My Flight was supposed to take off early Saturday morning, but with a large helping of snow inbound my airline preemptively cancelled my flight on Friday night. I would get rescheduled but I was now stressed, and the snow started falling. Saturday morning I awoke to a lot of snow and a notification that my second flight was now also cancelled. This was the start of my airport headache that resulted in me rescheduling onto 8 different flights and three different airlines over two days. I got out of MSP on Sunday morning after purchasing a second ticket.

I arrived at Boston just an hour and a half before the expo closed. I rushed over to the Seaport Convention center and remember being cold. The wind was whipping off the harbor and there was a mist of rain falling sideways. I was relieved and excited to be there though. I remember feeling so proud to pick up my red bib for wave 1, with the elite runners.

Downstairs, after checking in, I picked up my Boston Marathon shirt and wandered around the expansive expo area. I had some time to kill since my family was on another flight that wouldn't arrive until late in evening. The expo was the largest running one I have attended. Everyone there was so excited for the athletes running. I visited the Adidas area and picked up the celebration jacket that everyone all the athletes were wearing; a nice red one with the Adidas stripes and the large BAA unicorn logo on the back. I put it on immediately.

The excitement was evident waiting for our wave to be called. After having my bib checked many times by volunteers I made it into my corral and talked with those around me. Everyone was excited, then the gun went off and we started off down the steep hill. The race was wet, like really wet. The wind was cold and right in our faces the entire marathon. The first miles felt fast, but the runners around me were all in step, the beginning is all downhill. The course flattened out and I tried to remain on pace. The crowd was super supportive and I remember thinking how cold they must be too.

At mile sixteen the course starts to turn up hill, there are three consecutive hills. The last one is heartbreak hill, and I can say that it was definitely difficult as my legs burned and people shouted "your done". My mind just said "done, there are still over five miles left". My pace had dropped, my legs ached and I couldn't drop my pace down again. I ran as hard as I could and remember feeling a sense of relief as I turned onto Boylston Street. I was going to finish my first Boston Marathon.