Running the Boston Marathon!

Okay, so this is long overdue. Unacceptable. Luckily, I am a much better student than I am blogger, and my 20 pg paper (due 5/4/09 11AM), 15 pg paper worth 100% of my grade (due 5/4/09 5PM), and final exam (5/4/09 3:30PM) are all DONE! And I am done with college...bittersweet?

So, after much ado, my experience running the Boston Marathon:

Pre-Race
We boarded the Tufts buses at 6:15 AM, greeted by our enthusiastic university President, Larry Bacow and coach Don Megerle. As Bacow spoke excitedly and hugged each of us, it was evident that he was a little bit jealous that he wasn't going to be running today (this is is first year not running). Don looked like a proud father as he sent our buses off to Boston.

On the bus, I finished my coffee and ate a specialK bar. My mind was spinning with thoughts like: "shorts or tights?" "long-sleeves or short sleeves?" "what if it starts raining?" "what if i can't go to the bathroom before i run?" "what if my IT band starts hurting?"so I turned on my iPod to tune out the questions without answers. M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" made me think about how strong I felt running the first 3 Newton Hills during my 20-mile run, and calmed my nerves.

We arrived at the Boston Common to board the official BAA buses that would bring us to Hopkinton. Lines of runners snaked around the park, and I chuckled to myself thinking of all the days I walked from my internship to the State House through the Common, and now I was here in running clothes about to run the Boston Marathon. What am I doing? My roommate Jen, my friend Casey, and I stuck together, as was the plan for the race. After about 25 minutes, we boarded a bus that would take us to Hopkinton. The bus was so overwhelming. All I could hear was "which race did you use to qualify?" "oh, the 15 other marathons I've run in my life" etc etc etc. Because I had been training with the Tufts team, it never really registered to me that the vast majority of people running Boston had qualified, not raised money in exchange for a bib number. I once again turned on my iPod to tune out the nervous energy around me. I fell asleep on the hour-long drive out to Hopkinton.

Wait, that bus ride took an hour? To drive? What am I doing? We arrived at the Athlete's Village, which looked like a perverse twist on some sort of fair. There was a giant tent with bagels and water, but the only thing at this fair was portapotties. With massively long lines. Walking around the Athlete's Village I learned a lot about what to bring to my next marathon: something to sit and a blanket (disposable). We waited in line for about 45 minutes for the bathroom, and got advice about what to wear. I polled the women in line behind me (one from Alaska, one from Ireland...what?!) who were both wearing shorts, so I decided that I would wear shorts, too.

When the man on the loudspeaker instructed us to line up, we proceeded to walk the 0.7 miles to the starting corrals. It was already past the Wave 2 start time (10:30), but our times wouldn't be recorded until we crossed the start line. I shed my sweatpants (freshmen year of high school track sweatpants!) and my sweatshirt (CCHS cross-country "Chicks Out For A Good Time"), and tried to get my nervous energy out.

Crossing the starting line was exciting - like the beginning of an adventure. The first mile is a huge downhill, and we were cautioned to take it slow. It was so crowded, that trying to weave in and out to get ahead of the crowd would have been pointless anyway.

So basically, I had a blast. I had a giant smile spread across my face the entire race. I never hit the wall, I was never in extreme amounts of pain, I never had to dig deep to convince myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Since 26.2 miles is a lot to detail, here are some of the highlights:


Mile 9: Seeing the Tufts fan group, my parents, my brother Luke and sister Jessica, President Bacow, Don...Jess ran the next mile with us, which was so fun!


Mile 13: WELLESLEY COLLEGE. So everyone says that the Wellesley tunnel is the best part of the Boston Marathon, and it was definitely one of my favorite places. You could hear the screams long before reaching Wellesley. All of the Wellesley girls wear "Free Kisses" t-shirts and scream at the top of their lungs. Very inspiring, haha.


Mile 14-15: Running through Wellesley Hills remembering my training run there running through shin deep snow. Smiling, and feeling soo happy that it was great weather.

Mile 16.8: We met up with Katrine! In her purple spandex! She ended up running soo many miles with us!

HEART BREAKAH: OKay, so, beasted those Newton Hills. At the crest of Heartbreak my IT band started to hurt, and I was desperately wishing I had ibuprofen. I figured that someone watching might have some, and just yelled as I ran by, and a woman had some! She saved me!

Mile 21: Seeing my friends! My friends had huge signs and were waiting on the backside of Heartbreak for us! Soo fun. Derek, Andy, and Ryan ended up running with us for awhile.

BC: Running through BC was awesome. Soo many college kids, and so many more of my friends! Over the course of the run I saw 7 out of 8 of my Wilderness freshmen, which meant so so much to me, in addition to all the other friends I saw.

Seeing the Citgo sign: 1.4 miles to go. For the first time in the entire process of training for and running the Boston Marathon, I realized that running a marathon is kind of crazy. It is SO MANY MILES. Why why why?

Turning off of Comm Ave: This is where I should have started sprinting, but my legs were just so heavy. I did what I could. I made the mistake of thinking about my last cross-country race of high school at Lehigh University - it is a long straightaway (similar to Boylston St) and my friends were yelling "No regrets!"

Crossing the finish line was exhilarating. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't overcome with emotions (read: I thought I was going to burst into tears). I got a huge hug from both Bacow and Don after I crossed the finish line (with my arms in the air in victory!) I saw my family, traded in my chip for a medal, got a shiny heatsheet blanket, some food, and my bag. I was astonished at how incredibly organized it was. I guess after 113 runnings of this race they've got their system down.


I took the bus back with my family, and proceeded to get really sick. After all of my long training runs my digestive system decided to shut down for the day, but after the Marathon it decided to cease to function for closer to 48 hours. I felt like there was DrainO in my stomach, or like I had been poisoned. Not pleasant to say the least.

All in all, it was an amazing experience. I was incredibly disappointed the next day when I was hardly sore at all (and felt really sick). I kind of felt like I hadn't given it my all, and that I could have run faster or pushed myself further. It stinks because it was such a great experience, and I was so happy the entire time except for the last kick.

After a few days I remembered that it wasn't really about the time, it was about the process and the accomplishment. So yay. Life goal achieved. I ran the Boston Marathon.