Photo Diary: #bostonstrong
Last year I had the opportunity to join an relay that traveled from LA -- Boston, joining in for a leg as they passed through the good ole' Lou. The experience was nothing short of inspiring. Read more about my previous leg, here.
It goes without saying that when ORFB, part 2 became a reality I signed up without a second thought. Come to find out my fellow leg mates had the same idea, so it was a (run) family reunion!
The day of the leg came, rose (on time -- shocker) and realized it was raining. No big deal, I'll wear a rain coat. Grab my things, almost make a mad dash out the door when M says, " do you realize there is a tornado warning? I don't think you should go." I won't bore you (too much) with details -- long story longer I went, and he was not pleased with my life decisions.
Get to the park, find that I'm not the only crazed runner running at 6 am in the middle of a thunderstorm.
Stretched inside (thank God for the park worker who let us in) and waited for the baton transfer.
Kate sporting her mad wheeled cooler skills
Once "miles" the baton was passed we were off.
The above photo is the sole reason I don't take photographs whilst running. I clearly cannot multitask.
We did a loop around Forest Park (6 miles) -- at some point day light broke so that was promising. The rain, however, had other ideas. It rain/poured on/off the entire time, and despite my raincoat resembled (and smelled of) wet dog.
That's Liz (in the above photo), mid action shot. I don't know her too well, but props to her for playing along and letting me get "action shots" while we paced each other.
Post run (water logged) shoe selfie
Signing the pace car
(l -- r)
Kate, Eric, Linda (she's running Boston again this year, good luck Linda!), and Danny
Yep. Rain coat did nothing . Soaked.
Interestingly enough, I had a meeting at 8 am that I "could not miss" so I rolled up looking like that. There were stares. I squished when I walked. But I was there.
After a long, long shower and some massive damage control on my hair I arrived at work, looking like a normal person.
Turns out a tornado did touch down in the area, which explained why all the trash bins/porta johns were over turned. Oops.
Ever ran a relay? In a thunderstorm?
Want to run Boston someday? It is definitely on my dream aspiration list to BQ
--As I was writing this post I was also listening to Boston Marathon live coverage, neat stuff.
CONGRATS to Meb Keflezighi (2:08:37), the first US winner since 1983, and Rita Jeptoo (2:18:57), the first female (Kenyan) who also broke a course record!
