Speaking Topics - Speaking Credits - Mountaineering - Running
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| Steve Gardiner takes the final three steps of the Montana Marathon to record a qualifying time for the Boston Marathon. | "I saw the Prudential Center Tower from about two miles out, but for quite a while I thought it was a mirage. I kept seeing it and seeing it and I thought I'd never get there." Neil Cusack, Ireland, 1974 winner |
Published in SeisNotes, the newsletter of Echo Geophysical Corporation, Denver, Colorado.
It is a strange feeling to come face-to-face with the opportunity to accomplish a lifetime dream. That’s how I felt as I approached the starting line of the 108th Boston Marathon on April 19, 2004.
I had qualified for Boston by running the Montana Marathon in September 2003, and had trained through the winter in Billings, running over 750 miles primarily in temperatures between 0 and 40 degrees.
I wasn’t alone as I stood at the starting line in Hopkinton and worried about the surprising weather conditions. On Sunday, the temperature in Boston had been a pleasant 62 degrees, but by the noon start time on Patriot’s Day, it was 82 degrees, much too high for running 26 miles.
I was wearing race bib number 8618, based on my qualifying time in a field of 20,300 runners. That number positioned me nearly a quarter of a mile behind the start line. When the gun sounded, I spent the next 6 minutes walking and jogging to reach the start line.
Race officials estimated that more than one million spectators lined the course, nearly a solid line of faces along the full distance. As we passed through each of the villages, Ashland, Framingham, Wellesley, the noise increased. Fans handed runners cups of water and orange slices and sprayed water from hoses on sweaty bodies.
By Mile 6, I could tell the heat was going to be a serious factor in the race, so I slowed my pace. By Mile 12, many runners were walking and complaining of the heat. As we entered Newton and the four hills that include Heartbreak Hill, more and more runners were walking.
In the Boston Marathon, runners can get water and Gatorade from aid stations at each mile marker. I drank a full cup at every one, nearly a gallon and a half throughout the race. I dumped dozens of cups of water on my head and ran through every spray of water I saw, but by mid-race, the temperature had climbed to 86 degrees. At the top of Heartbreak Hill, I stopped briefly to stretch out cramps in my hamstrings. The Newton Hills end by Mile 21, but they had clearly taken their toll. I saw many runners sitting or lying on the roadside. I only wanted to maintain the slower pace I’d set at Mile 6, but even that was enough for me to pass scores of runners over the last five miles.
Running Boston was not only a longtime dream but a birthday present. My birthday was two days before the race, and I celebrated by walking the Freedom Trail to see the historic sites of Boston. During the race, I wore a laminated sign pinned on my back that read, “Thanks for coming to my 50th birthday party.” Because of that sign, I talked to hundreds of runners, a nice distraction from the heat.
By the time we entered Boston, the spectators were 10 deep on the sidewalks and their yelling was surprisingly loud, even though the winners had passed by nearly two hours before. To see that they had been cheering so long in the heat made me admire their endurance.
When we turned onto Boyleston Street, we were only a few blocks from Copley Square and the finish line. The grandstands in front of the Boston Public Library were filled, and I joined the other runners around me, cheering our own successes as we finished a dream and took the last painful, exhausted strides across the finish line.
It was my fifth and slowest marathon, but it was Boston, and as I collected my finisher’s medal, I felt the joy of having succeeded in reaching a goal in spite of unexpected obstacles. I shook hands with runners all along the street as we congratulated each other and shared an important moment in our lives.