Boston Marathon Part 1: The Waiting Pre-Race

Can you imagine waking up seven hours before your race had to start? Welcome to Marathon Monday in Boston in 2014. At least for me and some of my teammates.

Security measures were super tight as one could expect after what took place in 2013.

Now Tedy's Team is lucky enough to have a house - okay it's really a Funeral Home - at our disposal in Hopkinton to use prior to the Marathon.

It is a huge luxury than being out in the elements in Athlete's Village.

Well on the morning of April 21st, you were not able to ride the normal BAA athelete busses to Athlete's Village and then walk to the house because of security measures. So we had the fortune of having a special bus with Dana Farber that would drop us off a few houses down from our house. Amazing! The only kicker was the bus was leaving by 6am. Our start time was 11:25am.

To help my morning routine, I laid out my clothes the night before.

Yes I included the Garmin since I had forgotten it the morning of Boston in 2013. ;)

The alarm went off around 3:30 the morning of Boston and I leapt out of bed. The last thing I wanted to do was miss the bus. My lovely wife was gracious enough to drive me to Boston Common so I could meet my fellow teammates. It was early. It was cold. But we knew having the luxury of a house outweighed anything we were feeling at the time.

It helped having my teammates around to distract from the nerves of the race.

By time we made it to Hopkinton the sun was shining and the smiles of the Tedy's Team family was upon us.

How could I not be happy seeing Margaret's huge smile??? Maybe she was extra happy that she would be cheering that day and not having to run. :P

Then I saw my buddy Dan. Thank goodness Dan can't take a normal picture like me. :)

The family that runs the funeral home are friends of Tedy's Team and the American Stroke Association and are too kind to open their house to a bunch of edgy runners. They even had a slew of snacks available to us. Mmm... bagels.

Our coach John brings a ton of foam rollers so we can stay loose. As I said we had about six hours at the house before we had to line up.

So in conjunction with eating, stretching and writing our names on our bodies to help the spectators, we have the McCardinal Photo documenting the morning.

So now I have the pleasure of sharing some of those photos with you now:

A team that stretches together - finishes together! :)

I am wicked thankful the McCardinals snapped a pic of my three favorite running buddies. These ladies made the cold runs worth it.

Since you can only eat so much before a race (I brought my own oatmeal to have as well) and only foam roll so often, I did a TON of laps around the house and ended up outside to chat with folks and take more pics of course. ;)

Number friends! It took me most of the morning to make this one happen. ;) I was on a mission.

We run for our grandparents! <3

Joe is one phenomenal runner and a good person to boot. :)

There are a few members of Tedy's Team that are Boston Qualifiers so we make sure to get a good team photo before they head to their earlier corrals.

Proud of this group for raising over $600,000 to Fight Stroke!

Before we make our way to the Start Line as a group, Tedy gives the team a pump up speech. Two years in a row = two years I've ended up in happy tears by the end. :)

There is not much cooler than heading to the Start Line as a big group.

The only difference this year was being wanded on the way in.

Once I made it through security, I realized I needed one final port-o-potty stop. And you know what it was a great decision.

Why?

I ran into Katie, Linzie and Adam! Oh hey friends...

Now came the fun part of maneuvering my way up to my Corral. Being in the first corral is awesome from the running perspective of the race, but tough to push past everyone to get up there as they try to get into their corrals. But it all worked out. Don't I look cool as a cucumber? ;)

I hide the nerves well.

Being in the first corral of Wave 4 (the final wave) was a treat. We were RIGHT up at the actual Start Line.

Oh but let me take just ONE more selfie before we start The Big Show. Okay?

Now it was time ... time to start the trek from Hopkinton to Boston in honor of my grandparents and all the Stroke victims out there.

To reclaim our city after what happened in 2013.

But let's save the running itself for another post! ;)