This year’s trip to
Because really, what other word could be used to describe witnessing a 2:03:02 elite men’s marathon finish? (Recognized or not, it’s still a world record!) Or watching Desiree surge and come within two seconds, TWO SECONDS, of being the first American woman to win the course in decades?!? But I get ahead of myself…
As most of you know Spike and I headed to Beantown last Friday were the weekend flew by in a blur of blogger meetups (recaps to come) and other various events including: Hitting up the runnerd-porn-gasm known as the expo, seeing Kara Goucher speak at Niketown, spectating the BAA 5k, reuniting with my beloved B.R.A. peeps, and eating at as many great local places as possible on LPT’s recommendation. (You can check out all the pics from the weekend HERE.)
Kara speaking at Niketown
Bag Holders Spectators Extraordinaires
But the real reason we were there was for Spike to run his redemption lap of
Race morning came upon us quickly and within 45 minutes he was out the door. I attempted to burn off some of my nervous energy at the hotel gym but I was just too excited. I returned to our room and made sure I had everything I needed to get my spectate on. I layered up weather appropriately, turned my crutch bling in to shirt bling, packed up all my gear and made my way, slowly and carefully, crutch free down to Boylston.
After a quick breakfast with V (of the BRA) and Ally, a stop off at the liquor store and CVS for the items needed for ghetto mimosas (Tradition!), we set up shop in front of Trader Joes as promised. It was there we ran in to Gene or @boutdrz for those of you on Twitter. (And in case you are a total ditz like I am, his Twitter handle should read as: b-out-drz as in “be outdoors.”) Not long after that we spotted Danielle, Sarah, Carol from Arctic Ease, and only needed Katie and LPT to round out our spectating extravaganza section.
Redhead Sandwich!!!
(For those of you that have never spectated
The Race: Unless you are living under a rock you have heard about the epic finish in both the men’s and women’s elite race. I’m getting goose bumps just recalling it! We watched history happen that morning and the crowd was wild as each duel fought past us heading in to the Finish!
Neck and neck going in to the Finish
"Our Friend" Ryan LOL! (Long story)
Now all along I had been obsessively refreshing the runner updates on my phone checking in on our friends and loved ones. We were all so excited and nervous. We had a lot of friends out there with big goals and kept giving each other “the look” after each update. I hit refresh every 30 seconds amidst cheering… It was nerve wracking!!!
Spike, Sam, and most of the BRA runner’s were on pace to go by within minutes of each other so as the clocked ticked on and the updates dwindled towards the final 40k update, our hearts were racing. Most had started to slow after the
And that moment was even more epic than seeing those elite’s run by.
Not only did he have his sub-3 in the bag, but had rallied with plenty of time to spare. The look of triumph on his face, his arms pumping in excitement at spotting us; it is one of my favorite moments from the day. I think it’s safe to say we all choked back some tears. We had all been a part of Operation Jack in some way and to be there to cheer Sam on and witness this epic feat… there just aren’t the right words to describe the moment. We screamed, we hugged each other, we were humbled.
I already knew at this point that Spike’s goal time and even a PR was out of the question but he was still within reach of maybe BQ’ing. I continued to obsessively hit refresh as we cheered in the BRA runner’s… After an eternity, but really only a few minutes or so, I finally got the 40k update for Spike and I lost it. I screamed to the girls he’d be coming soon, I jumped up on the rail so I could see better and desperately scanned the crowd … After one false alarm, I finally spotted him.
And my heart swelled with pride even as I started to get choked up. I had been a nervous wreck all morning, I knew the weather wasn’t ideal for him, and as his pace slowed in the later miles I knew he must be having a rough time of it. We had agreed ahead of time that if he was on point to his goal time, PR, or BQ he wouldn’t stop but otherwise he would. And so he did.
With Spike well on his way to finishing his second Boston Marathon, it was time to be on the lookout for the rest of our friends. (Yup even on a “bad” day Spike still finished before most.) We spotted a few here and there, I was able to catch Stephanie on her way to wrapping up her 50 marathon challenge and we also the Hoyts. We missed more than we saw as the crowd’s thickened, but through it all we remained inspired by the determination and looks of joy and relief on the faces of the runner’s.
A short while after he finished, Spike joined us to spectate and it was hilarious. My favorite Spike-ism that morning was “No you are not hallucinating, that is a Unicorn in the distance!” He kills me and wholly entertains those around us. After about 30 minutes or so we decided to call it a day.
As we slowly made our way back to our hotel, me pimp-limping from over doing it my first day without crutches and Spike rocking the marathon shuffle, we congratulated one and all that we crossed paths with. That night we had dinner with all the BRA runner’s and listened to their recaps as we celebrated the day and each other. If you have not caught B.o.B’s “Thankful Thursday” from yesterday you should, Hollster, my perfect-pacing-partner from my Gasparilla Marathon (where she actually BQ’d) had the most dramatic and epic first Boston experience ever! Talk about perseverance. You are amazing Hollster!
One fast group of runners! All were sub-4 Finishers!
So as I said in the beginning of this post, Monday was EPIC. World records were shattered, American records were made, personal bests were destroyed, and others dug deep all in the name of determination and perseverance to call themselves Boston Marathon Finishers. What other sport can you spectate, for free, and witness feats like these?!?! Better yet, what other sport can you share the field with men and women like this?!?
I said it last year and I will say it again, if you’ve never had the chance to spectate a Boston Marathon I sincerely hope you get the chance to at some point in your life. While a small part of my heart ached knowing there’s no chance of a BQ in my near future now that I’m recovering from a significant injury, I do know that I will be on the other side of that rail someday… and until then I will continue to feel honored and privileged to spectate those of you that are.
But enough of my recap, how about the recaps of the real hero’s of the hour, the Boston Marathon Finishers!!! I’ve tried to compile a list of everyone I met over the weekend and/or were a part of the spreadsheet of events. Enjoy!
Spike – Running Spike
Sam - Operation Jack
Emily - Sweat Once a Day
Aron - Runners Rambles
Denise - Happiness...One Mile at a Time
Stephanie – Steph’s 50 Marathon Challenge
Beth - Shut Up and Run
Page - Twenty Six & Then Some
Run EMZ
Mel – Tall Mom on the Run
Bethany – Our Love on the Run
Jim – 50 after 40
Sean – In Clean Air
Gina – Running the Dawn
Ty – Seeking Boston Marathon
Cate – Cate’s World Kitchen
Lizzy – Food to Run For
Karyn – MarathonMaiden
Keri – Blue Eyed Runner
Petra – Petra Runs
Dorothy – Mile Posts
Adrienne – Running in Hingham
Laura – The Angry Runner
Joanne - AppleCrumbles
Corey – The Runners Cookie
Luau – Run Luau Ru
37 comments:
Great write up and I'm glad you had a great time! No matter which side of the fence you're on at Boston it has to be so cool! (I had to read the live twitter updates at work)
Good luck with the cross-training over the next weeks.
It's not often that I get goosebumps and a tear in my eye from a spectating recap, but you've got me all worked up here Red! You are such an awesome and supportive friend/blogger/girlfriend and everyone was so lucky to have you there. You WILL be on the other side of that rail before long, I have no doubt.
BUSTING A GUT at Spike's cheering antics. I just can't believe he had the energy for that after finishing the race himself! Supah-stah!
I think I wanna go back and spectate more than I wanna run Boston again!
You (and Spike too!) are the bestest cheerleaders ever! What an awesome weekend.
And of course Desi is a mittenite! Mittenites are TOUGH!!!
Great recap! I agree spectating at Boston is pretty incredible
Sounds like an incredible day! Epic indeed.
Love your recap of spectating!! Also- great pics of elites! The list of Boston blogs was helpful too. I've already read through many of them. I was supposed to run Monday in Boston but was diagnosed with a stress fracture just one week before Beantown.:-( I've enjoyed reading through all the posts.
What an awesome recap! I think spectating would be amazing. I can't wait to read a recap after YOU finish running the race... : )
Awesome recap and weekend! Congrats to Spike on a great race!
Just to be there and watch all that must have been amazing! So jealous you got to go again! Hopefully next time you will be running it!
i got all chokey just reading about sam again. "how to make a pack of women dissolve into tears" should be the name of his recap. i had such a blast with you!!
Great recap, fun pictures. It really was an EPIC time, wasn't it? Now we just all have to go to Chicago and do that one.
Ahhh! I love this post! I feel like I'm reliving all the excitement and joy we all felt watching our friends (especially our friend Ryan, duh) finish the Boston Marathon.
Also, on Tuesday I noticed that I had about 15 bruises on my legs--presumably from jumping on the barricades 15,000 times. Ha!
Miss you already!
Excellent recap. I'd like to run it someday just to feel the energy from the runners and the spectators like you who truly love everything about running and racing.
The ghetto mimosas crack me up - good stuff.
I seriously want to spectate Boston. I think it would be amazing. After this year I'm pretty convinced I am not going to feel compelled to run it every single year and as soon as I decide to skip on running, I'm flying up to cheer!
You are seriously the best spectator ever. You blow my mind with your awesomeness.
Um, love it. Everything. Also, jealous of your up-close-and-personal encounter with Desiree!
Love it!!! Awesome recap!!!! I so wish I was there-running first and spectating second....someday!!!
Congrats to Spike!!!! And all the others!
what a great spectating report! i felt like i was there all over again amazed at the crowd support. you deserve a medal for being the best cheerleader out there!
congrats to spike!
That is so awesome! I would love to be a spectator at Boston!
It sounds like it was an awesome weekend! That is so cool that you saw so many other bloggers, the ones you list are a lot of the one's I follow as well.
And that you saw the Hoyts, Sam, Stephanie, the elites, etc. Sounds like it was awesome.
Pretty flattering to read what you wrote ... it's a two-way street, though. I was probably more excited to see all of you. I was thinking about y'all for a good two miles or so ... I knew you'd be excited, I wanted to see that sign ... I couldn't wait to see my TJ's crew! And to be perfectly honest, I had thought about it before the race, too. Maybe a week or two in advance I saw that you and Ally would be out there by TJ's and when I was on the treadmill, in my head, I kind of ran through how I would act to celebrate when I saw you guys if I knew I had it. All of that went out the window, though, and I just did what came naturally, which was to fist-pump so hard my hamstrings seized!
yay! that was a fun read! it was sooooo much fun to meet you and we MUST do this every year. duh. except pretty soon we are going to be holding up signs that say "caution: redhead on boylston!" thanks for letting me spectate with you (and spike).
like ally said...reliving the moment is awesome. xoxo s
I love reading this post!
and all the pictures!
I want to go see it in person one day!
Fun recap, Morgan. Amazing how many runner bloggers you're connected to and the enthusiasm you bring to writing about all these adventures! Enjoy your weekend!
PS- Last night at our speed workout that is usually run by Lauren Fleshman or Ian/Julia (two other OTC elite runners living in Eugene), Julia said, "oh, tonight's workout is from Desiree (as in, THE Desiree) because I've never run a marathon." The Eugene Marathon is coming up on May 1 so a lot of our runners are doing it. So awesome that our workout last night was straight from the #2 female Boston finisher!
Great post! You are such an expert spectator:) I am so jealous that you got to see the spectacular elite race. I couldn't catch any of it at work, but I caught up on all the Twitter posts and was literally jumping up and down. So freaking cool!
I'm still an FNG to all this marathon business...you can actually BQ at the Boston Marathon???
I should have been in that redhead sandwich LOL! I could see you but I couldn't touch you!! :)
Boston is NUTS! I LOVED it and i'm not a crowd lover. Mike especially liked running past the girls college he said ;)
It was nice to hear from the spectators point of view....gave goosebumps!
This sounds like lots of fun. I would love to spectate the Boston Marathon. Watching the speedy elite race sounds amazing!
Awesome recap! You are the best spectator EVER and this recap makes me want to spectate more races!
P.S. Can I be in that red-head sandwich next time? ;)
Love this recap! Thanks for sharing all the gorgeous pictures and fun stories! Feels like I was there with you all, after all :) So proud of Sam, that picture you captured was epic. And big congrats to your man, too! Yay!
Great recap red, and great to see you crotchless! Glad to see you and V this year heading down to the finish after missing you last year!
May you heal quickly and recover fast, just don't overdo it when you come back!
Be well, and get your run on when you can!
Great recap Morgan! What an amazing experience for so many reasons!!!
awesome post! spectating a race when injured must've been so hard. i'm bummed that i couldn't go to any of the events on saturday. but it sounds like you had a great time in beantown. congrats to spike and all of your friends running!
Great recap and great pictures, Ic an't imaging how awesome it would be to see a world record!
Great writeup and thanks for sharing...along with sharing other blogs, since it's amazing reading all the accomplishments.
Glad you are off the crutches, hope you are feeling better...
Keep smiling and keep inspiring others...
You definitely get the Boston Spectator of the Year award for sure!! What an amazing time. You've got me all excited to spectate someday...and I thought I just wanted to run! :) I'm so jealous you got to see the elite finish ---I was jumping up and down and screaming watching it from my computer!! Amazing. Thanks for the great recap!
Excellent recap, redhead! Wish I could have spectated with you! And I must say I admire the attitude you've taken on crutches. You are a true glass-is-half-full kinda girl! Very impressive!
What a heartfelt recap. I could feel your excitement. So glad you were there to witness & enjoy it ... and thanks for posting the recaps. Looking forward to catching up on everyone's.
Oh, and a big congrats to Spike!
Winks & Smiles,
Wifey
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