Boston Marathon Weekend

No, I didn't run it. Hell, I couldn't even qualify if I tried! I did go to see my friends run it though and we had a blast.

The weekend started with one of my favorite people having a sleepover (as Avery would say). Saturday morning Alexis and I hit the road to head up to Maureen's. Alexis' sole responsibility was to make kick-ass roadtrip cd's and she did a great job. We were jamming the whole 4.5 hours! We got to Maureen's around 2 and then headed to Cambridge for an early dinner and drinks with other Kick folk.

After that we headed to Maureen's final production of Singing in the Rain. She did great and it was a great show. I had a bad sinus headache and some tummy issues so Alexis and I headed back to Maureen's while Nora, Maureen and Rob stayed for the cast party. We attempted to watch Dazed and Confused but were too sleepy so we hit the hay.

Sunday was a busy day! We all got up and got ready and headed to see the Women's Olympic trials. We made it to see part of the trials and then we headed to the expo where I met Dick Beardsley. I got him to sign my book and Alexis got a picture of me with him. Then we had to rush to meet our friends who were running for lunch. It was a great meet up. Following that we girls had a little retail therapy and then we headed back to Maureen's to get ready for a run.

We all headed to Jamaica Pond to run. Each of us had different mileage and speed goals so we split up. I did 4 laps easy which is @6 miles and had a great run. Split paces:

• 10:32
• 10:15
• 10:13
• 10:03
• 10:02
• 9:58

I felt great by the end and could have gone faster. It was a beautiful park too so that helped!

After the run we picked up pizza and ice cream from JP Licks and headed home for a nice relaxing evening. The next morning Alexis and I went for a run at the cemetery and got in 3.62 (thanks to getting lost and a little scared). Much slower run but between all the walking the past two days and the pond run my legs were a bit tired. We got back and rushed to the showers to get ready for the marathon.



We had prime spots in the front around mile 24. The weather started out overcast but the sun was soon out which was great for us but not ideal for the racers. There was a comical group of runners that showed up behind us (see picture left). They had us cracking up!

We cheered on everyone we could. When we saw Lance Armstrong go by we were searching and searching for Pacer Chris. A couple of minutes later we saw him, just as he stopped to walk. We all gave him a hug and he said it was a bad day. We were all heartbroken for him that he wouldn't get his goal time but he still managed to get a sub-3 which is more than a hell of a lot of people could pull off, even on a good day! Later we saw Jen and Notey come by, both looking strong. We missed Dan but he had a great PR for the day.

Most memorable:

• The comedic 70s runners before the race
• Team Hoyt
• Dire Tune & Alevtina Biktimirova hammering it out together
• Robert Cheruiyot
• Giving Pacer hugs when he needed them most

After we saw everyone we knew we headed out to meet up for a post race drink and get some grub before hitting the highway. I was pretty tired but the trip home was event-less and we got to my house at 11.