🏃😭 Welcome to peak week

It’s Tuesday, Boston.

🍕 Get a pizza this: We’re hosting our first-ever pizza-making class with Bardo’s! Learn the secrets to the perfect bar pie, sip on beer from Castle Island, and enjoy arts and crafts with other B-Siders. Tickets are $25, and if you’re a B-Side member, your ticket is only $15 and it comes with a free drink, plus the bar pizza pan to recreate your pie at home (Eventbrite fees apply to both).

‼️ Spots are limited. So grab your ticket here! If you’re a B-Side member, make sure to check your March membership perks doc for the discount code. Not a member? Join the party. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• The local vibecession

• Why your DoorDash could get pricer

• Boston, this is the final rose.

Up first…

BOSTON MARATHON

Surviving peak week

We’re on the couch binging reality TV … while 30,000 heroes running the Boston Marathon next month are heading into their peak week of training. Think: 18- to 22-mile long runs (!).

So we asked first-time Boston runners what’s on their mind as the miles ramp up:

⚽ Madison Doherty is treating training “like it’s the preseason.” The 28-year-old running for Dana-Farber has tapped into her former collegiate athlete mindset. “I don't want to risk anything that won't make me feel 110% ready for Marathon Monday.” That means weekly preventative physical therapy, a 9 p.m. pre-long run bedtime, and no alcohol. Her friends joke that she must be gearing up for “seven-minute miles.” But for Doherty, it’s all in service of “making everyone proud,” from the patient she’s running for to every donor to her cause.

🙅‍♀️ Sarah Litwin is setting boundaries. For 30-year-old Litwin, who’s also running for Dana Farber, the goal of her training block is to “cross the finish line and stay healthy.” As her miles tick up, the key is “staying healthy,” which has meant setting hard boundaries on her work life as a lawyer to ensure she’s in tip-top shape. Think: No responding to emails during her run time, and being able to close her computer and finish work at a “reasonable hour” in the evenings. As for the big run itself … she plans to reward herself with “little treats” (ideally, Honey Stinger gummies) at every aid station.

⏳ Ben Bryant is taking things one run at a time. “I really try to focus my mentality on what's immediately ahead of me,” said 24-year-old Bryant, who’s running for Pine Street Inn. As a self-described “goal-oriented person,” Bryant said he’s handling this week (and every other week) like he would any goal: Breaking it up into “digestible bits.” Even if he’s running 20+ miles, like this weekend, he’ll take his training day-by-day instead of fixating on the long run, which will allow him to focus “on the process” and hopefully, crush the big goal at the end.

👟 Jocelyn Magrone is “chunking” her runs. You know, chunking, breaking down runs into more manageable bits in your head, i.e, an 18-mile run is just three six-mile runs. Or, on one particularly rough day for 24-year-old Magrone, who’s running for Pine Street Inn, a four-mile run is just … 40 .1 mile runs. This runner math has been the key to her long runs. “I know I can get through the physical stuff,” she said. But when you’re taking on a three-hour treadmill run, physical fitness alone isn’t enough, and chunking helps her break her longest runs “into something that seems less mentally daunting.” 

🏃 Wanna know what it’s actually like running 20 miles? B-Side’s Emily Schario ran the Boston Marathon in 2023 and filmed her 20-mile long run for IG. Expect: Heartbreak Hill, lots of screaming, and a tutu.

🎶 Bonus: Got any running bangers? You can submit a song to the Globe’s official marathon playlist here!

QUICK QUESTION!

🏃 Is running the Boston Marathon on your bucket list?

TOGETHER WITH THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM 

Hot take: Nasturtiums > cherry blossoms 

🏵️Delicate pink petals? Cute. Vibrant orange vines cascading through a Venetian-style courtyard? Now we’re talking. From late March to mid-April, the Isabella Gardner Museum’s annual Hanging Nasturtiums Courtyard display is back in full bloom. These show-stopping flowers take nine months to grow and vanish in just two to three weeks, so don’t wait. Grab a Nasturtium Cava Sparkler at Café G and soak in the ultimate spring aesthetic. Reservations are recommended — before the flowers (and tickets) disappear. 

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

📉 Are we in a recession? We think you mean a vibecession. (Don’t worry: We’re *not* actually in a recession.) Economically speaking, a vibecession is what happens when people start to worry about the economy and get money-cautious, but on the internet, almost anything reminiscent of 2008 is vibecession evidence (think: Lady Gaga’s new music). The bad news: With the already-high cost of living and our position as an education, healthcare, and tech hub, many Bostonians are in a particularly tricky position, and some are definitely feeling it.

🍔 Your DoorDash might get a little pricer. The Boston City Council is considering a spicy addition to the city’s crackdown on unsafe delivery drivers: A 15-cent “delivery fee” per order from companies like DoorDash or Uber Eats. The idea is that the small fee would fund enforcement of a new ordinance which requires those companies have a permit to operate here. But opponents, including the Mass. Restaurant Association, say the added fee would lead to rising costs for consumers and restaurants alike. We’ll see if the measure makes the cut.

🏃🏾‍♀️ The BAA is in some hot water with a local running group. A federal judge just cleared the way for a discrimination suit from TrailblazHers Run Co. against the Boston Athletic Association and the City of Newton. The suit claims that a group cheering at the 2023 marathon — mostly people of color — was “unjustly targeted” by Newton Police by order of the BAA. On Thursday, the judge denied attempts to dismiss claims of racial discrimination, basically giving the lawsuit an OK to move forward. TrailblazHers’ lawyers called the moment a “major victory.”

🏒 New England has a 50/50 shot at an NCAA title. OK, we didn’t exactly show out for March Madness. But local colleges are absolutely killing the hockey game. On Thursday, the puck drops on the NCAA men’s hockey tourney, but the bracket is already here. Spoiler: Literally half of the tournament’s total 16 schools are from the region, including BU, UMass, and BC, which is heading in as the No. 1 seed and is favored to win it all. Check out the whole bracket, and peep the schedule.

GIVEAWAY!

Together with Barry’s

Enter to win a three-pack of classes from Barry's Boston. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on March 26. If you’ve already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

18+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

🚨🚨 SPOILER WARNING! 🚨🚨

If you don’t want spoilers for “The Bachelor” season finale, DO NOT KEEP READING. We won’t hold it against you!

ONE LAST THING

What happened on “The Bachelor”

We did it, Joe. A Greater Bostonian won “The Bachelor." Emily and Gia may or may not have known this for months thanks to one Reality Steve, but we’re pretty psyched regardless.

In Monday night’s finale, our girl Juliana Pasquarosa of Newton took home Bachelor Grant Ellis’ final rose. But for us, the biggest news of the night came when the couple announced their plans to move to Boston(!) now that their relationship is public.

That said, the night wasn’t without a little mess. See: Ellis’ apparent indecision between the final two women until the *absolute* last moment, or the off-the-charts tension between him and runner-up Litia Garr on “After the Final Rose.”

So … all in all, we got drama, we got a local connection, and we got a new celeb couple in Boston. To quote this post on X: Cue the duck boats!

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🌹 Thanks for reading! If we run into them in a Tatte, let’s just say we’re getting a picture.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, for supporting local journalism and turning spring into a work of art.

🥵 The results are in: 52% of B-Siders would rather have a five-day heatwave in July than a rogue April snowstorm, though Gia would like to respectfully disagree. Hard. One reader said: “I think the results are skewed by the timing of this question - ask us again in July LOL.”

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