Boston Marathon 2013: Sunday

Our first night in Boston was fun and exciting.  We had dinner at Magianno’s Little Italy with the group from McMillan Running. They all (Ben, Ian, Greg) remembered us from running camp last May and will be hitting the streets on Monday.  They gave us a nice swag bag with long sleeve shirts, pants, Greg’s new book “You (Only Faster)”

compression socks, running fuel from Gatorade. The bag is a high end knap sack. Really nice stuff.   Greg gave us four tips for having a good run in Boston

1. Stick with your original plan.

2. Focus on your best runs in training.

3. Think about your support group: family, friends

4. Smile

We sat with some great folk. One gentleman had run 60 marathons including Pike’s Peak TWICE! Gaaahhh!

Dinner was family style with fried ravioli, Caesar salad, spinach salad, bruschetta, bread.  Entrees were chicken, spaghetti with meatballs, rigatoni with eggplant, and salmon.

Desserts were cheesecake and tiramisu.  It was all absolutely delicious.  Maggiano’s is on our list for our next visit to Boston.

It wasn’t long after dinner that we went back to our hotel.  It was getting late. Then after a restless night and after Ted came back from an early swim Sunday morning, we decided to head out for a slow, short run (1.6 miles).  This is something I have never done: run the day before a marathon.  Technically, it was a jog so I’ll reassure myself by calling it a jog and therefore not changing my routine because that’s something you never want to do before a race.   See Greg’s #1 instruction above.

It was beautiful in Boston.  The sun was shining, 42 degrees.  We went over to the Charles River and along the path, littered with other runners.  On the way back, we watched the 5K race at about the mile and a half mark

This lead pack were at this point in 5:55 minutes. 

We watched too long and got trapped in the “meat of the pack” so bought a coffee and enjoyed the race. 

Now it was time for breakfast then the expo. 

We stopped at the finish line for the traditional pre-race photo.

We bought a few things from the expo, enjoyed lunch at Legal Seafood then went back to the hotel so Ted could watch the Master’s and I could try to solve the conundrum of which sneakers to wear on Monday.

The purple Nike MD are light and have more cushion with higher heel lift.  The blue New Balance are almost flat and have given me a great ride during my last two races, a half marathon and a 10K.  I’m leaning toward the Nike’s because I’m wearing a purple skort. It’s a sign or a hint or ….something   If you’re wondering why I didn’t figure out which shoes during my long runs it’s because my long runs were over roads which were spotted with ice.  The lack of traction on both these shoes didn’t bode well for me on those type of roads.

So that’s how it stands less than 24 hours before race time.  On and off nervousness. Constant excitement.  Reminding myself this is my race and how I run it is all up to me. No matter what, I made it here. I’m having a great time and…Ted has his eye on coming next year.  What have I done to my triathlon loving hubby?!