Instead of waking up at the planned 4:30 a.m. to run the marathon on Monday morning, I slept in until 7:30 and headed out for a 3 mile run around the hotel. I had no hamstring or heel pain (yay!) but was surprised by the already warm temperature. I don’t tend to sweat all that much but 3 miles left me a sweaty mess. I can’t even imagine how hot it was for the marathoners!

Breakfast was the hotel buffet and I had my usual oatmeal, granola, and muffin combo. I skipped on the yogurt because my allergies were acting up and dairy just seemed like a bad choice.

After breakfast, we took the T downtown and plopped ourselves about 100 feet from the finish line. I’ve never spectated at a marathon before and was really excited to see the elites finish.

I also couldn’t believe how hot it was just standing still. We actually saw two spectators faint before the marathoners even approached the finish line. At least there were tons of medical personnel near us!

We only could take so much of the heat so after about an hour of cheering on runners, we headed out to the Sam Adams Brewery.

The brew tour was okay, I mean it was free, but the best part was the tasting. We got to sample three brews- the lager, the summer ale, and the 26.2 special brew (my favorite!).

We were having so much fun tasting beers and chatting that we decided to take the free trolley over to Doyles, the first bar ever to serve Sam Adams beer.

We were told that if we ordered a Sam Adams beer we could keep the glass (umm ok!) so we all indulged in another beer (26.2 for me) and ordered some appetizers to share.

As this was our lunch, I insisted we order a veggie plate, and we also split beer battered onion rings and garlic fries. The onion rings were fantastic and I’m not usually a fan so that says something.

Ian and my mom wanted to see Fenway, so we decided to head over in that direction and watch some of the last marathoners finishing up.

We also got to see a lot of drunk fans stumbling out of the ballpark

We were all pretty tired after being in the sun all day but we had been told not to leave Boston without eating at Neptune Oyster House so to another meal we went!

Ian and I tried our first oysters. I enjoyed the sweet one the most, maybe my palette isn’t quite ready for oysters?

We also split a bowl of their clam chowder. It was really good and surprisingly light!

For dinner, I ordered the lobster roll (I’d never had one before!). It was incredibly rich but really tasty. I will admit that after our lunch, I was sick of fries and avoided these like the plague .

Bellies full we took the T back to the hotel, finished up the Mike’s Pastry’s in our hotel room, and crashed.

On Tuesday, I woke up and headed out for another 3 mile run. My hamstring and heel have been feeling okay so I think I’m ready to base train again. I can’t wait to start increasing my miles (but all in due time!).

I had a very similar looking breakfast at the hotel and then we headed off toward the airport.

We had a lot of time to kill so we got off the T at South Station and found a deli to grab lunch.

I had a greek salad and a piece of pita bread. I pushed about half of the feta off the salad and only ate about half of the piece of pita. I just wasn’t feeling anything too heavy.

Everything went fine at the airport and on our flight. I watched Friends (love JetBlue), munched on some Terrablue chips, and worked on my thesis. Unfortunately, while Ian and I arrived in Chicago in one piece, our bag did not. We ended up spending almost half an hour filing a lost bag claim before leaving O’Hare.

Fortunately, JetBlue allotted us $30 to spend on toiletries, so a quick trip to CVS later, we had toothbrushes, shampoo, and contact solution in hand. We also stopped at Trader Joe’s to do our weekly grocery shopping and to pick up a quick dinner.

Not wanting another salad or sandwich, I tried this sushi. Verdict? It was pretty good- although by 9 p.m. anything would have tasted amazing!

Desert was an unpictured corn tortilla with white chocolate wonderful, banana slices, walnuts, and chocolate chips microwaved for about 15 seconds. Delish!

And then after a crazy weekend of travelling and sightseeing, I crawled into bed and crashed hard!