Boston Marathon 2013

I should start my Boston Marathon experience with getting to
Boston. We picked up our rental car and then headed to the Prudential Center where the expo was. We grabbed some luch and then shopped until the expo opened. CRAZY amounts of people all there to get their numbers for the marathon. Boston is so well organized and the volunteers were great. We wondered through the expo and saw Team Hoyt. What an inspiration! We were feeling beat so we decided to check into our hotel since we had red-eyed it in and we were exhausted. We grabbed some dinner and went to bed early. In the morning we did some sight seeing and then went back to the expo. My sister used to live in the Boston area and she told us we needed to get a cannoli from Mike's Bakery so we walked to the north end for a cannoli. After dinner, we went back to our hotel for the night. On Sunday we went to worship services and then to the 300th anniversary celebration of Lexington. After the celebration we went back to our hotel to put things together for the morning. Race day! It started at 6:00, I know, not too early. We had to board the buses at Boston Common between 7:00 and 7:30. It was a cold morng but the sun was shining. We had had cloud cover, rain, and wind since flying into Boston so we were thrilled for the sun. That was the longest bus trip to a starting line I have ever experienced. The starting line was crazy. So many people. We were in the last wave, in the final corral. Our start time was 10:40. We weaved in and out of people for the first 6 miles, fnally pacing about the same as the runners around us. I don't really remember the first 10 miles very well. By mile 15 I was feeling great and ready to let my endurance legs fly. My husband was starting to struggle, though. Several times we had to slow to a walk. I will admit that I did consider running ahead of him and then coming back to finish with him. I decided at wouldn't be fun for either of us so we would stay together. Just after crossing the 40K check point, just passed the 25 mile mark, we ran into a wall of people. The corral gates had been shut. Someone said something about there being an explosion at the finishline. We had 3/4 of a mile to the finish! It became apparent very quickly that we weren't going to get to finish this race. Cell service was spotty, clogged with so many people trying to use the system. I was thinking about our kids watching the race on TV and knowing we were so close. We kept trying and were finally able to reach our daughter to let her know we were okay and to tell her to call her grandmas to let them know we were okay. My husband had better service than most and was able to send many text mesages to famlies at the finishline that people were okay. After about an hour, a volunteer came to tell us they needed us to walk several streets to pick up our drop bags. We probably walked a mile and a half and were able to get our drop bags, a warming blanket, and a goody bag they handed the finishers. We asked a police officer if the train was open and he said yes. We walked back to Boston Common only to find that the train was closed at that stop. We ended up walking about another 2ish miles and were finally able to get on the train. We got stopped on the train but finally made it back to our car and then our hotel. We finally got food at about 8:00 that night. We were able to get our flighht out early this morning and made it safely home early this afternoon.

Something I would really like to emphasize is that during the crisis, humanity showed its best side. People came out and brought the runners drinks and garbage bags and sweatshirts. People forgot that they didn't know each other and just thought about the fact that we are all people.

Thanks for checking in with me and check back soon. Remember the victims of this tragic event.