Buckle down friends, this is going to be a long one.

After I ran my first half marathon in 2017, and came up with the idea to run a half or full marathon in all 50 states, I learned about the Boston Marathon and how iconic it is. It is THE marathon to be a part of. Considered the unicorn of racing, it’s a goal for many runners. Typically you have to qualify, or get a “BQ” to run.

After running my first full marathon in late 2017, I wondered if I could ever get fast enough. I continued to train and got my marathon time down by 53 minutes but was still not close to the BQ time for my age group. Then, something crazy happened. On January 31, I got an email from a lady named Susan Hurley and she said “Alicia, do you still want to run the Boston Marathon?” I responded “Yes” with way too many exclamation points, and she simply responded back “Stay tuned.”

I freaked out. What did it mean? Why didn’t I ask more questions? So she’s saying there’s a chance?

On February 2nd I got the following email:

I can’t even express in words how excited I was to get that email. Normally you would want about a 20-week training block, and I had 11. I didn’t care though. When the universe gives you an opportunity like this, you take it. I listened to a podcast about Jess Sims and how she had the opportunity to run the Boston Marathon in 2022, and she said someone told her “the universe gave this to you, this is for you.” And that really stuck with me. This was my time.

I got the opportunity by partnering with The Hoyt Foundation. If you don’t know who Dick and Rick Hoyt are, you should look up their story. They are an incredibly inspirational family, and even though Dick has passed, his legacy continues with the rest of his family. Their goal is to provide opportunities for America’s disabled young people through inclusion in all facets of daily life. They supply adaptive bikes and running chairs, among numerous other things.

So next was to begin the task at hand : training and fundraising. The training goal was to run 5 days a week with long runs on the weekends peaking at 20 miles, and to fundraise $8500. I have an amazing support system of people, but it was a daunting task. It’s not easy to ask others for money, even if it’s for an great cause. Luckily, I was able to surpass my goal and raise $9,317 for Team Hoyt. THANK YOU to all who donated to this amazing organization! The money will do so much good.

After all the training and fundraising, it was finally time to journey to Boston on April 15th (after I got my themed manicure to make me faster 😁).

When I was boarding my connecting flight to Boston, I got a call from my hotel…they had overbooked and were bumping me. I panicked at first, especially because the plane was about to take off and I had to hang up before coming to a solution. Long story short they put me up in another hotel, so everything worked out. The hotel also put a bunch of snacks in my room so that was a nice touch.

When I arrived in Boston, I went straight to the expo. It was large but wasn’t as impressive as other large races because they didn’t have a lot of booths. I was so excited to get my race bib: number 31137.

After the expo I went to eat dinner at Ramsay’s Kitchen with my sister. I had not yet dined there as a guest so it was fun to have that experience – and carb load on some pasta.

On Sunday we got up early as my sister had a half marathon in Easthampton, MA. Waiting in the lobby were my husband and son, which was such a fun surprise! They had never attended a full marathon of mine before, so it was great to have the additional support. We went and cheered Andrea on for her race.

On Sunday night we had a Team Hoyt dinner. They gave us our race singlets, provided us with pasta, and we got to meet our teammates from all over the US. Dave McGillivray was there (accomplished runner and race director).

Zdeno Chara was there as well (he ran for Team Hoyt), and he was nice enough to gift my son some swag and take photos. He is a very tall person!

Marathon Monday finally arrived. Game time. My sister walked me to the Prudential Center where we met the buses to get to the start line. They bussed us to the start line in Hopkinton where we waited in a school building until it was time to begin (thankfully since it was raining). I was in wave 4 and our start time was 11:15am, which is hard. You need to take in a decent amount of food/carbs but also not too much to where you feel heavy, or your stomach is unsettled. I ate an English muffin with peanut butter (you know I brought my own toaster to Boston), lots of cinnamon graham crackers, and a Clif oatmeal cookie bar. I also used the restroom like 3 times because I was so nervous and well-hydrated.

It was finally time to start so I walked down to the corrals with my team. No gun went off, everyone just kind of started. I ran for a while with one my teammates, but it was hard to keep track of anyone. We were just one big mass of humanity for the first 3 or so miles and it was hard to run your own pace. Around mile 4 I had to make a pit stop (apparently still too hydrated). I personally chose a port-o-potty; however, I saw at least a half dozen enterprising individuals utilizing bushes for their business. They must be more worried about their finish times than I was…

I knew my family would be at mile 10 so that was my first goal. I made it there in about 1 hr 35 minutes, maintaining a sub 10 min/mile pace which was well below my goal. It was SO great to see some of my people in the crowd. I gave some quick hugs, handed over a broken headphone, then kept on going. They were supposed to meet me at mile 18 as well, but I unfortunatley beat them there (not cause I’m that fast, the train was just slow). I couldn’t find them, but had to tackle some hills so just kept going.

Until mile 18 I was able to stay under my goal pace, but I started getting tired. It gets hillier (the whole damn course was hilly) and you head towards Heartbreak Hill. I will say, that hill gets the most hype, but I didn’t feel like it was terrible. What’s terrible is the 3 hills leading up to that and the constant up and downs. It’s hard for your legs to adjust to the ever-changing elevation. The rain had also gotten bad which made things tougher. At one point I had to keep wiping my eyes as it was coming down so hard, I couldn’t see.

One amazing thing about Boston is the crowds. The cheering really helps when things get tough, which they inevitably always do when you are running a marathon. I had a bib that had my name on it, and people yelling out encouraging things to me was so helpful. I also kept remembering how blessed I was to have gotten this opportunity, and that I didn’t have to do this, I GOT to do this. In addition, one of my teammates had written on my arm (which was now smeared from the rain and sweat) “Run for those who can’t”. I looked at my arm so many times during the race and just repeated that over and over. It reminded me that it’s a privilege that my body is healthy and able to do hard things.

Once I got to mile 24 I really wanted to be done. It was cold, raining, I was hurting and feeling really dizzy. I just stayed to the middle of the course, kept my eyes forward, and put one foot in front of the other. I knew I was almost done (in the grand scheme of things) and just needed to get to Hereford. I kept looking for the Citgo sign, which is when you know you have one mile to go. Overall, I had run the race well and didn’t want to let my time goal slip away, so I kept pushing.

Finally, I arrived. There is an uphill from the bottom of Massachusetts Avenue towards Hereford (I’m pretty sure? Things got blurry in my brain). You have to haul your ass up that so you can turn right on Hereford and then left on Boylston. That’s when the magic really hits. It feels like everyone is there just for you. I saw one of the managers at Ramsay’s Kitchen waving at me, and then shortly afterwards ran past the Lenox Hotel where I saw my family.

And then, I crossed the finish line. It’s hard to describe all the emotions. Joy, delirium, elation, exhaustion, pride, pain…it’s very overwhelming.

Team Hoyt was there at the finish line, I crossed right after Cam Hoyt and they took finish line photos for me and gave hugs. My time was 4:27:52. My goal had been to go under 4:41 so I was ecstatic!

Then I started walking through the finishers chute to get heat wraps, my medal, and water/nutrition.

I found my family shortly afterwards and it was so great to see them. I was coming down from the race though and started shivering. It was COLD and being so wet from all the rain didn’t help. During the race I had channeled my inner Elsa, but alas, the cold was now bothering me. I’m the kind of person who likes to wear a snuggy over my hoody. Hot is good, cold is bad.

It was nice to get back to the hotel and take a long, super-hot shower. My husband and son had to head to the airport as their flight left that evening.

Later that night my sister and I went out for Mexican. I had been eating really clean prior to the race and a margarita and tacos sounded amazing. Unfortunately the food was just okay, but it was nice to sit and relax. My sister and I walked around a bit afterwards but I was just done so we went back to the hotel and I got in bed.

Tuesday was our final day in Boston. I didn’t sleep great, my legs were hurting. Once my sister woke up we went to brunch at this great place called The Friendly Toast. It was outstanding.

We then spent the rest of the time exploring Boston. It’s a great city with amazing history and I would have loved to have had a few extra days there. We walked all over the city and capped it off with a visit to Mike’s Pastry for cannoli’s.

We headed to the airport as it was time to go home. Normally I wouldn’t even mention the trip home because it’s irrelevant to the running, but apparently the running wasn’t over. My first flight got delayed due to some type of issue with the plane, causing it to be very late arriving into DC. We landed in DC and they told me I had 8 minutes to get to my next flight. If you know the DCA airport, you know it’s not small, and my next flight was in a different terminal. I literally sprinted, even using those moving sidewalks as a way to project myself further and faster. I made it to the gate and the door was still open! (The sky probably opened up and angels sung above me but I didn’t get to witness it as I was doubled over). I had to prop myself up on the desk because I was exhausted, and the room was spinning. I couldn’t catch my breath and was coughing uncontrollably. It is not recommended to do sprints the day after running a marathon (especially when you have a backpack full of all your crap as well as cannoli’s). I got on the plane and the lady I was sitting next to told me she had volunteered in a medical tent at the Boston marathon and asked me if I needed assistance and a flight attendant brought me water without asking, so apparently, I looked pretty rough 🤣. He also then told me that they were delaying the plane an additional 20 mins to allow others to make the connection 🤦🏼‍♀️. But alas, further proof that marathon training will prepare you for whatever life throws at you. Gotta be able to run to catch a plane or get away during a zombie apocalypse.

What’s next? I’m running Kentucky…this upcoming weekend.