I ran the BOSTON MARATHON 2015. I can't believe it. These girls made it happen. I love my little running group (although we did miss Jenn and Nina in Boston). This was such an amazing experience and trip. I honestly couldn't have imagined how awesome this race would be. Get ready for picture overload!
We were missing our running buddy Jenn, but she is so thoughtful, she made us all these little goodluck goodie bags. She spent time figuring out little quotes to go with each of the candies she gave us that reminded her of us! She is so sweet.
We spent Saturday and Sunday touring around and getting ready for the big race on Monday.
There is so much American history in Boston. Jake was studying Massachusetts in school this year, so it was fun to talk to him about some of the fun places we toured. I really liked touring USS constitution along the Freedom Trail. This ship never lost any battles in war.
We saw Paul Revere's house (above and to the left) where he lived with all his 13 kids. We passed the love lock bridge, and had to get a good shot of the Fire Department.
We had a great start to Sunday Morning by attending the local ward in Cambridge. There were several other visitors for the marathon as well.
From the church, we grab a "hop on, hop off" bus and started resting our legs on a driving tour of the city. Pretty fun to tell people we are from UTAH and see if they would ask us if we were mormon or not.
A cute shot of Tara at Fenway Park and a goofy selfie of me and Kat on the bus.
We headed to the Expo on Sunday evening and got to meet Team Hoyt who is a father son team that run the Boston Marathon every year. I know one day I'll see Brian and Danny at Boston. They will be there as soon as Danny turn 18 (boston regulation).
After the Expo, we walked down to the finish line. They had the roads blocked off so we could walk down and get pictures.
So, we are smiles today and the weather has been GREAT! But in just a few short hours, the rain will start and it will be FREEZING... great way to run 26.2 miles. Glad we got a few good pictures before the race. :)
As we were walking by the finish line, we saw one of the victims from the 2013 bombing. She was coming to run the race this year as an amputee. So emotional to see. I can only imagine the emotion during the explosions 2 years ago. It really is BOSTON STRONG. No terrorists can keep America from moving forward and conquering all. I am so grateful to live in the beautiful country and I'm so grateful for my health and ability to run like I do.
As we were touring around in the huge city with 1 million visitors this weekend, we ran into Aunt Penny and Wendy a few times. So fun to be there all together this year. In fact, there were like 70 runners from Utah in the race this year.
Totally by chance, we were at the finish line when a couple girls started asking us if we were from Utah and if we were in the Utah picture. Look below at all the awesome Utah runners. Way to represent ya'll!
Morning of the RACE!! everything was so well organized. We met at the Boston Commons and loaded up to get to the start line. NO WAITING. for 30,000 people, I could not BELIEVE we did not wait. We just walked right on to the bus. So great!
The bus ride always seems like FOREVER, but this time I was glad because it was raining and I didn't want to have to wait for the start in the rain.
But we lucked out again and it wasn't raining at all in the holding shoots. We were prepared though. Thanks to katie we had matching cloths and headbands with our names on them.
The snipers on top of the building at the start line made us all feel protected and a little scared at the same time. Pretty cool either way!
This is a picture of the start line below. SO MANY PEOPLE. It was pretty much people the whole run. It spreads out a little, but you never feel like you are alone. In fact, we felt like we were winning the whole race by the way the bystanders cheered for us.
So, the race began and we putted a long in the rain for a LONG TIME. It was so fun though. I will try to upload some video of the crowds. It was cold and wet but I couldn't believe how many people still came out to cheer on perfect strangers. I felt like a rock star. It was pretty cool! :)
So, these are the sweet blankets they gave us at the end of the race and it was SOOO nice. But we had to walk about a mile back to our hotel and I thought I might die. Seriously, the worst part about the race was this walk home. Notice the picture above is 4 ladies, and the pictures below are just the 3 of us. Tara wasn't waitin' around for nothin' and hi-tailed it back to the room to get in the warm shower. She was the smart one that didn't wait for pictures!!!
The best part of the finish was seeing my mom and sister cheering so loud at the end!! My favorite fans. They planned a girls trip around my race and I was so glad to have time to hang with them for a few days after the race.
So, I mentioned that my cousin Wendy ran the race above and my mom's sister Penny came to cheer her on. We over lapped in the city for one day and were able to spend a few hours with them eating and relaxing (after I had showered and warmed up) at my favorite place, The Cheesecake Factory.
So, the cutest thing ever was that Taylor sent me a congratulations package from the hotel with a sweet note. He has been so supportive through all the hours of running. I know it benefits him too (in many ways) but it is still a big commitment and stress on the rest of my family when I train for marathons much less when I leave for 6 days because of one! I'm grateful I have such a good one for eternity, that is for sure!
we got in some good touring and I only repeated a few things I did with
my running gals. The USS constitution being one of those cool things!
One evening we walked the freedom trail and walked through Boston Commons to get to our hotel. It was perfect weather and SUPER pretty.
We did not have a shortage of food on our vacation. We tried the famous "mike's pastries" and they were okay, but we still ate like 5 (because there were so many different flavors we had to try them all!).
We did the duck tour and drove right into the water. Pretty fun and we got a great shot of the old north church from the boat.
I loved Quincy Market. It had something like 100 food shops in the building and they all looked good! It reminded me a little of Time Square. A very happenin place. Outside the market were fun street performers. This guy below, tied himself in a straight jacket and hung upside down in chains and was able to work himself free. Kind of cool. kind of.
I really liked touring Cambridge and Harvard square. We saw an exhibit in Harvard with hundreds of blown glass flowers and plants. So super cool, but I didn't get any pictures. Here below we are touching the shoe of Mr. Harvard himself to give us good luck!
This was a yummy italian restaurant that was recommended. The line was a block long, but the food was great and the atmosphere was fun. The server was this old italian guy and he cracked us up. He was so abrasive it was a little intimidating to order! He was funny though and hit on mom.
Just some touring shots. Above left is a monument for I think the 150 year anniversary of Harvard. And above right was us in front of what we thought was the Old North church, but turns out it was the south church. :) ha. We just like to take pictures....
And some more food to eat. This cafe was so perfect. Right on Boylston street and the weather was perfect to eat outside! Why could it not be like this on race day?!
Love my mom and sister so much. They are always up for something fun and are the best people to travel with because they are happy to do anything and everything.
My mom had a birthday while we were there, so we all went to this really cool restaurant called the hub and it was on the top floor of the prudential tower. Such a cool view. We just grabbed some cake to celebrate, but it was YUMMY!! Can't believe mom is 69. She is so healthy and active. I hope I can be just like that!!
