Boston's Run to Remember 5 Mile Race Recap 2016

I started dreaming about running Boston's Run to Remember about 3 months after I ran my first 5K.  I loved the idea of running through the streets of my favorite city the most - you literally run straight down the street for both the 5 miler and half marathon.  I also loved that this race is organized to support local first responders since there are quite a few fire fighters and police officers on my husband's side of the family.

As the race drew near, I did start to dread it mostly because it was the morning after my daughter's first dance recital.  Unfortunately, this most likely means I won't be able to run it again because her dance recital will always be the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and so won't this race.  All the more reason that I took the time to really enjoy this one.

Some friends and I reserved a hotel room in Boston for the night before the race.  We stayed at the very nice Marriot TownPlace Suites Boston.  I hit the road around 9pm and there was hardly anyone on it because of the holiday weekend.  In fact, the entire city of Boston was pretty deserted so it was the easy ride in ever.

Staying at a hotel definitely had its perks - we didn't have to wake up nearly as early as we would have to make an hours drive for a 7 am start.  We had plenty of time to use the bathroom, stretch and roam around the Trade Center.  There were a TON of porta-potties outside of Trade Center and they were wonderfully clean too. What we didn't have time for was using the bathroom again in the last 20 minutes before the race because it was nearly impossible to get out of the convention center at that point.  With over 11,000 runners it was wall-to-wall people by that point.  I was thankful to only be running 5 miles.  There were porta-potties on the course so around mile 2.5 near The Boston Common I stopped to use one.  Again, I wasn't really worried about time for this race.

This race had a wave start and we were in the second wave.  I made sure to have my cell phone at the ready because I was going to take as many pictures as I could while I ran down the streets of Boston.  It was great because the streets were just for runners so there were no cars to dodge.

I used this race to just really enjoy the art of running.  After snapping a few photos I settled into my pace, albeit a little

slower than normal so I could really enjoy myself, listened to my music and just generally enjoyed my surroundings.  I was surprised to see a mom from our Greater Manchester Mom's Run This Town group holding a sign for us on the course!  She works in Boston so she took the time to cheer us on.  I loved it!

It was only in the 50's and about 30 degrees cooler than the day before, but the cool weather just made for an easier run.  The wind afterwards?  Not so much fun, but again I just went into the Trade Center to wait for my friends who ran the half.


All in all, it was a great race with some great swag in the best city in the world - Boston.