Boston Recap

Here are a few of the stories from my recent trip to Boston, pictures coming soon!

Pre- Marathon trip bullet points:

• Saturday afternoon- left STL, ate Chili's at the airport. Note: Chili's at the airport is NOT Chili's.
• Saturday evening- Arrived at hotel around 9pm, saw two members of our local running club. Small world. We tried to go to the hot tub, but we waited too late. The hot tub closed at 11pm.
• Sunday morning- 5K Race Day. We slept a little later than planned, but we managed to make it to the race start in plenty of time. I went into the tent where they were handing out the packets and picked everything up. Barbie held all of our stuff while Shanna and I ran the race (Shanna ran as a bandit, she just wanted to stretch her legs a bit). It was 45 degrees and sunny- great weather for a 5K. I finished in 29:16. My biggest problem was that I didn't line up until the last minute and just started in the back. I was weaving around people the entire race and ran part of the time on the sidewalk. The scenery was amazing, and it was an unbelievable feeling finishing at the Marathon finish line. Barbie, meanwhile had gotten to see Joan Benoit Samuelson speak before the race started and snapped some photos. All of the 5K finishers received a medal (score!) and some pretty nice goodies afterward.
• Sunday afternoon - Boston Marathon Expo. What can I say? There was SO MUCH to see. We walked the expo, picking up freebies and shopping ALL DAY. We had pasta with roasted veggies for lunch at the expo. We caught up with a few of the members of the local running club for a picture for the newsletter in the afternoon.
• Sunday evening- went to the hotel restaurant and found that they didn't really have any pasta. The hostess suggested a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in East Boston, near the airport since we didn't want to travel far. We ate dinner there and it was DELICIOUS. We had a very hearty pasta dinner. We had a hell of a time getting there, since the cab driver had no clue how to get there. $17 later, he got NO TIP!
• Back to the hotel and Shanna went down to the gym and lifted weights. Yes at 9pm, the night before the marathon. Ah well!

Marathon Race Day!

• Woke up at O'dark thirty for the girls to get ready to catch the shuttle to the start in Hopkinton. No family or friends were allowed on the shuttle, so I didn't even get out of my pajamas. I helped them get everything together and get out the door, then I caught a couple more hours of shut-eye and had a leisurely morning.
• Race start was 10:30am for the 2nd wave. I watched the start on tv, then I started riding the subway. I caught up with Barbie at the 17 mile point (Shanna was too fast, I missed her!).
• I caught Shanna at the 25 mile mark and snapped a picture. She looked very determined.
• Shanna finished in 3:34. She BQ'ed again, at Boston!
• I talked to Shanna on the phone as I started trying to make my way through the crowd to the finish line. Let me just take a moment to say how incredible the crowds were for this race. Barbie said later that the roar of the crowd was overwhelming for the last 8-10 miles of the race, and she got choked up several times on the course thinking about it all.
• Before I could get to Shanna, I got a call from the medical tent- she was a little dehydrated but OK.
• Barbie finished in 3:55. She BQ'ed again, at Boston too! Awesome!
• I got in touch with Barbie and we met up near the buses where the runners picked up their bags from before the race.
• Barbie and I then asked a police officer how to get to the medical tent. The streets of Boston make NO SENSE! We got turned around a couple of times and found the medical tent about 2 miles later. Oh, great news, she's OK but she's in Medical Tent "B", this is Medical Tent "A". UGH! About another mile later, we finally found her! At that point, we just wanted to get back to the hotel.

Monday Evening:

• HOT TUB!! Don't even say it. I just read an article on the plane on the way to Boston that said that ice baths were not necessary for anybody except elite runners. I used a hot tub after my marathon, and I was feeling fine by the next day.
• We ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. We ran into yet another runner from our local running club. What a small world!

Tuesday:

• Due to a snafu on our first night (the hotel put us in a room with a king sized bed instead of 2 doubles, so the three of us became veeerrrry well acquainted), we got a free breakfast that we used on Tuesday. They had a huge spread, and we all ate our fill.
• We went into Boston and did some sight seeing. I wish we had another day, one day wasn't nearly enough!
• We ate lunch at the Union Oyster House, the oldest restaurant in the country. Yum!
• Our flight was delayed, due to the weather, so we would have had some extra time anyhow. With the extra time, Barbie and I drank a couple of $8 glasses of wine in the airport bar.
• I got home at midnight. My Tito dog sure missed me! The kids are already texting me today to make sure I buy the concert tickets they are wanting. Yeah, I guess they missed me too. They missed my credit cards anyway.