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!
Friday, April 22, 2011
2011 Boston Marathon
One reason that the marathon is such an interesting race is that it is so unpredictable. When I ran my BQ (Boston Qualifier) in Philadelphia in November 2009, I kept waiting to hit the dreaded wall. But it never came. In fact, the last 10k was my fastest, and I felt like I could have run both faster and farther. Today's marathon was a whole different story. I felt fine through the first half of the race, but somewhere between miles 15 and 16, the big muscles in my upper legs started cramping badly, making it really hard to even approximate decent running form. The last 10k was slow and painful, and when asked by a volunteer at the finish whether she could do something for me, I said, "yeah, please just put me out of my misery". The amazing thing, though, is that I think I felt better today at the halfway point than I did in Philly. You just never know how your body will react to the distance. You just have to wait and see. Maybe that is part of the appeal of the marathon ... that and the fact that you can eat without guilt for 2 weeks after the race.
If I wore hats, I would take mine off to the city of Boston. What an event! In spite of my disappointing time (3:28:30, considerably behind my goal of 3:15:59), this was an unforgettable experience. I was amazed at how many people came out to support the runners, and I was even more amazed at their level of enthusiasm. Consider that at many points on the course, there is a constant stream of runners for over 3 hours. Yet, you always had the sense that they were there cheering for YOU. I wore a Virginia Cavaliers shirt, and there was a constant stream of "Go, Virginia", and "WAHOOWA!". There were very few vacant stretches from Hopkinton to Boston. And the last 3 or 4 miles were just unreal. I am sure that I would have run close to 4 hours if it weren't for the encouragement of the crowd. The volunteers were great too. They treated all the runners like VIPs and if you thanked them for volunteering, they would respond with "my pleasure" or even "my privilege" ... Chick-Fil-A employees perhaps?
I also have to take my hat off to my wonderful wife. Jes managed to round up four unruly kids, pack up, check out from our hotel room, and drive to two separate spots on the course to cheer me on. The first was near our hotel in Natick, at about the 8 mile mark. The second was on the 3rd hill in the Newton district at about mile 19. From there she had to drive into the jam packed city of Boston, find our hotel and then fight the crowds to get to our meeting spot with four kids in tow. And I am thankful she did. I was in no state to try to get to the hotel by myself. I couldn't even remember the name of the street it was on. I love you, Jes!
Those are my high level thoughts from the race. I wrote down the full marathon day story for kicks and grins. Here it is.
After experiencing the logistical nightmare of the 2006 Marine Corps Marathon, I decided to leave fairly early. I got up at 6:30, showered, and got dressed. I made a race day decision to wear my short sleeve Virginia shirt instead of my long sleeve Shamrock Marathon shirt, which turned out to be the right call. Jes and the kids threw on some clothes, and after checking to make sure I didn't forget anything, we left promptly at 7:30. The trip to the drop off point was uneventful. The organizers of the marathon planned this part really well. The drop off point is in Hopkinton State Park in a place where lots of cars can get in and out easily. From there, we boarded a bus that drove us back the way we came, out of the park to Hopkinton High School, the site of "Athletes Village".
I had a good hour to kill in Athletes Village. For 45 minutes, I was mostly focused on two things: fueling up and keeping warm. The temperature wasn't too bad, but it was very windy. I was shivering despite the black warm up suit that I was wearing. I felt sorry for the few people I saw who were wearing only their marathon gear, presumably to avoid the hassle of the bag drop. They looked absolutely miserable. With about 15 minutes to my scheduled "depart from Athletes Village" time, I figured I would hit the porta-potties and then hike the .7 miles to the starting corrals. In retrospect, I should have picked a different line. As it turned out, our line had only 2 working porta-potties. I wasn't paying enough attention to notice that other lines were moving faster than mine. As we got close to front of the line, the guy next to me and I were speculating on why no one had yet come out of the 3rd porta-potty that should have been serving our line. We never did find out, but we came up with several theories, the most plausible being that either the thing was broken or someone was camped out inside trying to stay warm.
Trying to stay warm in Hopkinton
I eventually had my turn, and after warning the people in the back of the line to find another line, I started making my way out of Athletes Village about 10 minutes after my corral had been called. I stripped down and dropped off my bag at the bag drop buses, which was a quick & painless process. You could sense the excitement during the walk to the starting line. I heard some people joking that they hadn't trained at all for the event, which made me feel a little better about my level of preparation. The race volunteers were very strict about getting people into the right wave and the right corral. I got into corral 6 of wave 1 right after the national anthem, about 5 minutes before the start of the race.
Psyching myself up on the way to the starting line
During the first few miles of every marathon, it is funny to watch the guys pulling over on the side of the road to dispose of some of the excess water that they took in before the race. In my experience, this is unnecessary, because the feeling goes away after a few miles - for me, it was at about mile 3 this year. The first 10 miles of the race took us through the towns of Hopkinton, Farmingham, and Natick. That part of the course consists of rolling hills, fairly similar to what I'm used to from running at home in Bristow, Va. In some sense, this is nice because it adds variety and some easy sections, i.e. the downhills. I felt pretty good during this part of the race. My primary concern was that I felt hot. My original fluid intake plan was gatorade every other mile. Due to the heat, I decided to take water on the other miles. I also took some of the other things that people were handing out like cold wet wipes and ice cubes. Once I entered Framingham, I started looking for Jes & the kids. That kept me distracted for about 3 miles until I finally saw them and got a big boost. Somewhere near the end of this section of the race, I decided to abandon the stretch goal of 3:10 and shoot for 3:15, because I wasn't quite running 3:10 pace at that point and I didn't feel like I could speed up safely. My splits for the first 10 miles were 7:34, 7:11, 7:18, 7:10, 7:22, 7:16, 7:15, 7:20, 7:17, 7:22.
Somewhere around mile 12, we entered Wellesley, which was a spectacle worth the price of admission:
http://www.runnersworld.com/boston2008/wellesley/.
Still running strong in Wellesley
I knew that the uphill Newton section of the course started at about mile 16. I was trying to stay relaxed and planned to take it easy on the uphills. My splits from miles 11-15 were 7:31,7:18,7:25,7:24,7:36. Right at the end of that stretch, maybe around mile 15, I got a big pulsing cramp in my left hamstring. I've had the same symptom before but not until much later in the race, so I knew I was in trouble. Around the same time, my watch lost satellite reception, so I had no idea how fast I was going anymore. The 4 uphills in the Newton section really weren't that bad, except that they added my calfs to the list of cramping muscles. I ran into Jes and the kids on the third uphill, at which point I knew my original goal was not feasible. Jes did me a huge favor by rubbing down my legs. I gave the kids high fives and hugs and moved on - 7 more miles to go. At this point, I started setting mini goals. My first was to run all the way up heartbreak hill without stopping. I can't say that I ran up it all that fast, but I did make it up without stopping and was rewarded with a nice downhill and more cramps. My next goal was to break 3:40. My legs were constantly cramping at this point, so I thought I would have to walk a significant portion of the rest of the race. The crowd kept me in it, though. There were a few points where I stopped, walked & stretched for a bit, but the encouragement from the crowd got me moving quickly. At about the 24 mile mark, I realized that I could make 3:30 if I pushed it. I hobbled through that last stretch, and the huge mob of people on the last half mile stretch helped me across the finish line.
Approaching Jes & the kids on the 3rd uphill in Newton
As it turned out, my watch had recovered satellite reception about 33 minutes after losing it so I do have some of my late mile splits, even though they don't exactly line up with the mile markers on the course: 8:22,8:25,8:24,10:24,8:42,8:40.
At the finish line. Apparently I looked up at the wrong time.
I felt pretty awful after finishing. I wanted to eat, but I had trouble getting anything down, least of all the way-too-sweet gatorade recovery drink that they gave us. It seemed to take forever to make my way through the post-race gauntlet of water-blanket-recovery drink-food-bag pick up-family meeting area. Unfortunately, Jes hadn't yet arrived so I wandered around aimlessly for a bit. That's where I had the most painful incident of the race: I got a massive charley horse in my calf when I tried to step up onto a curb. It was pretty obvious that I was in pain. Some lady asked if I needed medical attention. I just needed to wait about 30 seconds for the muscle to relax.
At that point, I figured I'd have to make my way to the hotel on my own. So I got my warmup gear back on, taking off my shoes to make the process easier. A nice woman came and asked if there was anything she could do for me. I asked her to help me get my shoes on and then call Jes on her iPhone. Thankfully, Jes was not far away by this time, so I just waited for her to come rescue me. Seeing her and the kids was an even more welcome sight than the finish line!
It was far from the perfect race, but like I said, it was a great experience and just made me want to come back and do better next time.
If I wore hats, I would take mine off to the city of Boston. What an event! In spite of my disappointing time (3:28:30, considerably behind my goal of 3:15:59), this was an unforgettable experience. I was amazed at how many people came out to support the runners, and I was even more amazed at their level of enthusiasm. Consider that at many points on the course, there is a constant stream of runners for over 3 hours. Yet, you always had the sense that they were there cheering for YOU. I wore a Virginia Cavaliers shirt, and there was a constant stream of "Go, Virginia", and "WAHOOWA!". There were very few vacant stretches from Hopkinton to Boston. And the last 3 or 4 miles were just unreal. I am sure that I would have run close to 4 hours if it weren't for the encouragement of the crowd. The volunteers were great too. They treated all the runners like VIPs and if you thanked them for volunteering, they would respond with "my pleasure" or even "my privilege" ... Chick-Fil-A employees perhaps?
I also have to take my hat off to my wonderful wife. Jes managed to round up four unruly kids, pack up, check out from our hotel room, and drive to two separate spots on the course to cheer me on. The first was near our hotel in Natick, at about the 8 mile mark. The second was on the 3rd hill in the Newton district at about mile 19. From there she had to drive into the jam packed city of Boston, find our hotel and then fight the crowds to get to our meeting spot with four kids in tow. And I am thankful she did. I was in no state to try to get to the hotel by myself. I couldn't even remember the name of the street it was on. I love you, Jes!
Those are my high level thoughts from the race. I wrote down the full marathon day story for kicks and grins. Here it is.
After experiencing the logistical nightmare of the 2006 Marine Corps Marathon, I decided to leave fairly early. I got up at 6:30, showered, and got dressed. I made a race day decision to wear my short sleeve Virginia shirt instead of my long sleeve Shamrock Marathon shirt, which turned out to be the right call. Jes and the kids threw on some clothes, and after checking to make sure I didn't forget anything, we left promptly at 7:30. The trip to the drop off point was uneventful. The organizers of the marathon planned this part really well. The drop off point is in Hopkinton State Park in a place where lots of cars can get in and out easily. From there, we boarded a bus that drove us back the way we came, out of the park to Hopkinton High School, the site of "Athletes Village".
I had a good hour to kill in Athletes Village. For 45 minutes, I was mostly focused on two things: fueling up and keeping warm. The temperature wasn't too bad, but it was very windy. I was shivering despite the black warm up suit that I was wearing. I felt sorry for the few people I saw who were wearing only their marathon gear, presumably to avoid the hassle of the bag drop. They looked absolutely miserable. With about 15 minutes to my scheduled "depart from Athletes Village" time, I figured I would hit the porta-potties and then hike the .7 miles to the starting corrals. In retrospect, I should have picked a different line. As it turned out, our line had only 2 working porta-potties. I wasn't paying enough attention to notice that other lines were moving faster than mine. As we got close to front of the line, the guy next to me and I were speculating on why no one had yet come out of the 3rd porta-potty that should have been serving our line. We never did find out, but we came up with several theories, the most plausible being that either the thing was broken or someone was camped out inside trying to stay warm.
Trying to stay warm in Hopkinton
I eventually had my turn, and after warning the people in the back of the line to find another line, I started making my way out of Athletes Village about 10 minutes after my corral had been called. I stripped down and dropped off my bag at the bag drop buses, which was a quick & painless process. You could sense the excitement during the walk to the starting line. I heard some people joking that they hadn't trained at all for the event, which made me feel a little better about my level of preparation. The race volunteers were very strict about getting people into the right wave and the right corral. I got into corral 6 of wave 1 right after the national anthem, about 5 minutes before the start of the race.
Psyching myself up on the way to the starting line
During the first few miles of every marathon, it is funny to watch the guys pulling over on the side of the road to dispose of some of the excess water that they took in before the race. In my experience, this is unnecessary, because the feeling goes away after a few miles - for me, it was at about mile 3 this year. The first 10 miles of the race took us through the towns of Hopkinton, Farmingham, and Natick. That part of the course consists of rolling hills, fairly similar to what I'm used to from running at home in Bristow, Va. In some sense, this is nice because it adds variety and some easy sections, i.e. the downhills. I felt pretty good during this part of the race. My primary concern was that I felt hot. My original fluid intake plan was gatorade every other mile. Due to the heat, I decided to take water on the other miles. I also took some of the other things that people were handing out like cold wet wipes and ice cubes. Once I entered Framingham, I started looking for Jes & the kids. That kept me distracted for about 3 miles until I finally saw them and got a big boost. Somewhere near the end of this section of the race, I decided to abandon the stretch goal of 3:10 and shoot for 3:15, because I wasn't quite running 3:10 pace at that point and I didn't feel like I could speed up safely. My splits for the first 10 miles were 7:34, 7:11, 7:18, 7:10, 7:22, 7:16, 7:15, 7:20, 7:17, 7:22.
Somewhere around mile 12, we entered Wellesley, which was a spectacle worth the price of admission:
http://www.runnersworld.com/boston2008/wellesley/.
Still running strong in Wellesley
I knew that the uphill Newton section of the course started at about mile 16. I was trying to stay relaxed and planned to take it easy on the uphills. My splits from miles 11-15 were 7:31,7:18,7:25,7:24,7:36. Right at the end of that stretch, maybe around mile 15, I got a big pulsing cramp in my left hamstring. I've had the same symptom before but not until much later in the race, so I knew I was in trouble. Around the same time, my watch lost satellite reception, so I had no idea how fast I was going anymore. The 4 uphills in the Newton section really weren't that bad, except that they added my calfs to the list of cramping muscles. I ran into Jes and the kids on the third uphill, at which point I knew my original goal was not feasible. Jes did me a huge favor by rubbing down my legs. I gave the kids high fives and hugs and moved on - 7 more miles to go. At this point, I started setting mini goals. My first was to run all the way up heartbreak hill without stopping. I can't say that I ran up it all that fast, but I did make it up without stopping and was rewarded with a nice downhill and more cramps. My next goal was to break 3:40. My legs were constantly cramping at this point, so I thought I would have to walk a significant portion of the rest of the race. The crowd kept me in it, though. There were a few points where I stopped, walked & stretched for a bit, but the encouragement from the crowd got me moving quickly. At about the 24 mile mark, I realized that I could make 3:30 if I pushed it. I hobbled through that last stretch, and the huge mob of people on the last half mile stretch helped me across the finish line.
Approaching Jes & the kids on the 3rd uphill in Newton
As it turned out, my watch had recovered satellite reception about 33 minutes after losing it so I do have some of my late mile splits, even though they don't exactly line up with the mile markers on the course: 8:22,8:25,8:24,10:24,8:42,8:40.
At the finish line. Apparently I looked up at the wrong time.
I felt pretty awful after finishing. I wanted to eat, but I had trouble getting anything down, least of all the way-too-sweet gatorade recovery drink that they gave us. It seemed to take forever to make my way through the post-race gauntlet of water-blanket-recovery drink-food-bag pick up-family meeting area. Unfortunately, Jes hadn't yet arrived so I wandered around aimlessly for a bit. That's where I had the most painful incident of the race: I got a massive charley horse in my calf when I tried to step up onto a curb. It was pretty obvious that I was in pain. Some lady asked if I needed medical attention. I just needed to wait about 30 seconds for the muscle to relax.
At that point, I figured I'd have to make my way to the hotel on my own. So I got my warmup gear back on, taking off my shoes to make the process easier. A nice woman came and asked if there was anything she could do for me. I asked her to help me get my shoes on and then call Jes on her iPhone. Thankfully, Jes was not far away by this time, so I just waited for her to come rescue me. Seeing her and the kids was an even more welcome sight than the finish line!
It was far from the perfect race, but like I said, it was a great experience and just made me want to come back and do better next time.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A Happy Change - pictures added
NOTE: Dave will be guest blogging about the marathon. He's working on the post, which will be followed by my experience of the marathon. But, until then, we pick up with the happenings the day after the race.
Tuesday, April 19th
I want to start this post by saying that after yesterday and the fact that my kids fight about everything, especially who sleeps where, I was ready to turn around and head home. Fortunately, our day in Boston on Tuesday was a great one. Breakfast was a wonderful buffet in the hotel. Kids eat free there, and boy, was that a mistake for them. You would think the kids had not eaten in weeks. They all ate 2-3 plates of food. It put them all in a great mood, though.
Here's one of the best sights of the day. I was about to yell at Zack to get off someone's bike until I realized it was a rack. Of course, it took a while for the kids to figure out what these were for.
The weather was not really cooperating, but it never got too rainy to keep us off the streets. We took our Duck Tour through the city. That was enjoyable and an easy way to see the sights.
One of the things that we saw along the way was the Bunker Hill Monument. The kids thought that was cool and wanted to climb to the top. It is the last stop along the Freedom Trail, so that helped give the kids some motivation as we were walking the path later in the day. After the Duck Tour, we began the Freedom Trail. We walked through Boston Commons, saw famous gravestones in multiple graveyards, talked about Paul Revere’s midnight ride and the Boston Tea Party.
Taking the trail is fun because you walk through all the different neighborhoods throughout Boston. We got to see Chinatown and little North End with all the Italian shops and bakeries. All the streets and houses are different as you make your way through the city. We really enjoyed the walk. We stumbled across a street performance. There were funny acrobats. They did some tricks that amused the kids and were quite impressive. We also boarded the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest warship afloat. The kids pretended to shoot a cannon and we got to go down a level. It was pretty interesting.
Eventually, we made it to the Bunker Hill Monument at 4:50. The last entrance to climb the 295 steps to the top was at 4:30. The kids were sorely disappointed. I think it might have been a mistake to try it because we still had to make it to the subway station. I might have had to carry at least one of the kids, and I’m not sure I could have managed that.
Rachel got a good lesson in map reading. Dave gave her the map to try to get us from the Bunker Hill Monument to the subway station. She did a great job. In the end, we had to ask someone for a little more help, but the map had the station on the wrong side of the major road. So, it was definitely not her fault. But, it was a wonderful treat to get to sit down and ride back to our car rather than having to retrace our steps all the way back.
We calculated that the kids walked over 5 miles that day. We were all tired and had not eaten much other than breakfast. But, we had very few complaints and overall everyone was in good spirits. We had reasonable traffic out of Boston and even had a delicious pizza at some random place that we picked to stop. It was the kind of day that I imagined as we were planning this trip. I'm sure we'll have both this kind and the ones that make me want to throw in the towel and go home. I just hope these kinds outnumber the other.
On to Niagara, so check back for our experiences there.
Tuesday, April 19th
I want to start this post by saying that after yesterday and the fact that my kids fight about everything, especially who sleeps where, I was ready to turn around and head home. Fortunately, our day in Boston on Tuesday was a great one. Breakfast was a wonderful buffet in the hotel. Kids eat free there, and boy, was that a mistake for them. You would think the kids had not eaten in weeks. They all ate 2-3 plates of food. It put them all in a great mood, though.
Here's one of the best sights of the day. I was about to yell at Zack to get off someone's bike until I realized it was a rack. Of course, it took a while for the kids to figure out what these were for.
The weather was not really cooperating, but it never got too rainy to keep us off the streets. We took our Duck Tour through the city. That was enjoyable and an easy way to see the sights.
One of the things that we saw along the way was the Bunker Hill Monument. The kids thought that was cool and wanted to climb to the top. It is the last stop along the Freedom Trail, so that helped give the kids some motivation as we were walking the path later in the day. After the Duck Tour, we began the Freedom Trail. We walked through Boston Commons, saw famous gravestones in multiple graveyards, talked about Paul Revere’s midnight ride and the Boston Tea Party.
Taking the trail is fun because you walk through all the different neighborhoods throughout Boston. We got to see Chinatown and little North End with all the Italian shops and bakeries. All the streets and houses are different as you make your way through the city. We really enjoyed the walk. We stumbled across a street performance. There were funny acrobats. They did some tricks that amused the kids and were quite impressive. We also boarded the U.S.S. Constitution, the oldest warship afloat. The kids pretended to shoot a cannon and we got to go down a level. It was pretty interesting.
Eventually, we made it to the Bunker Hill Monument at 4:50. The last entrance to climb the 295 steps to the top was at 4:30. The kids were sorely disappointed. I think it might have been a mistake to try it because we still had to make it to the subway station. I might have had to carry at least one of the kids, and I’m not sure I could have managed that.
Rachel got a good lesson in map reading. Dave gave her the map to try to get us from the Bunker Hill Monument to the subway station. She did a great job. In the end, we had to ask someone for a little more help, but the map had the station on the wrong side of the major road. So, it was definitely not her fault. But, it was a wonderful treat to get to sit down and ride back to our car rather than having to retrace our steps all the way back.
We calculated that the kids walked over 5 miles that day. We were all tired and had not eaten much other than breakfast. But, we had very few complaints and overall everyone was in good spirits. We had reasonable traffic out of Boston and even had a delicious pizza at some random place that we picked to stop. It was the kind of day that I imagined as we were planning this trip. I'm sure we'll have both this kind and the ones that make me want to throw in the towel and go home. I just hope these kinds outnumber the other.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Adventures in Boston
Just two days into our trip, and we've had quite a few adventures. We decided to leave on Friday since we were packed and ready. We stopped for dinner just outside Baltimore, so we could watch some of the Caps vs. Rangers game. We got to see both of the Caps' goals in that game, which was nice. We drove until a little after midnight and made it to Mount Laurel, NJ.
We made the rest of the drive to Boston the next day. Thanks to my friend, Katherine, for the suggestion to leave Friday. It worked out really well. We were able to get into Natick, a suburb of Boston, by about 4. Dave went for a short run, and then we all headed to the nice mall across the street. We found a nice surprise - a glow in the dark mini-golf - in the mall. My boys LOVE mini-golf, so we played a round. It was fun. I took some pics with my iPhone, but they did not turn out well. We grabbed some cheesecakes at the Cheesecake Factory for a treat in the hotel. Unfortunately, Alex had left his jacket at the mall, which was closed by the time we discovered it. This caused me to have a mini-meltdown. We had planned on Mass at 9, followed by the trek into Boston proper to pick up Dave's marathon packet and possibly the Red Sox game. But, now the timing would be off if we had to stay around here until noon to pick up the jacket. After a little too much pouting on my part, Dave and I came up with a way to alter the plan. In the end, we were able to get everything done, just not in the original order.
We headed into town to pick up Dave's packet. That's always interesting to see all the people and stuff associated with the race. I think it began to feel very real to Dave and he started to get nervous. I felt very proud with him there because I know that many people aren't able to make it into Boston and would like to. next, we headed to church. It was a nice Mass at a quaint, city church. Apparently going to bathroom twice during mass was not enough for Matthew because he peed in his pants at the very end. That sent us back to the car (in the wrong direction, of course) for a change of clothes. Thankfully, we are packed for 6 weeks or I wouldn't have had new clothes in there. Then, we hustled a mile or so to the Red Sox game.
We got there with 1/2 hour to spare and got great tickets behind home plate. The game was a great baseball game in that it had plenty of hits and action. It was not close - Boston beat the Blue Jays 8-1. But, the kids had a great time cheering them on.
After the game, we had to hustle back to car to try to make it back to the mall to pick up Alex's jacket by 6. We made it with a few minutes to spare and fortunately we recovered the jacket. After finding gobs of people at Olive Garden, Dave ate a pasta dinner at Fridays. Back to the hotel room for showers. Here's a video of Matthew. He was in the shower hooting and hollering. He usually takes baths and was reluctant to take a shower. But, he was having a great time. It was so funny that I grabbed the camera to capture it. Unfortunately, he had kind of stopped, so I was prompting him. But, the video is funny because it captures much of Matthew's personality. Note: there is no inappropriate nudity in the video
A Huge Challenge
Warning Note: This blog is going to be my primary record of the trip. Therefore, it will be full of many details and probably boring tidbits. This post is a prime example. But, I want to record it all as it happens. Read at your own risk!
Six people, six weeks, eighteen states, one car. We've been planning this trip for a year now, thinking about all the places we intend to visit. But, I knew that a big challenge for me was to see how I was going to get everything we needed for this trip into the car as efficiently and organized as possible. I began making lists two months ago. I couldn't believe how long the list was getting. But, I tried to just separate all the things into reasonable pieces that I could organize and pack. I have to say that it was a monumental feat that I got everything in. After I had packed the car, I stepped back in wonder and awe at the amount of stuff I was able to get in the car and the amount of space we had left. Now, we just need to keep it organized.
First, the clothes. How to pack for 6 people when the weather will vary from very hot, desert conditions to snow-covered grounds (including skiing). I separated the clothes out into 4-5 day groups and packed two sets of suitcases for the start of the trip. Shorts and the snow clothes, which won't be necessary for a couple weeks, were packed each into their own suitcase.
4 days of clothes for the six of us. The other 4-5 days are in two smaller suitcases.
We always seem to get sick on vacation. Normally the kids are pretty healthy, but vacations seem to bring it out in us. We brought some nasty bug with us to the beach one year, which infected all the children there and two of the adults. It gained us the nickname, "Typhoid Kreitzers." So, I try to bring all the medicine we might need with us. Here's my very full medicine kit.
To minimize the suitcases we would need to take into the hotels, I packed this overnight bag. It will go with us everywhere. It has bathing suits (for hotel pools), toiletries, medicine, books to read at night, nightlights, and pull-ups for Matthew.
The solution that helped get the car very contained was to get these bins to line the bottom of the rear of that car. I am using them to hold all the odds and ends of stuff that need to go on the trips. Here he have one with all the cameras, flashlights for the cave exploring we're doing, geocaching stuff, goggles for swimming, etc. The next one is carrying our Easter baskets and extra toiletries and medication that we'll need over the course of the 6 weeks. The final one contains shoes and other odds and ends that we'll need.
The bins across the back of the car. Now, I can just stack the suitcases on top of these, maximizing my space.
The other storage solution that I am using is to embrace the makeup bag. I have found many uses for these multi-compartment, zippered bags. I created one that had tools that we might need on our trip. I also used them for the kids' supplies for the car. I made one for each of the kids to store their crayons, pencils, etc. They can keep them in their backpacks or hang them from the seat in front of them. They are working out really well.
The kids also have organizers hanging from each of the seats. These hold all the electronics and travel games that we have in our house. Anything that might entertain them without the risk of losing too many pieces went into these things. Yet, 1/2 hour in and I think we had our first complaint of boredom.
Schoolwork was another challenge. The kids are each responsible for completing some work from school as well as working on some projects along the way. I packed some stuff in each of their backpacks, but I wanted a folder for me to keep the required work in. Alex is responsible for learning all the states and their capitals for a big test after we come back to school. I am making sure that Rachel and Zack will learn that as well. That required making study guides and practice test copies for all the regions and the complete US. I've stored these, their work, mailing supplies for sending letters to school and family in a big binder that I keep near me.
Finally, I can put it all into the car. The cartop carrier is holding all the stuff that we won't need for awhile. From left to right, that includes: Snow boots, gloves and hats and ski pants, the shorts suitcase, the winter jackets (which came down in Boston because of the cold wind), the 2 suitcases for the second half of this week, and our tennis rackets. With a little help pushing it down, the carrier closed easily.
This picture is deceptive because it was before the kids' backpacks or the kids got in. It shows the new thermoelectric cooler we bought to hopefully help us eat a little healthier and cheaper along the way. Once the kids got in with all their backpacks, it got a little more crowded looking.
Finally, the back! I have to say that I began to question what I had forgotten in order to have so much space. Here we have the tubs, our big suitcase, a suitcase for the 1 night in Boston, the overnight bag, the running stuff bag, and sleeping bags.
Stay tuned for what I forgot. I realized just miles in that I had forgotten the iPad my parents gave us for Christmas for the trip. I am having my friend send it to us at our stop in Cincinnati. I'm sure there will be more forgotten items, but I'm hoing they are just minor. Time will tell.
Friday, April 15, 2011
To the top...
One of the things we did for Rachel for her birthday was to have her and Dave go to this open climb that I saw. They got to climb up to the top of this structure 3 different times from 3 different routes. Rachel did really well and loved it! You have to be nine in order to do it, so next time, Alex and I will get our turn to make it to the top.
Big smile at the top!
Dave challenged himself and had to pull himself up with these two ropes. He tried and tried but just couldn't pull himself up over the edge. Hopefully, the soreness from this adventure won't hurt his chances in the marathon.
At the top - from a different route!
While they were climbing, the boys played army with their helmets on.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Changing of the Guard
A big day in the Kreitzer house - Rachel learns to mow the lawn. Rachel (and Alex) have been begging to mow the lawn for awhile. I guess Dave decided Rachel is finally old enough to help out with his big chore. She was pretty excited. I'm pretty sure Dave will have to go back over and clean up the lawn some for awhile as she learns to manipulate the lawn mower. But, it will be a big time saver for him. And, Rachel felt very grown-up today. Makes me a little nervous, but we'll see how it goes.
First step - put gas in the mower
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Then, can she start the mower? It took a couple tries, but she got it.
Dave's making her do it the hard way. She was probably wondering what she was getting herself into.
Oh, this is much easier! Loving it!
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