Runners often drone on to all who will listen about their PR's (personal records) and love to recite entire monogues about the how, the when, the where, and the training that resulted in these occasions - they cherish them like their children, and clutch them dear to their hearts. Conversely there are those races that engender a PW (personal worst), the equivalent of a 'problem child'. My problem child was no doubt the Boston Broilerthon of 2012 when I eventually dropped out at mile 18 and with 50 other runners limped into the van of shame at Boston College, leaving poor Cheri, or Q-Less as we like to call her, to labor on solo in 90f weather. We had thought we should have taken the deferral offered by the race directors for the following year. As we now know in 2013 the Boston Marathon was tragically bombed, with runners and spectators being maimed and killed senselessly. The emotion of seeing events unfold that year had fostered a new determintation. I wanted to head back to Boston to create a new memory of the race, more fitting to its awesomeness. Having moved to the West Coast in the summer of 2012 I truly missed my running gals and pinged the rest of the Team of Less with a heartfelt invitation to a reunion tour of Boston, suggesting we all qualify in time to celebrate 50th Birthdays for myself and Merciless. The blow felt crushing when my message was met with a resounding and disappointing silence……not even a 'no thanks!'.
Eventually I plucked up the courage and spoke to Merciless. Surprisingly she was already commited to the New York Marathon, so it was indeed possible she would qualify for Boston; but her hesitation in replying had been to avoid additional pressure, as New York was a difficult marathon to qualify for. It wasn't especially hilly, it was no Big Sur, but the inclines were all in the worst places, in other words, near the end. This was also Merciless' re-do after Superstorm Sandy had seen the race cancelled in the fall of 2012 (2012 was really not the year for the marathon majors). Nadine was in the midst of a huge house remodel and Q-Less was playing a lot of tennis and never really liked too much pressure anyway.
Sadly I resigned myself to the prospect of a solo trip to Boston, but cheered myself up by advertising for a running partner. Through a club email list I had found very agreeable fun runner who was willing to put up with my craziness. The Hungarian Iron Man also wanted to qualify in a similar finish time and needed a 3:25 to get into Boston. Whilst fitter and potentially faster than me, he had a full time job and quite rightly prioritized spending time with his younger children, but this limited how many days he could train, making us reasonably compatible pace wise. The summer saw the weeks of training begin, speed work on Tuesday, tempo on Thursday, and finally a long run with some great company on Sunday's. A couple of weeks in a delightful weekend treat in Martha's Vineyard celebrating a close friend's birthday revealed the truth behind the months of radio silence from the East Coast. Merciless, as predicted, was training hard and stood every chance of qualifying despite her modesty; however, an even greater miracle had occurred, Q-Less was joining her on some runs and was planning on running Philly two weeks later. Sadly Nonetheless had not taken the bait, but two out of three was looking good.
First to go was Merciless, who headed up to NYC solo in her usual low key manner. Merciliess as usual was all business and despite bringing up five kids, she had some how managed to eke out a great training block that was now behind her. Of course a couple of days ahead of the race, it seemed that mother nature was yet again going to wreak havoc and brought 40 mile an hour cross winds, and a cold cold day. The marathon is supposed to be hard, but extreme weather takes a difficult task and warps it even further. Putting together the splits and hearing the race report afterwards it sounded painful. The Verrazzano Bridge had got the race off to the usual terrible start with its crowded steep incline, with sideways gales blowing pee from the male runners on top of the bridge to those below, in an icy shower. After the bridge and its 11 minute pace start was over, Merciless swiftly regrouped to motor into a nifty 7:50 pace as planned. Tossed sideways through the boroughs of NYC Merciless tried to shelter in the larger masses, drifting like Emperor penguins huddled together for warmth they made their way towards Central Park. Somewhere around mile 20 the pace started to slow as the effort of being buffeted around by the wind made the effort so much harder. The tiny 90lb Merciless began to slow, the wheels were starting to come off….and as she slowed she started to rapidly lose heat. When you are that small losing heat is rapid and potentially marathon ending. I have seen Merciless enter the medical tent a couple of times and its rather frightening as she will run herself into oblivion. In her misery Merciless for the first time in her life no longer cared if she never qualified for Boston or finished the darn race and at mile 23 was walking her way grimly and resolutely towards the end. Vaguely processing the noises of the race, Merciless heard screeching and screaming from the sidelines and looked up to see her three Philly friends cheering her on. Undeterred and stubbornly oblivious to their enthusiasm she threw them a frightening and deatlhy glare; it would take much more than that to try and get her to run! The shock of seeing the usual cheery running face of Merciless balefully staring them down forced a split second decision. Robin and Nonetheless simultaneously had the inspired idea of shoving a surprised Q-Less into the crowd so she could run Merciless in to go get her BQ. Race photos tell a thousand stories and often in only one in twenty do we actually look good. Merciless' race photos reveal a pained, frozen fragile brunette moving doggedly towards the finish line. At her side the other worn down runners are over shadowed by the image of a majestic Q-Less running tall beside her, the only New York marathoner to compete wearing jeans, a woolly scarf and a big puffer coat, long hair blowing carelessly and atmospherically across her face. It didn't matter how, but they had done it - it was not the time Merciless had wanted to run but it was a commendable 3:44 in awful weather and importantly ten minutes inside the time she needed to run Boston.
The turn came for Q-Less to do the same. With just over a week to go before Philly I was texting to congratulate Merciless on making it through such a tough race, and checking in with Q-Less to make sure taper was going well and she wasn't going too crazy. Missing the excitement of New York had given me a hankering to see Q-less come in in Philly. The North Coast Section cross country races were that Saturday and coaching the team meant there was no way I could miss that race, but if I could get a flight that afternoon maybe, just maybe I could make it. To my surprise the next day I got a text from Q-Less "OK Ruth - I ran Richmond today - we are waiting for you now!"…In her commitment phobic manner Cheri had trained, but never signed up for Philly, ensuring she she had a get out clause if she got injured or couldn't face it and the darn race had filled up and closed out on her. In her own inimitable fashion, she had convinced Heide to drive her all the way down to Virginia a week ahead of schedule, and had found a flat fast race, with great weather knocking out a very impressive 3:25.
Knowing both my friends are qualifed is awesomely awful. I am thrilled this gives us the prospect of going together in 2016, but with a three week taper period now starting, going last isn't so fun! Training at 48 has meant lots of changes, much less junk miles, many more sessions with the masseuse and more rest days. There have been several small injuries along the way, some of which have resolved, some of which haven't. Now I get to spend the next three weeks scanning bogus weather reports, avoiding new and crazy classes at the gym, and analyzing every ache and pain. The Team of Less had come through and had turned my email around. Q-less's last text is ringing in my ears "- we are just waiting for you now!!'
