Perfect, Part I

Outside of, say, Nadia Comaneci (millennial kids: look it up) I know that there's no such thing as perfect.

Next to "perfect" in the dictionary you may find her pic or pics of my Boston Marathon weekend.

Everyone... everything... every moment has flaws.But last Saturday - Monday were possibly the most perfect series of events I could ever have dreamed up. It's hard now to recall what I expected ahead of time. As with any highly anticipated event that I try to imagine a million times ahead of the Big Thing, I can never remember afterward what I thought it was going to be like. If I were to do the weekend justice, it would take 30 blog entries. I'm going to try to hit the highlights thru pictures.

Night before:

Signs created by a wonderful school family and signed by most of the kids and staff. Glad I left them home because they would have been wrecked in the rain. 

The pals who came to T's bday party Friday night. They had a blast and WERE a blast.

Trip down: Easy traffic. Quick lunch at Panera. Three (yes THREE) pee stops. (I take hydration seriously.)

Happy guys. Shining sun. (Tom was not actually sleeping...)

Hotel entry: Room was ready. Pool was warm. Boys were happy. Parents were happy.

Afternoon in Boston: Drove to T station. ALMOST didn't (but did) get a parking spot due to Red Sox game. Easy train ride in. Met up with Lauren and her family outside the Expo. Got my bib (poor Lauren left her ID in the car so didn't get hers till the next day). 

T selfie.... and it was T's 11th birthday!

One of my theater pals joked that I should have hoped for the # 24601. Les Miz fans get it.

Lauren's kiddo, Ty. (Twin sister Ali and Dad were off to the car on a wallet hunt...)

HA. It really said "Your Best Run Ever" but we are standing under "NEVER". 

We left the craziness of the Expo with all of our money still in our pockets (OH, the money you could spend!) and full of sample sized energy drinks and bars in our bellies. The TOP moment that afternoon came outside Expo. I saw Kathrine Switzer. THEEEEEE Kathrine First-Female-to-Register-and-Run-Boston-Marathon Switzer! She had clearly just finished giving a talk or something and was heading out. I was completely dumbfounded and giddy and literally speechless. I stupidly babbled and said nothing to her. It was just an amazing random moment that plopped us on the sidewalk by her. Talk with her or not, I was very very happy to have been in her presence. 

Next we headed to the finish line for lots of great photo opps:

Best photo of my LIFE?!

Finish line love

Just a few folks on the course....

We were starving at this point in the day and the train back out to our hotel was going to be at least 35 or 45 minutes. So we decided to hit a California Pizza Kitchen. STILL a long wait, so the boys enjoyed some of the energy chews that came in my swag bag. Note the very full mouths below.

Great crowds of runners at the restaurant as well as a table of wheel chair racers. That was pretty cool.

Everyone was tired but still speaking to each other on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday we went back into Boston for straight-up touristing at Faneuil Hall, Public Gardens, Boston Common. We had a couple of exciting Gabe's-gotta-pee-RIGHT-NOW moments and one classic 3-year-old-meltdown, but otherwise it was another great outing. As you can see from the photos the weather was perfection.

We called this the Friends' fountain. (It's not.)

Red Auerbach's cigar.

Bill Rodgers' shoes.

Quincy Market

Return train ride was quiet and restful.

When we got back to the hotel, my parents had arrived and were eating (a very late) lunch. We caught up for a while, rested, and headed (with Lauren) out for the carb-load/Tom's 11th birthday dinner at Bertucci's in Wellesley. Dinner took a little longer than it should have but the boys were fantastically patient and everything was just right. When we went back to the hotel, I abandoned Scott with the 3 boys and I went to Lauren's room where I had the luxury of a bed to myself and no kicking 3 year olds. We obsessed over what to wear for the race and I laid out the most important elements.

Part II will have to wait until tomorrow. Stay tuned, cuz that's RACE DAY and the aftermath!