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Boston Marathon 18 April 2022: The sixth and last of the Abbott Major Marathons for Henk

The sixth and final one for Henk. Unfortunately, in Boston you need to qualify and Henk would need a marathon time below 3:50 h. But, lucky for him, TUI (Rob) did give him one of the rare tickets, as someone dropped out.

For me, it is a pilgrimage, reliving the 2014 marathon for which I qualified (3:26:42 h in Amsterdam in 2012), but this time I am not running.

For 2014, one year after the 2013 bombing, see: [1]

Boston Strong, with the Six Star Abbott Worls Marathon Majors medal (click on a picture for full view).

Qualifying for the Boston marathon

You normally need a brutal qualifying time.

2023 Qualifying times Boston Marathon

Only around 15% of runners manage, esp. the older ones who are still able runners, as the non-profit organisation wants a good spread for all age groups.

Women also have an advantage, their qualifying time is 30 min. higher but this should be only 15 min., as some men say.

The most disadvantaged group are men under 30, they have to run below the magic 3 hours whereas equivalent young women under a slow (!) 3:30 h.

Tip: Your best chance to qualify is to run the Granada marathon, mostly down hill with a vertical drop of 1,938 meters.

For the 2022 Boston Marathon, TUI had only twenty tickets, and as a non-qualifier, not able to run a marathon below 3:50 h, Henk relied only TUI’s generosity.

During corona times, the event was cancelled and in October 2021 foreign participants were banned. Some of the runners on the list of 20 for 2020 and 2021 dropped out or did manage to get a qualifying time after all. Henk, being on the reserves list, finally got a ticket from such a qualifier.

Demand for a Boston ticket is huge as several persons have already done five of the sixth major marathons.

I do hear that entry in London is also not easy either. In February 2022, Tokyo refused foreigners and for few runners in our group this willbe number six, hopefully in 2023.

Somehow, we managed to get into London (2015,2021) with some effort (be quick to fill in the form at noon on the day of the enbtry application of Marathon International), and Tokyo (2016) relatively easy (again with Marathon International, without a tour guide).

Out of 11 marathon I qualified 7 times, of which 4 times in Amsterdam.

Admin and travel

The paper work for international travel and the Boston admission ticket is a lot of work.

Get an entry ticket to the Boston marathon; once achieved, ….
Watch a flurry of E-mails from the Boston marathon coming in. Make sure they have all your details. Read them all. Henk read only a few.
Ensure you are fully vaccinated
For number six of the Abbott Major marathons, upload your proof of runs.
Contact Judy of Abbott so she will add you to the list, else you will not get the big medal after the run. Fortunately, they will mail the medal once you deliverd the proof, so the medal is not lost.
Upload your proof of vaccination to Crowdpass, typically 6 weeks in advance, and received your entrance card for picking your BIB (bibliography) number at the Expo. This is why you need to read all E-mails from the Boston Marathon.
Apply for ESTA, admission to the USA.
One day before the flight, do a Covid antigen test.
Print all to have it handy on paper, easier, quicker and safer for check-in at the airport. A pile of paper.
At the departure gate, fill out a covid attestation form, declaring you are vaccinated and tested. There are plenty of forms at the gate. Altough commu icated by Delta, ther is no need to fill this out on their website, I did not manage.
Relax on the plane, you made it. Sing “a potje met vet” with the other Dutch runners.

In Boston

TUI booked us into the Marriott Cambridge, near MIT.

As we are on the other side of the Charles River, adding 15 min. to every walk, we bought a Metro card for 7 seven day, only $22. This way we could easily get to the Haymarket District, with many excellent Italian restaurants, and Boylston Street, the finish area of the marathon.

The Tea Party museum was already booked solid. Note that after a guided tour, even Europeans, except The English, sing the US national anthem, as we did in 2014. “Refuse the British tax on tea!” “Throw the tea bales in the water”. “Yeah” (!). The Tea Party was the offical start of the American Revolution.

The Expo is on Boylston Street, close to the finish area.

Receiving the BIB (bibliography) number. Now I now the meaning of the abbreviation.

Got it ! Almost.

Five done, one more.

Boston will be the last one.

Marathon Course reconnaissance

TUI organised a course excursion from the start area at Hoptinkon to the finish area in Boston, so we would know what we are getting into.

Is this wise? When I ran it in 2014, I was ignorant, apart from spotting a few hills on the elevation profile, until I met a colleague at the start. He warned me for the hills past 25 km and to take it easy the first 20 km. I used his information in earnest.

The tour guide who ran the course 21 times, really frightened us with the many hills, even at the first 20 km. May have to do with aging and running too many marathons.

I don't recall this, we started early, at 10:00 h, and the first 20 km was easy, mostly downhill, also, as I was running among young girls with a similar qualifying time of 3:25 h. I lost most of them going for a slower time.

At Heartbreak Hill at 30 km, I walked for the first time ever, and also in the tunnel at 41 km, with an ironic sign, only one more km to go.

Blame it on the weather, the day before it was 10 C and cloudy, but on marathon day we had clear skies and high temperatures, around 20 C. The bright and warm sun from the SE was a real hindrance and I tried to use trees and buildings for shade. Failed.

My end time went up 5 minutes, from target 3:35 h to 3:40 h, which gave me another qualifying time as I moved into the next age group.

My colleague did worse, from his usual 2:50 h to 3:15 h. He runs a half marathon in 1:20 h, my record is 1:31 h, and Henk's 1:43 h.

Start area at Hoptinkon.

Henk started already, one day early.

Henk finished already, one day early.

Boston Strong.

Boston Common Park near the finish.

Henk's golden marathon shoes.

Marathon Day

Being a non-qualifier, Henk got the latest start time, 11:20 h. So breakfast was late, at a comfortable 7:00 h. I even joined.

Check-in baggage for after the marathon is handed in at the finish area near the Boston Common Park corner and here school-buses (with old fashioned blade springs and without toilets) would also leave for the start area, a 45 min. bumpy and noisy ride.

With cool mornings and very high stakes, for Henk number 6 of the marathon majors, it could trigger a number 1. Better be prepared, bring a bottle for security.

Henk is suppose to run 4:15 h, at ease, so I estimated I would meet him around 15:45 h.

With so much idle time, I did some shopping in the empty Macy’s depatment store and a nice kitchen store. I got tasked to find a 3 ply 10 inch All-Clad skillet, the BK equivalent of Europe. Sorry sir, only on the internet, can be delivered to your hotel. The new world of shopping, low stock, just in time delivery. But, to my surprise, I found it later in a kitchen store on .... Marthas Vineyard!

An obvious hiding place for a good lunch would be the Boston museum on Huntington, but this was closed today, which I found out the hard way, standing in front of it.

I went back too the finish area and gave a disabled person $5. I thought of giving him another $ 20 through Henk later on. Unfortunately he was gone when Henk finished.

The finish

At 15:55 h Henk and Roland reached the exit area. They ran together all the way, in 4:21 h. Roland also went for his 6th star and they both proudly showed me the precious medal.

They told me that it was a grueling run, with so many hills. Fortunately, temperature was fine, 12 C.

No more marathons, they said, “rien ne va plus”.

Henk and Roland, with the six star medal, photo by Abbott.

Epiloque

No more marathons? A black hole! What to do?

May be ... train for the Wanda Age Group Competition in 5-10 years?

This would require smart training to be able to participate as you need to qualify running a fast marathon first.

In the 70-74 age group, the men top 3 run below 3:30 h, and the women top 3 below 3:40 h.

The oldies can run fast!

Wanda age group 70-74 winners 2021. See below for age groups 75-79 and 80+.

Sponsorship run for Nepal Sponsortrek

Since London 2015, I organized 5 sponsorship runs for medical aid projects in Nepal, see: https://www.sponsortrek.nl/

London 2015 coincided with the devastating April 2015th earth quake in Nepal destroying e.g. our health post and damaging buildings of other projects, see: https://www.treks.org/2015london.htm

Over the years, most of you made significant contributions. Each time we collected between €1500 to €3000 per marathon and this is greatly appreciated.

This run has been a very special run for Henk and we propose you could sponsor this as well.

The e-mail list is long so any contribution is very welcome and in the end would add up.

In the past, most contributions were between 10 and 100 Euro's or Dollars.

Details to transfer funds directly to Nepal Sponsortrek

Sponsortrek Nepal, bankaccount number NL81ABNA0861147545, Bic (swift): ABNANL2A. ABN – Amro Bank, Amsterdam.

With special thanks to TUI for organizing the marathon trips since 2017 and KLM for the KLM staff tickets between 2016 and 2018.

Abbott World Major Marathons: https://www.worldmarathonmajors.com

Boston Marathon home page: https://www.baa.org

The Odyssey with blogs

Boston in April 2014 (J1: “A must run as you qualify”),
London in April 2015 (J2: Charity run, one day after the 2015 Nepal earthquake),
Tokyo in February 2016 (J3, H1: Exotic charity run, Henk joined)
Berlin in October 2016 (J4: Overambitious as Berlin is the co-called PR course)
Chicago in October 2017 (J5, H2: An easy pacing run in 4 hours)
New York in November 2018 (J6,H3: The last one for Jean, not motivated)
Berlin in September 2019 (H4: A very rainy day but fine)
London in October 2021 (H5: Wearing compression socks, big mistake)
Boston in April 2022 (H6: This last one for Henk, the hardest)

Pictures marathon day

Ready for the task, the last one.

Painters coverall to stay warm, well equipped.

Still “Boston Strong”, spotted a camera.

Less “Boston Strong”, did not spot the camera.

Even less “Boston Strong”, last few km's in town.

Finish, Roland happy, Henk concentrating on the running watch to stop the recording.

Exit area, very happy.

Henk and Roland. Tired.

Henk and Roland, after received the six star medal.

Photos made by TUI, collage.

Photo made by Abbott.

Photo made by Abbott, kissing the medal.

Jean's square eyes, being a supporter is very stressful.

Results

Henk, 2022.

Jean 2018.

The Six Star medal.

Course Map

Henk 2022

Henk 2022, 5 km laps.

Henk 2022, 1 km laps.

Martha’s Vineyard

We added 4 days to visit Martha’s Vineyard, to relax the running muscles by cycling.

The island is an almost 2 hour bus ride from Boston, to Woods Hole, with the famous Oceanographic Institute, and 45 min. on the ferry.

OB and DL have a home here, in Edgartown, being neighbours, close to the South shore of the Island.

We chose the affordable Vineyard Haven Motel with a room overlooking a private beach. A good choice, very quiet, and a fantastic view over the ocean.

To do your own cooking again was a relieve, esp. with an excellent fish shop across the street, with cooked, fried or raw fish, and with many extras like Kimchi and smoked fish.

Our motto is that running and recovery “starts in the kitchen”

We made three trips, SE to Edgartown and beyond, SW to the Ceder Tree Neck sanctuary, and North to a 9 hole golf course, which we played for two hours, and the Lake Tashmoo Town Beach, were we swam for 5 seconds in 46 F water.

Biking on the island is a real exercise due to the rolling hills inland and the NE wind, when unlucky. Only Vineyard Haven to Edgartown through Oak Bluffs is mostly flat, but the short route inland is hilly. With a head wind, the 12 km route to go homewas an effort but luckily we were on bike paths.

We recommend to ask the bike shop to pump up the tire pressure to 40 psi or 2.7 Bar. This worked fine, the contact path was only 2 cm, like a standard Dutch 1.375 inch wide bike wheel, 100 years of best-practise engineering. Normally the big tires have only 10 psi for slow speed off-road, so the friction is high for tarmac roads. The owner may object, fearing a blown tire. Just explain you will stay on the tarmac. In the end he said, without a smile: “ I just do what I am being told”.

To relax, we twice had a swim and sauna in the Health Club of the 1790’s large wooden Manor Hotel after dinner, from 19:00 to 21:00 h.