Long anniversary weekend in Boston. To make a long story short: Drove out on Friday evening from Pittsfield to Lindsay's place, but got lost when we got there. The GARMIN was telling us to go in a roundabout the size of a large car. Took an extra 20 mins but finally got there. Saturday: Went into the city and parked. Found a sweet $10.00 lot and walked a mile or so to the aquarium. Spent the morning there, then over to a Panera for lunch before going and walking to catch the T to go to the concert. Emm got us tickets to see "Boyce Avenue". We love their acoustic music. Well we get there around 3:30, but decide that's too early, so we walk to Starbuck's to get a coffee and tea and see an "occupy" demonstration going on with a cool rally. Police officer was a tool and said "You going to cross the road or just gawk at these losers". Wanted to punch him square in the kisser! Walked back down and stood in line for 2 hours as the temperature fell. Couldn't believe how many people were lined up. We seemed to be "old" though. A lot of middle/high schoolers. Finally get in there and try to score a couch only to find they have all been taken to the "VIP" section. We sit through two opening acts, each an hour long, and finally Boyce Avenue comes on around 8:30 or 9 only to say "We know we became popular for our acoustic covers, but we are going to play our rock and electric originals" (translation: we won't play our good music, we'll just play crap!). We walked out after 30 mins. Getting home sucked. We got backwards on the T, entered the wrong side of the station, then my card wouldn't work so I had to buy another pass. Had to walk about 2 miles in the cold to the parking garage. Finally got home around 12:30 in the morning. Emm had planned a surprise for me. 3 wedding albums of all of our 500+ pictures, as well as a small cake made just like our wedding one. But we were so tired and exhausted she simply said "Happy anniversary. I'm going to bed.". Sunday's Race: Got up and watched "Super Troopers" with Emm as she got ready. Headed out to the race, which didn't start until 11:30. Found a parking spot about .5 miles away and walked down to the starting line. We had gone the day before to get our bibs, since there were over 2k people. Smart decision! We went for a 10 min warm up jog, then made it back to the starting line about 8 mins before the gun went off. What I found out afterwards in the race is that this is a very popular and classy race. It is chip timed, and they go with your chip time for race position instead of gun time. I like this for non-elites. Instead of appearing a couple mins slower than you actually ran, it is transparent as far as how long it took you to cover the distance. I don't have exact splits but we started off conservative, and first mile was slow (8:30ish) trying to get through traffic. We did a lot of running along the sidewalk, just as in Turkey Trot. Saw one scary thing, a young girl having an asthma attack. Saw her after the race though so I know she is okay. Second mile was fast, sub 8:00, and finally kicked it in with the third mile in the low 7:00s. Emm hung tough like a champion, gritting her teeth, and grabbed my hand as we crossed the finish line. Loved this. This was the highlight of my anniversary weekend. Can't think of a better way to spend an anniversary. If we could do this every anniversary I'd be a very very happy hubby! Cooled down to the car, and then back home to get caught up on work! Finished in 23:48, good for 409th place overall out of 1808 finishers, averaging 7:40/mile. Loved this race! |