Our Last Boston Marathon

While I've still got running on the brain, I have to tell you about our last time watching the Boston Marathon.  I watched this marathon every year that we lived in Boston, cheering on the runners from Mile 19, aka "Heartbreak Hill," so naturally the three years we've lived in RI meant heading up to Boston to watch the race.  We were at the race when the bombs went off, we were at the race the year after that when security was so tight I suddenly felt like I was living in a war zone, and we watched this year in unusually cold weather in the pouring rain so I could cheer on one of my best friends while she ran.

This last time was also the first time I went to the runner's expo that's held a couple days before the race.  My best friend Tracey {Okinawa friend} was running and she invited me to come up and hang out in Boston for the day.  The runner's expo is at a convention center in Boston where all the 25,000 runners pick up their race packets and there are hundreds of vendors offering every sort of running item you can think of.  It was so cool being surrounded by so many fit people but I definitely felt like I was crashing a party.  I may be a runner but I'm no marathoner and definitely not fast enough to qualify for Boston.

The day of the race I debated whether to go or not.  I knew eventually it would probably rain on us but I decided it was better than sitting around at home so I gave the boys a pep talk about how incredible the marathon is and how it's the last time we will ever watch it until one of them runs in it someday {I hope}.

After the crowds of spectators left, we were still there going strong

Naturally after navigating through all the closed roads and detours, we arrived just after the first runners sprinted fast.  I was sad to miss it but was determined not to miss Tracey run by.  About ten minutes later it started to rain hard.  Most of our good friends from our Boston days quickly packed up and left {thankfully they left us with an umbrella} and we waited for Tracey.  I was so proud of my boys for huddling under the umbrella, squished together to stay out of the rain, cheering on runners and ringing the cow bell with gusto.  You can never have too much cow bell!  As soon as Tracey ran by we packed up our stuff and made the mile long trek back to our van.  We were cold and wet and my boys never complained which made me almost cry out of admiration for their adventurous spirit. To reward them for their awesomeness I took them to lunch at Costco and told them they could order whatever they wanted.  It was another memorable Patriot's Day at the Boston Marathon.

Hundreds of water cups probably full of rain water by the time the runners got there

The crowds of wet runners

The moment we were waiting for:  Tracey running by

My wet boys heading back to the van

Lunch at Costco warmed our bellies

Boston Marathon and More

We hadn't cleaned up or recovered from hosting our big Easter celebration but I didn't care.  I packed up the boys and we drove into Boston to watch the marathon at mile 19.  Even with my careful planning to navigate through the many road closures and detours, we missed seeing the first runners sprinting past by seconds.  Nuts!  That's the best part.  Those guys run so fast it is hard to believe even as you're watching it.  Did you know they run too fast to run on tread mills?  Wish I had that problem!  This had to be the safest race ever.  Policeman were everywhere!
The rest of spring break flew by.  We had sunny weather so the kids were able to play outside most of the time which meant I didn't have to entertain them. We drove over to the Navy base to meet up with Randy to go bowling on the one rainy day we had.  Randy and I did the ultimate nerdiest thing so far and pulled out our very own bowling shoes back from our Seattle Bowling days.  The boys had a great time and of course I felt bad for the old people who had to bowl next to us.  Landon actually helped himself to a drink from their pitcher of soda.  I was so embarrassed and had to buy them another one.  I bought a kite for the boys to fly, thinking that would provide an afternoon of fun.  It cost ten bucks and lasted about ten minutes before they got it caught in the neighbor's tree.  They tried desperately to free it but got yelled at by the neighbor so they came inside in tears.  I took pity on them and let them watch TV after that.

The first runners after the elite men had passed

The crowd goes nuts when they see people like this and it always makes me cry. 

So inspiring!

A marathon on crutches, wow!

36,000 runners this year

 My dream is that one day one of my little dudes will run the Boston Marathon

That's Parker playing with Donnie Osmond's son.  It's a small world when you're a Mormon.

My friend waving to her kids.  Usually she runs with the elite women but she just had a baby and had so slow down.  She still ran it in 3 1/2 hours which is really fast.

Bowling and eating pizza = a really good time

The winner for the slowest rolling ball.  His bowling name:  Carlos

The happiest bowler you'll ever see.  His bowling name:  Bob

Playing outside on Bean's new bike and his bowling name: Donkey Kong