April 21, 2014
Today was the Boston Marathon and I just had to post a song about running today because it inspired me. What an amazing race!
There is no other event quite like the Boston Marathon. Boston is still the only marathon in the world where you have to qualify in order to officially enter the race. In the late 1980s, they started allowing charity runners, but to be an official race entrant you still have to run a qualifying time … and the times are no joke. It is a fast race!
I have run six marathons, qualifying for Boston on three separate occasions, and missing qualifying once by less than 60 seconds. Running and qualifying can become one of those very addictive activities, particularly for those of us with addictive behaviors. haha! I watched my husband run the race in 2003 (when I just missed qualifying) and then I ran it in 2005. It is one of the highlights of my life. What an incredible experience! There just truly is nothing like the Boston!
My parents and my little sister came to support me and watch me run the race, along with my kids who were pretty young at the time. It was so fun to have my family there with me! My kids had their fold up chairs on their backs and their watches on their wrists so that they could track my time. They were expert spectators! I’m not sure either one of my kids are particularly interested in running a marathon right now, but they sure are more educated than most spectators and enjoy the thrill of the whole experience. My daughter is really putting on the pressure for me to qualify and run Boston at least one more time, so that I can run through the “Scream Tunnel” while she is still at Wellesley. After watching the race today, I feel like I just might be sufficiently motivated! 🙂
Did you watch the race today? It was so exciting! The elite runners are just a thing of beauty! It is amazing to see the human body move so incredibly fast and effortlessly. The women were very speedy! In fact, a new course record was set with Rita Jeptoo of Kenya running a 2:18:57. The old course record was set in 2002 by Kenyan, Margaret Okoya, with a finishing time of 2:20:43. Today’s race was so fast that there were actually four women who ran faster than that old course record.
The men were actually amazingly fast as well, but they were still several minutes off the course record time of 2:03:02 set by Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya in 2010. But, the men’s race was by far the most exciting to watch. An American man, Meb Keflezighi from San Diego, California won the race in a time of 2:08:37. He was the first American to win the race since 1983 and he set a PR at the age of 38! He took a lead fairly early in the race and held on to it for a long time, but in the last 2 miles of the race it was TENSE! He was being folllowed by Wilson Chebet of Kenya who was trailing by no more than 6 to 12 seconds for the entire last 2 miles of the race. I was jumping up and down in my kitchen while watching the race being streamed on my computer. It was incredibly exciting and so thrilling to see Meb pick it up at the end and win.
Today’s song is from Youngblood Hawke, an Indie Pop/Rock band from Los Angeles, California. The group was named after the 1961 Herman Wouk novel by the same name. Today’s song is off their full length debut album, Wake Up, released in 2013. The album did very well , landing in the Top 10 on the iTunes Albums chart after it’s release. They are definitely a group to keep your eye on and they just released a new single last month, called “Pressure.”
