Late 2014, Dan asked if I would like to help guide him in the 2015 Boston Marathon as part of Team With a Vision, which raises money for the Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Ummmm, yes please! Dan is visually impaired and we started running together a few years ago when we realized that our PR's, from 5k to marathon, were all within a minute of each other (our half marathon PR's are a second apart!). The other interesting thing is that we've progressed at the same rate. Without knowing each other yet, we ran the same first marathon in Denver 2010, finishing 3 minutes apart (around 4:18), then finished the Colorado Marathon in 2012 3 minutes apart (around 3:45), then finally trained together and both set PR's at CIM in 2013 finishing a minute apart (around 3:35)!
Because we're so close to each other in pace, we decided I would run the second half of Boston with him and he would have another guide for the first. It would be too hard to guide him and set a marathon PR at the same time. Training was going extremely well early on, and a 3:30 was the goal. So Dan recruited his friend Charles Scott to run the first half, and soon decided his team from Rim to Rim to Rim should be at Boston too. See Team See Possibilities for more information on their fundraising adventures!
On Saturday I arrived in Boston too late to see most dailymilers at the meetup, but Ann and Norman were still there, and it was so nice to hang out with them for a little bit! Norman would go on to completely nail his goal and run a 2:38(!). Sunday was the MOST beautiful, perfect weather... but the marathon is on Monday. Low 40's, rain (at times heavy), and headwinds. Not exactly PR weather, so it was really exciting to see how many people crushed their goals! Dan had an unfortunate and slow healing heel injury for a lot of training, so the weather was more of a bummer than something to be stressed about. On Monday morning, he, Brad, and Charles got their trash bags on and headed to the start, where Team With a Vision had a place to stay inside, nice and warm and dry, before the Wave 3, 10:50am start.
Because we're so close to each other in pace, we decided I would run the second half of Boston with him and he would have another guide for the first. It would be too hard to guide him and set a marathon PR at the same time. Training was going extremely well early on, and a 3:30 was the goal. So Dan recruited his friend Charles Scott to run the first half, and soon decided his team from Rim to Rim to Rim should be at Boston too. See Team See Possibilities for more information on their fundraising adventures!
On Saturday I arrived in Boston too late to see most dailymilers at the meetup, but Ann and Norman were still there, and it was so nice to hang out with them for a little bit! Norman would go on to completely nail his goal and run a 2:38(!). Sunday was the MOST beautiful, perfect weather... but the marathon is on Monday. Low 40's, rain (at times heavy), and headwinds. Not exactly PR weather, so it was really exciting to see how many people crushed their goals! Dan had an unfortunate and slow healing heel injury for a lot of training, so the weather was more of a bummer than something to be stressed about. On Monday morning, he, Brad, and Charles got their trash bags on and headed to the start, where Team With a Vision had a place to stay inside, nice and warm and dry, before the Wave 3, 10:50am start.
Dan, Peter Sagal from Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me on NPR, and Charles
Charles, Dan, Scott Jurek and Brad
The goal was to start the race conservatively, and the boys pretty much nailed 9 minute miles for the first 10 miles. While they were running, I had taken a cab to the TWAV meetup, and then they bussed us to what we thought was the 12.5 mile point along the course, where I would start guiding Dan. After being there awhile, somebody informed us that we were at mile 11.9, not 12.5. Thank goodness we knew that! Because of the pouring rain, we waited in the van until we virtually saw our runners pass the 15k, and then jumped out to start looking. When I saw Laura had passed the 15k, I ran out to the course. She ended up passing by and saw me before I saw her! I heard her yell out "ELLEN!" and I immediately started cheering. She went on to run a 3:04:03! I went back into the van where we listened to the finish of the elite women's race before seeing Dan had hit the 15k. I probably only waited 2 minutes- Dan was right on time at 12:44pm.
Jumping in to guide Dan!
I can't even explain how quickly those first few miles went. I actually thought I had my watch set to lap every quarter mile rather than mile! Between trying to guide Dan through people, spectators screaming on the sidelines, talking to Brad and Charles, and stopping to get kisses in Wellseley, it was like we were floating along.
Getting a kiss in Wellesley
Guiding Dan in Boston was a little trickier than at home. When we do training runs at home we're not tethered, and I barely have to give him any warnings- and he's the one telling ME where to go! When we race, we're tethered, but the Heart Half Marathon in Loveland is just a TINY bit smaller than the Boston Marathon :). Not only were there people everywhere on the course at Boston, but Dan sped up as we ran and was passing people the entire 14.58 miles I ran with him- tough to do when he can't see that we're coming up on slow people in front of him.
Guiding Dan somewhere around mile 15
Somewhere around mile 19 we started looking for Alison... and missed her completely! When we were sure of it, Charles called her and we stopped for a little bit and Dan took his jacket off, then he and I started running slowly, waiting for the others to catch up. Then suddenly, there they were! The whole team together! I handed Alison the tether, and we all picked up the pace. Mile 20 was a 12:08 mile, but after that we ticked off 9:01, 8:25, 8:36, 9:01, 8:32, 8:27, and 8:11 pace for the last .58. Solid!
Dan and Alison
Brad, Dan, Alison and Charles
After handing the tether off to Alison, Brad and I started running in front to "part the seas" if you will. I picked up trash bags that people had ditched in the middle of the course, fearing they would trip up Dan. Brad would let people know there was a blind running coming and we would help clear the way for Dan. He passed so many people in the last 10k!
The crowds in the last 10k- wow. I was one of the unfortunates who qualified for Boston, but not by enough to get in this year. I had always just wanted to be a qualifier- I didn't really care too much about actually running Boston. That all changed this marathon Monday. I could NOT believe the crowd support! It was raining, windy, cold, and yet that didn't stop thousands of people from lining the course to give out high-fives, scream their faces off, and hold up signs like "Hurry, the Kenyans are drinking your beer!" I definitely received a ton of high fives and tried to get the crowd pumped up to cheer for Dan. I'm pretty sure these next pictures sum up how the finish down Boyleston felt with all those screaming people- what a rush!
Dan, Alison and I
Sooo pumped!
Mission Accomplished
Running as a qualified runner someday will be amazing, but I'll definitely never forget helping guide Dan to the finish line at Boylston with Charles, Alison and Brad. A fantastic weekend with amazing people, and Team With a Vision was completely on top of everything. HUGE thanks to Andrea, Cynthia, Josh, Sean, and everyone else that helped make Boston 2015 go so smoothly for the team. I can't wait to go back, and definitely hope to guide Dan, or another visually impaired runner, sometime soon.
Right after finishing
Thank goodness for those insulated blankets! Brrrrr
I'll be back Boston.
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