The night before, Brian had walked to the grocery store and stocked up on breakfast food, so I had some orange juice, yogurt and granola:
We didn't have a camera with us at this point, since Brian was walking with me to the buses and then going for a run of his own. Our actions diverge for the next 8 hours.We made it to the buses and I sat with a nice lady from Austin who was also running her first marathon. It took us almost an hour on the bus to get 26.2 miles to Hopkinton, where the race begins. There was an "Athlete's Village" set up on the lawn of a high school. It was several hours until the start, so I ate a bit, put more sunscreen on, and chatted with a few other runners.
At one point, the announcer says that we "might want to think about heading to the start line" which was almost a mile away from where we were. I immediately got up and was in a huge crowd of people. I made it to my corral just as the gun went off! I would have had a bit more time to prepare mentally, but it was not to be.
It was just about a perfect day to run a marathon. The temperature and weather were fantastic! The first seven miles are all downhill, so I had to make a conscious effort not to go out too fast and save some energy for later! Everything was just about perfect until about mile 22. I reached into my shorts for my last energy gel. For those of you non-runners, this is food of a toothpaste-like consistency that runners eat during races because they are easily-digestible. As I was opening it, the gel slipped out of my hand! There were way too many runners around me for me to safely stop and get it.
Then, at mile 23, I was going to console myself with a Gatorade at the water stop. However, there was a line of 20-25 soldiers in fatigues marching along the course, completely blocking the water stop! I have no idea why this happened! In any case, I missed two fueling options and was starting to feel it.
In any case, I had set a reachable goal as a finish time and, despite the fueling snafus, finished more than 10 minutes faster than my goal, so I was happy. And I will carry an extra energy gel (or two) from now on!
I had a great experience and am very happy that I was able to run Boston. As I've said, though, now that I've run marathons in 3 states, I may have to complete one in every state so I can become a member of this club.
After going through the finish chute (mylar blanket, medal, warm-ups, food), I exited into the street and found Brian in the meet-up area. Here I am, exhausted, sweaty, and smelly:
Now, on to Brian. While I was waiting for the bus, he went for a run around Boston's harbor area. He then went back to the apartment, showered, and then set out in Boston to wait for me to finish.As it was Patriot's Day (a huge deal in Boston), there was a reenactment of Paul Revere's ride, which I think this is part of the set-up for:
Brian almost got run over by reenactor Paul Revere as he was not expecting a galloping horse to come through a small street at the same time he was crossing!He sat in front of this fountain for a while:
Was harassed by this pigeon who wanted some food (but was disappointed):
And watched the sparrow take a bath in the fountain:
We walked from the end of the marathon to our apartment. Normally, the post-race shower is one of the best parts of the race. However, not this time. Our only complaint about our apartment is that it had the worst shower I have ever seen. I really shouldn't complain, as there are many people in the world who don't have a shower at all, but I have expectations for American showers. Like enough water to get me wet.This one was like a gentle drizzle of water. Occasionally, it was hot; more often, it was lukewarm. Had I been walking outside when rain started falling to mimic the amount coming out of the shower, I wouldn't have even needed an umbrella. It was that bad. I really didn't feel clean the entire week, and usually had to huddle under the covers for a few minutes to beat the chill of the shower.
So, I showered as best as I could, and we headed out to an Irish Pub for a celebratory drink.
Cider!
After walking around a bit more, we went to Wagamama for dinner. We'd been in one in London on our trip there in 2008.
Brian did not actually use the chopsticks as we didn't want to spend 5 hours at dinner!
They had Asian beer for sale:
I was still a bit hungry, so we stopped in Dunkin Donuts for a taste of my childhood. Brian had never had a strawberry frosted before (though I don't remember jimmies on them...)! I hadn't had one in years, and thoroughly enjoyed this one. I told Brian some of my dad's doughnut stories, but I'm not sure he believed them.
A night view of our street:
Exhausted, we went to bed pretty early. Brian was pretty excited that the apartment had satellite TV, so he got to watch SportsCenter, which our over-the-air household misses out on.
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