Crazy things that happened to me in Boston.

You know weird stuff happens to me. So here it is. 


- When we got to the airport for our flight out of New Orleans, the entire place was packed. We looked at the thousands of people and realized that they were in line for security! Earlier that morning a suspicious package was discovered and security shut down during the threat. They reopened as we waited, but the airlines were not holding flights. Amazingly we still made our flight, though we cut it close.


- The average BMI on our flight from ATL to Boston was like, oh, 19?

Chi party! 

- I met Danny Dreyer, of Chi Running fame, at the expo. I cheerily explained to him that "spilling your chi" has become a running joke in my weekly Bible study after I shared his book with another runner in the group. I really didn't mean for it to come out that way. However, he took it as a compliment!

Nice elbow

- I got in this car at the expo and some random stranger wanted to get a pic, too. Of me. In the car.

- Someone at the start village was thrilled to see me. Thrilled! I have no idea who it was. He told me his name. He's from New Orleans. He said, "Remember we ran that race together?" Eh...what race?

- The starting line was just oozing confidence! It was amazing! None of that "Oooh, I don't know if I can do this, fill in plausible excuse" stuff you often hear. These runners knew they rocked!

-Yet I've never seen people walking in a race that early or in such numbers. It was so weird. I saw the first walker drop at MILE THREE. By mile 10 we were catching earlier corrals walking. I bet the later waves passed a lot of wave one walkers!

- In this "slow" Boston, the lead men hit 18 miles in my half-marathon PR. WTH.

At the Atlanta airport cross-stitching and showing off my wounds.

- The smaller skinned areas on my elbows hurt way more during the race than my badly bruised and bloody knee. A lot more sweat got into them and it stung.

- When I made the decision to slow down or die, I scrolled my Garmin down so I couldn't see my pace. Good thing, it was freaking all over the place! From 7:01 to 8:36! (That must have been the badminton).

- I ran a Garmin 26.48 which I think is pretty good considering the crowds and the way I ran all over the course trying to get water. I'm still the queen of tangents, these were just extenuating circumstances.

- I purposefully slowed down so the heat wouldn't kill me. Didn't matter. The heat was STILL getting to me. My head was cooking. I should have run in a jog bra, but I wanted to rep Varsity.

- When I finished the race, I sat a curb and scarfed potato chips from the runner's food bag. Nearby a woman rushed to aid her ill and exhausted husband, who was sitting next to me. She forgot she was holding an umbrella chair and CRACKED me over the head with it. I was seeing stars and everything! Now I have a big egg. She was so apologetic I felt bad for her - especially since she was also trying to open Gatorade for her husband, etc.

- An ultra-runner named A.D. (cryptic, no?) I never met before Sunday made a sweet trade with me. I met him Sunday and picked up a huge bag of special gels and fuel; he planned to run from the finish to the start where I'd hand him his fuel for the second half of his ultra. In return, his family let me use their shower in their suite at the Lennox, right at the finish.

- Best shower ever. I was the only runner walking around Boston all afternoon in capris, a blouse, and heels! I even remembered to pack earrings (I forgot makeup and a brush, though. Nice.).

- So the Lennox. While I was waiting to be let in for my shower, I timidly asked the doorman if I could go in. He said certainly, all marathoners are welcome, whether they have a room or not! So - in I went and everyone clapped. Then they handed me a cold beer. What the. They did this for every marathoner who entered the hotel! Awesome!

Stolen from Runninghood

- After meeting Amanda for fries, nachos, and beer, David and I walked around a little before heading to dinner. A runner staggered past us, stopped, and puked all over the side walk. Two girls nearby and I offered aid, and I found myself once again giving first aid after a marathon - this time to a man who spoke only Romanian. Luckily he remembered his hotel name and room number, and the girls called his wife! I hate these electrolyte/osmolality emergencies. They could be minor - or fatal.

The bright flash in the dark restaurant was making me squint! 

- We had a post-race dinner at The Parker House and I finally tried the original Boston cream pie (it was unbelievably good). Just about everyone in the hotel was staggering around with a post-marathon shuffle. If you listened in to the conversations at other tables, you could pick up words like "splits", "Gu", "hamstring" and "wall". It was hilarious.

- Flying back to New Orleans we ran into some TSA trouble. These guys at Logan probably fly out thousands of marathoners every year, yet they could not identify my leftover Gu. They searched me and my bag, and cut open a Gu to scan it. Then they tried to give it back. Really? Like I want to fly with a sliced open gel?

- When I returned to New Orleans it was 20 degrees cooler than Boston. By the next morning it was 30 degrees cooler. Seriously.