Boston Marathon Re-cap

Jarrod was a kind brother and posed with me next to Washington's statue after the race...

21,963 of the world's marathon runners qualified for and finished the 112th Boston Marathon. I sat next to BJ Novak from "The Office" on the plane ride home (really) and he was kind enough to give me a copy of Tuesday's Boston Globe with the list of all the marathon finishers. With an official 3:24:31 I came in at number 5229, and 22 seconds behind Kazuyoshi Takada, age 70.

2:07 Winner Robert Cheruiyut

2:25 Women's winner Dire Tune

2:23 Gino Van Geyte, age 41, wins Masters division (age 40-49)

2:47 Firaya Sultanova, age 46 wins Women's Masters division

2:50 Lance Armstrong

2:39 Norm Larson, age 52, wins the Veterans division (age 50-59)

2:59 Geoffrey Cumber, age 61, wins the Seniors division (age 60 - 69)

3:24 Kazuyoshi Takada, age 70, wins the 70+ division

4:07 Team Hoyt http://www.teamhoyt.com/, Dick Hoyt, age 67, pushes his son 26.2 miles in a wheelchair

4:53 Safter Kartoglu, age 81

And lastly, "what to do with all your old running shoes"

The US Women's Marathon Olympic Team for 2008

Wow! Got to see the last lap of the Women's Marathon Olympic Qualifier in downtown Boston today. The Olympic qualifier course is different than what we will run tomorrow, with a loop course in downtown Boston, but uses the same finish line.

We set up across from the library about 100 yards from the finish line. Here is Deena Kastor right before winning the qualifier in 2:29:35...from a field of 180 of the top women runners in the United States. When we got into position she was about 1:20 behind Magdalena Lewy Boulet, and ended up passing her at mile 23. The top 3 finishers go to the Olympics: Kastor, Boulet, and Blake Russell (Blake came in 4th in 2004 and just missed the cut) will represent the US in Beijing. Incredible to watch!

Coverage for Monday:

9:30 am to 12:30 pm: Live TV coverage on Versus, and WBZTV has cameras set up to catch all us non-pro runners :) give it a try at http://wbztv.com/bostonmarathon/Boston.Marathon.Find.2.586606.html

10:00am to 1:30pm: I'll have my GPS tracker on...directions on the right side of the page to log in.

10:00 am on....: Live coverage at http://www.baa.org/

Thanks for all the well wishes! More later this week after the race!

Boston Marathon - Pre-Race Info

I've updated the links to the right for everyone who can tune in for the race on Monday, have fun watching!!

Versus is televising the 112th (wow!) Boston Marathon from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Eastern Time.

My starting wave is 10:00 am Eastern with an estimated finish at 1:15 or 1:30...I hope to keep up with Lance Armstrong for the beginning part of the race and see him on the course... yeah, right:)

http://www.baa.org/ has links to more live coverage, especially coverage of the Olympic qualifier on Sunday.

Having a great time with family in Boston before the race. Brother Jarrod caught me with the fire chief getting ready for the torch lighting at the start of the race. Did you know that the torch for the Boston Marathon travels from Marathon, Greece every year?

What an amazing event!

More after the race...

Oceanside 70.3 Half Ironman on March 29

It was a gorgeous day on the course, great to see lots of folks from coach Kainoa's group out of Seattle racing!

Didn't have the time I wanted, since I had to fight through a bike crash from the night before:) An easy ride to test out some new wheels turned into a trip over the handlebars, skinned up hands and knees, and a shoulder that wasn't quite right for the swim. So the swim course was more like a dog paddle on race day, but I got through it and enjoyed the bike and the run...

Thanks to Phyllis and Steve for the post race fun!!

LA Marathon Update

Ah, yes...Peter smoked the course with a Boston qualifying time, I hung with him until the half marathon and set a half marathon personal best...and then had to slow it down for the second half. Had a fun day...here we are!