Pre-Race

    So marathon day has finally arrived.  I think the best way to document the day is to break the day down into multiple different parts since there was so much going on!  The night before the race was spent carbing up with some home made chicken parm and pasta.  We were lucky enough to have some family over that night which helped keep the mood light.  I had hoped to go to be early in preparation for our early morning wake up, but it randomly turned out to be the first night of the NBA playoffs and the Celtics ended up winning a nail biter with a Ray Allen 3 pt at the buzzer.  Basically, what this translated into was me getting to bed about an hour or two later than I had hoped. 
    I had planned on waking up around 5:30a to give myself enough time to shower and make it to the L Street buses since they were leaving at 6:30a sharp.  I was essentially like a kid on Christmas morning and ultimately woke up and was wide awake at 4a!  I tried to go back to sleep but it was useless given the excitement and anxiety that I was feeling.  I laid in bed for about 45 minutes before getting up and getting ready to head to the bus.  I had my marathon outfit laid out so I didn't have to worry about forgetting anything.
    After I got geared up I made sure to copiously apply Glide to nearly every part of my body.  I have heard from some other people that have run marathons that being skimpy on the Glide can lead to a seriously uncomfortable run.  Once I was dressed, I grabbed my marathon bag which I had stuffed the night before with my ipod, IT Band Brace, more glide, Gu packets, snacks, sunglasses, etc.  Thankfully, Hank was up with us at 6a and was nice enough to drive us to the L Street buses which were a mile away. 
     Once we went through the check in process, we hopped on the bus and we were off.  I am not going to lie that the bus ride is actually somewhat anxiety provoking.  The ride is long and takes about 20-30 minutes to get to Athletes Village in Hopkinton.  The anxiety portion comes from the fact that as you are driving ... and driving ... and driving ... you realize that you are ultimately going to be running that distance back to Boston!!  I tried to zone out by looking at facebook on my phone and listening to some music.  I actually decided to watch the Randy Pausch lecture again on youtube since I find that clip extremely motivating for some reason.
      After about 30 minutes of riding the bus it finally arrived in the Hopkinton High School parking lot.  Unfortunately, the bus arrived in Hopkinton at around 8:15a which meant that we had about 2 hours to wait before we even needed to start walking to the Starting line which was about 0.75 miles away.  Again, I decided to pass the time listening to music, watching some youtube videos and talking with some people on the bus.  Surprisingly, there was an irish lad from L Street who was about to run his first marathon as well ... and let me tell you he might have been the most nervous person I have ever seen!  I thought I was scared, he made me look like a hardened marathon veteran.  Regardless, everyone on the bus was excited ... whether it was their first or their 20th Boston ... the feeling never seems to get out. 
      While we were waiting in the parking lot we got to meet up with our friend Tom since the Merrimack Valley Strider bus parked right next to ours.  Despite the fact that it was Tom's 35th marathon, he was also extremely nervous because of his knee issues.  Tom's advice to us was to stay off our feet as much as possible until race time, and besides about 20 minutes of stretching that is exactly what we did. 
      At around 10:15a we started making our way up towards the starting line.  Surprisingly, the starting line is no where near where the buses need to park.  After walking about 0.5-0.75 the road became filled with runners.  We were ushered into our corrals based on our official numbers and we were poised for the start of the race.  This was it ... I was at the starting line of the Boston Marathon.  Five months worth of training ... Dozens of runs out in the freezing cold in one of the worst winters in recent New England history, hours upon hours of mind numbingly boring cardio training on an elliptical at the Wang YMCA, multiple sessions of physical therapy to strengthen my knee and hours of worrying as to whether the knee would hold up ... it was time to put all that to the test.  
    The gun fired, and then the third wave of runners in the 115th Boston Marathon was off ... and I was one of them ....

The check in process for the L Street Buses.  Our running club actually filled three buses worth of runners for the marathon.  However, unlike me, a good majority of the other runners qualified for the race.

Renee waiting in line to check in.

Me waiting in line.  At this point, I don't think I was nervous anymore since pretty much everything had been replaced by excitement.  There was really nothing to worry about at this point ... the day is here and all the preparation is done.

Renee and I after we checked it.  At 6am it was still pretty cold out so we decided to stay inside as long as we could.

Renee and I stuck in the back seat of the bus.  Considering how good all the other runners are, this is probably where we belonged :-)