On the Run February 9 4 First Boston by Gerry Graham One of my earliest memories is of sitting on a curbside somewhere in Boston, watching in awe as runner after runner rounded the corner in the Boston Marathon. The year must have been around 1953, and Iwas no more than five or six at the time. My mother was a Bostonian, and we just happened to be there the day of the race, visiting relatives. Those runners were instant heroes in my eyes, right up there alongside Davy Crockett and The Lone Ranger. From that moment onward, { dreamt that some day I, too, would run the Boston Marathon, the granddaddy of them all. Little did 1 know then that more than three decades later I ‘would realise my dream. Growing up, I never really showed much athletic promise. I was quite frail, and the private school I attended placed heavy emphasis on team sports, which Tnever liked. But during my twenties, I got caught up in the fitness craze: I took up jogging and cycling, and generally adopted a more healthy lifestyle. ‘Then in 1981, at the ripe old age of thirty-three, | ran my first race, a 7K around the Vieille Ville in Geneva. My results were not spectacular, but I had got the bug, and within six months I had completed my first marathon, fe Marathon international de Monureal. Until then, I could never really figure out what it took to run a marathon. All I knew was that the idea of running 26.2 miles seemed like an impossible feat! [ soon learned that the key to completing one's first marathon is to gradually build up to longer distances, so that by the time the big day rolls around both your body and your mind have a fairly good idea of the punishment they are about to be subjected to. Part of my training consisted in entering races ‘on six consecutive weekends before the marathon, at distances ranging from 10 to 30 kms. ‘These competitions, which I treated more as time trials, were like dress rehearsals for the marathon. The 30K race in particular convinced me that running 42.2 kms was not out of the question afterall. Thus, by the time I had crossed the start line in Montreal, I knew that barring serious injury I had it in me to finish. Still, when I crossed the finish line 4 hours and twenty-seven minutes later, I was so depleted that I vowed I would never do such a crazy thing again! ‘As I began to approach my fortieth birthday, however, my boyhood dream of running Boston started coming back to me. I had learned from competing in many triathlons that running was my natural sport ( although I continue to swim for fitness and cycle for pleasure ). I had also read and enjoyed The Canadians at Boston, by the NCRA’s own David Blaikie. After mulling it over for a while, I decided to send a letter to the BAA requesting an entry form. Shortly after it arrived in the mail I decided the time was right to try to realise my childhood ambition. I chose the San Diego Marathon as my qualifying race for Boston. It seemed like nice place to run a marathon in, especially in December, which is the last month to qualify for Boston the following April. Through the Tsunami Swim and Triathlon Club here in Ottawa [had an excellent running coach, in the person of Peter Hume, who is now a City Councillor. Peter helped me with speed and hills; I supplied the distance myself. I also followed Galloway's Book on Running with religious fervour. In this way, to my immense relief and satisfaction, on the 8th of December, 1988, I qualified for Boston, 9On the Run February 9 4 With that hurdle behind me, I rested a few weeks. Then I spent the rest of the winter {getting ready for the starter’s gun at Hopkington. For diversion, 1 also read Don Kardong’s hilarious classic: 26 Phone Booths from Boston. But as luck would have it, the winter of 1988-89 was one of the worst we had had up to that point in many years, from a runner's perspective at least. How I ever managed to putin from 80 to 100 Kms per week along the treacherous canal pathways, often in minus- 20 conditions, is still a mystery to me! Race day was April 17, 1989, Patriot's Day in New England. Who could have predicted that the temperature would be in the upper twenties (Celsius) during the race? Training in Ottawa all winter, how ean you prepare for that? To top it all of, like most Boston novices, I started off too quickly, peeling off the frst half in something like an hour and a half Predictably, by mile sixteen, before I had even got tothe famous hills of Newton, I had run out of gas. Thus, [ended up having to alternate between walking and running forthe last ten miles. And by the time I did eross the finish line, most of my relatives had gone back to the hotel, figuring, no doubt, that I was DNF. Only my girlfriend, who is now my wife, was there to greet me. Thus, my first Boston was pretty well a disaster. Nevertheless st take pride in the fact that I qualified for it, and did manage to complete it as well Now, almost four years later, I am hoping once again to tackle Boston, this time in 1996, the centennial of the world’s most famous race. This time, hopefully I will follow the advice of all the experts, which is to qualify early, and then go to Boston and enjoy it for what is: an annual festival of runners. Easier said than done! 0