2016 Mountain 2 Beach Marathon - Race Recap

Date: May 29, 2016

Location: Ojai to Ventura, CA

Start: 6:00 am

Finish: 3:32:41 (new PR and third BQ)

The first part of this recap is mainly on my history with this race and the lead in to the actual race. If you are not interested in that, you can probably scroll down.

It's been over a month since I ran this race so I figured that I should probably do a recap before I forget all the details. Unfortunately, I've already forgotten a lot but I've found these recaps to be useful when I look back on them to see what I did surrounding the race. Memory don't fail me now.

I haven't ran this race since 2013 right before my pregnancy but I've always liked this race. Not just because I've always done well on this course (I progressively run PR times in consecutive years and it's where I first qualified for Boston) but I also love the location and the race day weather. So this race has been good to me. After I had my baby, I wasn't sure if I had wanted to do this marathon-ing thing again but after my baby turned one I started casually running again and boy that good old feeling just came rushing back. That year when the Boston Marathon rolled around, I suddenly felt the desire to go back to run that race again. Which meant that I would have to put in the time to train to run a qualifying race and I knew exactly which race I wanted to target.

I started gearing up for this race around early October 2015. I had been logging some casual miles earlier in the year to the tune of maybe 20/25 miles per week after having ran zero miles for two years due to aforementioned pregnancy. So I had a lot of work to do to get back into marathon running shape. I decided to use the Hansons Marathon Method for this cycle because it had been sitting in the back burner for so many years and I thought 'why not?' Isn't that always how every good decision starts...'sure, why the heck not!'

So I went from 25 miles a week to 40/50 miles on the recovery weeks and up to 60/65 miles on peak weeks. I was not really prepared for this to say the least but I sucked it up and took rest days where needed. I had signed up for the LA Marathon as my practice race to get re-acclimated with the whole marathon-ing thing and this proved to be a good decision because boy was I rusty. A few weeks after I completed the LA Marathon, I resumed training for my goal race. I didn't restart a new training cycle. Instead, I just picked up a couple of weeks into the cycle since I already had the mileage training in my legs. This time around, I felt much stronger, still pretty tired from the higher mileage but overall pretty happy with how I was handling the fatigue and being able to hit my goal pace.

Fast forward to taper week...

...all the training was done, I've arrived at taper week injury-free and ready to race but then the nerves started to set in and it was Monday. It was going to be a long week!

When I signed up for the race, I was aware that the course had changed a couple of times since I ran it last but a few months before the race they announced that the course was changing again and at the time there was not even a map to look at. This was where the source of my nervousness was coming from...an unknown course. In the month leading up to the race, I saw some postings on Facebook from a couple of individuals who had taken it upon themselves to run different sections of the course and reporting back. Some said the changes were good while others said it was more difficult. So at the end of the day, I didn't really learn anything new or useful.

Let me just say that the course I ran this year was completely and totally different from the course in 2013 and it is slightly more difficult in my opinion. We lost some of the drop and made some gains in elevation. The only part of the course that felt like a decline was mile 4-5 and 12-14, the other parts felt flat. Those little blips around miles 12, 15 and 17 did not feel great to maneuver at race pace and that tiny bump at mile 23 mentally messed with me when my legs were pretty tired. My mind was making mountains out of mole hills. Overall, my quads were way less trashed than in 2013 since the decline was more gradual. This is still a fast course with historically good weather to boot.

2016 course

2013 course

When race weekend rolled around, I was full of excitement. Especially after I saw my bib number. Lucky sevens all across.

My husband and I made the 3-hour drive from the OC to Ojai the day before the race. I'm borderline OCD so I had planned out the entire weekend hour-by-hour on paper but most of it just went out the window because things just sort of fell into place on it's own. I've ran this race so many times that I've developed a ritual of things that I must do prior to the race, thereby the planned out weekend. Mostly because of superstition than it actually attributing anything to my running. As in years pasted, our plan was to stop by the Camarillo Outlets to do some shopping then have lunch at this little Mexican place, then go to the expo, check in at the hotel, watch an action flick (and yes it has to be a action flick...bonus if it is Marvel/Star Wars/Superhero), have dinner, set out my stuff for the next morning and then turn in. I leave out the part where I toss and turn for several hours but I assume that's a given.

I did manage to do all those things, just not in that order. The deviation started early on. My coworker kindly offered to pick up my bib for me the weekend before the race so I didn't even go to the expo the day before so I had extra time. We got hungry on the drive up and was not able to wait until lunch time so we ended up stopping at this quaint little restaurant called Jessica's Cafe where I ordered this giant cinnamon roll that was really disappointing.

After our meal we did end up at the outlets where I scored on some Oakley shades, True Religion jeans and some clothes for our little man.

Normally we would have dinner in Ventura or Ojai the night before the race but we ended up having dinner at this place near the outlets called Lure Fishhouse since we didn't have to drive into Ventura to pick up my bib since I already had it. That bread basket was pretty amazing! Strangely my dinner was not so much. Maybe I ordered the wrong thing. I was so tempted to eat some oysters but I'd imagined that would have been a bad idea.

I slept for a couple of hours that night and woke up before my alarm went off. I guess I was ready to go. Our hotel was about a mile from the start so after I had some coffee/snack, I got dressed and made the warm-up jog to the starting line. We have stayed in Ventura in previous years but it turned out to be a pretty good idea to stay in Ojai because I got to sleep in a bit more, got a warm-up jog in and arrived 15 minutes before the official start. I was even able to find my coworkers who I had trained for this race with as the race is still relatively small. Weather was perfect for me in the 60s and logistics looked pretty smooth from my point of view at the starting line and they started right on time.

My goal for this race was to beat my time from 2013 and in doing so would also get me a BQ time. I started the race very conservatively as I had wanted to run a negative split. Everything felt great up until mile 16 when I started to feel less than great for the first time. I kind of panicked at that point when I should have just soldiered on. My heart rate was fine but my legs started to feel tired and I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to finish strong so I would slow down every couple of miles to make sure that I didn't hit the wall. Looking back I should have just ran my goal pace and not over think it so much. In the end I'm happy with the outcome because I did manage to check off both my goals of a personal course PR and a BQ. I'm also pretty happy that I was able to maintain a somewhat even pace throughout and didn't fade the last six miles like I have historically done in the past. A true testament to the effectiveness of the Hansons Marathon Method which really helped me hone in on the feeling of a pace.

Race photos were free but I only got one and it was very bad. Luckily, my friend Pam took this one of me at mile 25. I don't know what I was doing here...maybe trying to fly. Yep, I was still smiling but it was mainly because I was so happy to see Pam at the mile 25 marker. She paced me to the finish line at a sub-8 pace so that I could be put out of my misery. She's a good friend.

Pam and her husband drove a couple of hours at the crack of dawn in order to get to the finish line in time to pace her friends in. That's really a great act of kindness on their part. I'm really appreciative to have her as a friend.

It was a really great day for a race. Good weather, good course and I had a really good race. Couldn't ask for more.

Later that day, my husband and I ended up meeting Pam and her husband for lunch at that Mexican joint I mentioned earlier which was really nice since we haven't had time to hang out in a really long time. See...we managed to hit everything on my OCD list.

I'm really happy that I ended up signing up for this race because despite all the changes to the course, it is still one of my favorite!

Hansons Marathon Method - Phase One

For all intents and purposes I'm going to refer to the Hansons Marathon Method here on out as (HMM) to simplify things.

I'm also going to breakdown the plan into three phases because while I was going through the training, I felt like I went through three different stages. I'm going to classify the first month or two of the training program as Phase One. So what happens in this phase? If you already have a solid mileage base, very little/minor changes will be evident. If you are coming back after taking extended time-off or a long rest due to injury, you will experience the most change.

Sometimes change can be good and also bad which is the case for this training plan. HMM is an 18-week training plan that will have you running 6-days a week with one rest day. This is true even on the beginner's plan. The beginner's plan peaks at 57-miles and the advance plan peaks at 63 about three weeks from the race date. This seemed crazy to me at first. Crazy and scary.

I decided to go with the advance plan only because I had already built up a modest base by the time I started this plan. So my experience with this plan will be based on someone who had normally trained 3-5 days a week of running mixed in with cross-training.

The book does mention that if you are training for your first marathon and don't have a time goal aside from finishing that the beginner's plan is the way to go. Having said that I feel like the beginner's plan might be challenging if you've never ran before...like ever. The beginner's plan is also a good introduction to the running 6-days a week thing if that seems daunting.

The first week or two will be tolerable and you'll feel really proud of yourself because you're running 6-days a week. That's only because there are no 'workout' runs yet. You will however feel tired by Sunday. Your legs may even feel sluggish towards the end of your Sunday long runs.

Week three is where the speed (track) and tempo workouts start. This week will seem shocking at first especially when you look back. I had a hard time maintaining pace on the final miles of my first tempo run. Do yourself a favor at this point and don't look ahead on the schedule because it will just freak you out but take comfort knowing that by the end you will be doing everything on the schedule and feeling awesome about it...for the most part. You will be tired but you will feel awesome! Trust me. Tempo runs will become your most favorite thing. Just me?

When you reach the end of the first month, you will feel really fatigued. I mean really really TIRED.

I remember just crawling into bed every night at 9 pm and be dead asleep in five minutes. You will wonder if you will be able to carry on with the plan because this is only the beginning and things will just add on. I was constantly talking about being tired at this point. I did skip a couple of runs the first month because I was so tired and I didn't want to get injured running with poor form due to fatigue. Looking back maybe I could have benefited from starting with the beginner's plan like a friend had suggested but I guess my ego got in the way. This feeling of fatigue will go on for another couple of weeks while your legs and body adjust to the 6-days of running regime. The important thing to do at this point is HANG ON. Just hang on no matter how tired you feel or how much you hate the plan. Just keep moving. Slowly if you have to but don't give up on the plan because the feeling of fatigue will ease. It's almost like going up a hill. At some point, you will reach the summit and you will be glad that you stuck with it.

I mean it's not going to be cake after Phase One but you do acclimate to the new normal. Your body is amazing, you can put it through hell and it will still come through for you. Believe it or not more crazy stuff starts to happen in Phase Two.

Crazy!

Hansons Marathon Method - One New Mom's Journey Back to Marathoning

Point A to Point B...also known as how I went from casual running after baby to running a marathon again. Here it is...the Hansons Marathon Method.

I fondly refer to this book as my running bible. From the moment I picked it up to the time I turned the last page it has captivated me. Yes, I read this book cover to cover. Multiply times. Everything in this book is useful...or at least it is to me. I pick it up at least once a week still to refresh my memory. Mainly because I have a bad memory. Also, because the more you get into the training process the more this book starts to make sense. When you first start reading you might not fully understand everything they are talking about or care but in time you will. I've ran a lot of races but this book gave me a new perspective on training. It is very likely that I was doing it all wrong before. Highly likely.

Let me start by saying that I'm no stranger to running. Prior to getting pregnant it felt like I was running a marathon every other month so I didn't just pick up this book and go from zero to sixty. However, if you are new to running, this book could also work for you since there is a beginners section that I think is pretty reasonable.

I think if I had to pick the one thing I like most about this training plan it is that everything is laid out for you. All you have to do is pick out a reasonable pace and/or finishing time and commit to it. Honestly, even if you pick out an unreasonable pace, you will find out in a painful way soon enough to adjust to a goal that's right for you. So it's all good. Mostly foolproof.

I can't stress this enough when I say that you will need to COMMIT to your pace because you will literally need to eat, sleep and breathe that goal for the next three to four months. This plan works really well for people who likes structure and having every workout laid out for them. You won't have to worry about what you're going to do today or the next because everything is spelled out for you. All you have to do is make sure you do it. This plan is not very flexible and it admits to that. If you are going to continually miss runs or change things around or worse try to add other elements to it, it may not work very well for you and you may end up not accomplishing your goals which will be frustrating especially if you put in a lot of time and effort into the training.

Having said that, I for one love this plan. Prior to using this plan, I was a Hal Higdon training plan devotee. I had used the Higdon plans for so long that I was really hesitant to try something new but I'm glad I took that leap of faith. I really didn't have a reason for changing training plans. The Higdon plans were good enough to get me through over 20 marathons and even 2 BQs. What I lacked now that I use to have a ton of before was free time. Being a first time mom is hard. Trying to train for a marathon at the same time is harder. I was looking for something that didn't require me to be out for 3-hour training long runs on the weekends. Although, looking back, the HB method is equally time consuming just in different ways.

So how did I do on this plan? I'm going to say 'good'. I'll go into more details in the next couple of posts and break it down for you month by month. It's just too much to cover everything in this one posting.

My 2016 LA Marathon Recap

Date: February 14, 2016

Location: Dodger Stadium to the Santa Monica Pier

Start: 6:55 am

Finish: 03:59:10

Elevation profile:

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written one of these. Okay, here we go.

I was supposed to go to the expo on Saturday, the day before the race with some friends so that we could kill two birds with one stone. Meaning so that we could pick up our bibs and watch the Olympic Trials all in one go. But I decided to go up on Friday instead so that I could stay home on Saturday and rest up for the race. I have not been to a race expo in a couple of years so I spent more time walking around and talking to vendors than I normally do. It was fun to be back in this environment again. Skechers Performance was the new title sponsor this year. Taking over for ASICS.

I was feeling nervous and because the forecast predicted higher than usual heat levels on Sunday, I hydrated like it was my job all of Friday and Saturday. I think I hydrated too much. Went to bed Saturday night pretty early but couldn't sleep at first but got a solid five hours in so I was happy with that.

I carpooled with my buddy Darren and his neighbors to Dodger Stadium. We left the OC around 4:30 am and got dropped off around 5:45 am which was perfect. I got to use the potty once but the lines got too long when I went back a second time but I didn't really have to go that badly so thank goodness.

Got in corral B in time to de-layer, take my first GU and listen to the national anthem. Things moved pretty quick after that. The elite women took off first and then the rest of the field followed ten minutes later. Believe it or not it was still a bottleneck nightmare to get going even up in corral B. It's tons better than being in the open corral but still really crowded as people try to find their positions.

So I started the race with the 3:35 pacer. I think this was wishful thinking on my part. I stayed with the group up until mile 12 which was where things started to go awry. You see I did almost all my training runs on pretty flat terrain and running the first half which is a series of rolling hills at pace ended up being my demise. I got some quad cramps around mile 13 but was able to walk it off. I had to slow my pace down by 30 seconds to a minute per mile over the next 6 miles but I kept chugging along because the crowd/volunteer support is just awesome at this race. I guess my mind had forgotten how tough it is to run this distance.

Here I am in Hollywood around the midway point. Smiling but suffering inside a bit.

Here I am in Beverly Hills around mile 17 and as you can see I am struggling. I struggled the most between miles 19-22 where the rolling hills started again. I mentally just shut down and took it one step at a time.

After this part, somehow I found my second wind and was feeling much better and picked up my pace a bit. I mean I wasn't feeling fresh as a daisy but I started smiling and waving to the crowds again. My nickname at this race was apparently "Tutu". "Go tutu!!" they would yell.

So this picture pretty much sums up miles 23-26.

The elation of reaching the finish line!

I crossed the finish line and was walking like a normal person. Not limping and not overly tired like I usually am. WTH! Why did I feel so bad in the middle parts and then felt great towards the end? This is a rhetorical question of course because I know exactly what I did wrong and how I can fix it for this future race. I am going to write a followup post on my training plan and go more into details on this race and how I plan to prepare for my next marathon coming up at the end of May. That post will have way less gratuitous photos so come back for that if you are interested. :)

So I did it! I finished my first post pregnancy marathon and made it just under 4-hours. Phew! That was a close one. This was my 9th LA Marathon and my 24th lifetime marathon. It's a course PR for me and my fifth best marathon time out of 24 so it's not too bad but not how I had envisioned it. I think the important thing about this training cycle is that I came out on the other end uninjured despite running more miles than I ever had in any training cycles and felt strong and prepared for the most part which is not something I could've said for most of the marathons I ran in the past.

Until next time LA Marathon! You were my first and will always hold a special place in my heart. It was a blast spending Valentine's Day with you.

(p.s. I ran my first marathon 10-years ago with my sister at the 2006 LA Marathon so this is an anniversary of sort.)

Thoughts On The Eve Of My First Postpartum Marathon

It's been awhile since I blogged but with only a few days left until my first marathon post baby I thought it would be a good time to clear out the cobwebs so I'll have a place to write a proper post race report. I've been reading up on some of my past race reports this month leading up to race day and it's really nice to relive the emotions and details. I guess that's why this blog is still here.

I've not blogged in so long that it would be impossible to document everything that has happened since I last blogged...last summer. As I'm typing this, I realize how rusty I've gotten at banging these out. I'll attempt a short summary.

So last year (circa March 2015) right after my baby's first birthday, I decided to start running again. By the way, my "baby" is now almost two years old. This is him here. ^_^

Okay, where was I? Oh yeah, so I thought that if I could get into decent enough shape by September, which was when the 2016 Los Angeles Marathon registration opened up, that I would sign up and devote myself to an 18-week training program. My progress was slow but by summertime I felt confident enough to continue to ramp up mileage. When September rolled around, I was ready to commit so I signed up for my first postpartum marathon. This was early September. I spent most of September researching a new training plan so that when October rolled around I would be confident in my plan and ready to go. I'll see if I can find some time after my race to write a proper review of the plan I decided to go with. That is if it doesn't fail me this weekend. If it does, we'll never speak of it again. 

So I spent most of October, all of November, December, January until now deep in the trenches of training. If you follow me on Instagram you probably know all this already. With the exception of a couple of missed runs due to being ill, I've followed the training plan to a "T". I would really like to go more into details of my training so I'm hoping I will get a change to sit down later and reflect on those several months. 

This will be my 9th LA Marathon. I started in 2006, it was also my very first marathon. I didn't run in 2014 or 2015 due to my pregnancy and lazy-ness to sign up after I lost my streak. But life goes on and we will start another streak. 

So it's come down to today...four days until the big race. For the most part, I am ready. I came down with a bronchial infection late last week that landed me in urgent care over the weekend but I'm on the mends now so hopefully by race day all the medication and such will be out of my system and I'll be ready to go. At least that's what I'm planning on. 

My course PR for this current course is 4:08:08, I ran that in 2010. I haven't done as well in the years following mainly due to lack of training. I have to admit that I used to sign up for races just to experience them or sometimes just to get the bling. By the way, now I have a giant box of race bling that is heavy as f&#$ collecting dust in my garage. Food for thought? I think so. I never really took any of them seriously enough to commit to a training plan or disciplined myself enough to follow through with the training. It's kind of weird to hear myself say that in my head because at the time I thought I was so committed to each and every one of those races. 

I'll leave you with this collage that I've put together of all my runs that I posted on Instagram these past several months. It's only missing two days which I won't be able to include because they will happen tomorrow and Saturday but the rest is all here. In preparation for this race, I will have ran 97 days over the course of 18-weeks totaling 817 miles and boy are my legs tired. ^_~

Nothing left to do now but go out there and run marathon #24!!! Wish me luck! 

Flip Belt Review

It's been a long time since I've written a product review so you know that I really like this thing. What thing you ask? This thing...the Flip Belt!

I took so much time off from running that when I got back to it again I couldn't find any of my old running paraphernalia which included my old running iFitness belt. It's funny, I had to root around my garage looking for the box of workout clothes I had packed away. I couldn't remember which pair of running shoes were still good. All my supplements and GUs were long expired and I had to sadly throw them out. Then on top of that I couldn't find my fuel belt. I had to go on that run without it. If you know me then you know I have a tendency to tote around a bunch of crap with me on my runs so needless to say I somehow had to get another belt quickly. So I went online and did a quick search and the first thing that popped up was the Flip Belt. I don't like change so I skipped over it and tried to see if I could find the site where I purchased my old running belt. It took a lot of digging around but I did find a vendor but I could not help but notice all the positive reviews that the Flip Belt was getting so I spent a couple of days reading reviews and asking around. The next day I decided to order it. I got it pretty quickly and upon my return from the test run, I could tell that it was worth the purchase. It's spandex-y so it fits snug around your waist and hip. I wear mine somewhere in the middle of my waist/hip. I cram my iPhone in there and there is absolutely no bouncing whatsoever. I can't even tell I have the belt on half the time. There is a key strap so your keys won't fall out. You're supposed to flip the belt inward once you put your stuff in so that nothing falls out but I don't do that since nothing has fallen out yet. So yeah, I love this thing and use it every time I go out on a run. I might even get another one in black. That's how much I love it!

You Got This

Wow...just dropped in because I felt like writing a post today and noticed that it has almost been a year since I last wrote anything. Kids, man! Okay, so I only have one but to be fair he can be a handful.

My poor little running blog has seen better days. So many times I've dropped in to start a post but ended up scrapping it. Mostly because I only managed to throw together two sentences before I got bored. I guess I am having a major bout of lack of blogging motivation. Is that just called writer's block?

Anyways, I'm not sure why I haven't blogged more because I'm been working out a ton, which includes lots of running. The month of May actually turned out to be one of my highest mileage months ever. Crazy, right? I guess trading in my weekly long runs for several shorter runs was "same-same" but different. Fitness-wise I'm mostly back to my pre-baby level. For example, I'm running faster paces now as compared to my pre-baby self during peak training periods. Although, I haven't quite gotten back to running long miles on the weekends yet since I'm not training for anything currently.

Speaking of that...I was quite content with the amount of running I've been doing but recently I started to get the "marathon running itch" again. Where's the "uh oh" emoji? I don't know where these feelings are going to take me. For the longest time, my one and only driving force to train was to qualify for Boston but now that I have done that twice and ran Boston I can't seem to find my focus or I guess figure out a new goal. I mean, I guess I can try to qualify for Boston again. Yeah...what to do?

So I guess this is the reason why I haven't gotten back into the marathon game. Although, I have to say that my love for running still burns strong. People are constantly asking me what I am training for and I know it is because they see the passion or umm rather my red face and sweaty clothes after a run. It feels different to say that I am not training for anything and that I run just because I like to. People look at you weird when you run for no apparent reason at all I guess. Whatever.

For the time being, I guess I'm secretly marathon hunting but I guess that's not much of a secret anymore. I wanted to post a current photo of me but apparently I must be camera shy because I don't have many, especially not of me running. I only have this photo that I posted to Instagram recently of me getting my gainz on at the gym. See those 25 lb dumbbells? I use them.  >_<

Life Is Good!

Boy, it's been a long time since I've blogged here with any sort of regularity. Excuse me while I dust off the cobwebs. I debated on whether or not to start blogging again and if so with what frequency? Then I thought, 'what the hey', let's just start with this post and see where things go. Is it 'what the hey" or 'what the hay"? Yeah, I'm super rusty. Please bear with me.

Here is a brief summary of the past several months. I was still pregnant the last time I posted anything regularly. Yep, there I was at 33 weeks pregnant.

Then, two days after I hit my 39th week mark the baby decided he wanted out early. Next thing you know I'm at the hospital getting ready to meet my son. I've written his birth story but it is so long that I'm not sure if I will post it or not.

Remember this guy?

Here he is outside of the womb. This is him at a couple of days old. He is bigger now but that's a story for another post. Childbirth is such an amazing thing. It truly is.

He has quickly become a part of my life that I didn't even know I was missing. Everything I have every done in my life were the right things because he is here with me now. Life is good!

One Year Ago

What: 2013 Boston Marathon - Race Recap
Date: April 15, 2013
Location: Boston, MA
Start: ~10:20am (corral 7, wave 2)
Finish: 3:57:58
Elevation:

It's been one year since the bombings at the Boston Marathon yet everything is still so vivid to me. So much has happened this past year. I've been so grateful for each and every day. I never posted my 2013 Boston race recap. I wasn't ready at the time but today seems like a good day to do so. It's not an epic story by any means but it is the story I had wanted to share since last year. The following are some of my thoughts recorded on the days before, during and following my trip to Boston last year. I decided not to edit much of it with the exception of some spelling and grammar errors since I wrote all of it on my iPad. I apologize for being so verbose but I had a lot of down time in my hotel room following the bombings.

April 13, 2013 (notes I wrote at upon arriving at Logan Airport):

Our red-eye flight took off on time from the Long Beach Airport. I love JetBlue and their amazing service and amenities. I especially love the individual TVs. We got to select from a couple of movies to watch. I wasn't able to sleep so movie watching it was. I picked Silver Lining's Playbook. That movie was not what I thought it was. It was more dark than I had anticipated. For my second movie I selected Life of Pi. What an amazing story that was. I had never read the book but my sisters have and I remember them telling me about how good it was years ago. I enjoyed the movie very much. As the movie ended, I briefly glanced out the plane window and noticed the breaking of dawn. I could see a faint light growing brighter which meant that we were almost there. Thank goodness too because I don't do well on plane rides and was at the point where I could no longer sit still. The landing was loud and rough. It was sprinkling a little bit outside when we landed.

We walked around Terminal C for a bit and decided to go get some breakfast. I was not really that hungry mostly because I had not slept. My husband ordered a hot breakfast. I walked back to the Dunkin Donut Express that we had past on the way to the sit down breakfast place. It wast my first taste of DD. It was just okay to me. Again, maybe it was because I was tired. I also got a blueberry muffin. It was decent. I hope it was reduced fat.

I am sitting in what was a quieter part of the airport trying to catch some zzz's awaiting for my sister's flight to arrive so that we can all catch the "T" (the local underground public transportation system here in Boston) together to the hotel. There is a draft here in Terminal C. My husband is laying on the floor using his backpack as a pillow. He looks to be asleep. Don't know how he can sleep like that. The area starts to grow busier by the minute as people start to arrive to board their plane. An hour has past. I'm thinking to myself that we should probably start walking over to the terminal where my sister's flight would be arriving at since it was about to arrive. As I walked through the terminal to my sister's plane, I can see Boston Marathon merchandises being sold in the airport gift shop. Twenty percent off. Tempting but I'll hold off until the expo. I'm sleepy. I hope that I will be able to make it through this day. Will probably crash hard later. Hopefully when I get to the hotel. (Of course this didn't happen since I decided to go exploring with my sister.) 

Expo:
After checking into our hotel, Sister K and I headed directly to the expo to pick up my bib. It was pretty crowded in there but everyone was buzzing with excitement. I remember being so caught up with the excitement of just being there.

Boylston Street

We went to check out the finish line. And of course to lay down on the finish line for some photos. Trust me, everyone was doing it.

April 15, 2013: Race Day
It was a beautiful crisp spring morning. I definitely had butterflies in my stomach that morning.

Athlete's Village, as you can see was a madhouse.

But it was fully stocked with everything that a runner could need.

The walk to the starting corrals.

This was my corral.

Running through Farmingham.

Wellesley College

The deserted streets outside our hotel the day after the bombings.

Thoughts from April 16, 2013:

I had wanted to post about this the day it happened but my thoughts were so scattered. I didn't know how to make sense of it all. I still can't make any sense of the events that occurred. April 15, 2013 was the day my dreams and nightmares collided into one. It was the day I ran my first Boston Marathon, something I had looked forward to doing for awhile now. It was the first year that I had qualified. Most people that I talked to about the Boston Marathon spoke highly of it and so I was super excited to finally get the chance to run it.

The course itself is not anything amazing. I've ran better courses before. What makes running Boston so amazing is the history and the people. I have never experienced such energy from a race before. It felt like everyone who lived along the course or the city came out to cheer us on. There were sections where the sounds of people cheering was so loud that it was deafening. I could feel the vibrations from their voices run through my entire body. It was unreal.

I ran the best race I could considering I had not had time to go through a proper training cycle. I started the race very conservatively per the advice of a couple of articles that I had read and friend Pam who reminded me about it the night before during dinner. This turned out to be good advice because I still had something left in the tank in the last couple of miles when those around me had slowed down considerably. I wanted to run a good race for all those people who had ever encouraged me to run and supported me over the years. Lots of family and friends knew that this was a big deal for me and I knew they were sending me good vibes from home so I wanted to do my best.

For the first time in a while, I ran the entire course. Sometimes slowly, other times at a quicker pace. I told myself that if nothing else I would not walk at a race that I had worked so hard to get into. When I finally reached the final quarter mile I had envisioned it to feel differently. Sort of like a victory lap. I mean it was everything I hoped it would be but I was really tired at that point and just wanted to get it done. I crossed the finish line a couple of minutes before the four hour mark. I remember feeling so accomplished and happy.

The line to get out of the corral was packed. Literally, like a tuna can. Imagine it...hundreds of sweaty people rubbing up against each other. As you can imagine, I wanted out of there badly. It felt like an entire mile long. It took a couple of minutes to find where they were handing out space blankets and I wanted one as I was starting to get cold. I was holding my cell phone because I had ran with it the entire way. Not sure why. I didn't even take that many photos. Shortly after crossing the finish line I called my husband to let him know that I had finished sub-4. He was at the finish line waiting for me but he missed when I ran across the finish line. He was standing at the exact spot where that first bomb had gone off...4:09...just minutes after I had crossed. I get so emotional when I think about it. Had I not had my phone with me, he would have still been there waiting for me. And to think that earlier that morning I almost decided to leave my cell phone at the hotel but at the very last moment I picked it up and decided to take it with me. Then again during gear check I was undecided if I should check my phone in or not and again at the last moment I decided to just hold it in my hands.  As I was walking into my corral at the start I thought for a moment how dumb I was to be holding my cell phone the whole way. I guess everything happens for a reason.

When the first explosion went off I was standing at the intersection of St. James and Berkley street. I remember a guy standing near me asking if the noise was fireworks. I wasn't even worried at the point when I should have been. Then the second explosion went off and a bunch of medical personnel rushed past me with wheel chairs. I started to get very frightened as I was still in the barricaded areas and had still not connected with my husband. I kept trying to call him on his cell but the cellular signal was blocked since everyone was on their phone at this point. I finally spotted him at the opposite corner of where I told him I would be waiting for him. As soon as he saw me he said we had to get out of there. He said that something bad had happened and that we could still be in danger. I remember being really scared at that point and told him that I didn't know how to get out of the barricaded area. He told that there wasn't time for me to walk around the barricades so he picked me up and lifted me over the barricades. There was no way I could have climbed out since I was pretty sore. It was chaotic at the scene by this point. Just lots of confused and frightened people crying and scared. We tried to make our way out of the area so that emergency personnel could get through. At that point, we both did not know what had happened or what was going on. Police officers were yelling at people to run away from the area. We had to go a couple of extra miles around the scene to get back to our hotel. I was so sore and cold. When the SWAT team was yelling at us to run away, I could barely do a slow jog. I was so frightened. I was walking slow and trying to jog here and there. We tried to take the subway back but it was shut down almost immediately following the blasts. After walking for a couple of miles we were finally near our hotel. We were not sure if they had barricaded the entire area but eventually we found a side street that lead us back to our hotel. I've never been so happy to get back to a hotel room in my life.  There were SWATs guarding the hotel door. When I finally made it up to my room, I see my sister for the first time since the explosion sitting on her bed watching the news. We were so happy to see each other. My husband had told me that she had gone out for lunch and was planning to stop by the finish line to see me come in. Luckily, she tells me later that when she got to the finish line moments before I was to run through that the crowd was so thick that she could not get anywhere near the finish line so she decided to go shopping in the area instead. When the bombs went off, she immediately headed back to the hotel. I'm so glad. 

Thoughts on April 18, 2013: 

Marathonfoto photos from the Boston Marathon were posted today and they remind me of the carefree moments right before the bombings changed the lives of so many people. What a beautiful day it was! Sunny and just perfect for running. I remember thinking that I should really take advantage of such amazing running weather. It was all so senseless.

That's it! That's the story. Sorry it has taken so long for me to post it. We are all changed because of what happened but we are stronger and even thought this happened a year ago, it will be with me always.