Had to get to the Citgo sign!
Love this!
The very last turn in the race!!
The Boston Fire Department
The final stretch of the race!
And of course another stop by the Citgo sign! It was warm already by this point.
It was so incredibly amazing to get to see the course just before the race started and all the last minute preparations that go into it. Seeing all the police officers walking around already and others getting their morning briefing. All the other runners taking pictures and just enjoying the run before the insanity of the day set in. The sox fans getting to the bars nice and early for the game. The air was abuzz with the excitement and it was a great feeling to be in Boston on MARATHON MONDAY!
After sprinting back to the hotel and taking the fastest shower EVER I managed to get to the commuter train with three minutes to spare!! Once in Wellesley Square, I joined Lesko and Heather from the Oiselle main office (or "the Nest" to us Volee members!) and a couple other birds to start cheering.
After sprinting back to the hotel and taking the fastest shower EVER I managed to get to the commuter train with three minutes to spare!! Once in Wellesley Square, I joined Lesko and Heather from the Oiselle main office (or "the Nest" to us Volee members!) and a couple other birds to start cheering.
That's me to the left in the purple bird tank top and galaxy print tights!
(Picture from the Oiselle blog)
It was so much fun cowbelling for all the runners! We got to see so many of my favorite elites!!
The eventual winner of the women's wheelchair division, Manuela Schar!
"Wait, did that guy just blow a snot rocket?"
(looks at picture)
"Yup!"
"Yup!"
That's Tatyana McFadden in the middle! This is the closest picture I got of her because I was cheering for her once she got closer.
(She came in fourth in the women's wheelchair division.)
After watching more of the wheelchair division pass by, we saw a police escort start to come through along with a pickup truck with a clock facing the runners. It could only mean one thing--the runners were coming! First were the elite women.
That's Olympian Des Linden wearing the white rimmed sunglasses towards the front and Jordan Hasay (her marathon debut) bringing up the rear.
After a few more women runners and another police escort, the elite men came through.
The men's elite group! Galen Rupp is in the middle of the group wearing a white hat and singlet.
Then Jared Ward passed by with Meb coming up behind.
The man, the legend. MEB! Can't believe this was his last Boston Marathon and I'm so honored to have been able to see him run part of it.
The story behind this man is incredible!
Michael Wardian came through looking strong!
Shortly after Michael Wardian passed by us, the rest of the runners began coming through. I was so excited to get to see so many Oiselle birds running the race and it was even more exciting since I knew so many of them at this point. (Seriously, read Heather's post. It's pretty awesome.)
Once my roommate's wave started I kept checking my phone to try and estimate when she would pass by us. I looked at her splits and estimated it would be between 12:40 and 12:50--the last possible second I could stay to watch because I needed to be on the 1:10 commuter rail train back to Boston to catch my flight. At about 12:45ish, she passed us!! I screamed for her and then another bird saw her friend and was ready to go too. So Laura, the Canadian bird who is 10 years younger and twice as beautiful, and I started to head to the commuter rail station that was so close, yet so far.
Because we needed to cross the street. (Did not think this one through.) We started walking down the street to find an opening and asked a policeman if he knew of how we could get across. He didn't have any useful information so we kept walking to the closest water stop. Fortunately there was a gap there so at an opening we dashed across. Naturally being so graceful, I slipped on some cups and nearly took a runner down with me while I'm yelling "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Laura and I then ran to the station and made it there in time.
And then we waited.
And waited.
Laura checked how much an Uber would cost--$35 at this point. Not terrible, but we decided to see what happens with the train. We had time. (But it was fleeting because it was after 1:00, and I had a 5:30 plane to catch.)
Then while waiting we noticed a sign saying the trains were only on one set of tracks. Other passengers argued over which side the train would be on and Laura and I opted to go on an overpass to watch for it. After 40 minutes passed, a train finally appeared. I yelled out "OUTBOUND! IT'S ON THE OUTBOUND SIDE!!!" and everybody on the inbound side and on the overpass ran to the outbound side.
Then the train arrived and it wasn't that packed looking. But they weren't letting anybody on. And they let about half a dozen people off. And the train sat there for what felt like an eternity (could've been 5 minutes, maybe 10. At that point I just knew I was really upset along with everybody else on the platform and freaking out because I had a 5:30 plane to catch.)
Laura checks her phone for an Uber. $100.
Commence cursing in my head wondering what we would do. (But instead stuffing my face with a protein bar to keep from being mean.) After a few minutes we checked again how much an Uber would cost: $160.
After some pacing and a few of us putting our heads together, Laura called the MBTA Customer Service line. She repeats the stuff the representative is saying to her, meanwhile myself and another woman are trying to figure out how close the nearest subway stop was. Four miles. Okay, we could run that. But one of the ladies with us didn't feel confident about it. So we looked at how much an Uber would cost. $15. Between myself, Laura and the other woman, it was $5 a head. Boom. Done. So Laura called the Uber to meet us at a nearby apartment building and we rode almost the whole way to the subway stop. While in the car I got the best possible email: My flight was delayed. By an hour. SWEET RELIEF! I could actually make my flight now!
After some pacing and a few of us putting our heads together, Laura called the MBTA Customer Service line. She repeats the stuff the representative is saying to her, meanwhile myself and another woman are trying to figure out how close the nearest subway stop was. Four miles. Okay, we could run that. But one of the ladies with us didn't feel confident about it. So we looked at how much an Uber would cost. $15. Between myself, Laura and the other woman, it was $5 a head. Boom. Done. So Laura called the Uber to meet us at a nearby apartment building and we rode almost the whole way to the subway stop. While in the car I got the best possible email: My flight was delayed. By an hour. SWEET RELIEF! I could actually make my flight now!
While in the car, the other woman in the Uber with us tells us how she's never seen her husband twice on the course but has always wanted to surprise him. Since the streets were closed, our driver asks a parking attendant for the hospital next to the subway station how to get to the subway and the attendant says "Oh you better hurry! They're getting ready to close the subway!" So now cue the freaking out and extra urgency to get back to the city.
The Uber lets us off as close as he can get to the subway stop because of the closed roads and wishes us luck. We head down the hill and see the marathoners running and the woman yells out "OH MY GOD! THAT'S MY HUSBAND!" And she starts jumping and yelling his name! They both look surprised and overjoyed to see one another. He then comes over with his guide and says that he was really struggling at this point and we told the pair how hard it was just to get to that point. The guide offers to call us an Uber, and we decline but he exchanges numbers with the other woman and we tell him if we don't get on the subway we'll take him up on his offer. By then the endorphins are really going and I'm really amazed at how magical Boston really can be, especially on Marathon Monday.
While walking we see some policemen spectating and ask them about the subway closing. He says he hasn't heard anything about it, but we figure if something is happening he would be among the first to know. (Another wave of relief.) We then get to the subway stop overjoyed to see the trains were still running and at least one part of the transit system was still reliable. Then another part of the group that wandered off before we got the Uber showed up and they tell us they just walked the whole way! So we all get on the train and I get off at a stop about half a mile from my hotel and say goodbye to my new friends. It is now 4:00 and I have 2 and a half hours to get to the airport. Easy peasy. Right? Haha. Not that type of story!
So in half an hour I speed walk back to the hotel, throw the rest of my stuff into my bags and situate them so I can carry them onto the plane and eat my leftovers from Eataly for a ridiculously late lunch. I make it to the subway station and on a train at 4:40. Great. Half an hour and I'm at the airport I'm doing great on time!
Again, not that type of story.
More delays due to the Marathon.
Insert more cursing. Fast forward to me getting off at the airport stop and onto a shuttle at 5:30. My plane was due to start boarding at 5:50. There was nothing I could do but I kept checking my watch and think about how if my flight was on time I would've been watching my plane take off. Once I got to the terminal, I grabbed my bag and sprinted inside. I printed off my ticket because I like to have something tangible and the kiosk yelled at me for printing it so close to my departure. (Really? I had no idea it was so close. GIVE ME THE TICKET!) And thankfully I had just recently gotten my TSA Precheck clearance. Because I ran over to the TSA Precheck line, and a marathoner saw how frazzled I looked and offered to let me go ahead, along with the 5 others in line. (Yes! Marathon magic FTW!!) Then naturally I got stuck behind a little old lady who couldn't figure out how to situate her bags on the scanner. Then her bracelet kept setting off the metal detector. Finally though at 5:45. I CAN DO THIS!! I arrive at the gate with 2 minutes to spare.
Only to find out....
The previous flight hadn't even deplaned yet.
So I essentially made it to the plane with 15 minutes to spare. The journey back to the hotel should've taken 20 minutes on the train and about a 15 minute walk. Instead it took THREE HOURS.
I was so happy with how everything had fallen into place just perfectly even though it was so ridiculously stressful at the time. I had never been so happy to sit down on a plane, take out my phone to play some games while having the tv on as background noise.
It basically took the entire flight to calm down from the insanity of getting to the airport and just to process what all had happened.
I was SO happy to see my husband after landing and it took just about the whole drive home to tell him the story of how I managed to make the flight. He only got bits and pieces of information as it was happening and a lot of it was something to the effect of "I don't think I'm going to make the flight" "Nope." "Wait...maybe?" "Yes." "No." You get the idea.
All in all, I would totally do it over again. And I'll get to do it to some extent, since I'm signed up for the Boston Distance Medley which has a 10k in June (where I'll get to see Meb run again!) and a half marathon in October.
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