The Boston Experience: Part 1

By Saturday night, I could safely say that so far, the experience of being at the Boston Marathon was like no other race, and I hadn't even raced yet! We arrived after 1am Friday night/Saturday morning and were immediately fully immersed in all things Boston.

Unfortunately, because our flight was over 2 hours delayed, we got very little sleep Friday night before getting up early on Saturday for breakfast and the Expo. I wanted to get to the Expo not long after they opened in order to spend as much time as I wanted there before heading to the Red Sox game at Noon. 

THE EXPO! Oh my gosh, it's huge and busy and crowded and totally crazy. I've been to plenty of big race expos, but this was on another level. First, let me say that it was very well organized. These people are experts at putting on a race and moving people through as efficiently as possible. 

Why yes, I was the runner who ACTUALLY STARTED CRYING when the volunteer handed me my bib. I had a Boston Marathon bib in my hand and it was MINE. And I earned it. Just crazy!

I pretty much had the absolute best time going through the merchandise area and grabbing one of everything. Hey, I figured I may only get to this race once so I was BUYING ALL THE THINGS. Poor credit card. But I now have all the mugs and glasses and shirts and shorts and sweatshirts and everything in between and I was a happy girl checking out.

And then we got to go to Fenway Park! Greg has been to a game before since he travels to Boston often for work, but this would be my first time and the first for Greg's parents, too. They generously bought us tickets to the Saturday afternoon game and I was totally stoked. Since our hotel was about a mile from the ball park, we just walked over. It was a beautiful day in Boston and a really nice walk. I was figuring I'd rest on Sunday!

The game was so fun! The ball park is something else, that's for sure. To be in the oldest ball park in the country before running the oldest marathon seemed pretty fitting to me. Des Linden and Yuki Kawauchi, the 2018 winners, threw out the first pitch. The Red Sox pretty much sucked, but that didn't stop us from having a blast.

After the game, we drove to Hopkinton to meet up with Barry, a coworker of Greg's who was running his fifth Boston Marathon and who, along with Greg, was also raising money for the Michael Lisnow Respite Center as part of the Dell/EMC team. Dinner at a great restaurant and a visit to the start line completed our first full day in Boston. What a DREAM this day had been!

At the Michael Lisnow Respite Center

The energy is Boston on marathon weekend is nothing I've ever experienced and while I knew it would be pretty incredible, I really was not prepared for just how much. So many people walking around in their jackets, with huge smiles on their faces, having the times of their lives! And we got to be a part of that this year! It was hard to not feel excited and jittery and anxious.

We spent way too much time on our feet Saturday (13K steps and 6.2 miles of walking), so Sunday was a down day of eating, checking out the finish line again, resting, and coming up with our race strategy.

The blue line starts the race and finishes the race

Less than 1 day!

Ah, the race strategy.

So, New England weather is just as weird and ever changing as Texas weather. A few days before we left, the forecast called for showers and a high of 48 degrees, which actually would have been just fine for me. I am a cold weather runner and the rain does not bother me much. I knew that I could run fast in that type of weather. As we got closer and closer to race day, the forecast continued to take a big crappy turn. It was now forecasted to be 70 degrees and possibly sunny for a lot of the day, with minimal rain, after a shower in the morning that would make the air very humid. I absolutely loathe this type of weather on race day. I can suck it up for a 5k or 10k in that, but for a marathon, on a difficult course, could be troubling for me. As a matter of fact, the last time I even tried to go out at my original race plan in crap weather I ended up running 4:38.

So I made a decision that would take the pressure off myself. I was no longer going to go for a 3:45 or a BQ (3:50). I was going to start out at a 4 hour marathon pace and see how I felt holding onto that, in the hopes of running an even race. If the clouds remained, I would be fine. If the sun came out, it could hurt. It remained to be seen. But above all else, I wanted to have fun and if that meant slowing down during the race, I needed to be okay with that. And thankfully, I was totally okay with that. I had no intention of running Boston in 2020 whether I qualified or not, so it wouldn't be disappointing to not meet that goal.

We visited the finish line one more time after dinner that night and I made it a point to stand in the spot of the first bombing in 2013. It was a surreal moment. So much devastation in that moment in time and to be standing in that spot made it feel all the more incredible that I got to be here running on the 6th anniversary of that day.

13 hours left before we were in Hopkinton and Athlete's Village and we would experience a race like nothing else.