2009-04-27

Boston - picking up the bib

We drove 30 minutes to Boston to pick up Coty's bib number at the convention center. Since we were unsure of where to park, Coty and I were going to run in and get his packet while Mark sat in the car out front with the girls. Once we got inside, we knew it would be a several hour ordeal. It was like walking into Disneyland the first time, but for runners.


As we entered, there was an aisle. Not really knowing where we were or where we were going, Coty headed down that direction. We came upon a giant TV screen and the announcement that they were going to be starting the show in a few minutes. That is when I got on the cell phone and told Mark to find a place to park, we were going to be there for awhile. The show was a first hand view of the course as taken from a car in sped up time. This was great since Coty was still trying to figure out what to expect while running. We knew there were some tough spots on the course. If you notice at the bottom of the screen, it shows the elevation as you run.


We then headed over to pick up his packet. They had rows and rows of tables with letters of the alphabet on the front of boxes with people checking you in. There were quit a few people but it was very organized so it didn't take to long.


Coty and Mark headed over to the Adidas area to buy Coty a cool "Boston Marathon 2009" sweatshirt. My son says one of the main reasons for running these races is to get the shirt. Since there were tons of people and we were all getting a little cranky from having to elbow our way around, I took the girls on an excursion to see what else was going on. We ran into Mr. Hoyt from "Team Hoyt".


If you haven't seen his video, it really is a must. When he was around 40 he decided to run a race with his disabled son in a wheel chair. After he saw the reaction on his sons face, he knew he wanted to continue doing this.


We also saw Brian Hall who was a hopefully to take first. Every year it seems that it is either Ethiopia or Kenya that takes fist. In the end Brian ended up third. It was exciting to see him at the expo and then to see him as he finished the race.


There were lots of other booths there geared specifically to runners. Energy bars, tools for taking cramps out, special socks, GU packets, shoes, other marathon advertisements. It was very festive and a lot of fun. Just what we needed to gear up for the big race.

4 comments:

Cathy said...

Thanks for the updates on the Boston! I thought about Coty all day!!! What was his time? and how did it compare to others? Was he in the top 25% or 50%. We are all so proud of him and think he is such a great young man!

Matt said...

Wow! That looks like so much fun...well, maybe not as much fun for Coty until the race was over. What a neat experience for your family. Coty is AMAZING for completing that race. Coolest thing EVER!

Matt said...

P.S.-That was Steff that left that last comment. I'm on Matt's computer and I guess he's signed into his google account. Oopsies!

Tfamily said...

Well I was going to be really surprised to see Matt stocking my blog haha.