There is nothing like having a bunch of your friends run the Boston Marathon to get you motivated to go out and do a tough run. On Monday, April 20th, several of my regular running buddies made the 42.2 kilometre trek from Hopkington, Mass., to Boylston Street in Boston, where the finish line is located. Two of them even managed to go under 3 hours and the rest all requalified on the course, which is not easy to do.
I followed them online back here in Ottawa, making mental notes as each 5km split came up on the screen. “Wow, he’s off to a tremendous start….I wonder if he can hold that pace for the entire race?” “She ran what for the first half?? By watching the times come across the screen I could tell when they were hammering, when they were suffering, and knew that they would have the exhausted/triumphant feeling that comes when you cross the finish line at the end of any marathon, or even any race.
Even though I’ve done Boston twice ( ’06 and ’07), following my friends’ race journey made me think…” I gotta get back there someday!” Like I said, having fast friends is a great motivator!