Boston Half Marathon

I was super, uber excited to run this race. The year before, on Columbus Day weekend, Jon and I went for an 11 mile run. It was a super cool run. As we neared Fenway, we saw all of these people who had just finished a race. We stopped and found out which one--the Boston Half Marathon.

I decided to check it out---and well, stalked it until race registration opened. I did a pretty good job, I think, since I ended up with race number 103. :)

Mark and I always look forward to going to Boston on that weekend and spending time with Jon. It had the added bonus of a race that I was really, really looking forward to.

The weekend was great--we flew in on Friday night, enjoyed the Thirsty Scholar and crashed around 11:30. We slept in a little, got up, went for a run together, cleaned up and headed to one of my fave brunch spots in the city: The Nutty Squirrel (although it's real name is the Friendly Toast). We saved ourselves the hour long wait when we nabbed some spots at the bar and hunkered down for some awesome food!

Bellies full, we went on the prowl to explore Boston. We did a lot of walking around--not to anywhere in particular, but enjoying it all. We saw go kart racing near Government Center and had a coffee in the North End. We ended up near the Common and watching a late afternoon show of The Social Network. We were all excited to see the pats of Boston and John Hopkins that we frequent (go Thirsty Scholar!).

Dinner that night was with Curt back at the Tavern in Central Square. Shouldn't have had them, but the tater tots and the pan o' fries were AWESOME! What a great meal! We called it an early night to get up early the next morning for the run.

We were on the road by 7:30 to drop me off at the park...Mark and Jon took off to find parking for the car and to stake out their claim.

Here's where my adventure began.

It was a about a 10 minute quick walk from the drop off to the start. It was a brisk morning. I had about 30 minutes until the gun went off. I knew I wanted to use the port-o-potty before the start....so I found one near the start line...separate from the long lines, but it had a line. I waited for about 10-15 minutes and then someone came by and said that we all had to go to the other ones because they were about to start the wheelchair race and since this was so close to the start (and probably in the pics) we couldn't use it. That was awful! After a sprint across the field, I got in line...again.

When the gun for the race started, I had one person in front of me.....I was bummed, but realized that with the large runner field I would still be able to jump in and be ok. I quickly went and ran in....it was the fastest, late (even though I was on time) start ever for me!

It wasn't long at all, just before mile one that I saw Mark and Jon---cheering me on! :) It was cool!!!




The run was a beautiful one---through lots of parks and green space....it was in a part of Boston I hadn't been to before.

I enjoyed the run a lot....and was on record to have a PR, until I had a bathroom emergency at mile 11. I really thought about not stopping but thought the consequences of not stopping could be worse. I literally had a two minute bathroom stop. Had I not stopped, and had disaster not struck, it would have been a PR. As it was it was a pretty good time--I'm just glad it was under two hours.

Jon and Mark caught some great photos of me finishing in White Stadium.



After a little bit of back and forth through the crowd I found Mark. :) Jon was in the stands cheering Curt in....

I was very excited to take my picture at the post run picture spot with my jazzy new top--for finisher's only!

And then we nabbed an egg and cheese burrito from a food truck they had. Yummy!!!


We met back up with Jon, Curt and Trisha back toward the finish line....

and took a group shot. I love this photo!


Jon had the perfect idea for brunch--a new place...Mike's City Diner!

We had a little bit of a wait, but with food truck burrito in our bellies, we were good to go...

and the wait was so worth it!


YUM!

As if our weekend weren't full enough we went to the Oktoberfest in Harvard Square--another Columbus Weekend tradition. So fun!

And full of fun, colorful cupcakes! This vendor learned from last year when they sold out....this year, chock full of great, fun colored cupcakes!

Thanks for another awesome weekend Jon! :) We can't wait to visit next year! :)

Race number 18--CHECK!

2249 123/352   103 F3539 Amy Trenkle   35 F Washington DC    44:44 1:29:24 1:59:33  2:03:05



Splits:



Mile 1  8:49.24

Mile 2  9:00.25

Mile 3  9:02.77

Mile 4  8:42.08

Mile 5  9:08.66

Mile 6  8:46.21

Mile 7  9:13.91

Mile 8  8:48.69

Mile 9  8:42.71

Mile 10  9:09.62

Mile 11 11:10.61

Mile 12  9:14. 14

Mile 13  8:51. 77

Mile .1  54.00

Final:  1:59.34

(without pit stop:  1:57.34)



Average:  8:32.48