Five days before the race, my under-preparedness was complete. I ran 5 miles on Monday, and knew I wouldn’t have another chance (read: I wouldn’t make another chance) to run again before the Saturday race. With travel to Maine and other scheduling issues I knew it wouldn’t happen. Oh well, that’s kinda how my year has been going!
I focused on the positives of the trip: I would see my family, some of whom I hadn’t seen since last August. I would meet two friends in person for the first time, who I’ve known online for years! I would run my 6th consecutive Beach to Beacon.
Sarah B. and Christy are two wonderful women who I met several years ago on the Weight Watchers message boards, in a daily thread for C25K Grads (couch to 5k). The group consisted of like-minded runners who shared weight struggles and running victories. I eventually migrated from that site to Facebook, where we still have a group, and keep in touch that way. We have gotten to know each other quite well, but I had never met any of them face to face. Sarah and Christy both live in the Northeast, and had decided to run the Beach to Beacon. I was so excited!
At packet pickup on Friday evening, I met up with Sarah. I knew her instantly when I saw her (but it helped that she texted me with the color of the clothes she was wearing). Yay! She was taller than I expected, but otherwise as advertised. She met (and hugged and kissed) my sisters, cousin, and mom. We walked around the expo for a bit, then some of us needed to get over to the kids’ race. Sarah was going to hang out at the expo until Christy got there (Christy was stuck in traffic coming up from Boston). Christy was sharing my hotel room that night, but it seemed I’d have to wait a bit to meet her.
After the kids’ race (which was great as usual, other than the lack of ice cream for the older kids because they ran out by the time their heats were run), we all went our separate ways. Natalie was spending the night at my mom’s, so I headed back to the hotel by myself. At about 9pm, Christy knocked on the door. Yay! She was just as I imagined her, and just as sweet as Sarah. We didn’t have a lot of time to chat before bed, but we felt like old friends.
Race morning went as usual. Five of us rode in one car to the shuttle bus stop and had a grand ‘ole time on the car ride. My cousin Susanna decided to wait in line at the port-o-potties while we were waiting for the bus, and just narrowly missed getting on our bus. The fact that she hadn’t been standing in line with us when the lady counted out the number of bus riders meant that my sisters Beth and Julie had to sit 3-to-a-seat with some random (non-appreciative) girl. Nice job, Susanna 🙂 Anyway, we arrived at the start line. And of course took some pictures!
Beth (who I ran with 2 years ago in her first B2B) had been doing well with training, and we decided that our pace would be similar, so we’d run together, at least to start. Julie is normally much faster than us, but she hadn’t been training much, and wanted to run with us as well. A few other friends were going to be around the same pace, so we planned to start as a group. Sarah and Christy were going to run together, and I didn’t end up seeing them again until after we finished.
I’m not gonna lie, I struggled the entire 6.2 miles. I kept saying to myself that I had survived a 10k course WAY worse than this in June. Before the race, I decided that my first goal was to run the whole thing (regardless of time). After the first 1/2 mile, my second goal materialized: to high-five as many kids along the course as possible. This is a huge spectator race, so there are plenty of kids to high-five. I stayed on the right-hand side of the road, and touched every little hand that was sticking out for that purpose. Some of them just held out their thunder sticks (you know, the inflatable balloons you bang together at sporting events), which may have been prompted by the realization that runners’ hands are sweaty. No matter, I hit hands and thunder sticks alike.
I ran the whole race with Julie and her friend Sara (Beth and others had gone ahead of us pretty early on). The three of us crossed the finish line holding hands, like the dorks we wanted to be. However, I quickly let go of Julie’s hand to cross to the middle and high-five Joan Benoit Samuelson, who was cheering us on at the finish line. I couldn’t let THAT opportunity pass me by! It’s not often you get to be in the company of an Olympic Gold Medalist, and now I’ve high-fived her twice in my life (so far).
I would say the race was a success for me. I’ve had a bad year, but I still ran it and survived to tell about it. I got to meet two amazing ladies that I’ve wanted to meet for years! And I high-fived every child possible. How could it possibly get any better?
Next up: Women Run the Cities 5k, 9/22/13
You almost bowled me over at one point to get to the high-fivers – “I have to go on that side.” *push* 🙂 Thanks for being my running buddy!
Love Love Love this race report. Thanks for sharing this with us! C25K GRADS ROCK!!