Day 1 – 4 a.m. start to our day, but lots of excitement to take on our first venture of the year. Bags packed, kissed the kids goodbye and Mark and I were off to SJC to catch our first leg to Boston. Thanks to an old friend who still works for Southwest – we benefited from his perk of flying free on non-rev passes, i.e., standby – the price of free. And lucky for us, we checked in and seats were available and we were Denver bound…made it to Denver no problem, but rats – we landed # 5 and #6 on the standby list with only 5 seats left. Eek! No way we were going to split up, so next option, let’s go to Austin! Which we did…had some yummy tacos and local beer for lunch – and scored the last two seats to Boston! Woohoo – although the damn guy at the bar jinxed us saying – oh, you’ll get to see the Warriors game on the flight…well, unless the Wi-Fi isn’t working….and doh! As we board we hear the flight attendant say, wi-fi wasn’t working, but that’s OK, we were Boston bound and we’d get to see Golden State make a late 4th quarter come back and lock in a Game 2 win! It was an incredibly long day, but all good – we were in Boston, I’ll take it!
Fast forward a couple of hours, we made it to our hotel – only one small Cheri stank eye to piss off Mark, but no one went to bed mad…and the alarm was set for 3 a.m. ET, so I could make it to Media Morning with the local CBS news anchor at the race location. I had the early slot – interview #1 of the group.
Day 2 – I didn’t sleep much the night before…well, I did get a solid 3 hours on the last leg of our trip to Boston, but only got brief shut eye once we got settled in the hotel. I couldn’t help but think about what I was going to say during the interview. When I thought about it during the day prior (during our travels) I’d get choked up thinking about dad, but I needed to get some rest, so I finally managed to clear my head and got a couple of hours of sleep before venturing in the dark to the race location in Devens.
It was awesome to finally meet the MuckFest crew – and the local CBS news anchor Nick Giovanni - @NickGNews was so easy to talk to. I shared with him some of my story about dad and he asked if I felt comfortable sharing during the live interview, which I definitely did. Even brought some tissue in case I did get sappy – but thank God I didn’t! I was back in my comfort zone of my wannabe broadcasting days – very relaxed and articulate sharing our story about why I was there. Only bummer was Mark was fast asleep back in the room, so he didn’t get to see the interview live…but who could blame him – it was 3 a.m. at home! We managed to find one of the interviews online…if you look close, you’ll see me in the background…but we’re trying to track down a recording of my live interview clip. A future post I hope!
After the adrenaline from the interview wore off, I was ready for a morning nap! We had a walking tour scheduled at 11:30, so I took full advantage of the time to rest before we had to head to Salem. Incredibly interesting afternoon learning about the Salem Witch Trials…the bullshit hocus pocus lies that came along with the stories we’ve heard about growing up, and nibbled the first candy made in the US! Of course we had to take the tour guide’s advice about the best margaritas in MA…followed by another set of recommendations from the bartender to continue the local experience with lobster rolls as big as my head! It was a full day to say the least and we were finally ready to hit the hay to be ready for race day! BUT – one of the most rewarding parts of the day – the bartender asked why we were in town and of course shared our MuckFest venture, and what do you know – the owner of the bar’s mother suffered from MS and had sadly passed away recently because of complications with the disease and her funeral was the day we were there. But it was so rewarding to let them know that tomorrow, 5/18 - we would be running for her, too!
Day 3 – Race day was here – May 18, but more importantly, it was my loves birthday! Happy Birthday @Mark Devlin! Our race wave wasn’t until 1:20 p.m., so we were in no rush, although the more we thought about it, the more we wanted to start early to experience as much of Boston as possible…that was our next destination following the race. The race was actually in Devens, MA – so we were about 40 miles from Boston. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel…and headed to the race location.
Check in was nice and quick…we picked up our fundraising swag, shared our 5 MuckFest venture story with a few and managed to squeeze into the noon wave! Mark and I kicked ass and got done by about 1:30…(albeit we did skip the zip line – the wait looked to be at least a 45 minute delay!)...got our muddy pics in, rinsed off the best we could and enjoyed our free hot dog ( I tried the veggie burger option) and a beer – Coors Light which brought me back to the days of Mark and me dating in college… funny how our palates have changed to becoming IPA snobs!
And then we were off to our next destination – Lexington, getting us a bit closer to Boston, without the crazy premium of downtown Boston hotel prices.
Just a little soreness as we cleaned up for Mark’s birthday dinner…
During the race I tell Mark, hey – watch out for the branches and roots popping up…and what do I do, step on a damn branch at the perfect angle for it to stab me in the other foot. Seriously?! You couldn’t get that to happen again if you tried! So a nice shiner the diameter of a branch square in the middle of my left foot! But other than that, and a little burnt shoulder…oh and Mark’s nipple burn which was hilarious if you ask me, I told him – now you know what it’s like to nurse those first couple of weeks! Now imagine a little baby sucking it, too! LOL. But overall, we were both feeling pretty good post race!
Dinner at Bourdon & Buttermilk was AMAZING! But before we get there another cool, I’m following my purpose moment. We didn’t have any historical tours in Boston scheduled, so we decided to take on the town by foot and check out a few of the local bars. And what do you know, we meet a nice elderly couple who shared their daughter has MS! Pretty cool to reciprocate with our story about why were in town, and that we ran in her honor, too!
We managed to get into the restaurant a little early, which was perfect timing to get us back to the hotel in time for the Warriors game. We ate like kings and queens…indulged in the local recommendation of beignets, experienced local “New England” style IPAs and mixed drinks born on the east coast. I’d like to believe it was a pretty spectacular birthday weekend and best way we could have imagined kicking off this circuit of races!
Now we are finally headed home…Houston bound at the moment, praying we get there in time to catch our connecting flight to San Jose! I miss you Dad! Thank you for inspiring a priceless weekend, raising awareness for MS and celebrating the second most important man to you dad – my loving husband Mark!
Philly is right around the corner – time to get moving on those plans!!
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