Marathon weekend has arrived!!

It was a quite a busy marathon weekend. Thursday night i spent several hours driving the course, overall it took 4 hours (dinner included)! After work we hopped in the car and set out on Comm Ave going backwards on the course towards Hopkinton, MA. With Thursday night traffic, it took a bit of time to get there. However, i wanted to do it being unfamiliar with the first 10 miles of the course. I have never been to Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham center or Natick center. We made it to Hopkinton and saw the start line (pic below), and drove back all the way in 26.2 into Boston. Getting home after 10pm i felt exhausted afterwards, and i was only driving!

With a very busy work week completed, I took it easy on Friday night eating a homemade meal at home with my parents. Saturday was dedicated for the Expo. Picked up the DFMC materials, my race number, chip and other goodies, we headed into the expo to look around. it was extremely crowded on Saturday morning. I had my heart set on the marathon jacket, and possibly another item if it caught my eye. We left an hour later with a new running pouch (to carry my shot blocks and ipod), and headband. I decided to hit up Marathon Sports on Boylston for my jacket, the expo Adidas area was way too overwhelming and crowded to wait in line and try things on... Another long day of driving around, etc i was at home ready for more rest, good food and more hydration. Sunday was another big day, first off to Paige's Baptism in S. Dartmouth, MA where i was asked to be her Godmother. After the mass and baptism, sadly i was unable to stay very long in order to be back in Boston for the DFMC Pasta Party. Back in Boston i experienced my first DFMC marathon pasta party. The program included speakers from Dana Farber, Bill Rogers, Uta Pipping, Delores Barr Weaver, Jan Ross and of course the one and only Jack Fultz. The dinner was quite inspirational hearing words from previous marathon winners, DFMC 5, 10, 15 and 20 year runners, families with cancer patients fighting for their lives, and those that have lost loved ones to cancer. Thank you DFMC for hosting a great event! That night, i organized my bag for the race, my clothes for the run, showered and got to bed early.

Marathon Monday finally arrived!! Meg, David (her bandit runner fiance), Beth and I met a Deb's for a ride out to Hopkinton. Matt and Ronde (Deb's husband their westie doggie) were very generous to drive us at 6:30am to the start. Arriving at the church where the DFMC runners await start we snapped a quick few pics.

Waiting for the start of wave 2, we decorated or running singlets, assembled for a DFMC team photo, listened to a last few words from Jack, used the restroom many times, ate bagels, bananas, power bars, as we awaited our start time of 10:30am.

Finally it was time for us to line up! Lining up at the start, i couldn't believe the time had arrived, it was time to run the Boston Marathon!!

More to follow..........