marathon weekend!

Today is Marathon Monday in Boston! There are 29,000 PEOPLE attempting to run 26.2 miles in this fair city of ours this year. That's a lot of runners! The city basically shuts down to accommodate for the race - most businesses in the areas around the race course close, too.

Before the main event, the Boston Athletic Association hosted a 5K. B and I signed up for the BAA Distance Medley - it's a race series (a 5K, 10K, and half-marathon) spread out over 6 months. "Only" 6,500 runners -including me! - participated in the 5K on Sunday. I've been attempting to run more over the last year as a way to challenge myself. The fun part of the 5K is that it ends on the marathon finish line! It was pretty cool running towards that big banner in the last little stretch.

This is me NOT running the Boston Marathon dressed as a ninja...

I'm not a fast runner... well, no, that's a lie. I'm a fair sprinter, but I'm not good at keeping a steady pace over longer distances. I run fast for short spurts, but then I have to "rest" for a while between spurts; this doesn't really work for running marathons because I burn out quickly. Maybe one day I'll be able to run the full marathon in Boston. It's on my before-I-turn-30 bucket list! For now, I'll stick to training for the rest of the races in the Distance Medley, and also a couple of runDisney events I'm signed up for in the fall and winter.

There was also a huge fitness expo the entire weekend with all kinds of running gear and accessories. Since I'm not actually running the marathon, I didn't think it was appropriate for me to buy one of the cool jackets. You can see (parts of) the jacket on the women standing behind me! So no jacket for me, but I couldn't resist picking up this little guy!

Spike the Unicorn!

The BAA logo is a unicorn, and I can't resist fuzzy stuffed animals. He's going to sit on my desk and remind me to keep working towards Boston 2014 (or 2015... I'm in no rush). 

Good luck to everyone running today!