Scenes from the Boston Marathon: Sunday Edition

Sunday started early, my alarm went off at 6am and I popped right out of bed and got to coordinating my pre-race essentials. I got dressed, made myself some coffee, stretched, ate a banana & a kashi bar. As I got everything organized I could hear the rain pounding on my windows…blast, this definitely SUCKS. Another icky detail was the fact that I had apparently come down with a head cold/congestion issue overnight. I was coughing and generally felt off. Oh well! I tend to feel better working out when i am sick, so I was hoping that this would be the case today. An added bonus, luckily after about 15 minutes the rain let up and by the time I stepped outside it wasn’t rainy and it was WARM!

We showed up to the race and we were pushed around by some of the most intense wind I have ever experienced, bah! After picking up my friend Kate’s & Foxy’s bib, we decided to seek out real bathrooms right around the corner from the start (shhh, I’m not telling my secret!) My friend Katy then met us and we made our way to the start line.

Katy and I made our way towards the front, which was still a bit of a hopeless task as the start line was absolutely PACKED with runners. Katy and I were both discussing how many things weren’t falling into place for us, and decided we would just enjoy the atmosphere and try to run the best race possible! We bumped into Katy’s dad who was volunteering as a race official (also volunteered as official race staff of the Marathon, sooo amazing) and then seconds later we saw my friend Noel, fresh from her shake out run! After listening to God Bless America and the National Anthem, we were off!

The first mile was a bit of a shitshow, but I just tried to focus on a good stride and enjoying myself. I was weaving in and out of so many people I knew my time was going to be slow, so why not enjoy this?! We crested the hill near the Massachusetts State House, and as we ran down the hill on Beacon St I saw @Ninaruns!! She was such a trooper clapping and cheering for all of the runners that early in the morning and it gave me a huge boost! Thank you Nina!

Mile 1: 7:52, ehhh

As we made the turn into the Back Bay, things leveled out and I tried to find a pocket where I wasn’t surrounded by a million people. I was feeling relatively strong when I looked down at my watch and a man in front of me slowed down, causing a possibly epic collision. Whoops! I recovered and soldiered on. I finally felt the humidity and moisture in the air and found it a little hard to breathe with my congestion. I just told myself “you’re not going to die, just push it!”

Mile 2: 7:32

Right after this photo was taken I really started to hate my life. Really Kim? Another 5k? Stupiddd. I just tried to hammer down but I was having a hard time moving. The BAA 5k takes the same left hand turn onto Boylston St as the Boston Marathon, so I tried to savor this moment as so many people I knew would a little over 24 hours from my race. I made the turn and I hoped that would get my legs moving. No dice. I just dug deep and tried to push to the finish, but it was hard to breathe!

Mile 3: 7:45, .15: 1:02

In general I wasn’t overly enthused with this race, but it’s always fun to run races with friends, so I really shouldn’t complain! Katy had a frustrating race as well, and Foxy & Kate both had solid, fun races. I think I need to shy away from 5k’s and amp up the 10k, 10 miler and half marathon distance. I’ve never had fast twitch muscles in my life, so why do I think I would acquire this gene at 27?!

After the run we showered at Noel’s hotel (THANK YOU NOEL!!!) and caught a cab to Harvard Sq for the DetermiNation team brunch event at Tommy Doyle’s. It was a great chance to meet the runners, particularly Nancy & David and the rest of the INCREDIBLE Dream team. I had tracked several of them via twitter and Daily Mile so it was wonderful being able to meet these talented and compassionate individuals. The American Cancer Society DetermiNation program is not an official BAA charity, so in order to be affiliated with the race the ACS must ask runners who have already qualified to raise money for them. It’s an uphill battle, but the team of 19 was such a dynamic group that their personalities and commitment to fundraising made up for their size.

DetermiNation Runners!

Volunteering with this group is such a wonderful and rewarding experience. Raising money for Cancer research, outreach and support is such an important cause to me personally and one of the biggest motivators for why I run (more on this later!) Plus, coordinating events surrounding running, road races & amazing people is so much fun it hardly even feels like work or volunteering!

Some D-Nation Committee Members: Kim, Lisa & Aimee!

The brunch consisted of yummy food, great conversation & of course wonderful speakers.

From there, Rob & I hopped on the T and made our way to Hynes Convention Center to man the DetermiNation Booth at the Boston Marathon Expo for a few hours.

Can you tell we were tired?

We left the expo shortly after 3pm, and walked over to Noel’s hotel to pick her and her mom up for the big pre race dinner! After a lot of planning, I decided to cancel our 7:30 Giacamo’s reservation in favor of grabbing dinner around 5-6pm at a reliable, quick pasta restaurant. We had a great quick dinner and Noel said she felt relaxed and her big goals for the race were negative splitting and enjoying the whole Boston experience.

The excitement was brewing and I couldn’t wait to go to bed just so I could wake up the next morning so it would be my favorite day of the year: MARATHON MONDAY! 🙂

Next up…Marathon Monday Recap!