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.)
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.
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