Boston Trip Part 3 - Tourist Time

Okay, so where was I...oh yes...the morning after!  After I woke up and felt bad about going slow, I got up and stretched out a little.  I was a little sore, but really not much more than I after a regular long run.  I was pretty messed up after my first marathon, so that was a pleasant surprise.  I could even go down stairs like a regular person!    

Since I was feeling fine, we headed out to do the sight-seeing!  Ironically, the temperatures were about 20-25 degrees colder than they had been the previous day.  It would have been perfect running weather, but a little cold for anything else.  Oh well, at least I got to wear my jacket!

The city was still all decked out for marathon weekend.  Cheese!

After a little wandering around, we headed out on a sightseeing cruise to the Harbor Islands.  It was really interesting!  We mostly were inside because it was freeeezing, but after a while all the kids in the cabin started getting bored...and loud...and so we decided since they were not our kids we didn't have to listen!  We went up top for a while.  Notice...we are like the only ones on deck.  It looks sunny, but it was cold!

We saw a couple of lighthouses, and learned all about several islands.  One beautiful island is actually made mostly of garbage (old landfill) and another the inspiration for the horror movie, "Shutter Island." Several islands were used as quarantine sites, or prisons.  Lots of haunted stuff out in the harbor...who knew?  Now we are headed back into the city:

 Nice view:

After the cruise, we headed over to Quincy market for lunch.  I indulged in some lobster mac and cheese.  It.  Was. Excellent!

So, if you are in Boston looking to be touristy, this is the first thing to do:

 The Freedom Trail!  Let's walk.  I like how the old buildings and the new are all mixed together.

 And who doesn't love a creepy old graveyard with "deaths heads" on the gravestones.  I do!  Maybe only in the daytime though.

We walked ourselves around and I was kind of searching for a Boston Marathon Christmas ornament.  I collect Christmas ornaments when I travel, but we were having a hard time finding one.  I thought we could maybe find one at Adidas Runbase, but no luck.  Here is a unicorn though!

 And while we were in the area, and made Preston walk me to the intersection of Boylston and Hereford, so I could get this picture (right on Hereford, Left on Boylston!)

 And finally, we made the stop that Preston had been wanting to make for a couple of days...we got some cannolis from Mike's.  I got the chocolate covered one, and it was amazing!

 We headed back to the hotel around dinnertime, and decided to just get some takeout from the Afghan restaurant down the street.  We got some Kabuli Palaw, and it was really really good!

The next day we had to go home, but first we wanted to walk the part of the Freedom Trail we hadn't done yet.  As we were checking out and stowing our luggage, I saw my running buddy, Laura, again. She had gone slow also, so that made me feel a little better.  As we headed out, I was glad it was sunny, but it was even colder.  Preston still wore his shorts though, because he is crazy.

We headed over to the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides), but unfortunately, she was in dry dock!  No tours!  Boooo!  We still liked the museum there.

We climbed Breed's Hill to see the Bunker Hill Monument.  There are so many adorable houses in that neighborhood, it would be fun to live in one....you know, if you had a couple million dollars to spend.

 We walked through the Old North Church and back through little Italy and over to Paul Revere's house:

 A tour of the inside cost money, so we contented ourselves with some peeks through the windows.  Then we had lunch in an old tavern.

 Preston found a very important historical site...the Parker House hotel...apparently this is where Boston Cream Pie was invented, one of the most important events in history.

Then we wandered around the parks a little.  I was kind of missing the kids, they would have liked to go on the swan boats.

We walked up through the city and across the Harvard Bridge.  The MIT sailing team was out practicing, and the wind had really kicked up, and it was really cold!  We picked up our luggage, took our last T ride to the airport and flew home.

I watched a few movies on the airplane, which was nice.  I watched "The Lion" and part of "La La Land," both so good.  Then we were home (thanks for picking us up, Dad!), and the kids were asleep.  Dax and Cora had cleaned up their rooms so I could go and kiss them while they slept.  Arden hadn't bothered, but I snuck in there anyway.  It was a fun trip!

Boston Marathon Trip - Part 2 - MARATHON DAY!

Monday, April 17th, 2017 dawned bright and sunny.

OMGosh!  It's Boston Marathon Day!  The day I have been training for all winter is finally here!

I woke up a little early, nervous about missing the bus. I was in Wave 3, Corral 3, so I was supposed to be getting on the bus between 8:00 a.m. and 8:40 a.m.  Preston and I were heading out of the hotel around 7:30, ready to walk to the T station to take the train over to the Boston Commons/Public Gardens, where the buses were loading.  There was a busy street right in front of the hotel that we had to cross on our way to the T-Station.  While we were waiting there for the light to change, I started talking to a girl who was also wearing a race bib.  Turned out she was waiting with her dad for an Uber to take her to the bus, as she didn't want to risk the train being late or anything like that.  As the Uber pulled up and the light still hadn't changed, this stranger I had met 45 seconds ago invited me to jump in the car for a free ride to the buses.  Of course I said "Yes!" instantly.  Duh, it will save me the half mile walk to the T station!

Preston looked at me a little funny as I jumped right into a car with two strangers and an Uber driver, but hey, I figured I could trust my fellow Wave 3 buddy, she had a legit marathon bib! Preston told me later that he hoped that it wouldn't be the last time he ever saw me.  (Don't worry, it wasn't!)

My new buddy's name was Laura, and she was from Sacramento.  She was there with her dad, who was riding along to make sure she made it on the bus safely and on time.  It was her first Boston Marathon too.  It was fun to talk to her on driver to the buses, and it was nice to have a built-in buddy to ride to the bus with. We talked and talked about running, our training, our families and just everything.  It turned out she has a twin brother too, and also three kids, just like me!  The bus seemed to be driving 100 miles away from the city...am I really going to have to run myself all the way back there??

Once we finally got to Hopkinton (OMGosh!  I am about to "Toe the line in Hopkinton!"), I discovered that it is an adorable town!  The houses were really nice, and they really embrace their role as the starting line of the Boston Marathon.

Me and Laura both geeked out right along with all the running nerds as we walked down this street and finally saw the sign for the "Athlete's Village." Hey!  I'm an athlete!  We headed over to one of the giant tents they had set up, and did what everyone else there was doing...getting in line for a porta potty.  Even though there were literally hundreds of porta potties, the lines were crazy long.  As I was standing in line, I could feel myself getting a sunburn on my shoulders!  Luckily, they had sunscreen available for all of us forgetful runners at the medical tents, so we ran over and put some on.  Lots of people were writing their names all down their arms with permanent markers.  What the wha?  Someone told me it was so the spectators could cheer for them by name. "Nah," I thought...my name is too long and I don't want Sharpie on my arm for a week!

It seemed like no time until they were announcing it was time for all of us Wave-3 peeps to head to the starting line!  AACK!  As we started walking over, they took a picture...here is me and my new Boston Buddy in a pirated picture they took while we were headed towards the starting line.  Cheese! Holy crap!  I'm about the run the Boston Marathon!  Also, it is HOT!

Laura was in a different corral than me, so we wished each other good luck and headed off to the start.  We walked through Hopkinton, along with a few thousand of our running buddies.  We all eventually found our corrals, and we were ready to roll.

As we were standing in the bright, hot sun, waiting for the race to start, everyone was talking to each other about how HOT it was.  It was supposed to be 75 degrees according to the weather forecast, but it felt hotter than that to me.  This probably had to do with the fact that I was used to training in the winter...most of my training runs were closer to 32 than 82.  Also, humidity.  A foreign concept to me.  As we waited for the gun, they announced that we should try and take it easy and go slow because of the high temperatures, as they didn't want us to end up overheated or dehydrated in the medical tents.  "Okay," I thought.  There is no way I am going to PR or anything, and I am already sweating, and I haven't started running yet,  So, I am just going to keep it slow and steady and enjoy every step of this race!  I CAN'T get my first "DNF" at Boston!"  I had brought my ipod to listen to, and it had a very crappy camera.  I figured I would be that dorky runner who stops and takes pictures during a race, since I might never be back here again!  So, I got started on my picture taking right then.  Here is Wave 3, all ready to go!  The starting line is up by the yellow and blue signs.

We started counting down.  Five minutes to go...three....one more minute!  Finally, they shot the starting gun, and off we went!  Everyone was so excited we all started running even before we got to the official starting line.  I took another picture just before I got to the line:

As we ran through Hopkinton, it was fun to see all the people on their lawns cheering.  They didn't seem to mind being barricaded in their houses for the day.  One of the first things I noticed was that we sounded like a herd of thundering elephants once we got going, there were so many of us running together!  The sounds of all those shoes hitting the ground was impressive.  There was not much room to move around, so I just went along with the crowd, which was actually pretty nice!  Usually at the start of races I am furiously trying to weave around slower people, but since we were arranged in waves by qualifying time, everyone was pretty much running at the same pace.  

We ran though Hopkinton, and then we kind of ran through a rural area for a while, with trees on both sides and the occasional house, which inevitably had a crowd of spectators cheering.  There was even a pretty little lake with a couple of swans swimming on it. It was amazing to see the mass of running humanity as we went up or down a rolling hill or around a curve.  Here is a picture I took as we are going down a little hill.  Look at that mass of crazy runners! While trying to take this picture I learned a couple of things.  First, it is way too bright outside and I can't tell what the heck I am taking a picture of, and second, It is really hard to take a picture and run at the same time, and I had no room to pull over.  Oh well, this one actually turned out pretty good:  

As I was running in the first or second mile, a nearby guy and I accidentally bumped into each other a little.  I reached out and touched him on the arm as we both said a quick, "Sorry!," like you do, and my hand came back to me all covered in his sweat.  EW.  I tried not to pull a face, and wiped my hand on my shirt as discreetly as I could.  Yeah, it is HOT out here!

I was surprised how many people were lining the course at this point, since it was still pretty rural.  I even saw Santa Claus cheering people on somewhere near Natick, it was awesome!  Every time there were little kids on the side of the road with their hands outstretched, trying to hand out high fives, I tried to work my way over to them and get some.  It wasn't too hard at first, but as the race went on and the sidelines got more and more crowded, it became impossible to slap five with even half of the kids!  My hand was actually sore from handing out high fives by the end of the race.

There was a water stop every mile(!) after mile two, and I grabbed a Gatorade at one of the first ones wanting to make sure I didn't cramp or get dehydrated.  As I mentioned, I was in Wave 3, and about 10,000 or 15,000 people had already been through there...and they had spilled a lot of Gatorade on the ground.  My shoes got so sticky that they stuck to the ground with every step!  Unacceptable! Luckily, Gatorade was on the first tables, and water came later, so I had time to quickly run back over to the side of the road to and splash through all of the spilled water next to the water table, That washed them off pretty good.  Haha.

After about an hour, my body and legs were feeling pretty good, but man, it seemed HOT.  That was when I saw it...they had opened a fire hydrant on the side of the road for us to run through!  Whoopee!  I made straight for it with a smile on my face.  I was shocked as I ran through with how MUCH water was coming out, and how COLD it was.  It took my breath away for a second, but then it was bliss!  I was soaking, soaking wet, and I loved it!  I immediately wondered if the ipod in my pocket would suvive, It kept working (not that I could hear it very well), what a relief.

The spectators all along the way were amazing!  As we got closer and closer to Boston, the crowds steadily increased.  Even though they had been there for at least a couple of hours already, they were still cheering, and there were so many fun signs!  So many spectators had even set up their own impromptu aid stations, offering everything a runner could need and more...more water, orange slices, bananas, Popsicles, bags of ice, even body glide.  Closer to the finish they even had beer!  At one section, there were a bunch of mini trampolines set up along the side of the road with a bunch of people jumping up and down on them and cheering.  Weird, and hilarious!

I tried to take some pictures, but didn't realize my ipod was completely fogged over from the fire hydrant moisture.  The first picture that even kind of turned out was at the 20k mark...Wellesley College and the famous Wellesley girls!  (still a little foggy on the left).

The Wellesley girls are famous for their loud screaming, and their "Kiss Me" signs.  They delivered on both!  Wave 3 had a pretty high percentage of women, so they were a little less loud that I thought they would be, but still impressive.  I tried stay out of the way and take a few pictures, but didn't take any girls up on their offers of kisses.  

Somewhere in the middle here, someone was blasting "Sweet Caroline" on the radio, and it was so amazing to throw my arms in the air on the "BA-BA-BA" part of the song, and see so many other runners in the still-pretty-thick crowd doing the same thing.  "Good times never seemed so good!  SO GOOD!  SO GOOD!  SO GOOD!"  I was having a great time, but when I looked down at my watch, I noticed that I wasn't going very fast, dangit.  I had been weaving around too much slapping fives and taking pictures, that my watch would give me my mile split times way before I saw the actual race mile markers.  My watch beeps when it gives me the splits, but it was so loud from cheering that I missed the beep almost every single time.  So, I hardly ever saw my mile split times and usually didn't really how fast I was going.  So, I decided not to care too much.  I just kept going along at a comfortable pace.  I had heard horror stories about the Newton Hills, including the dreaded "Heartbreak Hill," and wanted to be sure I had a lot left in the tank for those.  Oh look, another fire hydrant!  Should I go through it again?  YES, of course!

Again, the next few pictures after the fire hydrant were too blurry to make out.  I didn't know while I was taking them, since the sun was so bright I couldn't see the blurriness on the screen. The next usable picture was the one I took of the sign that says "Entering Newton."  Uh-oh, here come the hills!  Luckily, the pack had finally thinned out and it was much easier to pull off to the side to take pictures at this point. 

The hills were actually not nearly as bad as I was worried they would be.  I took the first couple slowly, afraid of Heartbreak, but when I reached it I still had plenty of gas left in the tank.  I was actually happy to see Heartbreak Hill because I knew it was the last "big" hill, and it didn't look so bad!  Someone at the top had a sign that said "Top of Heartbreak Hill" and I couldn't help but smile as I went past.  The crowds were amazing, and I was really regretting not drawing my name on my arm, since tons of people were saying "Go, Bob!," "You can do it, Jenny!"  "You got this, Sam!" etc. for the people who had their names visible.  Oh well.  Next time ;-)  Only a few more miles to go!  Hey wait, there is Preston!  He was watching only about 3 miles from the finish, but I'm glad I saw him for a sec as I ran by.

Off to the side somewhere in here, someone had set up a big inflatable shower, so of course I ran through that and fogged up my ipod again, dangit.  Here is a picture of the Citgo sign, which means that there is only one more mile to go...once you finally reach the dang thing.  Sorry it is so blurry...we weren't really running through the fog.  By now the spectators were 2-3 rows deep, and AMAZINGLY loud.

We ran by Fenway, and reached the triple blue line that leads to the finish.  Before I knew it, it was time to take the famous "right on Hereford, left on Boylston," and BOOM! There was the finish line down the street.  I checked my watch, and I stopped it once I got to 26.2, when my time was 3:59...oops, not very fast.  I think I ended up running about 26.4 miles, because my actual chip time was 4:01.  Oops, slow.  About a whole minute per mile slower than my 3:34 qualifying time!  Dangit.  Well, since I am so slow, I am going to pull over again and take a picture of the finish line!

I made it, and I still felt great!  I immediately started thinking about how I should have gone faster, but I tried to just enjoy the moment for what it was.  I'm a Boston Marathon Finisher!

I got my medal, my tin foil blanket, and my bag of food with a smile on my face.   (BTW...every volunteer was so FRIENDLY!)  I headed over to the waiting area to wait for Preston.  As soon as I found the "Z" sign, the girl sitting on the curb next to me threw up.  Ew.  Some volunteers came and helped her to the medical tent, and I felt a little less bad for not going faster.  It took Preston what seemed like a long time to fight his way through the crowds to me, but we eventually met up and headed for the T.  As soon as we got into the hot, muggy T station, we saw a runner passed out on the floor in there, with a policeman trying to help her.  Okay, so I guess there are multiple worse things than being slow.

Here is me back at the hotel, where they had a cool ice sculpture set up, along with a champagne reception for all the runners.  Lucky for me, there were also cookies.  At this point I only wanted to take a shower, so I am not being super photo-helpful.

Ah...all showered up!  We were headed out to dinner with some friends who used to live near us, but now were in the Boston area.  

I wore my jacket now that I had safely finished, even though it wasn't cold.  And yes, I was even dorky enough to wear my unicorn medal out to dinner.  I'm a unicorn, yo!  It was fun to spend time with friends and also to eat lots and lots of food.

After dinner, we put our feet up and watched some TV.

I will admit...the next morning when I woke up and remembered where I was, the very first thought that crossed my mind was, "Dangit, I should have run faster yesterday."  But now that it has been a couple of weeks, I think I have made peace with it.  I had a great time, and felt really good during the race, despite the warmer than usual temps.  I was able to look around and see all the sights and not just suffer worry about which part of my body was hurting the most, as I would have if I was trying to go as fast as I could.  I decided that there are lots of races that I can run fast in, but only one Boston Marathon.  (At least that is what I keep telling myself).  Overall, I still feel like it was an honor just to qualify and run it.

Maybe I'll go back again someday.

Boston Marathon Trip - part 1 - Expo, Fenway, Preston's Birthday

Right after Cora's birthday wrapped up, Preston and I packed up our stuff, put the kids in bed, and headed to the airport.  (THANKS FOR WATCHING THE KIDS MOM AND DAD!)  Time to fly to Boston!  To save money, we were again flying the red-eye...leaving 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time, arriving 6:29 a.m. Eastern Time.  No problem, we'll just sleep on the flight, right?

 Wrong.

Despite OTC sleeping pills, ear plugs, an eye mask, and a window seat to lean on, I think I slept for exactly 0.01 seconds on the flight.  It is just impossible for me to sleep on airplanes, even if kids are not leaning on me.  Oh well, I thought as I pulled off my sleeping mask and greeted the sunny day...sleep schmeep.

We bought ourselves weekly passes for the "T" (Boston subway), and headed to our hotel, bags in tow.  We didn't expect them to let us check in at 7:00 a.m. since their official check in time was like 3 or 4 in the afternoon, so I was soooo happy when they got us to our room right away!  I was scheduled to do my last "shake out run" that morning, so while Preston climbed into bed, I laced up my shoes and headed out.  Who can sleep on such a beautiful morning anyway??

(This was the view out the window of our hotel.  We were at the Royal Sonesta, which is on the Cambridge side of the river.  We had a fun view of the river, Bunker Hill Bridge and the TD Center which was hosting playoff games of both the Bruins and the Celtics while we were in town)

It was such a fun run.  There were TONS of people running along the river, probably mostly marathoners like me.  There were some people out racing skulls in the river...they were way faster than me!  I felt great on the run, and I was actually sad when I had to turn around.  I was feeling amazing and excited...and STARVING when I bounced back into the hotel room.  Preston had drawn the blackout curtains and was deeply asleep.  I decided to let him have a few minutes while I showered, but once I was done I pried him out of a REM cycle and we headed out in search of breakfast.

Once that all-important challenge was met, we headed downtown, where the Expo and race bib pickup were.  There were people wearing their marathon jackets EVERYWHERE!  (I never wear race gear before I have actually completed the race, because I have heard from multiple sources that it is bad luck.  No reason to tempt fate...but it was hard to keep my jacket in my bag when everyone else seemed to be wearing theirs!)  The had done a 5K that morning, and were doing some shorter races around the finish line area on Boylston Street, so we worked our way through the crowds and watched some.  Eventually we headed to pick up my bib, where there was the longest line I have ever seen outside of a theme park.

 We waited outside for probably 20-30 minutes, and then we waited inside for about that long again.  Here is some of the inside line:

 Eventually, we made it and I had my official bib in my hot little hands!  Cheese!!!!

We headed in to the expo to see what we could see, but I really only had one mission.  Find myself a stuffed "Spike" the unicorn, the official mascot of the marathon.  I had a place on my desk at work all ready for him to sit.  We found him and I was happy.  Here is me and my new buddy Spike:

 We wandered around the Expo for a little while, but didn't have much time because we had to go back to the hotel to drop off all my race loot, find some lunch and then head back into town for the Red Sox game!  It was fun to see the finish line on our way back to the "T" station...I was nervously hoping I would see it again in a couple of days!

We got back to Fenway in plenty of time for the game, and I was pretty excited because this was my first time seeing a game there.  Preston's first time too.  Say cheese!

 We walked all the way around the park before the game started, and then headed to our seats.  I had bought them way way in advance, and they were pretty good seats...except for this lovely pole that kind of obscured part of home plate!  Oh well, I was okay as long as I leaned forward a little, and Preston could see if he leaned out into the aisle.  It wasn't as bad as the seats I had at Wrigley once, where one of my friends had a seat directly behind a post.

It was awesome to watch a game at Fenway!  It was a beautiful day.  Bonus for us, the Red Sox won!

The game got over about 7 p.m., so we picked up some dinner and then headed back to the hotel.  We were both so tired from staying up all night on the plane that I'm pretty sure we were asleep by 9:30 p.m...despite the fact that the Jazz had their first playoff game that night, starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  Sorry, Jazz, I'm too tired!

The next day was Sunday.  Theme for the day:  CARBS.  We slept in a LOT, but Preston even more than me.  I finally woke him up at around 11 a.m., when I started to wonder if we would make it to church at 1:00.  We ate a carb-loaded brunch, and headed out to church, which happened to be in walking distance from our hotel.  It was Easter, and the meeting was amazing!  The musical numbers at this ward were outstanding...I told Preston we should come back for Christmas.  ;-)

After church, we walked along the river a little, and just relaxed.  We wandered over to the North Side, where we had reservations for a (carb-alicious) pasta dinner in Little Italy.  It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid 80s!  

Dinner was really good, and I shoved in as many carbs as would safely fit.  I had put on the reservation that it was Preston's birthday, so he got a special treat!  Thanks for letting me drag you all over Boston on your birthday, Preston!

After dinner, we walked around a little, but I didn't want to get too worn out the day before the race, or trip on any curbs and sprain my ankle, so we headed back to the hotel, and watched a movie while Preston watched me obsess over what I would wear/bring to the race.

The city looked so pretty out the window the night before the race!  I had all my clothes, shoes, socks, GPS watch, ipod, ear bud, bagel, banana, bib, etc. etc. all ready to go.  Goodnight, Boston!

(See next post for the MARATHON!)