Success is not always measured on the clock

Wow! What an amazing day. The 116^th Boston Marathon will be a day to remember. It was one of the hottest Boston Marathons on record. However, there was never a thought in my mind to defer this race until next year. I had the support of my husband; my mom and stepfather had driven from New Brunswick to cheer me on. Many people would be tracking my split times on the BBA webpage and my in-laws flew in from PEI to look after our two small kids. Not to mention I had to run to be able to proudly wear the huge new wardrobe of Adidas Boston clothing I got at the expo on Saturday!

Monday morning I met my running partner Lisa and her family as they drove us out to the start line.You knew it was going to be a warm day when at 8am when you didn’t need any extra clothes on. I had 2 major goals for the day because of the weather forecast: #1 stay out of the medical tent and #2 cross that finish line.

We made it to our corral and within a couple of minutes the gun went off and my heart rate jumped again. I guess I’m not usually so close to the start line. People told me not to go out too fast but I don’t think I quite realized how much of a downhill it was. At 5km we were at my BQ pace. I thought “we’ll see what the next 37 km brings” but was 99% sure I would not be able to keep this pace. We crossed the halfway mark at 2hrs. During the second half of the marathon we took pictures with our families, kissed some boys at Wellesley, ran through many people’s garden hoses and got squirted by kids’ water guns. We ate and drank whatever people were handing out: popsicles, freezies, fudgesicles, oranges, bananas, liquorish, fig newtons, beer and the best was the ICE! A special thank you to the wonderful fans that had the ice in little ziplock bags; I think the ice was the only thing that kept my body temperature from boiling over.

I’ve never done a race with so many water stations, happy volunteers and great support on the course. The runners worked hard out there but the only reason we had an amazing day was because of the great dedication of the organizers and the thousands of fans. My self confidence has never been so high. I was told “I was amazing”, “I looked wonderful” and “I was their hero”. The spectators and volunteers were the backbone of all the runners.

Lisa and I crossed the finish line side by side. I was 25 minutes slower then my BQ time and I was thrilled! I started # 18222 and finished #10565.

Sometimes you are not comparing your success to the clock but the joy you feel inside.