A is for Awesome Adam

People are going to get tired of hearing me say how awesome Adam is, but let me say it again - Adam is awesome. He ran the Boston Marathon yesterday in 2 hours 47 minutes. Can you believe that? I can believe it - but it's still amazing. He hasn't always been a runner, and he hasn't been seriously training for all that long. He finished something like 365th out of about 25,000 runners, and he's the 6th place runner of all those from Connecticut. He was pretty bummed that he didn't run 2:45, and that the last two miles really killed his time, but all that aside, I think he was awesome. Clearly. A bunch of us stood out near the Kelley Statue in Newton, at the base of Heartbreak Hill (which is mile 19), to watch Adam run by, and while many runners (even some of the elite runners) looked pretty miserable by this point, Adam looked great. Didn't look winded, wasn't red and sweating, didn't have blood running down his cheek like one runner I saw in his pack. If Adam sticks with his running, which I'm sure he will, I have no doubt that he'll be able to be sub 2:40 next year.

Adam stayed with us before the race so that we could drive him to the start in Hopkinton on Monday morning. He arrived Sunday afternoon - here's a photo of him showing off his number: We hung out watching some videos on how to pick out a proper running shoe, how to tie shoelaces (do you tie granny knots? We did, until we watched this), and on Nike naked running camp. We then headed out to get Adam his dinner of choice - pizza on wheat crust - and to pick up some adhesive and polyseal for the piece that fell off our shower door (perhaps the subject of another post). Adam ate his entire pizza, and if he had been anyone else I would have been thinking, "What a pig!" In his case, I was thinking, "Shouldn't he order another?" Here are some photos of our favorite runner out the night before the big run: When we got back from dinner and Lowe's, Adam ate homemade cookie after homemade cookie (still carbo-loading) and watched You Don't Mess With the Zohan, a movie I never would have watched if Adam weren't around. It wasn't bad - but it wasn't that great, either. I'd say a solid effort, but nothing I'll watch again. After the movie we decided how we were going to drive to Hopkinton the next morning and Adam got his bag together for the next day. His coworkers made him a shirt that said, "Go Adam" on the front and "My Motto is Public Service" on the back, but the lettering was falling off so he decided not to wear it. I noticed that none of the elite runners wore shirts like this while running, so maybe that also factored into Adam's decision. Nevertheless, the gesture was a kind one. Here's Adam with his shirt:
We decided to leave at 6:30am on Monday to get Adam to Hopkinton by 7:15 - here are some photos of Adam and his gear before leaving Dedham: And here's one of Adam in the car on his way to Hopkinton: I won't go into too many details about the ride there, but I will say that next year we will be driving Adam to the shuttles in Boston that all the runners take out to Hopkinton. A) it will take less time to do that, and B) it will mean that we won't have to let Adam out of the car on the side of the highway five miles away from the high school in Hopkinton where all the runners start. I was so upset that we couldn't get Adam any farther to Hopkinton than we did, and I was paranoid that he'd never make it to where he needed to be. I was hoping and hoping that some kind person or maybe one of the shuttles would pick him up and give him a ride, and someone did - so he didn't have to walk all that far, after all. Thank god! Here is a photo of me driving back to Dedham - you can see one of the shuttles that we passed on our way back driving towards Hopkinton. We saw dozens of shuttles filled with runners. This is definitely the way to go next time, Adam. You live, you learn - at least everything worked out!
We met up with Mike, Chris, CHRIS, and Julie at about 10:30am at the Kelley Statue in Newton, and we were able to see some of the wheelchair racers as well as the elite runners. The wheelchair racers are amazing. Truly amazing. There was even a guy running by on two prosthetic legs. Now he was amazing. Thankfully Adam reminded us to bring our cowbell, so I had cowbell duty for the first half of our time at the marathon. At first I felt funny banging it like I was - it was rather quiet at first and not many people were out and cheering. But I warmed up to it, and after a while my arm got into a very steady rhythm. Here are some photos of the race before Adam ran by: These last two photos are of some pretty elite runners - one is of the first pack of elite women, with Kara Goucher in the pink sports bra and black briefs. I'm sure the female winner, Salina Kosgei, is in there somewhere. The last photo is of Deriba Merga, the men's winner, and ultimate winner of the marathon. It was pretty cool to see him run by, but not as cool as it was to see Adam run by. Everyone kept a look out for his yellow shoes, and we were able to spot him well before he got close. We cheered and banged the bell and got a wave from Adam - I'm glad that he knew we were there cheering him on! These aren't the greatest photos, but you can see Adam if you know what to look for. In the first photo, he's right behind a guy in a white shirt. In the second, he's at the far right waving his hand to us, and in the third he's to the left, a lone runner in a blue tank and black shorts. Once he ran by, we stood around for another couple of hours cheering on everyone else. People would have their names written on their arms, or on their shirts, or would have messages on their shirts. We'd scream them out. Doug eventually took the cowbell because my arm felt like it was going to fall off, and so he screamed and banged the bell. He was such a good fan that the official Boston Marathon media guy took a photo of his cowbell. Doug's enthusiasm was catchy and made the cold, windy day a little more bearable. Here's a photo of a boy and his bell:
At about 1:30pm I got a call from Adam - he had finished the race about 45 minutes earlier and now wanted to meet up so that we could take him back to Dedham to get his stuff and his car. We went to Newton Center to pick him up from the T. Doug greeted him with the camera: Adam requested a latte, so we brought the champ to a Starbucks for his protein, then headed back to Dedham where he was able to get cleaned up and relax a little before heading back to CT. We discovered that Adam was the #6 runner from CT, placing well before a few very good Nutmeg runners. I predict next year Adam will be one of the top 3 runners from CT. Adam showed us his medal for running - it's engraveable, so if anyone knows an engraver please get in touch with Adam so that he can put his time and rank on the back. Adam also relaxed with his latte before heading out and back to CT. I was amazed that Adam so easily slipped back into "normal" life after just having run 26.2 miles. I mean, by 4:30pm he was sitting in Dedham, drinking his latte and eating an orange, plotting his strategy for next year's marathon, talking about furlough days at the State, and lamenting Kara Goucher's loss. It would have taken me days to come back to my "normal" self after such an adrenalin rush. I would have been bouncy and jittery for days; either that or I would have been in bed feeling like death had run me over. But Adam just picked up and continued life, packing up his things and heading on back to CT.In many ways Adam amazes me, and this is just one of them. I mean, think of the hard work and dedication that running a marathon takes, at least running a marathon seriously and competitively. He's out there running a hundred or so miles a week, running several races a year. For fun. His diet and sleeping habits have completely changed. His life is now focused on running. He does it and likes it and excels at it and I find that kind of focus and determination to be inspiring. He won't inspire me to run (I don't believe the human body is designed to run that far; I'd much rather ride a bike than run like that), but he does inspire me to be healthy, be focused, and to enjoy what I do. Here's one last photo of Awesome Adam, pulling away from Dedham. We'll be out there next year, Adam, cheering you on (we promise next year to get you to the shuttles in Boston) - more cowbell!