Thanks Colin and Ian for the kind words here and also to Shane for the pm.

It was quite a day. It was the biggest field since the special 100th anniversary in '96 when they relaxed the qualifying standards. '05 had about 20,500 starters and about 17,500 finishers. The athletes village (huge soccer field) where we waited about 3 hours beforehand was a zoo with that many nervous well hydrated runners and less than a hundred portajohns. A quirky highlight was the outdoor 50 foot long mens urinal trough that worked great with a gravity feed into a huge tank!
The temps ranged from about 68 to 73 degrees farenheit on the course depending on where you were so it was warm for pretty well everyone from Canada that is not acclimatized.
My time wasn't up where I hoped for but with that extremely difficult course I'm relatively satisified. My main goal was to improve on my seeding position of 6161 which I did ending up 3171 so I passed nearly 3000 runners out on the course!
The legs are awfully darn sore now and I think about the worst of my 14 marathons to date.
Both newspapers had a little story about my friend Ray and me so it was interesting to get home and read them and it makes things a bit special.
Cheers guys.

 

Congratulations Deane. I really envy you, that you are able to endure these long distance runs. It is an incredible feat in anyone's books .
Good Job..
Wayne

 

hahaha....LOL.....
Wayne that should be "incredible feet"

 

Thanks Wayne. I guess it's a labour of love and a special feeling of accomplishment trying to get through the distance while getting the absolute most out of your body. My body is better designed for shorter distances and the marathon is so hard for me but I guess that's why I do it. It was my 3rd Boston, my best one and the only one I stayed out of the wheelchair and medical tent at the end, this time with the physical support of some aid volunteers. I was on the edge of collapsing though with slight dizziness and did not have the strength to twist off of the cap of Danone smoothie they provide as part of the immediate recovery nutrition in the finishing chute!
It's not bad in the first 15 miles or so but it really becomes quite painful the last 5 or six miles where the mind has to take over with focus and mentally push you through!

 

LOL Yes Ian, I guess you could say it both ways for sure.

Deane-after reading your post, I jumped on my eliptical trainer for 20 minutes, and I can hardly handle that, I am POOPED. I need a lot of work to bring this O.F body into shape. Like I said for you Awesome Feat (Feet).
Wayne

 

Wayne, that's excellent. I'm glad I inspired you.
Thanks once again.

 

That's cute Ian.

Deane

 

Looks like my childhood friend in Lunenburg has thrown a wrench into the works: He won't be there after the middle of May until July, depending on his work in Denver.
He will be there for the first 2 weeks of May tho, but it's too soon to drop everything and go.
Guess my trip will have to be put off for a little while.
C.

 

Colin, that's a real shame. Hopefully it will just be postponed for a while. Check my post on the other choices thread re below.
I'm waiting for confirmation now that I have to be in Denver in June and then back in Toronto for a week after that so maybe we can work out a meet while I'm there.

Deane

 

Lol, You'll be in Denver, my friend Michael will be in Denver, maybe we all should meet up there.

We'll meet up sometime this summer, no worries...... and the meet in T.O. would be great. Let us know what your schedule is and we can go from there.

C.

 

Small world.
I'll let you know. The company I'm dealing with wants me to go to Detroit or Boston but I'm trying to make it Toronto but I'll know early next week.