boston marathon 2016- pre race, all the porta potties

if i thought my 2014 chicago/blog ending post was difficult to write... that one is nothing compared to this one (these... this blog will be coming in a few parts i think). i remember sitting on an airplane heading home after (a disasterous) race of a lifetime, trying to process qualifying for boston on the streets of the windy city. luckily it was dark on the plane so my row mate didnt see me crying. in a weird twist, throughout all the emotions ive felt over the last 18 months leading up to this race, i have yet to cry. youre likely as shocked as i am. (and im sure by the end of this post it will happen. lets bet on it, shall we?)

i wish i could remember everything from this past weekend. it all seems like such a blur now. and i dont care if this is a zillion paragraphs long, im gonna try to include everything i can. because when i look back in 10 years, i want to relive it. each moment, each step, id say each tear... but nope. each bud light? i had a few. (and canollis. mmmmm).

ok i had maybe 4 all weekend. beers and canollis.

i drove down to boston on friday to pick up my bib and get my two aunts from illinois at the airport. this was a fantastic idea because i was able to get in and out of the expo without having to face huge crowds, got to get clothes that actually fit me, and got to see friends! yay! i also got in a shake out run along the last few miles of the course... a little bit of time to myself to just think about what was actually coming for me on monday. a long awaited reality. (and i did shed a few tears on that run)

i didnt sleep well friday and saturday night. undesirable, but not all that unusual. my last shake out run at home sunday morning (at 5am, and a walk with sarah) was 32 degrees. i hadnt been obsessing over the weather planned for monday, but i had been checking it... luckily the high of 72 in boston was now down to a high of about 64 (with an overnight low in the high 40s. perfect for a marathon start!... at 7am. oof). what i hadnt been doing was checking morning/noontime temps in hopkinton, ashland, and framingham. whos idea was it to start the boston marathon so late?! i had approximately 6 belgian waffles before heading down to boston, no real nerves to speak of at all (just exhausted). ty and i walked around the finish line a little bit and i tried to take a little nap in the afternoon before dinner (didnt really fall asleep). i laid everything out for the next morning, took a shower and put in the race braids, had dinner and tried to get some sleep. success!

i got up about 5:15am, ate, paced, had some coffee, and we headed out for boylston street. bag drop off and bus loading was a breeze. i met up with a friends how helped make sure i got on bus #22 (obviously). i absolutely had boston marathon virgin written all over me... sans gallon bag of water (just all the open mouth thumbs up excited selfies). i must say the bus ride, although i know kinda a big part of the whole experience, was not comfortable for my legs and it felt like it took forever. when we unloaded the bus, the first thing i noticed were police on top of the buildings and helicopters flying overhead. ugh. needless to say i felt very safe, but it was a tough reality of the day/the world we live in. we walked towards the entrance and under the banner to athletes village... i was really here.

i walked through towards the back tent where apparently the party was (or so i was told) and it was there that i found ALL the friends. seriously, in a sea of 20,000 plus people, i found 7 that i know. crazy. (ok two meet ups were planned, but the others werent!) i went to get some of the free water they were handing out (yeah yeah i know ill never hear the end of this ridiculous story) and there was maddy and katie right on the ground! and we look to our right, wade and ward were dressed in their bathrobes in the porta potty line. and then along pranced sara! it quickly became a crow party for sure. 

we had to say goodbye to aaron super early because he was basically in the elite wave, and sara and i headed for the first of our many porta potty trips. we took all the selfies (both in line and inside the porta potties... totally not weird... and totally not in the same porta potty, just to clarify). we even got a professional pic in the first line!

porta potty (snapchat) pros

i felt like eating for this late start race was going to be a pain, but i basically just had two of what i normally have (2 pieces of peanut butter toast, a banana, and some coffee before leaving, then brought pretzels and a peanut butter sandwich with me for athletes village). i loaded up on the pretzels once i arrived because i felt like it was warmer than what i had expected and figured the extra salt might do me some good (i also had 40 salt pills in my handheld. just incase). from what people were saying and from what i have read since the race, it was almost 70 degrees before we even started the race. lovely. we were definitely hot in AV, and there was zero cloud coverage... i knew i was likely going to be adjusting my race plan, but figured id see what happened once the gun went off.

maddy and katie left us next, leslie soon met up with us, and again we lined up in a porta potty line (seriously, this was what we did all morning. and it was fantastic). we also lathered sunscreen on each other and body glide (on ourselves), stuffed more food in our mouths, and downed all the free water we could get our hands on (they had tons! super nice of them!). and just for the record... the ONLY race i can remember that had water at the start has been the beach to beacon. which, incase you were unaware, is directed by the same guy as the boston marathon. so im calling bluff on all you people telling me water is at every race start. cuz i havent seen it. even chicago i didnt see water! lots of porta potties though. anyway...

before we knew it we said our goodbyes to the porta potty lines and headed towards the athletes village exit for our long walk to the start line. sara and i sadly had to part ways with leslie (although not without questioning why she left us... only to find out she was actually supposed to leave us and go towards corral 2, not with us lonely people in corrals 3 and 4. i was also so confused as to where the different corrals went because the start line was in one spot... oh well)

you guys... someone ("the virgin") was a little excited (!!!!)

right before the corrals there is one last porta potty stop, so of course we got in line (the slowest one without toilet paper). a fellow crow, melissa, came and found us in line and we grumbled a lot about the heat. we then headed to our corrals, and heard the announcer say there was 2 minutes until wave 3 left. i tucked right into the back of corral 4 (and i wasnt alone! but i didnt know anyone and couldnt find the one girl from instagram that i was going to try to meet up with). apparently sara didnt even make it into her corral on time before the crowd started to move, so im not sure where she ended up. we slowly shuffled our way to the start line, and we were off. i was now literally running the freaking BOSTON MARATHON!

just. breathe.