My preparations for the race went rather well. I did not fall sick and paradoxically, being very busy this semester helped me to stick to my training plan. Due to all my commitments, there was usually only one slot into which I could fit my running training. This turned out to be very effective in preventing me from procrastinating.

 

Nonetheless, I felt very anxious whether I would be able to finish the race, in part because the race conditions in the Boston Marathon are very different from my training conditions. Thus, I felt very uncertain of whether my long runs in Singapore, which for the most part left me completely exhausted, prepared me well enough to finish the race.

 

And so my prevailing feeling during the last couple of days leading up to the race was worry. What made things worse was that on the day before the race the weather was cold, rainy and windy, and I was asking myself how am I going to endure running under those conditions.

 

But then race day came and the weather suddenly turned sunny (although still quite cold). There was very little time to worry about the race itself because the bus loading in downtown Boston was chaotic, with huge crowds trying to get onto the buses and runners being worried whether they would make it to the start on time. Eventually, I got on a bus to take me to the starting point in Hopkinton (42 km from downtown Boston), and I literally arrived at the start line two minutes before the flag-off of my wave. And then the race to run the 42.2 km back to Boston began.

 

Already after 1 hour of running my legs became very heavy. I am not sure if this was because I did not feel my best or because my legs were already tired from the, at this point mostly downhill, slopes. The race continued with slopes all the way, more downhill than uphill, but certainly some challenging uphill ones.

 

So already at 1 hour, I started to wonder how I would be able to finish the race, knowing that when I feel that my legs are heavy during training, I tend to not last until my target distance.

 

But, there were things that made it easier to keep going. Firstly, there was the crowd of participants. For the entire race I was surrounded by runners everywhere. And as far as I could look ahead, I saw an endless stream of runners.

 

And then there were the spectators. In every town along the course there were hundreds of unbelievably enthusiastic people lining the road, with kids offering fruits, people displaying creative banners and blasting energetic music, and bands performing music. All this was spontaneous and voluntary, and it left me truly amazed and impressed.

 

And so somehow I just went on and kept running mile after mile. At three hours, my quads became very sore from all the slopes and there was no way to speed up anymore. I just tried to keep running.

 

When shortly after three hours of running I saw the Prudential Tower near the finish line in the distance and the end was in sight, my motivation picked up. And during the last few miles, the crowds lining the street in downtown Boston were absolutely amazing.

 

Eventually, I made it to the final two turns before running into the homestretch on Boylston Street, which I watched so many times in online videos. The final 800 metres on Boylston seemed really long, but eventually I achieved my main goal, which was to finish the race running the whole distance (I only stopped once when I dropped my towel), and to not crash at the end of the race. In the end, I ran exactly 10 minutes slower than my qualifying time and finished in 3:50:27. But much more importantly, I did not slow down that much towards the end and my second half was only eight minutes slower than the first.

 

Looking back, I feel amazed that I managed to do it and very happy to have been part of something that I will always remember.