Coalition

The [Newton] Hills are alive... with the sound of runners' feet on pavement. This morning was the first Marathon Coalition training run for the 2014 Boston Marathon. 

Running with a team has been the most amazing experience for me. People who started the experience as strangers have seen me at my very best, and very worst. Last year, if I was having a rough run, my teammates would make me laugh until I forgot how bad I was hurting. They knew when to push me and when to let me finish on my own terms. One knew that tricking me into racing the last quarter mile would almost always work. I ran a half-marathon PR alongside a runner I had hardly spoken to before that day. 

Yes, we are all running for our respective charities, and that's what gets us up every morning to do our individual runs. However, those long runs require a kind of pluck and mental fortitude that is hard to conjure up alone. One of the biggest hills on the marathon course doesn't get much press because it's a downhill part of the course, but we run UP that hill fairly often on our out-and-back routes. One of the strongest memories I have of training was on what I think was a 17- or 18-miler. We had run through Newton, up said giant hill and through Wellesley, and had turned around to start the steep decline. Halfway down the hill, the woman in front of us saw one of her charity teammates struggling, still on her way up. She turned around and ran up the rest of the hill with her. When we mentioned to her after the run how nice it was of her, she shrugged it off and said, "I'd do anything for that woman." 

I didn't realize how strongly I felt about my teammates until I was unable to see them after the 2013 marathon. I knew how far each of them had come to make it to Boston, physically and mentally, and it would have meant just as much to me to celebrate for each of them as to celebrate for myself.

We will have our opportunity to celebrate together at the finish line of the 2014 Boston Marathon, but for now, I just plan to enjoy every minute I get to spend with each of them.