Boston's Run to Remember Half Marathon

Going into Boston's Run to Remember Half Marathon, my goal was just to have fun. Running in Boston would be a one-time deal for me. I love Boston, but traveling is pricey. Once you add up the hotel, travel expenses, food and any shopping done is quite a bit of money. My husband traveled with me and we had a fun weekend getaway.

Before the star of the half marathon Sunday, the race announcer said it was 60 something degrees with 89% humidity. He was reminding everyone to drink fluids and often. When the starting horn went off, I shuffled along the course with everyone else. For the first few miles, no mile markers where to be found. If they did have them out, I missed them. I was unsure as to how we I ran. I knew the first water station had to be somewhere nearby. I totally missed it. I was running on the left side of the course and the water stop was on the right side only. There was no way to cleanly make it over to the water stop without running into people. I missed it. I told myself another water stop would be two miles away.

I was ready for the second water stop. So was everyone else. I arrived at the first table and it was chaos. The glasses of water were not ready for the runners. The volunteers were pouring them as we arrived. It was like all of us were fighting each other just to get a drink. All of the water stops were like that. After the second water stop, I finally waited to grab a cup near the end. More cups of water were available because most of the runners were stopping at the first table.

I mentioned above that this half marathon was just for fun. But it is also nice to run well. At the half way point, I was at 64 minutes. I knew that my finishing time would be over two hours. I wanted to get it as close to two hours as I could. I increased my speed just a little. It was probably at when I finally knocked off some time. The rest of the race, I was just holding onto that.

Coming in towards the finish, we had to run over a bridge. It had an incline of course. The best thing about it was it was all downhill to the finish line. Nearing the finish line, completely drenched in sweat from head-to-toe, I gave it my all. I finished in 2:03:59. I was pleased with my performance. I ran a half marathon on a very humid and warm day in Boston. Until Monday, Michigan hasn't had that type of weather. I enjoyed running the streets of Boston. It is something I'll never forget.

Place: 2225/5236
Division: 353/1068
Net time: 2:03:59
Pace: 9:28