🏃‍♀️ POV: Running the Boston Marathon

It's Monday, Boston.

🦄 It’s also Marathon Monday! Good luck to everyone taking the 26.2-mile trek today. Boston is rooting for you!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Healey supports the iLottery

• Keep your lips to yourself!

• Golden Strong

Up first...

BOSTON MARATHON

The final run of a four-year journey

Four years of dreaming, 20 weeks of training, 443 miles of running, and $8,260 raised later … I’m about to run the Boston Marathon. AH! While I’m no Eliud Kipchoge, I too, will be making my Boston Marathon debut today. And though my training plan was only 20 weeks long, the journey of getting here has been years in the making.

📝 My first time covering the Boston Marathon in 2019 was a hard day. A week earlier, someone close to me was diagnosed with cancer. I was only 22, about to become someone’s caregiver, and was really, really scared. But watching runners cross the finish line gave me an unexplainable sense of peace. For me, Marathon Monday is a day when Bostonians hold each other up, and in that moment, I needed to be held up. And I just knew that one day, I would cross that finish line, too.

🏃‍♀️ To escape the stress of doctor’s appointments, I started running. I could barely run a mile at the time. But over the course of several months, those winded miles morphed into a respectable half-marathon finish. Conquering Boston was next, but I didn’t have a strong “why” for running it. When you’re 15 miles into a cold, rainy, long run, will power simply isn’t enough.

💜 That changed when my loved one went to Dana-Farber. What started as a second opinion turned into him switching to Dana-Farber as his primary provider. It was clear the care he would receive was light-years ahead of his previous doctor, and I knew that no matter his test results, he was in the best of hands. Two years later, I landed a spot on their Boston Marathon charity team. It felt meant to be.

😮‍💨 But marathon training hasn’t always been a dream. It is, quite literally, a part-time job. During peak training, my days consisted of two hours of commuting, nine hours of working, running six to 12 miles post-work, and somewhere in between, eating enough calories to sustain myself, all while getting eight hours of sleep (maybe). And forget Saturdays. Those were dedicated to long runs.

💪 That said, the human body is amazing. My first long run was seven miles of huffing and puffing, which then became the length of my mid-week maintenance runs. I even remember being relieved one week that my long run was only 14 miles. 2019 Emily would be shocked (and unbelievably proud).

🏅 Today’s race feels like a full-circle moment. Almost four years ago to the day, I stood at the Boston Marathon finish line, terrified about the health of one of the most important people in my life. Four years later, as I cross that same finish line, my loved one will have just crossed his fourth year without any recurrence. A year from now, he will be cancer free. In many ways, finishing this race feels like the final chapter in his cancer journey.

💕 And my “why” for running has slightly changed. In fact, it’s gotten bigger. Running Boston started as an expression of gratitude to Dana-Farber for giving us the gift of peace of mind. But it’s also become a metaphorical love letter to my loved one: I would run to the ends of the Earth for you. Or at least from Hopkinton to Boston.

See you at the finish line!

😜 Want to know what it was like training for the Boston Marathon? Click the link below to come on a 20-mile long run with me:

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

💛 Remembering April 15, 2013. Boston came together this weekend to honor and remember the victims of the Marathon bombings, which devastated the city 10 years ago. Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Maura Healey joined survivors and loved ones of the victims for a memorial ceremony on Saturday morning. Later in the day, hundreds gathered for a dedication of a new memorial finish line and One Boston placard. 2014 champion Meb Keflezighi dedicated the finish line, saying: “In this emblem, we are reminded of the spirit of the people of Boston, for we are One Boston and the finish line will always be home.”

💵 Move over, mobile betting. Online Lottery could come to town. Healey said she supports a proposal by Mass. House Democrats that would allow the Lottery to sell products online. Healey said on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” that Mass. Lottery online could compete with the new online sports betting while also bringing money back into towns. The “iLottery” is part of the House Dems.’ 2024 budget proposal, and supporters say it would generate $200 million for early education and child care grants.

💋 Keep it together on the marathon route, college kids! Wellesley College is asking students to not kiss runners along the Wellesley Scream Tunnel to keep any potential COVID transmission low. Plus, Boston University and Boston College are warning students not to drink too much. BU advised students against drinking BORGs, gallon jugs filled with a combo of liquor, water, a caffeinated drink, flavoring, and liquid IV. And Boston College shared with students their zero-tolerance policy for underage drinking and public drinking on the route.

🏆 Playoffs are in full swing. The Bruins take the ice tonight against the Florida Panthers for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Bruins are favored in the match-up following their historic 65-win season. And the C’s easily beat the Hawks over the weekend, leading by 30 points at the half and winning 112 to 99. Their next game tips off at 7 p.m. Tuesday at TD Garden.

THINGS TO DO

Weekly checklist

🍶Learn to drink with the pros at Rebel Rebel Wine Bar’s Sake 101 class with Alyssa DiPasquale, of The Koji Club.

🥦 Celebrate 4/20 a little early with Weeding out the Stoned, a comedy game show at the Rockwell.

🥕 Snack on local business samples at Boston Public Market’s Third Thursday Tastings.

ONE LAST THING

An adorable memorial

Over 100 dogs gathered on Boston Common to honor Spencer and Penny.

The sea of furry friends, mostly golden retrievers, met up to remember official Boston Marathon dog Spencer and his sister, Penny. Spencer went viral in 2018 for holding Boston Strong flags in his mouth along the rainy race route. Both pups passed away this year due to cancer.

MA Golden Meetups organized the event and sold yellow ‘Golden Strong’ banadas as a fundraiser for the Morris Animal Foundation. Take a look at the Golden group here.

🥇 Thanks for reading! And good luck, Emily! — Katie Cole

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected].