TRAVELS: Boston Marathon 2010

I’m kind of sad my weekend in Boston went so quick:( I had a great time seeing friends and experiencing the spirit of this HUGE marathon. Supposedly, planning the Boston Marathon (which is the world’s oldest annual marathon) is equivalent to planning basketball’s Final Four. There are almost 30,000 runners, tons of volunteers, loads of policeman, and enormous crowds of spectators.

I went down early to get a spot near the finish line. Mary would meet me down there after she got off work in the morning, and we would watch for Ray. He was supposed to start running in the second wave of runners at 10:30 a.m. I left around 9 a.m. to take the T to Park Street because Mary told me that area can get really crowded as the day goes on.

I walked through the Boston Public Gardens to get to the marathon finish on Boylston Street. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Spring has sprung in Boston, much more so than in Vermont. The blooming trees and colorful flowers were so eye-catching that I just bounded from garden to garden snapping tons of pictures like this one.

So involved I was in my picture-taking that I didn’t notice this large crowd at the garden entrance at first.

I was too involved in a close-up tulip shot.

Then, I looked up and saw this tall, attractive man. He had on super skinny jeans with slick boots and this vintage-looking jacket. He was talking to a camera crew with a beautiful British accent. Lo and behold, it was English comedian, actor, radio host, and writer Russell Brand.

Who, in the flesh, is stunning. Really stunning. I turned to get up from squatting over the tulip that had – until recently – captured my attention and go. I didn’t want to be rude and stare at him. Then, I turned, and for some reason, decided to snap a picture of him. Me, who couldn’t even look at him! I’m not sure why. Right after I took the picture, he turned and stared at me. I thought two things.

One, I wish he had not caught me taking this picture like some strange stalker person (he was filming or I probably would have asked – okay, probably not!).

Two, why was I wearing running shoes and a sweatshirt. Ack. Don’t ask why I thought this, but I did. He had that affect.

But back to the Boston Marathon – sorry, Russell Brand is distracting, no? I walked down the street and saw the large number of volunteers prepping water, Gatorade, space blankets, and bananas for the runners after they finished.

Then, made my way down the street to the final stretch of the marathon. People were rows thick already on the sidewalk. They had cowbells and cameras. It was loud, rowdy, and fun. I was worried about meeting up with Ray at the end, and glad that Mary was here to keep me company.

When the first runners made their way to the finish line, the buzz in the atmosphere was insane. These runners were like rock stars. First, came sirens, then a truck came barreling down with the official time clock (going fast).

Directly behind the time clock, was a truck packed with photographers with the longest lenses I have ever seen.They were just hanging out the back snapping away.

Then came the first runner, which was a woman because they started before the men. I liked that, let the women shine first. Teyba Erkesso from Ethiopia won in 2:26:11.

Then elite men had the same set-up.  Robert Cheruiyot from Kenya won for the men in 2:05:42. He was surrounded by motorcycles, dangling with policemen and people with video cameras.

Oh, and the elite runner’s feet don’t even touch the ground. They looked like they were just bounding, gazelle-like towards the finish line. It was so, so, so impressive. I also believe they each won 500,000 dollars.

I also got a quick pic of American runner Ryan Hall, who finished fourth overall.

Unfortunately, then the runners got thick and Mary and I completely missed Ray running. Oops. We then waiting in the finished athlete area. I love seeing runners with the space blankets.

I had signed up to get text alert updates at certain points during his race, but that wasn’t working either. Poor Ray. We did find him in the park afterwards. He was still standing and not completely exhausted.

He had a great finish time of 2:52, but was disappointed that he didn’t get a 2:40. (Insert Mary and I rolling our eyes.) The whole day totally made me want to run this marathon, but I highly doubt that I would ever qualify. I would need to drop 30 minutes from my marathon time and really beef up my training. And my own relatively basic marathon training (I’m actually doing the one of the lowest mileage plans) made me sort of a slug over the weekend. My legs were tired all last week and even worse after the 12-mile run on Saturday. I didn’t workout on Sunday or Monday. I had no energy to go on barefoot runs with Mary or contra-dancing or anything else that I normally would have jumped to do. I did however, still have  my appetite (read this article on why women’s appetites go crazy when exercise increases). We ate my biscuits and cupcakes (I would even pack us cupcakes to go!).

Mary’s pot stickers.

We walked around town and I ate city-street food: slices of pizza and large burritos.

We went out to dinner at a BBQ joint – Red Bones – for ribs, pulled chicken sandwiches, pecan pie and beer. Highly recommend it. Mary’s ribs here were only $9.99 and insanely good.

I indulged in my sweet tooth with hazelnut chocolate chip cookies, peanut M&Ms, and free samples of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. It was Boston Cream Pie.

I did stop at Whole Foods on the way home to buy fresh produce and a salad for dinner…..and a large hunk of Valhrona chocolate for baking:)