In 2014, I ran my first Boston Marathon and it was not a great experience for me. The amount of runners was overwhelming, the course was unfamiliar, and the day got so warm that I had to walk through the last several water stations to make sure I could drink a full cup because I have a tendency to overheat. This year, I returned and had a much better race, so here is my Boston Marathon race recap!
Nate and I arrived in Boston early Saturday afternoon and checked into the Millennium Bostonian Hotel. We stayed in a fantastic location- right across the street from Quincy Market and less than a mile from Boston Common (where you check your gear and load the buses on race morning). We went to the expo and picked up our bib numbers and then checked out all the vendors. No surprise, but Boston has one of the best expos ever with tons of products to check out!
Sunday morning, Nate and I (plus his super-speedy friend, Ryan) jogged over to Copley Square for the Oiselle Shakeout Run. Even though the group leader seemed very unsure about where we were going, we ran about three miles and made it back to where we started. We didn't really do much pre-race relaxing on Sunday, choosing instead to revisit the expo, go to multiple City Sports, and visit the New England Aquarium.
Nate and I arrived in Boston early Saturday afternoon and checked into the Millennium Bostonian Hotel. We stayed in a fantastic location- right across the street from Quincy Market and less than a mile from Boston Common (where you check your gear and load the buses on race morning). We went to the expo and picked up our bib numbers and then checked out all the vendors. No surprise, but Boston has one of the best expos ever with tons of products to check out!
Sunday morning, Nate and I (plus his super-speedy friend, Ryan) jogged over to Copley Square for the Oiselle Shakeout Run. Even though the group leader seemed very unsure about where we were going, we ran about three miles and made it back to where we started. We didn't really do much pre-race relaxing on Sunday, choosing instead to revisit the expo, go to multiple City Sports, and visit the New England Aquarium.
So finally, Monday was race morning! I got up around 5:00am in order to leave the hotel by 6:00. Nate, Ryan, and I walked to check our gear and were on a bus by 6:30. It's about an hour ride to Hopkinton, but when we arrived we still had over two hours until our starting time. At Athlete's Village, you can get water, coffee, bananas, and bagels. There are hundreds of port-a-potties, and the lines were not bad at all for those of us in the first starting wave. It started to sprinkle while we were waiting, so we covered our shoes with plastic bags and put trash bags on over our clothes. At 9:05, they started releasing Wave 1 runners to walk to the starting line, which is about three-quarters of a mile away. Nate and Ryan headed out first because their qualifying times but them in the second corral or Wave 1, while I was all the way back in the eighth corral. The race started at 10:00 and it took me about five minutes to reach the starting line.
Having a better idea of the course this year, I decided to break the race up into four manageable parts:
My Boston racing gear:
Having a better idea of the course this year, I decided to break the race up into four manageable parts:
- Part 1 - the first seven miles where I would go out a little too fast
- Part 2 - the next seven miles where I would settle into a reasonable pace
- Part 3 - the next seven miles which are a little hilly
- Part 4 - the 21 mile mark (just after Heartbreak Hill) to the finish
My Boston racing gear:
- My favorite running shoes - Newton Distances!
- Swiftwick Compression socks - bought these at the Little Rock Expo two years ago and I've never seen them anywhere else, but I love them! They are my go-to long race sock.
- Oiselle Toolbelt Roga Shorts and Flyte Tank
- Flipbelt- 100x better than running with a spibelt which is what I did last year. It didn't move around at all and it held my iPhone, jellybeans, and Skittles.