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Experience report from the Boston Marathon

6.6.2019

Translation: machine translated

Co-author: Hans-Peter Schmid4607

Hans-Peter Schmid is a runner with heart and soul. He always has a guide at his side. Because Hans-Peter Schmid is blind.

A few months ago, I met Hans-Peter and his guide Mike Bär for an interview. Among other things, he tells me that he has qualified for this year's Boston Marathon. Both runners are really looking forward to this race.

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Let me see for you
by Patrick Bardelli

On 15 April, around 27,000 runners will run the 42.195 kilometres in Boston. One of them is Hans-Peter Schmid, who is blind. This is his report:

I was lucky enough to take part in the 123rd Boston Marathon, which was held on 15 April 2019. To say it up front: The experience was indescribably intense, amazing and overwhelming. I've never experienced anything like it! Furthermore, the organisation, especially for athletes with disabilities, was second to none. After all, I've never experienced so many enthusiastic, fully present and cheerful spectators.

Before the start

The morning of 15 April was an early start. Wake up at 4.15am, breakfast in the room at 4.45am and finally the journey to the assembly point at 5.30am.

At 6.15am, the athletes with restrictions travelled to Hopkinton, where the start area was located, in an extremely efficient one-hour journey with VIP buses and a police escort. It started to rain as we boarded the bus, and it poured during the journey. A veritable thunderstorm passed over the area.

In Hopkinton, we were able to take a seat in a heated VIP tent, which we were very happy about. It was relatively cold and continued to rain. At around nine o'clock, half an hour before the official start, the rain stopped. Brilliant, this timing!

My guide Mike Bär and I then walked around the start area for a while. The safety precautions were very strict. Before entering the zone, we were searched with a metal detector. There were a lot of police and snipers in the start zone, and a cute Labi sniffed around for any bombs.

The national anthem was sung shortly before 9.30 am. At the last sounds, two fighter jets shot low over the starting area for the salute. The feeling and the atmosphere were stunningly unique.

The marathon

Our start at the back of wave two was scheduled for 10.25am. We took our places, got rid of our warm overclothes and waited until thousands of runners had lined up in front of us. The starting field stretched for around 800 metres. As a result, it took quite a long time before we were able to start running.

It was relatively tight and challenging at the start. There were two critical situations where runners jumped right in front of my feet and I stumbled. Fortunately, I was able to catch myself each time. Then it slowly became more relaxed.

The first part of the route tended to be downhill or flat, which encouraged a faster pace. We ran through several communities where there were probably hundreds to thousands of people standing at the side of the road shouting, screaming and shouting to cheer on the runners - in true American style. The noise was often deafening. I had never experienced so much attention and support in Switzerland. When I raised my hand to greet them, the screaming would swell even more. It was unbelievable. We reached the peak of the screaming at kilometre 20, at Wellesley College. Female students from the local college stood there for several hundred metres, cheering on the runners and demanding a kiss with placards.

About kilometre 25 came the Netwon Hills, four nice climbs that made us sweat a lot. As it had been quite chilly in the morning, we wore long sleeves. During the run, however, it got warmer and warmer and the sun came out. I was therefore much too warm and suffered quite a bit. At kilometre 33, we finally had to conquer Heartbreak Hill, the last climb before Boston. Still suffering from the heat, I was also struggling on this climb, but I managed it well so far. Mike first told me in the hotel that various runners had been carried away at the top and were being supplied with oxygen alongside the route. So I was still doing very well in comparison.

After Heartbreak Hill, it was all downhill into Boston. I was pretty exhausted, suffering, travelling relatively slowly and looking forward to the finish. Two miles before it started to rain. I was glad of the slight cooling and couldn't believe how lucky we had been with the weather. Finally, we turned right into Hereford Street and left into Boylston Street - a characteristic section of the Boston Marathon route. It wasn't far after that. We ran along Boylston Street towards the finish line. The crowd went wild, loudspeaker announcements boomed and a wave of cheers accompanied us across the finish line. There we received a warming wrap, water and, most importantly, the coveted medal.

More than 27,000 runners took part in this year's Boston Marathon. This included a total of 51 tandems from various countries, 48 of whom reached the finish line. <p

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Patrick Bardelli

Senior Editor

Patrick.Bardelli@digitecgalaxus.ch

From radio journalist to product tester and storyteller, jogger to gravel bike novice and fitness enthusiast with barbells and dumbbells. I'm excited to see where the journey'll take me next.

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