4/20 The Olympic Trials Women's Marathon

One of the big bonuses of running this year's Boston Marathon was that the Olympic Trials Women's Marathon would be taking place the day before. This was a genius move on the organizers part as nearly every runner and their families lined the streets to watch the Trials unfold.

The race started at 8am. I left my hotel room around 7:40 and got as close to the starting line as I could get and still have a front row view. So I catch them at about the 1/4 mile mark. It was very anti-climactic as they were still all running in one big pack and blew by me in about 10 seconds flat. All except for #43, who is about 20 yards ahead of the pack. I think to myself that she must just want to know what it feels like to have the lead in such a big race. After they pass, I walk a few blocks to where I can catch them again at mile 2. #43 is still ahead and has increased her lead. I wonder how long before she fades to the middle of the pack.

After they passed, I started walking toward the spot where all of us Running Times forumites had agreed to meet to watch the race together. It turns out that everyone had the same idea and the Mass Bridge (yep, already picking up the Boston lingo) is jam packed. I decide to skip the meeting and wait at mile 7.5. (It turns out, I really missed out by not fighting the crowds and finding my friends. They met and hungout with many legendary runners including Ryan Hall and Frank Shorter. Damn, damn, damn.) The women finally come by and #43 is still way out in front.

Next, I decide to drop by the Expo, which is just about to open, so I can try to get "the Jacket."
Again, eveyone has the same idea and there is a huge crowd right at 9am when the doors open. The line to pick up bib numbers is huge. Huge! I make my way into the Expo and thanks to some research the night before, I knew exactly where to go. I tried on a size Large, perfect fit. Placed my order and out the door. Nice.

I put on "the Jacket" and head outside just in time to catch the women coming by at mile 14. #43 is still out front with close to a 2 minute lead. Deena Kastor, the favorite, is right in the big pack that is trailing #43. About 10 minutes behind the pack, I get my first glimpse of Joan Benoit Samuelson. Sweet. She is obviously well past her prime but just seeing her out there was amazing. The crowd was going nuts. I decided that this was a s good a place as any to finish watching the race as I'd see them at mile 20 and again at mile 26.

A guy comes up beside me and we start talking. we end up hanging together for the rest of the race.

Coming up on mile 20, people around me are getting reports via cell phone that Deena Kastor has broken from the pack and is gaining on the leader. As they come around toward mile 20, #43 is still in the lead. It's getting very exciting. I hit my stop watch to time the distance between #43 and Kastor. 1:17.

Now there is a huge buzz going on all around me. The crowd has thickened in anticipation of the finish and everyone is wondering if; a) Kastor can catch #43 and b) will she even try, since the top 3 go to the Olympics, so finishing second is just as good as first, for qualifying purposes. But I figured she's a runner, which means she's competitive. She'll go for the win.

So finally, we see the police motorcade coming toward us. No one knows who is winning. Finally, we see a runner crest the hill and start running down the hill toward us. Who will it be? It's Deena Kastor! The crowd is going nuts. Deena wins, #43 finishes a strong second and I think #17 finished third.

A very exciting race, I just wish they would have posted or published the runners names and bib numbers. Unless the runner was already famous, no one really knew the names, and that was a shame. One thing we did know was that the runners bib numbers were based on qualifying times, so for the woman with the 43rd best qualifying time to be leading the race through 23 miles was quite an amazing feat to witness. I later learned that #43 is Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, and her story is a good one. The third place finisher was Blake Russell.