The Day Before Boston

I'm on the flight to Boston and in less than 24 hours I will be running my 3rd (not including ironman) marathon.  It's not ideal that I'm arriving to Boston so late but with Easter this weekend I had to compromise to appease the kids.  I still "ruined" easter according to my dear daughter but I'm sure she will get over it.

My thoughts on the Boston marathon are pretty simple.  3 years ago I would have never even set a goal to qualify.  Then some how, through training for Ironman Florida I got it in my head that I wanted to run a full marathon and qualify.

I ran the Chicago marathon in 2012 on a last minute bought bib.  I paced Barry for the first 32k and instead of pulling out like my training plan said, I finished the last 10k feeling super strong.  It was after Chicago that I seriously contimplated training to qualify for Boston.

3 1/2 months after completing Ironman Florida,  I raced the Ft. Lauderdale marathon and qualified with a 3:37, well under my 3:45 qualifing time.  This, of course, was 2 months before the horrifying events at Boston last year.  It never even crossed my mind that I wouldn't run Boston in 2014. But it made qualifying this year a bit special. Though any year you qualify for Boston is special!

It's already been an emotional day and I can only predict many tears tomorrow as I run. My wave stars at 11 and if all goes well I will be across the finish line before the time the first bomb went off.  And I know that throughout my 42.2km,  26.1 miles, my thoughts will go to the families of those who lost their lives watching and cheering on a sport I adore.  When it seems too hard, I'll think of those folks who have had to learn to walk, to run, to  dance again on prosthetic limbs.

And when I cross that finish line - when I earn the right to say "I ran the Boston Marathon" it just might be the sweetest finish line I have ever crossed!

So don't forget to check up on me. Bib 19270, wave 3 start time 11 am.   You can track my 5k splits at www.baa.org.  you can also watch the race online at watchlive.baa.org.