The Boston Marathon is such a prestigious race and in April
2022 I was lucky enough to get the chance to run it myself.
Come with me on my journey through Boston.
We've made it to Boston.
The skies are blue, the sun is shining.
I've just tripped myself over my suitcase and we're just walking to find the
hotel that we're gonna be staying in for the next few nights.
Um wow, the journey was long.
I forgot what it was like to be on an airplane for that long, but I mustn't complain
because we are across the pond.
Do they say that the other way around?
I don't know, but we're across the pond in the States.
You want to see inside my crib?
Come and take a look.
Oh, so we've got a kitchen area, which is great,
which means for Marathon, breakfast day, I can marathon breakfast day,
marathon day, I'm really tired, marathon day I can do my own breakfast, which is brilliant.
And then we've got a little relaxation area.
Complete with the Neil.
Um and then this is the thing that I am super, super
stoked about where the light baba baba ba
bathroom with a bath genuinely when I booked to travel to
go away from marathons, I check that the accommodation has a bath in it.
My first marathon in Edinburgh,
my mum kindly sorted the accommodation and that was my only request.
So yeah, and then a nice comfy bed.
Oh, I could do with a nap now, I'm not gonna lie.
But I've got a 20 minute, easy run to do, see you in a bit. All unpacked in
the hotel.
Very tempting to go for a nap.
But no, first we run, we're ready to run Neil kind of,
it's a nice way to be able to see the city and look the sky is so blue.
American runners and stop signs.
This must be really annoying.
We haven't actually started yet because we haven't crossed the road.
Another stop sign.
It was a minute and a half in and we stop.
Do we stop the watch comment below?
Would you stop the watch?
Right. Boston you
are glorious.
So we're kind of being hosted by destination marathons for this whole
marathon weekend.
So we get to go and meet the guys who are going to be looking after us at every
step of the way while we stay in Boston at their little V.I.P gathering.
Here we go. All right.
It is Saturday we've been and done the five K.
I say we've been done the five K.
I did not run the five K.
I did a very important job of cheering on and now it's time to go to the
expo to pick up a bib number, which is super exciting.
Obviously you've got to do that before you can race.
It's open.
The expo is open to pick up.
These are the doggo's I saw this morning.
The expo at Boston is open
friday, saturday, sunday we didn't go yesterday
because travel day tired.
So yeah, along with like the rest of the Boston marathon field, it
seems everyone is queueing up
for the expo, it's busy down here right now.
Um, but yeah, the cues moving really quickly and hopefully we can go in and out and then get off my
feet because I've done 11,000 steps today.
So we've just been up at the expo now, we're going
back down to where all of the sort of main stuff happening for the day
and we're just about coming up to the Boston bombing
memorial, which is actually a real poignant spot.
I saw a lot of people running past on the five K this morning um, sort of
acknowledging the memorial.
So I'm gonna stop over there and pay my respects.
Good morning.
It's sunday.
It's the day before the marathon.
Oh wow, that sounds quite scary actually/
I forgot I was running a marathon tomorrow a little bit. This morning
we're up nice and early again, it's well, 7:30 we're going to go
down to reception to meet the destination
marathon guys, let's do a nice gentle run from the hotel over to the finish line.
Little shakeout run if you will and then have hopefully a
day of few steps feet up and not using my legs too much ready
for tomorrow.
mm hmm Boston is amazing.
Yes, it's unlike no other
marathon as you'll find out.
Yeah, it feels huge.
So now we're going to head over to town
um, to the fan zone area to go, have a look at a panel chat with
some cool elites and then onwards onwards to Fenway park
to go watch the baseball, go red sox,
But I wouldn't be here if it wasn't and if it hadn't been for those eight, courageous,
remarkable woman who toed the line in 72.
Yeah, that was super fun.
I've never been to a baseball game and I think I now understand the rules ish.
But I at least know why it's called baseball because when you get three balls or
four balls, then the guy gets to move to a base.
There you go.
That's what you need to know.
So quickly back to the hotel, now get my bag ready for bag drop because I've got to take that
to dinner tonight to pack all of the warm things that I want for after the race tomorrow.
You are so welcome guys, come on in and enjoy,
take that off your hands.
So we've got our own place to have dinner tonight, which actually is
so nice.
It's really chill to be able to just to go help ourselves to the pasta buffet
all the rest of the destination
marathon guys were all tucking into their pasta and we've got a
sign making station for our supporters and Neil is hard at work.
Not very good.
It's marathon day and the weather
It looks lovely, the sun is just rising over there.
It's 6:00 and I need to get a wriggle on.
So, we've had the bus journey over to pretty much Hopkin Turn.
I think that's where we are.
I'm not sure we're currently in a parking lot of price chopper.
I'll start doing the American accent, I'm sorry.
Um, and then we so we can use like the Starbucks.
I'm gonna get a coffee in there.
A little chat with some of the runners use the toilets.
And then it's a short walk over to where the shuttle
busses then go to take runners over to The athletes village.
My start time is not till 11:18.
It's now 8:35.
So, we've still got another three hours.
We've left where the bus was to walk up
to a shuttle to take us to the athletes village.
We're on the shuttle bus.
So many excited chatty nervous runners.
I wonder, I wonder whether the busses that have the
faster runners on where as chatty as this because I was thinking about this on the way over here on our destination
marathons bus.
I don't know how chatty those other ones were.
But yeah, it's nice to have been able to travel with
some people that we know have Paula and Maria behind giving us a wave.
We're on our way to the start area to the
athletes village.
So still got, it's 9:47 now,
still got an hour and a half.
We've got the bus.
It was the hottest bus in the world.
I'm not going to lie, got a little bit travel sick, glad to be out in the fresh air.
Now we're walking up to the athletes village um, porter loo stop.
It's 10 past 10 so that took like 20 minutes to get here.
So 10 past 10.
I've got just over an hour.
So this is where I'm going to leave you and pass you over to Freddie because
I'm not allowed to take my camera any further.
And Freddie needs to go get on the media bus.
So I will speak to you in a bit
once I've done the porter loo cue and gone to the start line.
Yeah, entering Ashlyn.
I think this is where Spencer lives.
I think my cheeks are going to ache more than my legs later from smiling so much.
My old running club.
Mm hmm.
Mhm Oh my God, can I get a selfie?
You are absolutely incredible.
I just saw Tommy Ribs.
Okay, enjoy the hills.
The atmosphere is incredible.
So, I've just caught her at mile 17 now heading off to mile. 25 atmosphere
is incredible here.
I've never seen so many people in one place with such loud voices.
The yanks sure know how to cheer their friends on.
Let's go. Let's go.
Nice work, Nice work.
You made me a sign.
Oh my God, thank you.
What's your name?
Perry Perry.
Oh my God, let me take a photo Perry.
That was Heartbreak Hill. That wasn't too bad.
It was your name? Anna.
What is it Anna?
Okay, Boston college is mad.
Congratulations, you're doing great!
What's your name? Dalaney.
Oh, come on!
Back up.
Mile 25, 1 miles to go.
Citgo sign.
Yeah, the crowds are
amazing here.
No way! I always get lost in the moment of marathons.
I have no idea where I am.
But there are two directions on Boston marathon and that is right
on Heriford street and left on Boylston and we just did the right on Heriford.
That means we are so nearly there.
Wowee!
What a day! Boston marathon delivered on the crowds.
It was incredible.
It feels so good to have this medal.
I can't believe I've done four of the six world majors.
The honestly, the support out there today was incredible.
It was so great to see so many people with signs for
me and like cheering me on as well for the running channel.
Honestly, I, I just, I can't believe it.
And I did get a little bit chocked up right at the end just because it's a marathon and it's
always gets emotional.
But Boston has been a blast and I am so happy to finish it with a big smile
on my face.