Photo courtesy of marathonfoto.com !!!
Third marathon in Vibram FiveFingers! Just saw on birthdayshoes.com that another runner was at the Boston Marathon in VFFs: link to birthdayshoes.com post. He ran a great race in 3:25, which is just right around where my first VFF marathon was (3:24). Congrats, Dan!
Went to the expo on Sunday after my wife ran the B.A.A. 5k to pick up my packet. I had to stop by the VFF exhibit and check out the new Bikilas- I am a bit skeptical... They seem to have a lot of padding. I may or may not try them out- I'm still deciding. I did hear that Tony Post gave a free pair to Corrado Giambalvo to run in. He finished in 3:23. Hey Tony, I'll take a pair to try out!!! Maybe they will get me to go under three hours for a marathon!! I keep contacting Vibram about being a tester but they have no interest. I also have contacted them about putting out some technical t-shirts so that I can support them during races but they have no interest. I have asked them to send me some more of the cards to hand out to interested people but they will not do it. The product is great, but the customer service lately has been poor! Oh well. The expo was huge but very organized; there were tons of people wandering around, very excited about the impending race the next day. I met a few people who gave me tips on how to run Boston efficiently. One experienced runner who was running his 21st Boston told me to take it easy on the first five miles because you'll want to run fast! I heard this same thing from a few others as well.
I got on the first set of busses that left the park in Boston at 6:00am. We pulled into the Hopkinton school around 7:00am made the walk into the "Athlete's Village". The wait from 7::00 to 9:10 was long and cold. Luckily they provided food, music and delicious coffee. I trotted to the starting line with thousands of other people and made my way to the #4 corral. I wore my VFF Sprints for this run - I got asked many questions by people in the corral and during the race. Many of them had just bought VFFs recently but hadn't run in them yet. I told them they are great; go for a run in them!!
The Boston Course is a net downhill course, but there are plenty of uphills along the way. I tried to take it easy on the first half, making the way in just under 1:29 like planned. The second half was mostly pain from sore quadriceps muscles. The girls of Wellesly College were amazing and gave a boost of energy to all the runners. The Newton hills were tough! I still cannot believe how many spectators there are at this event; there are people cheering the whole way! I had to stop and rub a tight quad muscle around mile 19; there were about five people that were yelling "you can do it!!" and when I started running again they cheered. Great support, plenty of water/gatorade, plenty of orange slices along the way. I got asked by a few people how my feet were feeling - I told them they were great! Boston College was awesome - seeing the Citgo sign was great, and the last two turns onto Hereford and Boylston were NUTS! Very fun race! I didn't break three hours like I had hoped but still requalified to run next year- 3:06:02 (a PR by 29 seconds!).
| Bib | Name | Age | M/F | City | State | Country | Ctz | * | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4083 | Hanson, Nicholas J. | 27 | M | Blair | NE | USA | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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