7/12/2015 - Boilermaker 15K

I ran twice during the Boilermaker 15K, 1.6 miles for warmup and the Boilermaker of 9.45 miles, 63F, 88% RH, calm, sunny.

The alarm went off at 2:45AM but I was already awake due to Christine's snoring. It didn't really bother me ... I probably would have been awake anyway. I figure that I got 3 hours of sleep but no matter. This was my third Boilermaker so I knew the drill. The GRTC Boilermaker charter bus was scheduled to leave from the RTS Park'n'Ride at 4:30AM. So Christine and I got ourselves ready, geared up with our respective gear and headed out at 3:57AM. We arrived around 4:20AM and were practically the last ones to arrive. We had a tense moment when we saw that I-490E was blocked at I-390 and had to exit to I-390S. But my smart wife, Christine, was quick on her LG G2 and had Google Maps tell us to exit at Elmwood Ave just a second before we would have passed it. Crisis averted.

A selfie of us taken on the bus going to Utica

We couldn't sit together but I sat with her in front of me so that we could touch from time to time. The bus trip eastward to Utica was uneventful. The night slowly gave way to day as we passed by Syracuse and then onward to Utica. I had a blueberry bagel for a little energy in my tummy. I thought about and visualized how I wanted to run this Boilermaker. I decided to cut the 15K into 5K chunks: the first 5K (getting up to speed), the second 5K (getting through the golf course, down the hill and out to the 5K start) and the third 5K (hanging on, gutting it out and sprinting into the finish).

I put on my sunscreen and attached my Amphipod with 2 HammerGels in it as we got to Utica. I decided not to carry water since I knew that there were plenty of aid stations on the course. The bus driver took the second exit for the Boilermaker and we were unloaded just before 7AM. I walked up to the bib tent, got my bib, pinned it on and found a porta-potty to do my business. I walked farther up and found that an exit ramp had been closed off for us ... cool!



I used it for a nice 1.6 mile warmup run at 9:56 pace. I am pretty sure that this pace is off but that's what the Garmin said. I found a bush off of the exit ramp to do some more business and then walked up toward the start. I kind of cut it close and had to wade through (excuse me ... excuse me) a LOT of brown and yellow bib runners at the corner of Culver Ave and Dwyer Ave and to get up to my blue bib starting corral farther up Culver Ave.

A pre-race selfie looking forward to the start

I got as far up in my corral as I could comfortably before I found a nice place to stand while a trumpet played the Star Spangled Banner, a prayer was given and the mayor of Utica encouraged us to run well and enjoy "the greatest 15K on Earth".



And ... we were off! Well ... at least the front runners were. I didn't move for another 20 seconds or so and didn't cross the start line until 44 seconds had passed. I remember seeing a guy in the first tenth with the Rolling Stones tongue on all of his back ... he probably was at the Ralph last night for the concert I thought. I slowly got up to speed and began to run the race that I had visualized. I had a cup of water around mile 2 ... taken and sipped on the run ... nice! Mile 3 ... the golf course was in sight. A right hand turn and up I went ... I just ran up with no problem ... nice! Wilt Alston passed me just after the hill. I enjoyed the nearly mile long downhill afterward ... nice!

On Memorial Parkway - A screen capture  from MarathonFOTO.com

I knew about the dearth of water stops around the 10K mark so I knew to have some water around mile 5.5 on the run ... nice! I knew about the long gentle uphill afterward and had a HammerGel at mile 7 ... nice! I stopped for a few steps to gulp my water but didn't lose a position and got quickly back up to speed.

On Burrstone Rd - A screen capture from MarathonFOTO.com

Now is the time that I would have normally had trouble but for some reason I shortened my stride, picked up my turnover and just kept ... on ... going. I actually started to pass people with this shorter stride ... nice! The crowd support picked up the closer I got to the finish. I just put my head down and kept going ... nice! I saw the turn down to the finish line and got up to a sprint soon afterward. I was a bit too far from the finish line when I decided to sprint but tried to hold my speed as I hit the right side of the finish line. And ... done in 1:12:40 according to my Garmin! Christine had told me that she would be on the right side and did see me finish ... nice!

Sprinting into the finish - A screen capture from marathonFOTO.com

Done! - A screen capture from marathonFOTO.com

With the finisher's medallion - A screen capture from marathonFOTO.com

I walked along with everyone else toward the brewery and had a water, chocolate milk and fruit cup enroute. Then it was time to hit the nutrition line and to pick up my third Boilermaker glass before I hit the beer line ... nicely earned! I met up with Christine in the bus. She told me that she went there right after she hit up the Polish concession stand for a plate of polish food. She told that "You can take the Polish girl out of Cleveland but you can't take the Polish out of the girl" ... and I wouldn't want to!

A post race selfie

A word about the totally unauthorized screen captures from marathonFOTO.com. I might buy these pictures if I can get a price break. This is the fastest of my three Boilermakers.

I went back to the Family meeting area and just hung out. I talked with Roger Howe, Bambi Jasmin, Beth Spingar and Amy Lord. Jeff Rose introduced to his wife and son. He said that he invited 15,000 of his closest friends to their 29th anniversary party. LOL! Then I just people watched for a while. It was amazing what you can see when you just look around.

I saw the following t-shirts: Will run for beer; Keep up or I'll drink all the beer; Brew beer, Drink beer and Run it off at www.brewdrinkrun.com; Follow me to the beer; I run because I really like beer; Running is a mental sport and All my friends are Insane; Race starts at 8, Beer starts when you finish; See you at the finish and "Whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right" by Henry Ford.

We left to head back to Rochester pretty much on time. The trip back was uneventful and we arrived back where we started at 2:45PM. I wanted ribs for lunch so we decided to head to the Dinosaur BBQ since we hadn't been there for a couple of years. I had a 1/2 rack of ribs with baked beans and coleslaw as my sides while Christine has the catfish fingers off the appetizer menu. Mmm .... tasty! Then it was time to head home. I snoozed off for a while before I woke up enough to check up on Facebook and such.

I looked at the Leonetiming results, link here. I did pretty well. My Garmin splits were: 8:19, 8:04, 7:58, 8:17, 7:02, 7:22, 7:50, 7:29, 7:26 and 6:21 over the last 0.45 mile. I really can't believe that the last 2.45 miles were sub 7:30 pace. I got up to a 5:01 pace before hitting the finish line at 5:59 pace ... wow!

My third Boilermaker was my fastest with a gun time of 1:12:38 and net time of 1:11:54 (2014: 1:14:24 and 1:13:41 and 2013: 1:19:05 and 1:18:07). I was 1277th out of 11575 and was 45th out of 497 in my M55-59 age group. Wilt said that I passed him on the way to the finish line but he finished 6 seconds before me in 1:12:48 so maybe he thought someone else was me.

All in all, a great day!!!