A Day in the Life of a Boston Marathon Finisher

I am officially up a marathon and down a toenail.  A decent trade, so I'll take it. 

Our day started bright and early the morning of April 18, 2011.  The bags were packed and our clothes were laid out the night before, which made waking up at 5:15 AM that much easier.  MFNE sprung for a charter bus for the Running for Cover team so we were spared the long lines for the BAA buses to Hopkington.  Micah and I made it to the team bus 15 minutes before it departed.  (Note: Micah and I are never on time, especially for things like races (Sunday Morning) so this was a huge accomplishment for us.)  We climbed on the bus, picked our cushy chairs, used the restroom (because we could), and while enjoying the warmth of our bus we quietly snickered at all the marathon suckers who were stuck waiting in line to be packed like sardines into a cold school bus.  They may have been faster runners, but we showed up in style.  Once in Hopkington, we were taken straight to Athlete's Village where all the Boston runners waited for their waves to start.  I spent the majority of the morning curled up in the fetal position under a blanket to get away from the wind, but Micah braved the cold long enough to get a pretty good shot of our holding pen.

 

Micah and I were in the last wave.  The walk to the start line was about .5 mile away from Athlete's Village.  On the way, there were tons of water stations set up by the neighborhoods and volunteers along the road ready to donate all the "throw away" clothes left by the runners.  Spectators lined the roads all the way from Athlete's Village to the start line and beyond...

The support along the way was absolutely amazing.  There was not a single stretch of the 26.2 miles without spectators.  Micah and I wrote our names on the front of our shirts and people yelled for us the entire race. Allie is an easy name to yell for but Micah got some interesting versions including Meekah, Meesah, Michael, Mick, and Mich.  All attempts were greatly appreciated and extremely motivating.

 We coasted for over half of the race with the exception of one bathroom break (sorry Micah).  I may have taken the hydration thing a little too far...I've never had to pee so often in my life.  Hopkington, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, and Wellesley flew by.  Wellesley was the best thanks to the ladies of Wellesley College.  And no, Micah did not kiss any of them.  I was behind him for this section so I know this to be true.  I, however, cannot vouch for the other guys running in front of us.

  

 We started feeling the burn between miles 17-18.  Newton's hills were harder than we expected, even before Heartbreak.  Like many of the runners around us, we chose to walk the uphills and run the downhills.  By Heartbreak, it got harder and harder to start that running part...And yes, we looked as beat down as the folks in front of us at this point.

   

Our pace slowed significantly between 20-24 miles.  Despite the cheers and high fives, my legs refused to go.  Getting out of Newton was exciting (no more hills!) but seeing the "Entering Brookline" sign made me want to cry.  I forgot about Brookline.  I wanted to be in Boston.  We were able to muster our last bit of strength to finish out the race once we saw the "Entering Boston" sign.

 Finally, the right on Hereford, left on Boylston was right in front of us.  We came around that last left as strong as we could.  Our legs were numb at this point, so it didn't matter.  Lo and behold, my parents had squeezed their way up front and were cheering us all the way to the finish line!

 

We certainly didn't break any records by finishing at 4:56:10 but the Boston Marathon experience was out of this world.  I learned a few things that will help us the next go-around, like how you probably shouldn't beat your best half marathon time when running your first marathon.  And yes, I say first because there will most definitely be a second.  But what will I call my blog from now on...?

More importantly: thanks to everyone's support we have raised $4500 (and counting) for the Melanoma Foundation of New England!  Running the marathon was easy with so many people cheering for me.  I never thought I would surpass my fundraising goal by so much but it's clear that I have the best fans in the world.  Eat your heart out Geoffrey Mutai.