Weekly Recap: The Week of the Boston Marathon

Race week is here. Marathon #39, here I come!

Here’s how training went the week of the Boston Marathon:

Monday: Easy solo miles before work, 7.2 miles, 9:40 min/mile average. 10 min core after.

Tuesday: 3 miles easy, 3×1 mile at marathon effort with 2 min jog in between, 1 mile cool-down, 7.8 miles, 9:10 min/mile average.

Someone had left lit candles all the way around Lake of the Isles on every park bench or flat surface. I posted on Next Door to see if anyone knew the significance, but no one commented. It looked pretty neat. I wonder if it was in memory of someone- whoever did it must have been out there pretty early, as we were running at 5:30 am and the lake was already lit up.

Here’s a picture of just one of the many candles!

10 min core + 10 min upper body on Peloton after work- minimal strength training this week with Boston around the corner!

We had a visitor this week, my friend Vicki’s golden retriever Breck. He’s the sweetest pup; Matilda and Ruth love him. (So do we!)

Wednesday: 6 easy miles, 9:25 min/mile average, a rainy run with my friend Christie- just drizzling the whole time…snapped this rainy morning picture of the Lake Harriet bandshell!

Sported my 2017 Boston Marathon finisher’s shirt for good luck!

10 min core after the run + a 3-dog walk!

Thursday: 5.5 miles with friends before work on an unseasonably cold and windy April morning- miserable, to be honest. The wind was brutal and the temps were in the 20’s. Not spring weather at all, even in Minnesota.

10 min core after the run.

I packed for Boston Thursday evening; Matilda helped, reminding me not to forget my finisher’s jacket!

By the way, what are your thoughts about wearing the jacket before the race? Tons of people in Boston are wearing it before the race, but I worry that its bad luck to wear it before I’ve actually finished!

Friday: I had off of work for Good Friday, which meant I could sleep in a little bit, do an easy 4 miler with strides (plus my 10 min of core) and then head to the airport for our 1 pm flight to Boston.

I was bummed to do my last pre-Boston run in APRIL with a little bit of fresh snow…

We said goodbye to Breck (and our own pups- I miss them but they are in good hands!)

We originally didn’t think we’d fly to Boston until Saturday, but then decided to go on Friday since it was a holiday for Dustin and me. Since we only had our main hotel Saturday-Tuesday, we had to book a different hotel for the first night, which was the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge, before switching to the Fairmont Copley Plaza for the rest of the trip (a beautiful historic hotel.)

The Fairmont is in a great location at the finish line; it’s also where a lot of the elite runners stay. In fact, we ran into Steph Bruce and her kids when we arrived to check in when I went over to pet Cori, the hotel dog (who was super sweet.)

Saturday: Dustin ran the B.A.A. 5k Saturday morning, so we were up early to walk to Boston Commons where that race started. The elite men and women were in separate waves, but then Wave 1 in which Dustin ran was pretty crowded- he said it was difficult to even run the first mile as he would have liked, but he still ran an 18:36- not a PR for him, but not terrible for a fun run!

It was fun to cheer for the 5k- that’s Keira D’amato in the maroon nike outfit, second from the left! Annie Frisbee (from Minnesota!) also raced.

We walked back to the Kimpton, packed up our bags, and grabbed an Uber to the Fairmont Copley Plaza.

Lots of pets to Cori upon check-in.

From there, we went to the expo.

To be honest, it was a bit over stimulating for me and soooo busy. We had to wait in a long line just to get into the expo and the line to buy any gear was another long one. Working through the crowds was stressful, especially since very few were wearing masks. I understand that’s how the World Majors’ expos are- there’s a lot of people involved, I get it, this isn’t my first rodeo! But it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for me, and I was ready to go back to the hotel and be quiet after 2.5 hours on my feet at the expo. We pre-ordered some sandwiches from Tatte by Berklee and went back to the Fairmont to relax and rehydrate for awhile.

Later that evening, we took the T to the North End for a delicious pasta meal at Bricco. Loaded up on carbs!

No running on Saturday- lots of walking + 10 min of core.

Sunday: We slept in a bit; I did my 10 min of core before heading out for a shakeout run along the Charles River, 4 miles + another stop at the finish line for a few photos.

Tip- the crowds at nearly every restaurant in the area were insane (even more so since it was Easter Sunday), so we almost always ordered ahead online and brought food back to the hotel rather than wait in the long lines. On our way out to grab lunch, there was Shalane Flanagan, Adrianne Haslet, and Joan Benoit Samuelson, just chatting in the lobby! So cool.

Adrianne lost her leg in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing; Shalane is running with her tomorrow! Read more HERE.

Summary: 35 miles of running, daily core, minimal strength training.

I’m excited to race tomorrow; my only goal is only to enjoy the experience. I’m actually changing my Garmin from auto-lap to elapsed time so I don’t even know what pace I’m running. Who knows what that will mean pace-wise, but it doesn’t really matter. I just want to walk away with a positive experience on a challenging course. I appreciate that I’m lucky to be here and I want to have fun tomorrow. I’ve mentioned that this is my 5th marathon in 10 months, so I’m ready for a little break from pounding out the high mileage for a little bit; I’ll definitely do a fall marathon, but TBD on what that will be. I don’t have plans to come back to Boston for awhile and after a tough day my first time in 2017, I really hope tomorrow is a joy vs. a struggle!

And that’s a wrap! I’m linking up as always with Running on the Fly and Confessions of a Mother Runner as part of their Weekly Rundown. Check it out!