View Workout (Ben Yavitt)
Off Day: Boston Marathon
April 20, 2015 (Morning)
Exercise Type: Other
Comments:
Tired this morning. Phil actually woke us up he came over to chill before we headed out to the race. We hung out, reminisced, and watched some of the early stages on the computer before heading out to Kenmore. We spotted up a little closer to the "1 mile to go" sign, not actually on the bridge. It was a great spot had a view of the bridge and the stretch down Commonwealth. Weather was a total 180 from last year. It was cloudy, windy and cold. I had on enough layers but as the wind whipped, it was really bone chilling. Felt like that weather you freeze your ass off at a late season XC meet or something. Last year it was all sun (even yesterday it was all sun). We had a while to wait until the runners came by, so we cheered for all the wheelchair racers. Cromer got us a ton of cowbells. We all had a bunch to bang around and it was so clutch. Helped alot with keeping the cheering up. I gave a few to these little Chinese kids its was legit. The runners finally started to make it in. Elite womens race was really close, and the elite men were flying but spread out. Most of the Americans dropped back, but it was really cool seeing Ritz come flying by, as well as Meb who was just waving to the crowd and soaking it in. It really got intense when the other parts of Wave 1 started to come in. Craighead was way way up there just crushing it. He had an awesome race and looked real strong coming through. What great training he has put in and it showed in an awesome race. I really like the constant stream of people, because you can constantly cheer for whoever, yelling out jersey and team names, or people wearing funny things. It makes it a really awesome atmosphere. The runners did a great job in the rain, and the fans were out there loud as ever. It started to rain, pretty hard at times also, as everyone started to come rolling in. That made my hands cold and my body soaked. We had to bail out after several hours to go warm up. We got to see Colin which was really cool. Warmed up and ate dinner then went back out for a little longer to look for Phil's mom. We must have missed her, but it was fun to cheer for the slower runners as they were really enjoying it. I felt like the race was back to normal. Last year there was still the pain lingering from the bombing, but now it was back to good old racing and good old community fun. Everyone was out there to do what was meant to do in the first place.
After our second cheering stint, went back and got my stuff then headed out early. I didnt want to deal with the clogged T like last year, so Phil and I just walked in the rain up to Public Garden, then I walked over to Park St and took the T from there to South Station. Good to get a little leg movement in after standing and shaking cow bells all day. It was great to just walk and talk with Phil too. Good times meeting up and reminiscing, picking up right where you left off. Great weekend, seeing friends and being welcomed by all the runners in Boston. Good break from the stint I was in in lab too, I guess I needed this.
Made it back to Amherst on the express bus no problem. I was very tired when I got back and had errands to run, so got those done and prepped for the week. Back at it, but sometimes its necessary to take a break from reality. Legs are tired from the weekend (got a lot of mileage in) but how can they not be itching to run after seeing a day like today?