Like the rest of the country, I was shocked and saddened by the bombings at the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15th. I have run a few marathons, and though I was quite certain I would not have been coming in at the time of the bombings, I may have had friends there waiting for me to come in. The thought was/is a bit scary. However, even more frightening was the fact that I was signed up to run the Salt Lake City Marathon which would be occurring only 5 days after the Boston bombings (on April 20th). And to make this endeavor even a bit more scary, two of my daughters would be running it with me. (Lynae was set to run the full marathon with me, and Analise was signed up to run the half, which started with the full and ran the same course as the full till mile 8 at which point the courses separated.)
However, the whole experience turned out to be awesome. Since I am pretty sure I will never qualify for Boston (My fastest marathon time is 4:20-ish, and last time I checked based on my age, I'd need to shave about an hour off that time to qualify...yeah-that is not happening), running this marathon (the first full marathon in the US after the Boston bombings) turned out to be the next best thing. The race was dedicated to the Boston runners, and we got to sign a huge banner at the packet pick up to be sent to the Boston Race director. They gave us blue and gold (The signature color of the Boston Marathon) ribbons for our shoes and "Run Now" Boston bracelets printed with the date of the Boston Marathon. They played "Sweet Caroline," ( A Boston sporting event tradition) at the start of the marathon, and they even had pacers in the race set to come in at the exact time of the bombings at which time they had a moment of silence. So even though, I didn't (and probably never will) get to run the Boston Marathon, I got to do the next best thing.
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| Lynae, Analise, and Kay-"Remembering Boston" banner at packet pick-up |
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| Signing the banner |
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| Awesome headbands that the girls made me buy at packet pick-up. Can you read them? |
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| Well-stocked fanny pack. The girls teased me about being "more prepared than an Eagle Scout" but they were happy to let me carry their phones, eat my snacks, and take an Advil as needed. (Don't moms ALWAYS have to be prepared with their children's needed-items? And yes, moms ALWAYS get to carry EVERYTHING-even if they are running 26.2 miles in a rainstorm!) |
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| Waiting in the car for the race to start. Thanks Kaylee for being our driver, but we wish you would have run with us. (Note the bread and peanut butter on the seat between Analise and Lynae-we were carb-loading up until the last minute. If you look close you'll also notice an empty pizza box in the motel room picture above :) |
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| In the rain at the start line. The headbands turned out to be quite useful. We tucked the hoods of our 99-cent ponchoes under the headbands to keep our heads dry. But we still got quite soggy after running for several hours in a rainstorm. |
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| Over 4,000 runners! Start line |
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| 1/2 marathon finisher-Analise |
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| Lynae comes down the homestretch finishing her first full marathon! |
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| I finished the full 26.2 too-unfortunately I don't look as cute as my girls, but I am smiling! |
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| Finishers! |
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Wet, muddy shoes, Bostons ribbons and bracelets.
WE DID IT! |
