Boston “So far”

Being this is the first time that I have traveled to Boston on something other than business, I have been looking forward to it for a few weeks now. Honestly, I have been quietly looking forward to it since I signed up last year.

Now, I am in Boston so I thought I would share what we have done "so far".

My trip started with an uneventful, but a pouring rain drive to the air port. I did get lucking in that the rain paused just long enough for me to get from my car to the shuttle bus without getting soaked. Definitely, this was one positive starting out this trip.

Airport check-in and security were not bad. The line was longer checking-in than it was for the security scan.

From there it was down concourse "C" to gate 9. Just a short time later Mike came walking up to me. We chatted and basically were checking out the other people preparing to board the plane. Between the running shoes and Boston Jackets, I would say the majority of the people traveling were runners. My guess is that this may have been one of the healthiest groups of passengers flying out of Charlotte Saturday morning.

Once in Logon Airport, we caught the shuttle to the Boston Mass Transit. Here was one of the less promising signs of the trip. The first train that pulls up to take us in to Boston breaks down on the spot. Everyone has to exit the train. They proceed to back the train out of the terminal and we all have to wait in the very windy platform. Let me tell you, the wind was really blowing.

But it didn't take long for the next train to come along. Soon we were headed down the blue line into Boston. There we switched trains to the green line for the rest of our ride. All told, we probably were on the two trains for about 45 minutes. The cost was 2 bucks which is cheaper than the 40 bucks Nathan spent on his ride into Boston. Albeit, his ride was actually quicker than ours so I guess there is some cost vs. speed benefit analysis.

The "flat" Mike found was great. We met the owner before dividing up the place.

Next up we headed out the door for 6 miles. I give Mike some credit here. He was my tour guide on this trip so I was just enjoying taking in the sights.

After a shower and change of clothes it was time to head off to the Bib pickup and Expo.

I have been through a number of Bib pickups for both large and small races. I have to say for the number of people entered in the mile through the marathon, the Bib pickup process was one of the easiest that I have completed.

After picking up our Bibs, we were funneled into the "buy your Boston gear section of the Expo". This was perfectly fine with me. For years, I have seen people wearing those Boston Jackets around and I was now on a mission to obtain one of my own. They had a huge selection. I ended up getting the traditional Boston jacket. Although I was disappointed to learn that Boston Logos were screen printed instead of embroidery as in previous years. Later, I learned from Mike that this was actually a mistake coming from the manufacturer. Personally, I would have sent them back if I had been Adidas.

Once I finished standing in line to purchase my jacket and some Boston Pins for my daughters, I headed into the rest of the Expo.

Wow, the Expo is huge. Every major shoe maker in the market was represented. Although, I think the Brooks guys were the tops because they created a theme for their exhibit. My "take" they used a Army triage type of theme were they funneled runners in and analyzed their running forms and wear patterns. No other shoe vender that I saw had this type of setup.

I circled throughout just about every aisle picking up as many freebies along way as possible.

By the time I walked out the door, I felt like I was on information over load. To put it another way, l felt like a kid in a candy store. There was so much to see that I could not take it all in.

From there we met up Young Megan's sister's boy friend, Megan, and Ben and headed over to the elite number pick up. Megan headed into pick up her stuff while we acted like her entourage and checked out the elite hospitality suite. In my opinion, it was very nice.

Megan got her number and we split up as we each had our own dinner plans.

Dinner of course included pasta and bread. I chased it down with a Protein Power Bar. A short time later it was off to bed.

Nathan who was traveling up on an evening flight finally arrived. I am guessing it was about 10:30. I don't really know. I only roused awake for a few seconds and went back to sleep.

I always know that I am surrounded by runners. The eye lids slide back around 6 AM this morning and I already heard Mike and Nathan moving around.

A little after 7 we headed out for our last run which would be just 4 miles. During the run, we took in Ben's 5k race.

Watching these guys run is simply amazing. They make running look effortlessly. We were watching from the 2 mile point and there was a group of probably 8 guys coming through in 9:30. They were followed by a steady stream of runners. Not too far back from the leaders was Ben coming through wearing his CRC shirt.

After the race, we spent a few minutes talking with Ben before running back to our place. Mike and I finished off with some nice strides.

For some reason, I just didn't feel all that great this morning. My legs seemed to be dragging which is something that I would have expected in my taper.

So rather than spend a ton of time walking around today, I choose to just lie around, watch TV, and read.

Tonight, I will get one more good night's sleep and tomorrow, we will see what we got.

Right now, the weather looks promising. The temperate should be mid to upper 40s at start. They should reach the mid 50s by the time that we finish. If the weatherman is correct, we will have a tail wind.

Well, this is rap for today. I will post something tomorrow after the race.

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner