Boston Marathon Weekend: Marathon Monday!!

The day started with waking up to my roommate's alarm.  Then my alarm.  Then her alarm.  Then my alarm again.  (I usually have 2 alarms--one telling me to wake up and another telling me when I have to be out the door.  That alarm is set to go off every Monday since it's the one day I have to get up extra early.)  Since my roommate had 2 different options to get to the race, she set two alarms--one for the early shuttle with the Hyland's athletes, and a second to get to the race with everybody else.  She ended up getting up at the first alarm and leaving when my second alarm went off.  At that point I sat up and said bye to her and got ready to go out on my own run.  Just a quick 5k or as much as I could squeeze in during the time I had before my commuter train to Wellesley Square.  The night before I quickly plotted a route to Boston Common (5 miles) but then that morning I realized there wasn't enough time so I decided to run from the hotel to the finish line area and back.  Naturally, I had to take lots of pictures during the run.

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.  

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!"

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!

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.

The magic of #marathonmonday (or maybe #spandos or #balega ?) was strong today. First it took me THREE hours to get back to the hotel because the commuter rail was completely messed up. (Trains were 40 minutes late, packed and they wouldn't let anyone on but stopped for 10 minutes just to flaunt it.) Another #oisellevolee bird and I kept trying to find an uber but the price kept going up. ($160?!) Long story short, we took a $15 uber to the nearest subway station. (Cut to me freaking out about missing my plane and getting an email about a flight delay while in the uber.) Then I woofed down my leftovers from #eatalyboston grabbed my stuff and ran out the door. Only to be met with delays on the subway. Thanks to #tsaprecheck I managed to get to my gate 3 minutes before they started boarding. And that's the short version of what happened today. Longer version coming soon on the blog. . . #jetblueflyfiftw #jetblue #iearnedthedamnpurplechips #mbtafail #wellesleysquare #cowbellcorner #cowbellblisters #oiselledmv #oisellevolee #bondiband #bondibandambassador #hshive #teamzensah #balegasocks #balegabestsocksever #impilove

A post shared by The Thrifty Runner (@thethriftyrunner) on Apr 17, 2017 at 3:35pm PDT

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.

Boston Marathon Weekend: Sunday!

So the day started out with a stop to a local coffee shop for a Oiselle meetup.  (I decided against running with everybody because of the Hyland's brunch with my roommate.)

I'm to the left in the black t-shirt.  

(Picture borrowed from the Oiselle blog)

After finishing my cold brew coffee I hopped back onto the T with my roommate and we went to the fancy brunch for the Hyland's athletes, family, friends and staff in town for the race.  It was amazing.  You really couldn't beat the view from the rooftop!

As if that wasn't cool enough, we found Dave McGillivray there!  He was talking about when Meb won the Marathon in 2014 and how everybody was really rooting for him.  The catch was although Dave was on a scooter alongside the elites he couldn't cheer on the runners.  So a couple of days before the race, Meb told Dave his strategy.  Then on race day Dave kept motioning to him to ask if it was going okay and Meb would just barely nod in his direction.

Not going to lie.  It was ridiculously awesome to get to rub elbows with runners like Alison Desir (founder of Harlem Run), Candice Huffine (a plus-sized model recently featured in Runner's World), Rahaf Khatib (a runner trying to raise money for Syrian refugees, @runlikeahijabi) just to name a few.

After having a lovely brunch and a couple of these cupcakes...

Spent my morning rubbing elbows with some of the runners on the #hylandshealth #bostonmarathon team and now I'm in line to meet Scott Jurek. You know NBD. Is this real life?! Seriously in runner nerd heaven. . . #runboston #nuun #nuunbassador #bondiband #bondibandambassador #balega #balegaimpi #balegabestsocksever #hshive

A post shared by The Thrifty Runner (@thethriftyrunner) on Apr 16, 2017 at 10:20am PDT

My roommate and I decided to split ways since she wanted to get some rest for the Marathon and get some work done.  To give her some time to get work done I ended up going towards the expo again just to have a look around and track down Eataly.

While en route to the expo I saw ultramarathoner Scott Jurek doing meet n greets in front of the Clif Bar kiosk and figured why not go say hi?  There wasn't that much of a line and I had nowhere to be!  I ended up asking him what his advice for a first time marathoner is, and he said to take nutrition (gu, chews, etc.) every half an hour even if you don't think you need it.

Naturally I also got some full sized Clif bar samples of peanut butter banana, chocolate peanut butter filled, and peanut butter filled along with some of the new ginger ale flavored shot blox.  (I love ginger--why haven't running companies gotten on that until now??  It's supposed to be great for nausea and stomach issues and runners are notorious for having all kinds of stomach issues while running!  Even if it doesn't actually help, I love ginger!)

After getting the Clif bars, I found Eataly and returned to the expo since there wasn't a line to get in just to see if I missed anything.  (I hadn't, but I got a few more freebies like samples of the new Nuun Performance and Kind bars!)

After the expo I checked out the Runner's World pop up store (not much there since the space was mostly for talks by famous runners like Bart Yasso) and the Adidas Runbase store.  The Runbase store was kinda crazy and the prices were too, but I got to see the 3D layout of the Marathon course!

And they had this chalkboard out front

By the time I got out, Scott was done doing meet and greets so they took down the velvet rope for the line and I could get a great picture of this!

Isn't it weird to think about how women have only been able to run the marathon in the last 50 years?

After that I headed just next door to Eataly.  (Seriously, it was next door to the expo the entire time!  I must've walked past it a dozen times until I actually paid attention!)  It was basically Italian foodie heaven.

Each one of those wheels of parmesan was about the size of a car tire and weigh about 84lbs!!  (And yes, that is a sign that says "Please don't touch the cheese wheels.")

They had pasta in every size and shape you could imagine, all kinds of sauces, steaks aging in refrigerators in full view, imported cheeses, gelato, and best of all several places to eat!  I ended up grabbing two reasonably priced bags of pasta in shapes I had never seen before (which is saying something after being to Italy) and headed to the prepared food counter.  Since it was mid-afternoon by this point I decided to bring some food back to the hotel and call it a day.  I got a rotisserie chicken salad, eggplant caponata, and a fregola pasta salad.  (Fregola is a pasta that looks really similar to israeli couscous.)  After checking out the finish line one last time...

 The tree where the first bomb went off 

The far end of the finish line!

I thought this would be a fun photo to take since not many people can get this kind of view!

Then I headed back to my hotel with my shoulders sore from the hoodie and overload of clif bars samples in my drawstring bag and a little paper bag full of food.  I spent the rest of the evening relaxing and packing since I would be heading home the next day immediately after spectating the Marathon.

Boston Marathon Weekend: Saturday! (BAA 5k and Expo Fun!)

I arrived to Boston on Friday afternoon, right at rush hour. I met my roommate for the weekend in the hotel room and shortly after I got settled we went to eat at a food court next to our hotel.

So Saturday.  It was kinda nuts. (For me anyways, since I don't usually do very much.)  My day started out waking up at 7am and then left the hotel at 8am with my roommate for a Oiselle Volee meet up before the 5k.

Once we arrived in Boston Common, we went to the t-shirt tent where I got my race shirt.  (The bibs had been mailed out about 3 weeks prior so I had it ready to go.)  Since I had worn two long sleeved shirts, I opted to take off one layer and put it in a bag with my race shirt and left it at gear check. (First time EVER using gear check!) Then I met up with some other Volee members before I decided on a quick bathroom stop, take a group picture and then head to the starting area.

The 5k itself was fairly uneventful.  It was a little crowded, but nothing terrible (which is saying something for a race with almost 9,000 runners!!)  It took awhile to get to the starting line but as an added bonus I got to see Molly Huddle finish and place second.  The course itself was pretty flat and I felt pretty spoiled when we started to hit a little bit of a hill at about the halfway point.  But we got a great view of the Citgo sign by Fenway and of course we got to run through the Marathon finishing line! (And an announcer was constantly telling people to step to the side if you wanted pictures of it.)

These three lines are throughout the majority of the 26.2 miles of the marathon, so I felt the need to run on it for just a little while

The Boston Marathon Finish line!!!

During the race, I knew some Oiselle birds were there cheering on the 5k runners.  I wasn't totally sure where they would be.  Then I heard Kelly Roberts screaming when she saw my singlet.  That was seriously just what I needed to power through the last bit of the race.

(Picture borrowed from the Oiselle blog.)

And after the race I felt awesome.  I've been running so many longer distances lately that it was really weird to not have to worry about getting my chews and water, taping up my feet, choosing whatever I wear super carefully, etc.  It wasn't a PR, but it was pretty close!  

After another group picture with the Oiselle birds...

(Picture borrowed from the Oiselle blog.)

And a finish line selfie with my latest medal...

I headed out with another bird to have an early lunch and check out the Nuun meetup!  We tried Boloco (it was pretty good!) and I ate the grilled cheeseburger flavored chips in my post-race snack bag which actually weren't that bad.  And of course I had to take a picture of my medal and bib while I waited for my new friend to finish her food.

We then made our way to the Nuun meetup!  We arrived there a little bit after the start, but got a Boston water bottle with samples of the new Nuun Performance hydration product!

That's Mike Sommers in the blue Nuun shirt and Kevin the Nuun CEO in black.

After getting my freebies and chatting with some other nuunbassadors including the bloggers for Live Free and Run and the Joy Life I headed over to the expo.  On the way I went down Hereford and Boylston (the last turn of the marathon.)

It was crazy busy and some retailers were starting to run out of shirts in my size (and I couldn't justify spending $40+ on a Boston Marathon shirt from Adidas.)  But I still had fun meeting Ari, one of the Balega reps.

And I only managed to spend $25 at the expo!  I bought 3 new Bondi Bands (use the code THRIFTYBONDI10 for 10% off!) and 3 packets of Tailwind Nutrition.  

After visiting the expo I had to take some more pictures as I began to head back to the hotel.  Just as I was starting to head towards the finish line, I heard a bell and looked around and saw everybody had just stopped.  I looked at my watch and realized it was 2:49pm.  The time the bombs went off and I seriously got chills.  I just looked towards the tree on the left side of the road where one of the bombs went off and everything was completely silent except for the 3 rings from the bells at the Old South Church then bagpipers played "Amazing Grace."  Once the bagpipers finished, everybody just went about their business and I made my way to take more pictures.  I loved that there were pots of daffodils all along Boylston in remembrance of the attacks. (My roommate said they were all just buds when she arrived early on Friday--by this time just about all the flowers were in bloom and it was just gorgeous!)

After settling back in the hotel for a little while, my roommate for the weekend and I went to a Oiselle meetup for dinner at b.good (not just a clever name!) Then settled down for the night because we had another Oiselle meetup in the morning and a brunch for the Hyland's athletes afterwards.  Since I ran the race and walked around Boston, I crashed HARD when I went to sleep.

2017 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Race Recap (Part 2: The Race)

This year Metro messed up transportation for the race because they refused to open early for runners and spectators so they would open at their regular time at 7am.  With a 7:30am gun time that would be cutting it too close for my taste!  Luckily enough a friend in one of my running groups offered to drive a few of us in for the race since her office building has a private parking garage.

We arrived to the race itself at 7:15am and started to head to the bathrooms on the far side of the field next to the Washington Monument.  After going only partway through the huge crowd I realized that we probably wouldn't make it to the start on time.  So I turned around with one of my friends and we headed to the start.  I knew that there were a few bathrooms along the course so if I became desperate enough I would brave the lines.  We seeded ourselves directly between the 10:30 and 11:00 pacers, knowing that we could catch up or fall back as needed during the race.

Obligatory pre-race selfie!

Due to the wave start I didn't cross the starting line until almost 7:50am.  For the first few miles I kept up with my friend from the carpool (which was really impressive for me because she's pretty!)  But once we hit the traffic circle on the opposite side of the Memorial bridge I hopped up onto the grass and hugged the curb to pass a bunch of people.  I should've taken this as a sign of things to come.  (Spoiler alert:  The crowding was TERRIBLE!!)

At about mile 3 I ended up catching up with the 10:30 pacers and I was super excited to be able to keep up with them (and get a little ahead of them at times.)  However they managed to stay right in the crowd to the point where it was impossible to stay with them for very long.  I think I was with them for about 2 miles before I broke away because another person in the pace group tripped me and I stumbled to the point where I had to grab onto the person so I didn't fall.  (Take note:  This has NEVER happened to me in a race, let alone a training run.)  This kind of crowding is super easy to fix.  I know the race is in a time crunch, but if they stagger the waves just a little bit more it could be avoided.

Up until this point I had been eyeing bathrooms.  All of them had absolutely ridiculous lines of at last a dozen people.  Once I approached the Tidal Basin and hit the bridge on Independence Avenue I remembered that there were bathrooms coming up.  (So yes, I am revealing my secret bathroom spot for this race.)  I remembered from the previous year that there were bathrooms without a line on the other side of the bridge.  Sure enough, there wasn't a line for them this year either.  I ran into a portajohn and soon ran back out feeling quite refreshed.  (Especially since they were in good shape AND had plenty of hand sanitizer.)  Before heading back to the course I took the opportunity to take a selfie with the legendary Cherry Blossoms.

I love that I got a picture with President Jefferson's statue in the memorial!

Then I sprinted back and merged into the crowd.  The rest of the race was fairly uneventful.  I spotted the medical runners a few times throughout the race and I saw somebody at about mile 9 who had fallen. A couple runners helped him up and I yelled out "Medical runners should be by shortly!" while a couple others ran off to alert a police officer on the course that somebody was injured.

I managed to finish about 30 seconds faster than in 2016, but minus my bathroom/selfie break I was a full 2 minutes faster.  

After the race, once again we had a long walk to get to water, then out of the runner's chute to get post-race snacks and the medals.  This part could DEFINITELY be organized better.  In all honesty the organizers have the space and the ability to have all the water and snacks in the runners chute. The organizers already have the water set alongside the chute before the race starts.  It really would not be hard to put out tables and then the snacks once all the runners have passed.  (They have approximately 15-20 minutes between the last runners crossing the starting line and the elites finishing the race.)  As somebody who works in the racing industry, this is enough time to get tables setup and food on it especially considering the amount of volunteers they have.  

Once I exited the chute, I again had to fight the crowds to get to the food and medals.  One of the big things I noticed was that a lot of spectators were getting in the way of the runners.  (This could be avoided completely if all the food was in the chute!!)  Granted, the mall was muddy so everyone was resigned to walking on mats that were 6-8 feet across, but there were some areas where spectators tried to enter that they should not have been.  For example as I was making my way through the crowd to get to the medal tent, there were several spectators also trying to get through to the medals.  Many of them realized their error and turned around, but that only contributed to the huge mess.  

Overall, in all honesty I'm not sure if I would do this race again.  The race is legendary because it goes past a lot of famous DC landmarks like the Martin Luther King Jr., Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, the Tidal Basin, the Cherry Blossoms (extra special when in bloom), and starting and finishing at the Washington Monument.  (Which trust me makes for some great photo opts!)  But I'm not sure if it's worth the crowding before, during and after the race.  (The crowding was a pretty consistent complaint with a lot of the runners that I spoke to after the race.)  It's definitely fixable, but the bigger question is will they listen to runner input and make the changes?