Nurse on the Run

In case you missed the first part of my Boston Marathon recap, check out my Saturday adventures!

Sunday – Roomie Reunion and Expo!

S^2 REUNION – Reunited – Peaches and Herb

“Reunited and it feels so good
Reunited ’cause we understood
There’s one perfect fit
And, sugar, this one is it
We both are so excited ’cause we’re reunited, hey, hey”

My college roommate, Sara, and her boyfriend, Scott, came up for Marathon Weekend!  Scott is originally from Maine so he knows people in the area, and Sara convinced her grad school advisor that me running Boston was a good enough reason to miss class/work/etc.  I’m so glad she came since she was at my first marathon wayyy back in 2006…when we were actually roomies!  Sara and Scott met up with Amy and me for breakfast by Amy’s house.  We ended up going to this jazz bar with live music, which was an interesting breakfast environment, but definitely fun!  It was only my second time meeting Scott (who is SUPER TALL), so that was awesome!  Breakfast wasn’t so bad either…

Scott and Sara!!

Strawberry Almond French Toast…yum!!

S^2 REUNITED!

Expo – Bob Marley – Don’t Worry Be Happy

Bob Marley takes the cake on the expo song since for the past week I’ve been telling myself, “Nope, not worried about my IT band for Boston…it’s going to be fine!”  Which turned into, “It’s going to be GREAT.”  I think the idea was that if I said this enough, I’d believe it!  The mental fight is half the battle, right??  Anyway, how can you NOT be happy at an expo full of running stuff??  Let’s be serious here.

After breakfast, Amy and I headed to the airport to pick up my Dad who was flying in for the marathon!  We picked him up and then made a beeline for the expo, where I could hardly contain myself.    “I’m running BOSTON tomorrow!!”  I kept telling myself.  Considering that I’ve wanted to run Boston since before I even ran my first marathon, I couldn’t be happier to be in Boston.  We headed to packet pick-up where I grabbed my bib from the super friendly volunteers who noticed my 2007 Chicago Marathon jacket and said that they ran it too!  We commiserated over the hot hot temps from that day and they congratulated me on being in the first wave of Boston.  I love runners, we’re all so friendly!

Got my bib number!!  I’m running Boston!!

Thanks, BAA…I’m going to need it!

With the marathon map…Hopkinton to Boylston St!!

Amy and my dad were good sports and pretty much just followed me around the expo as I oo-ed and ahh-ed over everything.  I spent lots of money on Boston apparel (finally got my jacket!!) and peaked around at all the running booths.  The people who make “the stick” were there so I had them go to work on my IT band…I’m willing to do anything at this point!  I’m not really sure if it helped or not…but it was work a shot!

Prior to the expo, I warned Amy that “famous” people might be there…and by “famous,” I mean runners who I think are amazing and awesome and she probably has no clue who they are.  Annnnd I was right.    The first guy I spotted was Dane Rauschenberg, who has run 115 marathons including 52 marathons in 52 weeks.  We’re facebook friends (yay!), so I walked up to him and said, “Hiiii!  We’re facebook friends!”  (I’m a nerd.)  He asked what my name was and I told him and he was like, “Susan!  Of course!”  He could have just been saying that, but I like to pretend he actually knew who I was.

With Dane!!

We walked around a little bit more and then I spotted Andy Baldwin and Josh Cox!!  Both of Bachelor and Bachelorette fame, they’re also awesome runners!  Andy has done Ironmans and Josh is an elite marathoner who has run in the Olympic Trials.  I was explaining to my dad who they were, and I told him that Andy is a Navy Doctor.  My dad is a funny guy, so of course when he was taking our picture he said, “Oh, you’re in the Navy?  I’m sorry…my son was in the Army.”  Go Dad.

Andy Baldwin!!

Josh Cox!!

After a bit more wandering around and a purchase of $2 gloves for race purposes, we headed home.  The expo was right outside where the marathon finishes, so I snapped some pictures along Boylston St.

The final turn…LOVE IT!

Final stretch…so awesome on race day.

 Carb-Loading – The Pasta Song

Everyone knows that PASTA is a staple pre-marathon food, so of course I had to have some on Sunday night!  Let me take a moment to explain how having the marathon on Monday really threw me off…on Saturday I kept thinking, “Oh, the marathon tomorrow…” but nope, it was on Monday.  Boston does crazy things to do your mind.    Anyway…back to pasta!  We headed to Sagra, an Italian restaurant near Amy’s, which was packed full of future Boston marathoners!  I had the Rigatonti Della Casa, which was “rigatoni in white wine sauce accompanied by sweet Italian sausage, roasted red pepper, and broccoli rabe.”  While not my favorite, it did the trick!  Lots of water was involved as well…hydrate, hydrate hydrate!

  Marathon eve dinner!

Hand driers in Boston…they dry your hands in about ten seconds!  Love it.

J.P. Licks – I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!

If you didn’t know, I pretty much eat ice cream on a daily basis (Jeri and I are a match made in heaven because of this…), and Marathon Monday wasn’t going to stop my daily habit on Sunday…especially with J.P. Licks in Boston!  Although ice cream is my favorite, I went for the oatmeal cookie hard yogurt since it sounded too good to pass up!  It did not disappoint, let me tell you. 

I should move to Boston for this reason alone..

Not even marathons stop me from eating ice cream!

Final Foam Roll – Tina Turner – Proud Mary

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river  FOAM ROLLER

Since it’s totally normal for people to bring foam rollers with them on vacation, I had to make a last ditch effort to roll out my IT band.  I’m not sure anything was going to salvage my IT band, but you never know, so roll roll rolllllll I did on Sunday night!  I make it look good, I like to think:

Come on IT band, we’re running BOSTON tomorrow!!

After I gathered up some of my stuff for MARATHON MONDAY, I headed to bed around 11:30 and set my alarm for a 5:20 wake-up call.  Not going to lie…there was a wee bit of freaking out about how my IT band was going to hold up and how I was even going to run a marathon without really even running for the past three weeks.  However, I was really tired and eventually fell asleep for a solid six-hours of sleep.  Stay tuned for the monster of a post that will be MARATHON MONDAY!!!