Boston Recap

We had a great trip to Boston. Have you been there? The city is amazing and we had such a blast exploring. The one downfall?
The Marathon.

Look away from my face. I forgot makeup the entire trip and I was exhausted. Just look away!



I don't know if you heard, but it was hot. Not just a little warm for Spring, but HOT like Oklahoma summer time, hot. Like record heat for the race.
It was 87 degrees at the start and 90 degrees at the 10k.

I was sweating by the time the gun went off. I am trained for a sub 3 hour marathon, but I knew this would not be the day for me to run that. Upon hearing about the weather, I decided my new goal would be to get a medal and finish.
I achieved my goal, but it wasn't pretty.

That's me in the white tank!

This is at mile 6 when I was still alive. 

I went out about 30 seconds per mile, slower than my goal pace and I felt completely relaxed until about mile 16. I had a little sip of water or gatorade at each water stop and threw water down the back of my neck every chance I could. I did all I could to beat the heat, but at mile 16 I suddenly stopped sweating and starting getting tunnel vision.

I knew at that point that I was in trouble.

So I decided to relax and WALK (which I never do) at every water stop to try and calm my body down and hopefully take in more fluids. People were passing out or quitting left and right. The sounds of ambulances was white noise during the race.

At mile 20 I started throwing up ALL of my fluids. At first, I just thought maybe the sweet gatorade was upsetting my stomach, but after 4 miles of vomiting about every half mile, I knew it was more than sweet gatorade.

Boston is known for it's AMAZING crowds. The people are awesome and cheer every step of the way. On a good day, this is great. When you are constantly vomiting and wanting some privacy to die alone....the crowd is hell.

At mile 24 I had lost all of my liquids and was going at about a 20 minute per mile pace. I wasn't thinking clearly, but I just kept wanting to get close enough to see the famous CITGO sign, because then I knew I was almost done.

After I was on my last throw up, a Fireman made me sit down on a chair (this sentence makes me sound like I was in Vegas or something) and he checked my pulse and said I needed to immediately go to the Medic Tent. Before I knew it, the medic was at my aide and making me lay down. They had me hooked up to an IV and had Mr. T on the phone before I could really figure out what was going on.

After a trip to the ER doctors told me I had heat exhaustion (DUH!) and hooked me up with more fluids, I was feeling a tad better. I could walk on my own, I hadn't thrown up in a while and I had finally pee'd so I decided the only thing to do was FINISH THE RACE.

When I was pulled out of the race at mile 24, I could practically taste the finish line. I had Mr. T drop me and my Aunt (who happens to be a nurse and was with me the whole time I was sick) off so I could walk the remaining 2.2 miles.

What the finish line really looks like

The desolate finish line by the time I crossed.

The last two miles took me a while to finish and wasn't easy on my body, but I was so proud to actually finish. I went to Boston to get a medal and I was going to get it!

 Mr. T has a special talent. He can capture someone running at a snail place and make them blurry so it looks like they're going fast. Thanks Mr. T!

                  As you can see, the crowd is dying with anticipation on who will cross the finish line first.... Me, or the chip bag wrapper that's blowing in the wind.

I finished! I had about a 3 hour split break in my time.

But I finished.

Plus, I had the cutest cheerleader in the world to come home to.