Boston Marathon Race Recap

Monday: Boston Marathon!!! I have so many mixed emotions right now. My plan was to drop back to the 10 start time and begin with the rest of the running crowd, but I found out that I would be docked 28 minutes if I went back from the elite women’s group. No pressure, right? I am going to be left in the dust from mile 1!!! Ugh! On the flip side… Getting into the elite buses with all the other elites was amazing!!! Having police escorts and the freeways shut down for the buses to come through was amazing.  

 We were put up in a church to wait until 5 minutes before the race started… There we had about 1 1/2 hours to “hang out”. There were 4 of us from Utah there (Scott Keate, Fritz Van De Camp, Amber Green & I). It was a huge comfort having them there!!!  It was also so fun meeting “new” running friends from all around. Love the running community. I was amazed on the quietness (or I guess you could say… The focus) in the room where we were warming up. It was intense yet sacred (if that makes sense). 

 5 minutes before the race, we were lined up in order and then They called us out. We ran out onto the streets with people cheering so loud for us… Holy crap!!! I am so not the elite runner and out of my element. It was surreal! I knew then that I would have to run a lot faster than what I intended on doing. I just kept praying that my calf would hold up. (And throughout the entire marathon… That same prayer was going through my head.) I purposely stood behind the top 3 racers because I wanted to make it on TV (the front desk hotel people said if any of us make it on tv, they would buy us dinner :))… I made it on!!!  

My kids were so excited to see me! (I made it again on the news for high fiving the crowd… It’s only about 5 seconds after the lady newscaster talks but I made it on. 🙂 http://m.wcvb.com/news/despite-rain-thousands-cheer-on-boston-marathon-runners/32471628.) It was completely silent the last 30 seconds before the start! You could feel the nerves and the excitement in the air around us. It was a feeling I have never experienced before (but now that I have… I want to more!) The gun went off and I immediately fell back into the back pack and just stayed there for the 1st 5k.  I met #32, Kris… She is in the same boat as me. Injured but wanted to experience the whole elite marathon thing. Her and I ran together for the 1st half, after the 1st 5k, we slowed our pace down and set in comfortabley at a 7 min pace (sometimes faster and sometimes slowing down a bit)… She had to slow down a few times so I would turn around and go back for her. At about mile 14 I decided to go ahead, but we had a blast together. I had more fun during this marathon than any other race! It was electrifying… The crowds, the racers… Everything! I high fived people pretty much 21 miles out of the 26.2 and then the last 5, I had to save my energy just to finish. It was cold and rainy with wind gusts up to 30 mph (a head wind). But I was glad to be running and it didn’t stop the spectators from coming out!  I was afraid to be “alone” (the rest of the race doesn’t start until 10, so we had a 28 minute head start)… But once we started that fear quickly left… I loved it.  My calf would tighten up on many different occasions but my mind was focused on everything else around me. The people made it so great and enjoyable! 

 The elite men caught me at about mile 15 or 16… I carried my phone mainly for this reason! I was hoping to take a selfie with the pack of elite men behind me but I wasn’t able to make it work. 😦 I still took pictures of the whole production of the bike pacers, camera/TV crew, officers, etc. A few laughed at me because I probably looked like a tourist.   Then of course… The men came! So amazing. I felt so slow as they passed me! I did hang with the top 2 for about 30-45 seconds so I could be on TV (it worked). 🙂 I had a few people text and facebook me telling me they saw me running with the men, taking pictures of them… I really am not that creepy! 😉   Come mile 23 to the finish I began to really struggle. The only thing that kept me going was the crowd! My legs, especially my calf, was cramping so bad!!! By mile 25, I had to walk. I began to get Charlie horses and my calf was tight. Everyone was cheering me on (it was amazing because there were not too many runners around and no female runners near… Just a few elite females were behind me and all the rest were probably way in front) so the crowd was able to focus on me “finishing” my race. So many encouraging words from everyone! At 25 1/2, I slowly ran in. In pain and frozen, I made my way into the elite tent. I finished with a 3:09.48. I was able to get a massage, warm up, eat and change into my dry clothes. It was great talking with everyone after the race! I soon headed back out to meet up with my friends. We all had a great experience!!!  

 At mile 10, I saw the LDS missionaries, then I heard my name and saw 2 friends of mine from Utah. The Algers… They are serving their mission there too as a older couple. It was so exciting… She just sent this picture to me and my friend, Tifany… It was great seeing them! We made it back to our hotel by 4:30. Relaxed for a little while and then I headed to the lobby to get my free dinner. 🙂  

Josse, Ericka, Ben and I went out to eat. We are at Cheers. We had a good time. It was still raining so we didn’t want to go walk around or anything.  

We hung out in the hotel room the rest of the evening. Both nights, we all stayed up way too late laughing and talking. It was such a great experience!!! I’m glad I came, I’m just hoping I didn’t set myself back. 🙂