Ramblings by me...: Seattle is the new Mexico

It’s not every day that I get texts from Ellie, so when she asked if she could come visit for spring break, I was thrilled! “Everyone goes to Mexico for spring break” she had told me. She wanted to go somewhere her classmates were not! Seattle is the new Mexico.

I picked her up from the airport on Thursday and on the drive back she asked me if Washington had any waterfalls. I smirked a little… maybe one or two, I told her. Then I drove her to Snoqualmie Falls. Even if it’s a tourist trap, it’s an impressive sight and she enjoyed it!

We stopped for a mani/pedi and then met Dustin in Seattle to go to the Mariner’s game.

We spent Friday at Alki soaking up some sunshine and then went to watch the kids play t-ball.

I had to work on Friday and she spent the day with her cousins. After work we drove to Ellensburg, a trip we had planned with my friend Chanda before Ellie had decided to come visit. On Saturday Chanda’s brother took us out on a beautiful hike. Then we drove to the mountains to go shooting. Chanda’s husband let me try out a lot of guns, including a .50 caliber! I was nervous to shoot that one, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought! Didn’t even hit myself in the face. The weather was crazy while we were there though, ranging from sun to snow! It was cold, but I was having too much fun to care.

The next weekend we were off to Boston. We took the redeye Thursday night and arrived in Boston early Friday morning. We used Uber for the first time – to get to the hotel - and it is amazing! We stayed at the Doubletree in Cambridge, not too far from the city and right on the river. After a quick nap, we went for a run along the riverfront and saw rowers out on the river (we had both just read “Boys on the Boat” and were excited to see teams out rowing on the water).

We went to the marathon expo and waited in line to meet Chris McDougall and Scott Jurek (Chris was signing copies of his new book). Dustin brought his bear hat (that we bought in Alaska) because he knew from a book that Chris’s nickname was “Oso”. He was probably the only person waiting in line that knew this bit of information, and he wanted to take a picture with Chris in it. When it was our turn, I nervously reminded Scott we had met before at our company party and Dustin asked Chris if he would take a picture of us with Dustin in the hat. Scott said he thought Chris should wear the hat and both of them seemed genuinely into it. Chris graciously wore the hat for our picture and even pretended to bite my head. When he signed Dustin’s copy of the book he wrote, “Wear the bear hat!”

Later that night we headed to Fenway to watch the Sox play the Orioles. The Sox tied up the game in the 5^th inning (2-2) and then got one last run in the bottom of the 9^th to win the game! We also saw the Orioles pitcher get ejected. He hit the batter in retaliation for a prior play and the ump threw him out. It was an exciting game!

The B.A.A. holds a 5k race on the Saturday before the marathon and we both decided to run it. The steep entry fee was more than made up by the fact that you get a B.A.A. medal (for only a 5k), and you also get to run down Boylston and across the marathon finish line on the course. It was a beautiful day for a run, with lots of sunshine as we gathered in Boston Common for the race. Since it was two days before the marathon, Dustin wasn’t looking to run super fast, so he ran with me (and took pictures and videos with his GoPro) as I reached a new 5k PR! I finished in 24:28 which is a 7:52 pace. I was happy and it was incredible to get to run the streets of Boston.

After the race, we headed to a place called Root for some brunch. We ordered some celebratory mini donuts, which were piping hot and delicious. I had the vanilla pancakes and Dustin had the breakfast burrito. Definitely worth the trip!

We had a relaxing afternoon before another night out. We had tickets to see Cartel at the Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub. They were on a 10-year anniversary tour of their album “Chroma”. It was an easy walk from our hotel and we stopped on the way for dinner at Veggie Galaxy, which is a vegetarian/vegan diner. It was very diner-ish themed, although the waitresses were not wearing skates (bummer). Dustin had the Reuben and I had shepherd’s pie. Then I of course had to try the carrot cake (delicious!). The Cartel show was excellent, and we danced and sang along as they played the album in full.

On Sunday we got up to explore some of the history of Boston. First, I made us stop at a place called “Cocobeet” which is a little shop with all kinds of fresh juices and to-go foods.

Well-fed, we headed out on the Freedom Trail to see Paul Revere’s house, the Old North Church, and the Bunker Hill Monument.

We went to the pasta dinner for Dustin to carbo-load (it’s not very vegan-friendly, so I just give mine to Dustin). It didn’t feel quite like the celebrity status walk down the red carpet as it did last year, but it’s still a cool experience to eat with all these people who will be running together in the race the following morning.

On the way to the pasta dinner, I picked up some cupcakes from "Sweet". They had Boston Marathon-themed cupcakes and I got one to surprise Dustin with after the race.

Marathon Monday: As I was still sleeping, Dustin and 35,000+ runners were prepping to run the oldest annual marathon. He left feeling good to catch the bus to the starting line. A few hours later, I was out for a 10-mile run, along the Charles River and into downtown. I ran through Boston Common and saw the last of the buses taking runners to the start. It was lightly raining, but the wind made it more of a struggle. I was thinking of all of the runners, soon to start and possibly face this same weather 26 miles away.

Getting to a street to watch the runners was much more challenging this year. They kept closing off check points and I had to try several before being able to get in and get to Hereford Street, where we had watched from last year. It’s the street right before the runners to onto Boylston to finish the race. It started raining again when I got there, and I was glad Dustin had completed most of the race already before getting rained on. There were lots of people lined up on the street, but I happened to stand behind a wonderful woman who was waiting for her husband, who was running. We chatted a little and he was expected to come by a while after Dustin, so when it got to be time for Dustin to come by, she let me take her spot in the front so I could get a picture of him running by. I like nice people and I hope her husband had a good race!

It took me a little while to get to the family meetup area and when I arrived, Dustin was sitting on the ground shivering. I felt so bad! Last year, the weather was beautiful and we stood around for a while taking pictures and listening to his experience. This year, we just left immediately…he didn’t even want to change. Took us a few minutes, but we found an unblocked street and got an Uber car. Dustin was happy to be in a warm car. Back at the hotel, he took a shower and climbed into bed, and I gave him his celebratory cupcake.

After some rest, we went and found a vegan Thai restaurant (My Thai Vegan Café) that was really great! They even had vegan desserts. And we weren't the only marathoners there.

Then we went to the after party at Fenway, but that also meant an hour or so wait in line to get inside, where it was still cold! Dustin had a celebratory beer and we watched the presentation to the winners, then went back to our warm hotel room.

The following Saturday, we flew into Oakland and met our amazing chauffeur (dad!) who drove us down to Monterey for the Big Sur Marathon. Dustin had signed up for the B2B challenge, which entails running the Boston Marathon on Monday and then the Big Sur Marathon the next Sunday. This is an actual challenge (even though some people thought Dustin had made it up) and then only let a few hundred runners do it each year.

In Monterey, Dustin and I went for a short run and then we went to dinner. Later on, I claimed I had to go talk to dad about the details of the morning, but we were actually making shirts for the race the next day (a surprise I had been planning).

Dustin felt ready for the race. I drove him to the bus to the start on Sunday morning and wished him well. After a short run, dad and I got coffee and headed to the finish line. Dustin had a goal to finish both races in under six hours, so I was hoping to see him under three hours and two minutes. The marathon app that tracks runners wasn't showing all of his checkpoints, so I wasn't sure quite when he'd be coming through. He finished in 3:04, but still came through smiling. He said the course was super windy and he didn't have the race he had wanted. He didn't think he'd do that marathon again... but I don't really believe him. ;)

The B2B runners get to go to a special recovery tent after the race and they put on quite the spread (I got to go in with him)! There was so much food and someone brought over his B2B jacket while he was eating.