The expo was crazy. It honestly took me an hour to get all the way through! And I only bought a couple of things (gels, mostly). It was like walking through a running/nutrition flea market party. By the end, though, I had huge full-size samples of deodorant, Gain, a donut, ice cream, and protein bars. Pretty awesome.

Race day, at 430a, it was raining and 57 degrees. I decided on shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt. I was cussing to myself "I don't run in RAIN!!" and was pretty irritated that I was going to be running in the rain for 2+ hours. I told myself to snap out of it. It kind of worked. When I left my house, I saw a search light in the sky. I thought it was weird. Especially the fact that I was driving towards it. My mind was totally blown when I arrived at the race 35 minutes later and realized that the search light was at the starting line!

This is a photo of where I parked because I knew I would forget!

Both the half and the full were sold out (and the 5k and 10ks held the day before were sold out, too!). 33,000 people were registered for events! Isn't that amazing and wonderful? The corrals were full and there were military personnel checking race tags to make sure no one was in the wrong place. There were police officers everywhere and helicopters overhead all throughout the race. I was happy that there was heightened security, but it was a shame that those measures are even necessary, you know?

The rain held off, thank goodness. At times, I was worried that I was overdressed, but then other times I could tell the temperature was dropping and it would sprinkle a little bit. I was really able to just chill out and enjoy the run. I walked some of the hills, which I think helped morale a bit. Also helps: seeing a dear friend at mile 5!

I did a gel at mile 5 and a little after mile 8. My legs were like bricks and it really made a difference. Miles 9.5 through 11 were all downhill. That sounds like it would be a huge relief, but it's not! It's just a whole different set of muscles that hurt!

There were lots of people showing support for Boston. There were tons of spectators. Lots of awesome fluid stations. It was a great, happy race.

And then it was finished! 2:25, my slowest one yet, but who cares?! I had a blast. Hung out with some friends at the finish and got a sweet medal. I call this one a "Win!".