April 20, 2026
This year arguably was the best race weather ever in Boston. We brought a large group of runners and had plenty of spectators in the form of spouses, family and friends.
To record what I remember doing before and in the race is this blog’s purpose. Since this race went well, I’ll be looking back on it for future events to see what contributed to a good day on the roads.
Friday I arrived first flight in, we were allowed to leave our luggage at the AirBnB, which was helpful. We met Rachel at the Park Plaza Hotel, she was joining in with us on Day #1 activities. Maureen and I took the T train into town and went to the end of Newbury Street to see the pop up shops. A visit to a bunch of the vendors, to Tracksmith, but purposely not to the expo. I planned on doing that Saturday when more of our people arrived.
We saw the final pieces of the Finish Line being set up. It’s an exciting time as more people arrive in town. Friday’s lunch was Regina’s Pizza, always a treat when I’m in Boston!
We walked around the North End and then went back to the Back Bay area. I received calls and texts from friends indicating they were in town.
Saturday started with an early wake up and departure from the AirBnB in East Boston. It’s the same one I used last year, easy to find, convenient and near the T rail station, it’s a good spot for night #1. Maureen and I came in to town early to see the BAA 5k race, specifically to watch Kelly Bruno compete in the para professional division.
We met Ben at the Start line and watched the pro men and women leave, Kelly was mixed in with the tail end of that group. We quickly took a train to the finish area and saw her finish with a 21 minute time for a new course record! This earned her a laurel winner’s headdress and a big silver trophy!
Next, we did a short 4 mile run along the breezy Charles River, posing for some opportunistic photos as proof.
Saturday was spent at the expo and getting Kerry in to her hotel. She stayed at the A-loft, located in the Seaport district. This wasn’t a convenient place for the marathon, so she arranged to use our room as a base for showering and such. Less travel to and from the A-Loft would be a better plan. After that, I had taken as many steps by 3 pm as all of Friday. I stayed in the room, I went to Kim’s room and used the Normatec boots. Wonderful that she had them in Boston for her recovery and for me to try.
Saturday we had dinner with Pete, Sandra and Kim at M.J. O’Connor’s, attached to our hotel.
Sunday was spent doing a short group 2.7 mile easy run at 8:30 am starting and finishing at the Boylston Street Finish Line. We know this route is very helpful to first timers. It gives them the familiarity of experiencing the final 1.2 miles of the course in a relaxed manner. Once done with that we went back to our hotel and dropped things off. Our next foray was out of our Park Plaza Hotel again, this time back to the Finish line for the group photo. at 12:15 pm
We had a best-ever showing for this – followed by a pic with the Marathonpacing.com runners in the next day’s race.
Between the group photo and the pacer photo I had an interview with Adam from URTV in the United Kingdom. Rick Mongeau has known Adam from a previous Boston Marathon and recommended me as a good candidate for a chat. This went well and is now published on URTV’s YouTube page…
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_XIUUf5yzjg
After that, it began raining. We visited a few shops and went to the Expo to see hopefully the end of Jack Fultz’s talk (missed that due to getting into the convention center) and we stayed for Kelly’s time on stage with the para professionals group. Once done with that, we went back to the hotel area and ordered Maggiano’s pasta to go. It didn’t include meatballs as ordered, but was a good portion. This was around 4:30 pm – I did well staying off my feet, using the T as often as possible and keeping my steps per day count low. Friday I did 22k steps, Sat 21k steps all before 3pm, and Sunday I was fed and in my hotel room with only 13k steps. Ivisited Kim’s room again top use the Normatec boots which felt great on my legs.
I began drinking Pedialyte, I prepared two new narrow barrel Skratch labs white bottles, each with Maurten 160 powder drink mix. I took a mix of SIS Beta gels and Maurten gels and Salt Stick chewables in my leather waist pouch. I filled a throw-away bottle with SIS Beta Fuel that I’d drink on the bus and before the race. I was ready.
I slept well, I had a few restroom wake-ups for Pedialyte, which is expected and planned. I woke up around 5:30 am, I made 1 packet of oatmeal using the warm water heated by the Keurig machine, then stayed in bed until 6:20 am. I got up, put on Band-Aid Tough Strip nipple guards and got dressed. It was 30 degrees at the start line so I wore thick throw away sweatpants, a long sleeve throw away shirt, and a waterproof hooded throw away jacket. I carried a barrel liner with me to wear or sit on. I wore cycling arm sleeves which could be rolled down to wrist band if it became to warm. A head buff I got at one of the pop up shops was an ideal throw away to keep my ears warm.
Our bus was the final motorcoach heading from the hotel to the start area. Many of our locals were on the same bus with us, which was nice.
The bus stops a mile from Hopkinton to change everyone over to yellow school buses and have each runner pass through a security check. Once at the Athlete Village, Kerry and I went right to the porta potties. We ddi two rounds of that, putting ourselves at the furthest place from the schoolyard entrance as possible for the shortest wait lines.
It was sunny and warming while we waited for our 5th Green Wave to be called. We moved out towards the Start Line and were directed to the “new” walking route reserved for corrals 1-4 for each wave. I shed the sweatpants and hooded jacket. Once we left the staging Athlete’s Village area, the sky went grey with clouds covering the sun. The temp cooled off quickly and I took a lady’s sweater from the fence railing to make the walk to the start. We saw volunteers checking bib colors at several places on the walking route. Those that looked to get up front before their wave was called were instructed to wait alongside the fence. I joked to Kerry they were in the Boston Marathon penalty box!
We didn’t have much time in the corral. We reviewed that we’d run on the left side of the narrow road and acknowledged that our first few miles would be above the average pace we each were planning to run for the day. Making sure Kerry didn’t buy in to the excitement of going to fast was why I wanted to start with her. I promised several years ago that when she ran Boston, I’d be there. However it worked out, we both qualified with times of 3:33 and began the famous race together!
The start was easy – the idea of additional smaller waves was working. It wasn’t as crowded going down the first hills as it had been in previous years. We ran together in 8:24 for the first mile, 7:56 for the second mile and 7:48 for mile #3. All this was by design – we knew to be easy to get down to Ashland with little stress and exertion. I ate a SIS Beta gel at mile 3. I was sipping on the Maurten 160 drink whenever I wanted. It was a good idea to carry the narrow barrel bottle. It has a small strap so I could lash it tight on my hand if I wanted so as not to be grabbing it too tightly.
Mile 4 was 7:48 as we were together still. I told Kerry I’d pick up my pace aroud. mile 5 but she would see me slowly druft ahead, I wasn’t planning on a pace much more than 7:30ish.
I kept going now at a 7:30 pace and felt good. I was on the final downward sloped road before Framingham nd the first well populated spectator area on the course. The wind was behind me and temps approx 46 degrees. I ate a caffeinated Maurten gel at mile 8 while drinking from the Maurten 160 I had in the Skratch bottle. I need more practice using more gels, the fluid was way easier and preferred but I won’t always have that.
The course got louder through Framingham and Natick, where fans are on both sides of the street along with bands and music. Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” was the most popular song I heard, it was on four times in my race.
I went up to the Scream Tunnel and stayed in the middle of the road. It’s fun to watch but I would rather not be mixed in with runners moving over and back to kiss or address the college girls. Next was the segment through Wellesley Square, I found Maureen and saw our banner for a quick exchange of empty for full hydration. This leads to some gradual downhills, all of my paces were in the 7:25-7:33 range. I passed the half way mark at 1:41 – that was good to see. I had saved energy and didn’t feel I went hard to get half of this done.
I went down the Mile 15-16 hill conservatively and felt good coming to the Newton town line. I saw the turn ahead onto Commonwealth Ave and heard loud AC DC music playing. I made the turn and felt good going up the first hill. I concentrated on effort and step count – my pace up was under 8 min mile for that hill. There are some dips and rises for the second hill, but good crowd energy and my legs being very much under control made that one manageable also. For the final Heartbreak Hill I used the same tactic – run at the same effort and keep the step cadence going. My last two of these on this course had me wobbling to get to the hills, with plenty of walking and catching my high rate breath. Not today!
Once topped off at Boston College, I ran along the right side fences to slap hands with the BC students. They got very excited when I repeated, ‘Go Eagles!”along that side of the course. Some commented that they liked my polka dotted sleeves. I explained to friends afterwards that I wore the Tour de France ‘King of the Mountains” pattern – to fool Heartbreak Hill into thinking I’m an expert climber from flat Florida!
The run down to St Ignatius Church and the flats between mile 21 and 22 was great, no puckering or cramping in my legs. I focused on getting a sip of water from each stop along the way. I made the left turn and continued along the road through Brookline that has the green T train on the runner’s left. I saw the traffic lights ahead as I approached Mile 23, then Mile 24. They appear low on the road ahead, which meant there was a downward slope somewhere between myself and that light. I know my pace was good, still in the high 7:20s and low 7:30s. I came through some sunny spots, passed a lot of runners on either side of me. once I got to the St Mary’s T station, I knew I was good to finish at this pace or close to it.
I ran up the overpass that leads into Kenmore Square. It felt really good to still be in control of everything, legs and lungs were doing well. I wanted to see Pete at the Mass Ave overpass, I ran under the “Boston Strong” Mass Pike bridge and saw the runners dipping off to the left side down the small exit ramp. I followed that, passed some walkers all while looking and listening for Pete. I didn’t spot him. Now all I had left was the “glory” section, right on Hereford, run two blocks towards the Hynes Convention Center, left on Boylston and to the finish. I ran down the middle of the road to plenty of cheers and loud noise. Cami took a video of me from the right side of the road, I didn’t hear her among all the other fans, however.
I finished in 3:20:51 and went through the left side of the tunnel. I saw Kerry’s kids Alex and Kate waiting on the barricades and went over near them. They said Kerry was coming very soon behind me. I saw Adam and Mitch finish, then Kerry. She was met with the surprise of seeing her kids and two friends from home.
We ran through the runner finish area and exited right near our hotel. Cami and Jeff, Dave, Kerry’s neighbors, Hannah, everyone met in the boisterous lobby to celebrate a great day.
We showered and went to the Fan Fest, which was cold and windy. Waiting in line to get our medals engraved wasn’t worth it, it chewed up much of our time. We wandered back towards our hotel and met of a drink at M.J. O’Connors before going to our rooms and to sleep.
Tuesday morning we met Kerry and went to Tracksmith for the poster stamping. Next was a group lunch at Regina’s Pizza, my second visit this trip. Some waited and got Mike’s Cannolis, I was not hungry for that – time to get back to the hotel to move out of the room and put luggage in bell check.
Maureen and I wandered around the city, went to The View which was free to runners with bibs, and then to Sam Adams Taproom where we met Jennifer Pressley and her husband. That visit earned me two more Sam Adams Marathon pint glasses. We returned to the hotel, retrieved our luggage and went to the airport for the return flight home.
A great trip to Boston, again!
-dm
drun4fun 