April Showers Puddle Runs

I read this at the NYTimes website this morning: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/us...osions.html?hp

"But many runners, clad in the blue and gold jackets given to this year’s marathoners, made pilgrimages to the blockade on Boylston Street, pausing to take pictures with their cellphones. Others came wearing jacket from previous marathons — the symbol of accomplishment had, apparently, turned into a sign of solidarity."

SO wear that jacket, in pride, in solidarity with others for surviving this terrifying experience.

Yes, to what Trisk said, but also yes, to "just wear it." You earned it, no matter what, with all the training, rehabbing, nutrition, and running until they stopped the race. And running at a very respectable pace, too.
Plus, just going to the exhibition hall to get the shirt and jacket was kind of a marathon itself.

All the local running clubs came together this morning for a Boston memorial run, well over 200 people at 7 am in 34F weather. I didn't make it, as I was preregistered to race my nearby high school's 5k. Pretty good turnout for that too, although quite a few fast runners who usually do this race were at the memorial run. 24:55, about 30 seconds slower than I'd hoped, but good enough to win my age group. Think I was 4th or 5th overall among women. I didn't push to the finish line the way I could have, as there was no one close enough to catch and a pretty stiff headwind. Still, the 3rd mile was my fastest, even though I'm doubting the mile markers were quite right...

Bummed that they ran out of small tshirts. Why don't race organizers realize that runners are much thinner than the general population, and order accordingly? On the other hand, I have way too many race shirts, and this one was ugly.

It's only really been since yesterday that I could walk, seeing as my recovery was less than ideal, but I wanted to do a little memorial run too. So I just jogged one km each for Martin Richard, Lu Lingzi, Krystle Campbell and Sean Collier (plus a little farther for the wounded).

I did the best I could for blue and yellow, with the hi-viz yellow top I'd packed in case it was warm for my last tapering run, and the blue headband I raced in. And I wore the "Fearless" bracelet I got from Kathrine Switzer at the expo, which has been on my wrist every day this week.

I am so ready to go home.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OakLeaf

I know it's the least important thing in the world, but I need another marathoner to tell me I've earned the right to wear my shirt and the jacket I bought. Or not.

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Just caught the Boston Marathon conversation in this thread. Oak, I'm not a marathoner but I feel very strongly that this year's Boston marathoners especially earned the right to wear the shirt and jacket, regardless of where they were in the race when it was ended.

The pictures of the medal hand-out in the following days after the race were pretty amazing. No question on the jacket - you earned the trip there and you were so close to the finish, I'm sure you ended up covering the physical distance one way or another and in your heart you covered so much more.

I was traveling the beginning of last week so I ran while I was gone (usually I alternate bike/run days), but when I got back I still did my "Run for Boston" run - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater - and bike. ;) This weekend I did 12 after a 3 hour ride, which I felt during the uphills on today's bike commute but things are feeling pretty good.

Also, adidas is selling t-shirts, 100% of profit goes to One Fund Boston: http://www.adidas.com/us/boston-tribute-tee/_/N-1z125b0 (of course, you can just donate to One Fund Boston, but the t-shirt isn't bad - and the first big label one I've seen where they aren't making money on them. ;))

We got home late yesterday afternoon, and I don't think I've ever needed a run so much in my life as I did today.

I did 7.6 today - longest I've ever run this soon after a marathon - at nearly the pace I raced at, in weather 25° hotter and much more humid, which if I needed any more proof I didn't give it everything on Monday, there it is. Racing too conservatively is a perennial problem of mine, and the fact that my training had been so conservative really contributed to that. I think I'm still haunted more than I realize by the memory of blowing up in a mile race as an anorexic 12-year-old, having refused the pre-race lunch the rest of the team ate.

But. If I'd laid everything I had on the line on Monday, it might have been *literally* everything. I might have been right there. And DH ... some guardian angel was watching him. You were right, he *should* have been at the finish line waiting for me, and if the bombing hadn't happened, I'd be giving him holy h#ll for having gone straight to the family meeting area instead. As it was, that's where he was, well out of danger and out of view. (And I did get to see him cheering me on in Wellesley, in a more innocent time. :( )

I did wear the jacket this weekend. Partly as an invitation to exchange sympathy with anyone who felt moved to give or receive it - including the Boston-based flight attendant on the last leg of my trip yesterday, and the man who came up to me in a restaurant in Austin to tell me, in a heavy German accent, that as a fellow runner, he too had been touched by what happened. And I wore it as a message to random strangers that my tolerance for mean behavior, rudeness, or general BS towards me or anyone else was exactly zero.

+1 on the pictures of the medal hand-out. The BAA has been amazing through all of this. I'm getting emails and Facebook posts every day on topics as wide ranging as how to pick up gear bags (I didn't check any), when final results will be released, and resources for dealing with PTSD. I'm so impressed with them and with the whole town of Boston.

Like.
I had been tracking you, and I surprised myself with my (poor) math ability and figured out that you were at about mile 25.5 when the first bomb exploded.
And because of that, I thought you had been going the perfect pace.
Things are getting back to normal here. I am going into Boston both Friday night and Sunday for the first time since I went to the expo with you. It should be interesting.

A couple friends are doing marathons today-- Louisville and Nashville. I'm excited for them, but also find myself more worried than usual for them. Not that I think anything will happen, but... And one of them has a goal time of 4:10, too. That's what she's been aiming for throughout her training, but now that time has more meaning.