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5:55am alarm. Slept alright. Feel good. Happy I made it to this day. I was supposed to pick up the shuttle between 6:30a and 7a at Commons. Thao & Vinh dropped me off there 😊. Here we go! Further into the Commons, gazillions runners were hiding as 5 long snaking lines for each bus. The challenge was finding the end of any line... Finally at 7:10am, my bus took off. I figured I’d be there so early. I mean how long can a 26mile ride take? Well, over an hour. We were on freeway for a while. Once we got off, narrow road in Hopkinton was gridlocked. By the time I got off the bus, it was 8:30am. Still a lot of time to 10:20 start, so I thought. But there was a lot to do! A short walk took us into the athletes’ village. It spun over two separate fields full of runners resting, tents in the middle for coffee, banana and bagels, and Gatorade/power bar offerings. Port-a-potties surrounded both areas.
Past 9:30a, just got through a pottie, wave 2 started being called to head to the starting line. Massive crowd started moving. As we got closer to
our corrals, road became narrower and it was hard to get through. Bag check buses were at the beginning of this 0.7mile march. Thank god for the RA sisters who gave me extra throw-away clothing. Apparently, everyone was prepared except for me because there were clothing collectors everywhere, even all the way to the starting corral. Residents along the march between the village and start were in great spirit! There seems to be a tradition of free coffee offering. Excitement is in Hopkinton air!! Shortly after I got to my corral, the race started, bang bang. Spectators were so loud! Neighbors waking themselves up. I saw a house with a big banner with an arrow pointing to their house saying "shortcut" :D. This is going to be a fun run!!
What I knew was that the first half would be mostly downhill. Second half from Wellesley until the heartbreak hill at mile 21 would be rolling uphill. Was it just me again but it seemed more like rolling hill all the way. I don't think there was much difference between first half and second half. Either way, I knew not to push it until Mile 21. The course
was full of runners on the course and spectators on the side. Local spectators were holding creative signs, water, orange and everything. I realized my right arm being sore, probably from carrying SLR for the past 3 days... I felt good otherwise and I kept it low effort...so I thought. Mile 10 rolled around and I felt unexpectedly sluggish. It's impossible. It's not even half yet!! What's going on?!?! At ~Mile 15, my pace dropped. Periodic downhill spared me here and there and carried myself to Mile 18. From there to Mile 21 was back-to-back uphill. After the first hill, I couldn't carry on. I had to stop for a breather 😞. Grrr, I so wanted to stop! I was sure the next 10k will be a hell.
I somehow made it through the heartbreak hill. Crowd was getting louder and louder. I know I only had a little more to go but BUT! I have to take yet another breather. Just keep moving forward...I'll eventually get to the finish. I've come this far. Why quit now? I know my pace was dropping so fast. 4-hr finish time, maybe. That's ok. Just keep going!!
In the
middle of this struggle, I heard my name and energetic cheer from the sideline e_e. Thank you~. I took that energy to keep moving my legs forward. At Citgo sign, I knew that I had just about a mile to go...yay. Through the underpass and the last corner to get onto Boylston St, the finish line came into sight...so much further than I thought, oh no~. C'mon c'mon c'moooon. I literally voiced "OMG" when I finally crossed the finish line. My legs were stiff like rocks and joints were hurting. Newbie! Slowly and gingerly I moved along the finish shoot for the medal, food and pics. Bag check was another block to go. My bus was located at the furthest, grrr. Wheelchairs carrying injured runners were seriously tempting, especially having few more blocks in mind to the meeting point. Everywhere was packed with people. Deeper in meeting point, I couldn't even find a place to put my bag down to grab my jacket. Shortly after, Vinh, Thao & Nicole found me in this frenziness.
This officially marked the end of a normal race day. My self-inflicted pain became trivial so fast I still don’t understand what happened. It
was already 2:30p for everyone. Needless to say that I was starving. As we were scrambling to lock onto a place to eat, we slowly made our way toward Prudential Building. As we got to Clarendon St at Boylston, BOOM. What was that? Firework? Canon? BOOM. ??? Again?? That's an attack, Thao said. We took a momentary refuge in a building where we started to hear “smoke”. We need to get outta here. As we made our way southbound, volunteers with walkie-talkie started to rush toward the finish area. As we went further toward South End, sirens of cops and ambulance became more frequent. Trying to find info on our cells but nothing clear. Chopper was hovering around Copley. No bueno. Found texts and messages on my cell asking if we’re ok. I was able to respond quickly enough not to cause agony for our concerned friends. We finally pieced it together at home when we saw the disturbing image on TV.
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