Same day, different perspective

I know there are many people that have this great desire to run a marathon to say they have done it. Well, I don’t have that and would not want to train for and run that far. But, the logistics of managing the four kids at these super crowded marathons often leaves me wondering if Dave has the easier part of the job. This is the first marathon where we were really willing to pay for a hotel close and, of course, it was a point to point marathon rather than a loop. Instead of making Dave get up super early to take the bus from Boston to the start, we stayed close to the start the first night and were staying in Boston after the finish. Even though I tend to plan things to the nth degree, I left a lot of this to chance – bad idea! I decided last minute to try to see Dave a couple times along the path rather than just driving to the finish, but I had not figured out where. As I was dropping him off at the start, we discussed the plan to meet up – family meeting area 15 minutes or so after Dave crosses the finish or he can head to our hotel if we aren’t there for him. Problem was he didn’t really know where the hotel was just the name and general direction. I knew he would have great difficulty finding the hotel on his own.


The decision to see Dave along the route was a great idea. We stopped first at mile 8. We just parked in a residential area and made our way to the route. We found a great place to be as the wheelchair race went through. We were able to see the elite women and men pass. It was cool to see them running by at such a fast pace without appearing to be exerting much effort. They really are quite amazing. Then, we cheered for the runners as the pack got larger and larger. Dave knew we were going to be on the left side of the street somewhere, so he was watching for us. He ran over and gave high fives. He was looking good and it was great to see him at this point.

Unfortunately, the camera started displaying some error. It quit working right as I went to take pics of Dave. This sent me searching on my phone about the error only to discover that this was a pretty serious deal. I want to fix things right away, so it was stressing me out as we headed back to the car to move on to another spot in the race. It was making me upset and the kids started fighting the minute we got back in the car about something silly. The stress of the camera made me much less tolerant of it. But, I just tried to ignore them and figure out where stop #2 would be. We picked mile 19. At that place, I had to park farther away. The kids actually started to complain about the ½ mile or so we would have to walk to watch Daddy run the marathon. Really?

Here it was interesting to me. This is a big event for these people. There were tailgates set up. The runners run on roads with houses lining it. All these people had chairs on their lawns to watch the race. I thought it would be pretty neat to live along the route. Dave was a little off pace at this point, so he was behind where I thought he would be. The kids were focused on the race a little. But, mostly, the boys started wrestling and playing tag in an area full of people. I was having trouble keeping them under control while also watching out for Dave. I was glad that we had come, though, because Dave needed me to rub his legs and provide some encouragement to make it the last 6 miles.

But, once we got back in the car, I knew we were in trouble. We did not have enough time. We headed into Boston, but the traffic got worse as we got closer. Because of the cartop carrier, I knew we would have trouble parking in Boston. I had talked to the hotel, and they had an uncovered lot that their valet service could use. So, my plan was to go to the hotel and give them the car to park and head to pick up Dave. I entered the address in the GPS, but it took us to the wrong place. I drove further on the road and the hotel never appeared. I tried a couple things, but it wasn’t getting us where we needed to be. At this point, I was receiving texts that Dave was finished with the marathon. And, in addition, my friend was at my house looking for our iPad to mail to us and could not find it. I was trying to figure out where it might be – to no avail.

I tried to look up the hotel on my phone, but my phone was not getting service (really, no cell service in the middle of Boston?). The GPS was just confused. Big city buildings are not good for the GPS. I had a map, but I had no good map reader. I’m sure Rachel could have handled it if I could have found where we were and knew where we were going, but I didn’t have a place to stop. And, I didn’t trust the hotel address I had and I had no cell service to call them. The city was completely packed with people. I looked for parking spots or parking lots, but they were all full. I was trying to find a space to park or maybe our hotel completely blind, avoiding closed streets and the thousands of people around, and stressing about our camera still. I couldn’t even find the street where our hotel was on because I had made too many turns. The breaking point was when I ended up on this place where I was exiting onto a street that had a sign warning of low clearance. I freaked out because our car might not make it. There was an alley, thankfully, I just pulled over on it and stopped the car. I was blocking traffic if it had come. I was losing it, though, and needed to gain some control. I guess I should also say that Matthew was yelling all kind of things at me and kicking the seat. At this point, I don’t even remember what he was upset about. But, I reached a point at which telling him to behave was not working and I just had to ignore him completely. That, of course, made him madder, but I couldn’t handle him at this point.

I pulled out the map and figured out where we were and how to get to the street our hotel was on. Of course, when I went to drive there, it was a one way road going in the wrong direction. Just that kind of day, but I was able to find another road that got me close enough to figure it out. Finally, we saw the beautiful sign of our hotel. We dropped off the car and began the close to a mile hike to the family meeting area to hopefully find Dave. He called me from someone’s cell phone to ask where we were. I was glad to talk to him and know where he was. I had to push through thousands and thousands of people across busy streets of Boston while keeping hold of all four kids. Stressful, for sure, but it was a wonderful sight to see Dave. He was very happy to see us and needed me to help him walk a little. We took it nice and slow back to the hotel. Not exactly the day I had planned, but everything was OK in the end, I guess - after Matthew received his punishment. We did have a great dinner and relax in the hotel room watching a movie afterwards...so, I'll quit whining!