Boilermaker 15K

First let me say the Boilermaker 15K was a fabulous race!  There were 12,000 (?) runners in the 15K, and easily that many spectators lining the roads.  This was one of the biggest races I had ever been in so it was a big deal to me.

Lara was kind enough to let me stay at her house overnight so I didn’t have to leave at 4am to make the race.  Have you been to Lara’s house?  Its wonderful.  I hate my house in the subdivision even more now.  Her house is exactly in the spot where I would want to live.  I was missing my old house big time after seeing hers.

Lara’s husband drove us to the start line so we didn’t have to mess with parking (very cool guy by the way).   We had lots of time to avoid long porta-potty lines, and to get my race packet.  We got our pictures taken by a reporter that I thought looked alot like Michael Moore.  And I’ve seen the picture and decided I really, really hate the reporter.

The race was packed most of the way through for me.  We had a tight squeeze through a gate around the golf course.  There were tons of folks cheering on the sides.  They had dancers and bands and ice/water stops every 1/2 mile I think.  We seemed to come up on there very often.  Oh and popsicles!  That was the first time I ever had popsicles in a race but they were very good.

It was about 145F on the course.  Hot.  Muggy and hot.  Lara gave the rundown of the course the night before and warned me where to ease up because of the hills and where to expect to see people layed out by the side.  She was ofcourse right.  I took the hills gentle and didn’t charge them, as she suggested.  I tried to keep my steps short, little circles.

I had a good time for most of the race, then around mile 6 or 7 I started to feel that heavy fatigue where you spend more time just trying to concentrate on your feet and legs and less time doing the high five to the kids.  Some people had hoses spaying water and that really helped alot.  The first shot ran the salt off my face and into my eyes but after that I was ok.

I saw several folks laying on the sidelines in the last two miles (where Lara said to expect them).  I guess the last big hill is best to take much slower in that heat.  I saw one guy with an IV and other folks with water being poured on them.  Right about the 8.5 mile mark on the last I tore something pretty hard in my right calf and had to hobble to the side.  I decided to finish and ended up doing the speedwalk slow run the rest of the way.

As we were heading into the finish area I swear I heard two people screaming my name but really couldn’t turn to look or I’d fall over.  You get to the end and at that point you just want to be done with it.  Some girl did a mad dash at the end to cross a leg-length before me but since we started near the back, I’m 100% certain her time was behind mine anyway.  If it made her feel good, then I’m happy for her.  :)

The finish area was crazy!  They herded us down this street and it was a long walk to the drinks.  We just packed together.  There were tables with vitamin water and something called squincher (some such silliness).  Everyone just started ripping the cans and bottles from the stacked cases like ANIMALS!  All that pushing and grabbing!  I hope I didn’t hurt anyone.

I saw a guy laying on the sidewalk and people were all around him and a woman was pouring water on him from a cardboard box.  A cop asked them “Have you got him all taken care of?”  And she screamed “NO!  Get an ambulance!”  I saw the stretcher making its way through the crowd shortly after that.

They had an after race party with a big stage and a rock band and fireworks and even a flyover with two fighter jets.   You got a free lunch, and sno-cones, and freezer pop things, and my goody bag had a big beer mug in it.  Oh yeah, and free Saranac beer.  I did not partake knowing 1) 1 beer and I’m gone, 2) I was probably very dehydrated, 3) I had to drive home shortly after that.

And when there’s 12,000 runners, they all bring 3 family members.  So the 50,000 people all crowd into the party area at once and there is really NO WAY to spot someone you are looking for.  I spent about an hour hugging the big pile of ice bags next to the sno-cone machine, looking for Lara.  Which wasn’t so very bad.  :)

All in all this was pretty rockin’ race.  I’d say it rivals New Haven even.   I may have to be at this one next year.

Thank you again to Lara for letting me stay at her house.   And I swear all that silver was what I brought with me when I came.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 8:13 am and is filed under Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.