2014 Boston Marathon - Part 1

There is a lot to say about the 2014 Boston Marathon and what an honor it was to be a part of this amazing event, so this will have to be a two-part post.   Brynn and I qualified for Boston last fall at the Big Cottonwood Marathon and came home and immediately registered that day.  The race is popular on any regular year, but after last year's bombings, everyone wanted to be there ... for a little redemption, to "take back" the course.

It was a very quick trip for us.  We flew in on Saturday night, and flew home on Tuesday morning.  The race is on Monday, Patriot's Day.

As soon as we woke up Sunday morning, we headed over to our other hotel (we had one night in an airport hotel), threw on some running clothes and went for a shakeout run along the Charles River.  There were lots of other runners out and some great energy.  It was also Easter Sunday and I felt bad about missing the holiday, but we were so excited, we didn't dwell on it.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Boston and we saw one of the American elite runners, Desiree Davila out running her own shakeout run.

We headed over to the expo next.  We were told it was a short walk across the bridge, but it ended up being a very long walk, then a trip on the "T".  Not exactly what our legs needed the day before the race.  Definitely more excitement at the expo and its impossible not to spend a lot of time on your feet in that environment.

 This wall was full of signatures from runners.

We had lunch at the Forum Restaurant, which was basically blown up during the bombing last year.  We did not realize it until we googled it - the name had sounded familiar - and then I remembered they reported from right in front of it quite a bit last year.  They had just reopened a few months before.

There were tributes like this all over the city.  I wish we could have made it to the amazing public display they had at the Boston library, but it was Sunday and close.

 One shot of the finish line - we didn't cross it though...bad luck.

 After a long day of walking all around, we headed back to our hotel for dinner and an early bedtime.  This is a fuzzy picture, but this is our pre-race prep.  Lots of things to set up - clothes to wear on the bus and ditch at athletes village, gels, sunscreen, body glide, timing chips, ponchos, etc.  Because of security restrictions, we were not allowed to check a bag at Athlete's Village, so we needed to prepare a little differently.

Part 2 to come...