Boston Marathon
Experiences: April 14-15, 2013
Sunday morning April 14th saw us heading
to the Atlanta Airport. Marq, Steph, Kris, Laura, Mike and Karen were flying to
Boston to participate in the 117th running of the Boston Marathon.
Kris and Marq will be running the race with Amby Burfoot, the 1968 winner of
the race. Amby is Laura’s dad and is celebrating this 45th
anniversary of his win by running with our kids and some other family and
friends. The rest of us were the Burfoot Team cheer squad. The flights were uneventful and we arrived at
Logan Airport on time. We got to the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Boston early
afternoon. This was the headquarters of the run; we went to convention center
where the kids picked up their “bib numbers” and packet of marathon materials. We
were all very excited to be part of this BIG Race and all of the activities. We
walked about quarter of a mile to see the finish line, quite prophetic
considering that we would not get back there. We took pictures of this with the
kids enjoying the moments. We then walked through the vendors’ area where
running goods of all descriptions were for sale. Sunday evening we attended a
“carb loading” dinner sponsored by the American Medical Athletic Association.
Amby was one of the speakers for the evening; he is a good storyteller and very
entertaining speaker. We were all ready for bed early, as the previous nights
had been a bit short on shut-eye time.
Monday, April 15, 2013 – we were all up early, the
Burfoot team met at 6:30am to catch the bus to the starting line. With kisses and hugs the kids and their fellow
runners headed off to catch the bus. They got to ride on the “Elite Runners” bus,
quite an honor for all. The Burfoot team was the 3rd wave of runners
to start, behind the elite runners and other “qualified” runners, so they
wouldn’t step off until about 10:40am. Laura, Steph, Mike and Karen joined Christina
(Laura’s step-mom), Uncle Gary (Amby’s brother) and “Smithy friend” Anna in the
chase van and headed out to see the race. We had the option to sit in the
grandstand and watch the finish, we are so glad we chose the van chase. Gary
and Laura were our driving/navigating team. They did a FANTASTIC job getting us
close to the stops where we got out and scurried to the side lines to wave our
signs (artfully made by Christina) and rang our cowbells, shook our clappers
and shouted encouraging words to runners going by. Our first view of the
Burfoot Team was at about mile 6 of
the race. Everyone looked GREAT! Smiles, hugs, kisses all around and the team
was off with flying feet down the road. The team was using Amby’s interval pace
of running 4 miles and walking 1 mile. With the use of the Internet and the
chips in the team’s bibs we were able to track their progress at different
points along the race. The first check-in showed them running about 10 minute miles,
which was the pace that Amby wanted them, running at. The van got back on the
circuit and we got to mile 10 of the
race in plenty of time to see our team again, everyone still looking good, you
could see that they were feeling the distance, but were still in very good
spirits. Amby was getting on Marq’s case a bit about keeping his pace down.
Marq had not trained using the interval system, so was fighting it a bit. The next view we had of our team was at mile 13, this about the half waypoint of
the race. You could see that the reality of running was setting in. While the
team was all still looking good, there was definitely a bit less bounce in their
strides and a bit more serious looks on their faces. Kris appeared amazingly
chipper – my gosh they had been running for over 2 hours already with 2+ more
to go. We got back to the chase van knowing we would next see the team at mile 20. With just a bit of concern by
the kids “Momma” were they indeed going to be able to make it?? – we drove on
to the next vantage point. We got to our viewing sight, just at bottom of
“Heartbreak Hill”. We waited for what seemed like an awfully long time. A check
of the Internet tracking showed them still on coarse, slowing pace but still
moving. What an amazing sight to see them come up over the hill, moving like
they were going to finish this damn long run. With tears in our eyes, we kissed
the runners, gave them our best wishes and told them we would see them in 6
miles at the finish line. Of course we
know that this next part of our Boston Experience was not what we had planned
on. While the team pounded out their last few miles, the van crew moved slowly
into Boston proper and into the city center. We met with a lot of traffic,
which was unexpected, but we were still worried we might not make it in time to
see them cross the line. Our worries about that gave way too much greater
concerns. A family member who was in the viewing stands texted us with the
horrible news of the bombings. We did not quite understand what had happened,
but knew that the family in the stands was being evacuated, so it was indeed
VERY SERIOUS. Within 3-4 minutes we were surrounded by blaring sirens, lights
of dozens and dozens of emergency vehicles going around us. We were very
concerned and couldn’t really tell what had happened and were limited by the
blocked traffic to do much. Within a few more minutes we were pretty much
stopped, we pulled over and parked the van. We knew that our runners were still
a couple of miles out away from the finish line. We would soon learn that the
runners, still on course, were being diverted from the finish line. Not quite
knowing what to do we decided we would be smartest to go back to the hotel a
few blocks away and wait. This was a pretty anxious period for all of us. We
knew that our team was ok, but until we saw them it was STRESSSSSFUL! Finally in about an hour we were reunited
with our very tired, very sore and quite scared kids. Boy it was such a
wonderful feeling to hug and kiss them once again. It was a bittersweet time
for all of us. The news of course was covering the horrific happenings and we
were rejoicing our good fortune that our family and friends were all ok. This was certainly an incredible experience
for our family. We are very glad that we were able to be there. The kids both
say they will do it again, not crossing the finish line and running a bit
slower pace than they had hoped is motivating them to want to do it again.
Thanks to all of our family and friends who reached out to
us, via texts, calls and e-mails. It was good to hear from you all and to know
that people were thinking of us.
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