Earlier this week was the 2011 Boston Marathon. This is an exciting time for me and hopefully for others in the area - so many visitors, all of them here for one reason: fitness (aka being ACTIVE!). You can almost feel healthiness in the air, especially if you spend the three days leading up to the marathon at the Sports and Fitness Expo which is full of - you guessed it, active people. Over 80,000 people attend the expo over three days before the race. That's a lot more than the 27,000 people who are there to pick up their race number, so clearly there are some others that are interested in sports and fitness (or at least want free stuff and good deals of things relating to sports and fitness).
The first two days I was working in the Clif Bar booth, chatting with runners and their friends and families about the awesome Clif products that we were sampling. One of the things I overheard the most was "oh wow, these actually taste good!" indicating that they'd tried some less than stellar samples that day. The last day before the race I volunteer at registration, giving runners their number and trying to answer any questions they might have. The Sunday night shift is always interesting because a lot of people come directly from the airport and are somewhat distressed, whether their flight was delayed or they got lost taking the train in.
Runners watch a video of the race course during the Expo
This all leads up to the big day... MARATHON MONDAY (otherwise known in Massachusetts as Patriot's Day). This was the first year in a long time that I had the day off and was able to watch the runners. It was a gorgeous day for it and everyone looked great! I've always said that I'll never run another marathon, but watching the runners with the big smiles (even at mile 22) was super inspiring. It made me think that maybe one of these days I could tackle it again - and since I wasn't much of a runner when I took it on the first time there's enormous room for improvement. Later that night I had dinner with my inspiring friend Rebecca who had just ran a 3:22 race and didn't look tired in the least. After a long and delicious dinner, I went home and did two things: started reading
Born to Run and registered for the Madison Half Marathon.
Did the marathon inspire you to take any steps to be more active? Leave it in the comments!
Not really. It made me realize my particular body is not made for running. But I'm glad you're inspired!
ReplyDeleteYou should read Born to Run! Some scientists argue that humans actually evolved in order to out run animals. I'd be curious to get your opinion on it since you're a scientist! I'll loan it to you when I finish it...
ReplyDeleteI was also so inspired. I was watching with my family and my dad said "I'm glad we're watching at mile 24 so you can see the pain and suffering on the faces of all these people and hopefully it will make you not want to do one." (He thinks the wear and tear on my body will be too much.) But, I found just the opposite. (Don't tell my Dad though!) I'm thinking Marathon in 2 years and then Ironman after that??? Also I just bought Born to Run and it's next on my list of things to read!
ReplyDeleteThanks Katrina :) It was so great to be able to celebrate the race with friends and family! I love Born to Run and would recommend it to anyone! It's very well-written and hard to put down. And I'm so excited that you are doing the half marathon! It's such a fun race and of course it ends at Brat Fest...speaking of healthy eating ;) I can't wait to hear all about it!
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