Even though I wasn’t running the Boston Marathon this year, I wanted to be up here for it. I wanted to be here and support my amazing community. Luckily, work decided to give me a reason to head up to our corporate office in Massachusetts this week and offered for me to come up early to watch the marathon.
We got up here on Saturday and spent the weekend hanging out around the city and even took a trip to the expo. The energy in this city was incredible. Just being at the expo and around the city on Sunday made me that much more determined to nail the New Jersey Marathon this weekend and get myself qualified for next year.
Yesterday, we woke up way early so we could make sure we found a place to park the car and stake out our spots on the course. We ended up with a great parking spot and a spot to cheer on the course just a hundred feet from the mile 23 marker on Beacon in Brookline. We got there just in time to plop down on the curb at 9:30am and watch the race start via the live coverage on our phones.
I actually think I was just as nervous for Shalane Flanagan as I am for my own race. Like everyone else here, we were rooting for her. Unfortunately, our spot was just a little too far down the course and she had already dropped back from the lead pack by the time the elite women got to us, but she was still only a few seconds off at the time and the crowd was intensely intense as she came by. Yes, intensely intense. While Rita Jeptoo was already doing what Rita Jeptoo does and was completely owning the race, there was an unmistakable pride in the air for Shalane. But regardless of who was out front, it was absolutely amazing to see these women fly by us! Seeing Shalane out there kicking ass just a few feet from us was incredibly inspiring!
Not long after the women, Meb came flying by with the rest of the men way back behind him. As inspiring as Shalane was and as much as we really, really wanted her to win, seeing Meb out front at mile 23 with no one near him was awesome. We closely watched the rest of the men’s race on our phones while practically shaking with excitement for him. I couldn’t have been happier to see him win the race. He’s a great runner and he deserves it!
We continued cheering in our spot for a few hours, until almost 4pm. But cheering for a race is almost as exhausting as actually running one so, eventually, we needed to get some food in us. We walked a block up to a Thai and Chinese place with outside seating so we could keep watching and cheering.
Being here in Boston for this race was an amazing experience. I can’t imagine how it anyone couldn’t fall in love with running while watching this. As nervous as I am for my race on Sunday, I’m totally pumped now! I thought I was determined to get here before, but it’s a whole new level. I need to get here.
Oh yeah, and I snapped a few photos :-)
