run where you like your steps : Boston's Run to Remember

On Sunday, May 26, I ran the Boston's Run to Remember half marathon. This race was by far my favorite race I have ran. I was so exited to run it, and I definitely wasn't disappointed! I think this one may become a new yearly event.

I went down to Boston Saturday afternoon with my friends Monica and Kevin, who were also running the race. We met our met our friend, Jill who was running the 5 mile race at her apartment in Boston. We all went over to the expo at the Seaport Trade Center to pick up our race packets. At the expo we met up with another friend, Mary, who was also running the race.

Mary, me, Monica

After the expo we all went back to Jill's apartment to relax and cook a (gluten free) pasta dinner. There were 7 of us staying at Jill's small Boston apartment the night before the race. Air mattresses and bags filled up most of the floor space. It's a good thing we all like each other.

Sunday morning I was the first one up at 5am. I need to give myself time before a race to wake up and have coffee. I felt like a kid on Christmas and wanted to run around the apartment waking everyone up, but I refrained. Around 6:30 we headed over to the start of the race, which started at 7:00.

Such an amazing view to start the race!

Jill, Mary, me, Monica before the start

I didn't really have much of a plan except to try to hold a steady pace and not go out too fast at the start. My goal was to finish under 1:50. My friend Mary and I were hoping to finish around the same time, so I thought I would try to stick with her. That plan quickly changed once we started and she immediately began weaving in and out of people and darting from side to side. I kept up with her for about the first mile, and then she lost me. I didn't want to waste all of my energy trying to get around everyone to catch up to her, so I let her go ahead and settled in on running my own race. I worked too hard to blow it at the start.

the course

The race began in the seaport and continued over the Longfellow Bridge to Memorial Drive. The views were amazing and I'm pretty sure I had a smile on my face for most of the race. I love Boston, and this was definitely a run to remember. I was so amazed and focused on the sites around me, and happy as a clam to be running around the streets of Boston, so I wasn't too focused on my times. I was surprised to see I ran the first 3 miles under 8 minutes. I was nervous that maybe I was starting out too fast, but I felt great so I went with it.

Most of the course was on Memorial Drive. It went out and back, which was pretty cool. We ran down one side of the street and back on the other. It was fun, and a good distraction, to watch the people ahead and behind me run by on the other side of the street. Around mile 6 or 7 my legs started to burn a little, but my breathing felt good, so I kept pushing on.

It was around mile 8 that the Boston skyline came back in to view. It was beautiful to look at across the river. Despite the weather being pretty cool and drizzly, there were many people lined up along the course and standing on the overpass bridges. The support was amazing.

We crossed back over the Longfellow Bridge, turned on to Beacon St and went around the Public Garden. The crowd was getting bigger as we got closer to the finish. We turned down Commonwealth Ave for a few hundred yards and then turned around again to run back on the other side of the garden and back towards the seaport. At this point my legs were really burning, but I felt like I still had more to give. Only 2.1 miles to go. I dug deep and just kept running.

I ran over the last bridge and saw the finish. There were people lined up on the sides all the way to the finish line even though we were told they weren't going to allow that. It was a good thing they were there though, I really needed the extra cheers at the end. I was really surprised to see the last two miles were under again under 8 minutes. I forgot to stop my watch right at the end, but a few people had said they thought the course was a little over 13.1, and according to my watch it was!