« Biking improvement | Main | Some good things »
April 20, 2008
Deena!
What a morning! I am so glad I had the chance to go to Boston this weekend and watch the women's Olympic marathon trials. Matt and I got up, grabbed coffee, and were in place on Memorial Drive to see the field when they crossed the Mass. Ave. bridge for the first time. While I was waiting for the women, I looked around and saw Alicia Shay and Jen Rhines run by (separately); two top runners from the Burnt Hills HS XC team; and several local (Boston area) running studs. And those are only the ones who I noticed. I'm sure I would have seen even more VIPs if I had really looked for them. During one of the later laps, Matt and I were sitting on the curb and I looked up next to me and noticed Ryan Hall standing there! He was subsequently mobbed by fans requesting photos, and I just didn't want to be "one of those people. But it was still cool!
Finally, the women crossed the bridge and came by. Since I am an elite running nerd, I know many of these women by sight, and I also had printed out their bib numbers. However, Magalena Lewy Boulet is someone I didn't know well, and I didn't even recognize her when she first came by about 75 seconds ahead of the "Deena pack." I soon figured it out. I made sure to cheer for the two people who would actually recognize me--D.C.-area runner Lisa Thomas and friend-of-a-friend Paige Miller--and then of course yelled for everyone else I knew by name. I was particularly excited to see Emily LeVan smile at me when I cheered for her because I've been following and supporting her Two Trials effort.
We stayed on the Cambridge side until for (I think) 5 of the 6 laps they did over there. I noticed Kate O'Neill not looking so hot pretty early on and I was sad to hear she had dropped out. It was pretty amazing to see how different the lead runners (and the other runners, too) looked on each lap. And no one was running too much slower than seven-minute pace! There were also people who were clearly having really good days (better than expected by the "pundits"), like Kasie Enman, who looked awesome almost the whole race, Sheri Piers, and Sally Meyerhoff--just a few that I happened to notice. And of course it was amazing to hear the roar of the crowd every time "Joanie" went by. The energy was awesome.
We headed over the bridge and to the finish just before the final Cambridge lap and made it--I was a little worried because I am still kind of slow, but we crammed in behind all the other crazy fans to see Deena coming down the final stretch. I had already seen the online update that she had passed Magda but it was still so exciting! And then the (short) wait for second began and I was surprised to see our early leader holding on for the next spot. I was on pins and needles waiting for third and Matt told me, "It's the blond woman!" and I knew it was Blake and I was happy that she got her redemption from 2004. After that, we started walking back over the bridge to see some of the other runners and get back to our hotel. I was very pumped up and had plenty of energy for my own workout, which I hadn't done yet. Of course it was just biking, but I enjoyed it. My knee didn't hurt while on the bike, but the combination of all the walking and the biking of course caused it to swell a bit, and I didn't have a chance to ice it because we wanted to spend our last couple of hours in Boston in Harvard Square.
The rest of the time we had went quickly and we were soon headed to the airport...where we had to wait for way too long because our flight was delayed due to "weather" in the Baltimore/Washington area. The whole transportation thing took a lot longer than expected and I kind of feel like I need another weekend to recover from this busy weekend. But I had a great time this morning (and seeing my family yesterday too) and I am so glad I got to be there in person watching a sport that I love!
Posted by becky at April 20, 2008 5:20 PM