Wind made Boston
hellish for runners
Hawaii residents tell of
By Pat Bigold
a difficult day at the 101st
Boston Marathon
Star-BulletinBOSTON -- Hawaii residents who participated in the 101st Boston Marathon yesterday faced a headwind that turned a pleasant sunny day with temperatures in the mid-50s into a runner's nightmare for many. There were at least 10 people from the 50th state who were among the 9,402 who started the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton, 490 feet above sea level, to Copley Square in Boston, 10 feet above sea level.
Officially, 8,910 finished, with many of those who failed to reach the city succumbing to the brutally difficult hills in Newton and the winds.
The biggest obstacle was historic Heartbreak Hill, which ascends unmercifully for 600 meters from the 20.7-mile point.
Dr. John Cogan, a Honolulu cardiologist, might have made the smartest move of the day when his body was in peril.
Cogan, jet-lagged from attending medical conferences, said his legs were so beat up from the pounding on the hills that he stopped at an aid station at the 22-mile mark and napped for an hour and a half.
He finished in well over four hours.
"I had planned on doing a 3-hour, 58-minute marathon. I did OK for the first half, but I knew shortly thereafter that my legs would not hold up."
Greg Matson, a 32-year-old Aloha Airlines pilot who is a native of South Africa, said his decision to run without a shirt cost him dearly.
"I never run with a shirt, and I saw other guys doing it out there," Matson said. "But I was freezing all the way. When a I got a little sweat on my chest it froze right up. The wind off the water was terrible, especially off that lake (Lake Cochituate) in Natick."
The real terror for Matson came when he turned the 90-degree corner onto Commonwealth Avenue in Newton and headed for the hills at 20 miles near Boston College.
"I cramped at about 20 miles," he said. "At Heartbreak Hill, I had hamstring cramps. I was right on my pace, hitting my times (he'd gone through the half-marathon mark at 13.1 miles in 1:30:33) when all of a sudden, I felt a twinge. I saw a guy right in front of me lock up, holding his hamstring. I thought, 'Oh, this isn't going to happen to me.' So I backed off."
Matson finished in 3:14:01 -- not bad, considering the distress he experienced.
"I ran behind a Canadian guy for about 18 miles, using him for a wind shield, but it didn't help me much," he said.
Wearing only shorts that bore the colors of the South African Springboks rugby team, Matson said he received a lot of comments about his subtropical appearance along the way.
"Some girls yelled, 'Give me your tan!' " he said.
Matson said he strained to hear blaring radio reports from the side of the road about the progress of the women's race because there were two South Africans in the lead pack of three -- Colleen DeReuck (1995 Honolulu Marathon champion) and Elana Meyer. Ethiopian Fatuma Roba, the 1996 Olympic champion, eventually became the first black African woman to win at Boston.
Vi Jones-Medusky, a 45-year-old Roundtop resident, had her own frightening ordeal with the wind.
She said she was at the brink of hypothermia before finishing the course in 4:09:59.
"I took a long, hot shower as soon as I got into the hotel room to get my temperature up," she said.
Jones-Medusky said she began to feel like throwing up through the Newton Hills when her stomach cramped. "I'd been taking Gatorade at every aid station, and my tummy felt weird. What saved me I think was the long-sleeved Coolmax I had tied around my waist. I put it on and walked in from mile 23."
Jones-Medusky, whose singlet had Honolulu markings on it, said she was buoyed by cries of "Go Honolulu!" from some of the 2 million people who lined the course.
Dr. Manuel Dizon, a family physician from Honolulu, wore a long-sleeved shirt with a singlet over it and said he wasn't very affected by the wind.
"The wind was worse in the Honolulu Marathon last December," he said. "My ordeal was in the first mile where it was super crowded and it took me 9.5 minutes to get through."
Dizon finished in 3:24:27.
Elpidio Cadavona, 40, a mail carrier from Honolulu, said the wind didn't bother him.
"It was the downhill in Newton that punished my legs," said Cadavona, who plans to work on leg strength before entering another Boston Marathon.
"You need a lot of control coming down the hills -- going up is not so bad."
Other Hawaii residents who finished were David Cheever, 59, (4:42:54) and Grant Marcus, 36, (3:19:09) of Honolulu; and Tim Cotter, 48, (3:53:33), Wil Friesen, 47, (3:53:22), Carl Simons, 50, (3:27:11) of the Big Island.
Connie Chan, 43, a Punahou graduate who teaches psychology at the University of Massachusetts and lives in Brookline, finished in 3:55:12.
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