7th in my age group. Given I was 3rd in 60-64 a few years ago, I thought that in 65-69 I had a real shot at a top 3 finish. But looking back, that race in 2021 was when international travel was still resticted due to Covid, so the competition was likely significantly reduced.

Of course, I've got lots of good excuses this year: COVID in late August with lingering cough, bike crash in mid Septermber, and slipped and fell on my back one week before the race on last run. But, I actually felt good in the days before the race and went into it thinking I had a shot. Oh well, maybe next year, as they say!

Looking back on Tri Season 2023

This was such a fun triathlon season.

Had my best swim in a tri in the last decade and actually kind'a enjoyed swimming (well, sort of). I really have to thank my coach, Liz Waterstraat for that!  She had me focus on the things I could change, like relaxing, swimming straight, sighting, etc and allowed me to ignore the things I couldn't control like my kick and low power.  Her advice to carefully check the swim course paid off because I was able to cut to the inside on a turn where many swimmers held the line of bouys.  My run was also really good at Tri Nationals. Now focusing on completing my 20th Chicago Marathon in just 4 weeks.

L & M Back at School

Both Lance and Mikaely made it back to school, but not without a few bumps along the way. Lance's car broke down in OH as he and Diana were driving it to school, and Mik got banged up in a scrimmage at the end of her first week of preseason. But both appear to be doing ok. Really misss them and its a very unsettled feeling without them home.

Summer Vaca 2023

We really wern't sure if we would get in a summer vaca this year becuase kids were so busy. Even when we did plan one around moving Lance back to school, Mik didn't want to go becuase it cut into her time with AJ before she goes back to school. I missed the first part oo. But in the end, we all enjoyed it and we had a blast! I met up with everyone in Buffalo, NY after thay moved Lance in and were on their way to Toronto. We stopped at Niagra Falls, then on to the National Bank Tennis Tournament where we got to see Carlos and many of the top 10 men in tennis. So exciting to see tennis at thie level up close! Some of the funniest things revolved around silly stuff like our "Canadians is players too" version of the goofy song "Girls is players too". I laughed so hard I cried!

Last Tri of 2023

This season was a blast! Really enjoyed giving nationals a try and felt very satisfied that I gave it my best. Way back in February I started training with Liz Waterstratt and was able to make some progress in my swimming. To be honest, it didn't make much of an impact on my swim time (maybe 30-60 seconds?), but it did make an impact on how I felt about the swim! In the earlier races (Steelhead inparticular), I was very psyched out about the swim, but then by the time Nationals rolled around, I felt more confident. I barely broke 30 minutes for the 1.5K swim in Miluwalkee and, while that's not very competivive, that's actually a little better than my 1.5 K swim times at other races in the last 5 years. Importantly, I was able to get out of the water at Nationals without feeling breathless and tired. Liz did an amazing job keeping me focused on what was important and pushed just enough that I never crossed over that line into over-training. I felt we had a good coach-athlete realtionship and got the most out the season becuase of it! Another fun thing this season was winning "Grand Master Duathlete of the Year". I got to go to the USA Tri awards ceremony two days before Nationals to receive the award! It was a Whos-Who of tri celebs! I was able to get a photo with Michellie Jones and she recalled me asking her to hold Mikaely Evans (see bottomm photo, named after Jones, but we spelled it phonetically). That was 20 years ago! So cool!

Steelhead Ironman 70.3 Triathlon

This past Sunday (6/25/23) was the Steelhead 70.3 race.  Very disappointed with my time, given it was more than 15 minutes slower than last year. And it wasn't just a bad performance in once area: each leg of the race and the transitions were all slower. 

What was so disappointing was that I trained much harder this year than last year, especially on the swim.  Nevertheless, I swam a minute slower, I biked 5 minutes slower and I ran 8 minutes slower. I can't attribute that to equipment or weather, neither was a  factor.  I'm left wondering what went so wrong.

One nice thing was that I bumped into an old friend, Glenn Rolbiecki. really nice guy and great triathlete who has been competing as long as I have.  He took this photo at the finish line. I love the photo because I have no other picture at a race where I'm smiling.  In all the race photos I'm grimacing!