Boilermaker 2009: Part I

** To check out last year's mini race report post click here which contains the past 4 years finishing times **

This is a multi-post race report.

Brian and I left Saturday morning and headed to Utica to stay with my college roommate's family. This is the 5th year in a row that I have run the Boilermaker 15k and I was excited to see my roommate Kim again. Shortly after arriving and scarfing down lunch we headed to the expo. It was pretty disappointing this year as we only received our traditional Saranac beer glass and nothing else. In past years, the goodie bags have been packed with a box of spaggetti, free samples and hair ties.

A few of the vendors were packing up when we got there because it was looking like rain and so sadly we did not get the traditional Boilermaker tattoos. Shortly after leaving the expo, the sky opened up and it rained and thundered! The storms lasted into the night but eventually cleared in the early morning.

Sunday morning I woke up bright and early (around 6am) and got ready. Kim and her father have been running this 15k for the past 11 years! This year her younger sister also decided to run and so at around 6:30 we headed down to the finish line. We always park at the finish and take the shuttle to the start. We boarded a bus quickly and before I knew it I was walking a mid thousands of people!

Brian, Kim's boyfriend, and Kim's Mom left the house at around 7am and went to the finish line. This was Brian's first year of seeing the race and he brought his camera to capture all the action! Kim's mom always stands right before the finish but I have never been able to spot them when I come running by because the finish area is a mad house!!

The start area for the race is broken up into color groups; White bibs are for the fast people and the elite runners, then it goes blue, orange, green, yellow, and gray with each color increasing the time you put in that it would take to finish the race. I had a yellow bib and before I went to my designated area I saw a former college basketball teammate. I had no idea that she would be running the race and it was such a coincidence that I happened to run into her. After talking to her for a bit I headed to my area. Last year I had a yellow bib as well but decided to stay with Kim and her family so this was the first year I started closer.

It gets REALLY crowded at this race wtih 12,000 runners and so I was glad to start closer. In past years I have had to dodge runners for the first few miles in order to run the pace I want.

After the national anthem the cannon sounded and we stood still. Usually it takes me about 7 minutes to get to the start line but this year I had the rare treat of only waiting 2 minutes and I was off and running...

Part II tomorrow.