Boston 2008 - a wife's perspective

Since my husband, Chad, qualified for Boston this year and I didn't, it was my turn to make the trek to Boston as a spectator. His plan was to 'run easy' with Duane and enjoy the course. We made our wedding plans for March before he qualified for Boston, and I honestly thought he would be able to get in a few more runs in than he did. I guess the craziness and fun of the wedding and honeymoon plans got in the way of his training. It seemed like he didn't mind the lack of running. There were times that he chose not to do some of the miles, not because we had some other obligation. I have a little guilt about my influence on his lack of preparation.

Cut to Boston - Monday morning - After dropping off Chad and Duane at the buses to Hopkinton at 7:00, Jennifer and I enjoyed a leisurely morning. We got Starbucks, and I ran my 4 miles along the Charles River. It seemed like it was a great day to run...cool and cloudy. The marathon start for wave 1 was at 10:00am, so we left the hotel in time to drive to mile 11 on the course (around Natick). The crowds were somewhat rowdy and fun in Natick, so it was nice to have a good spot to see our men. We were hoping to see as many familiar faces as we could.

We were able to see Team Hoyt (inspiring). Here is a video of them running by. If you do not know about Team Hoyt, you need to get with the program :).



As the elite men came by, we started predicting the order in which we would see the Austin folks...Probably Ken, Moody, Charles, Neugebauer, etc. We realized that we missed Lance and were a little bummed. How in the world could we miss him if he was so far at the front?

In Natick we missed most of the people that we were looking for, but managed to see a few Rogue shirts to cheer for. Charles came by looking great and waved. Chad and Duane were very easy to spot, as we already knew what they were wearing. Duane's green shirt stuck out well, and Chad's Texas running hat was also easy to see in the crowd. The guys surprised us by darting over to the side of the road and giving us huge sweaty hugs and probably cut off a few people in the process. I don't think I have ever felt so great as a spectator as the moment when Chad gave me that hug. They both looked happy and like they were having fun, and I was so glad that he was finally getting to run Boston for himself. (In 2006, he was not very much further down the road in Natick when he joined in to run with me in my Boston marathon.) Jennifer and I took a couple of pictures of them and sent them on their way. How fun!!!


I helped navigate us to our second spot at mile 20 and hoped that we would get there in time to see them pass. We were getting the 'automatic runner alerts' that Chad had set up to be sent out that announced when he had passed certain timing mats during the race. We watched the half-way announcement come in and just after we arrived in Newton and found our spot, we saw the 18.6 alert come through. If you know anything about the Boston course, you know that Newton means hills, and we strategically decided to be there so that we would cheer the runners on during the hardest part of the race. We were literally 20 paces after the 20 mile mark, so we were seeing folks starting to break down physically and mentally. There were many people walking at this point in the hills.

Based on who we saw come through the crowds, we knew Chad and Duane would be there any minute. We saw funny costumes like the man dressed like a ballerina princess and the two men running with big bunny ears. We also saw Charles, but the entire front toe box of his running shoe had been cut open and revealed bloodied toes and blisters. Ouch! (Charles would later tell us on the plane ride home that his shoe predicament involved blisters that felt like a jammed toe, not being able to put back on his shoes, running at least 4 miles barefoot on the course, and (luckily) a paramedic with a pair of scissors.)

Chad's mom called us after he had passed her and let us know that we needed to look for Duane first by himself, as Chad had sent him on ahead to run faster. We also knew that the guys were past 19 miles. Hmmm...at that moment, they should have been really close to 20, where we were. We kept expecting to see them any minute. Thoughts of cramps, walking, medical tents, beer, and all of those things that tired runners experience entered our heads. Surely we didn't miss them. We were looking at everyone coming through! There was no way that we missed them! We waited until we were absolutely sure until we finally gave up, resigned to the fact that we had indeed both missed seeing our husbands. Bummer...(We found out later that Chad was probably running very close to the men in bunny hats. We must have been too distracted by the bunny hats to see Chad. grrr...)

We hurried to the finish and saw the minutes on our clock click away. We knew that Chad and Duane had originally intended to run 3:30:00 or so. Judging by the pace on the alerts, we figured they would hit this goal or be a few minutes over. After missing them in Newton, we feared that they were in the medical tent and hoped that we would get another runner alert on the phone soon. 3:38 clicked by on our clock. Uh-oh. 3:45. Oh no. All we could do was park the car and head to the finish line area. We dutifully walked to the family reunion area and found the letters J,K, and L. This was supposed to be the spot where we were to meet up.

Runner Alert! Yay! Chad Jones has finished in 3:48. Wow...he must have been hurting. Poor guy. We stood and waited for them for what seemed like an eternity. It honestly felt like we were there for an hour after we got the alert. Jennifer spotted Chad's Texas hat in the crowds of tired runners and our two sweaty/salty husbands came towards us. I could do nothing to help Chad's muscles feel any better. I couldn't get rid of any bit of the pain for him. He was smiling big and limping big, so I just had to hug him and tell him how proud I was of him.

Hopefully he will post some of the pictures and video that he took from the course. (Pictures and video were part of his 'running for fun' plan this year.)