My husband and I drove to Boston to ring in the New Year in the big city. "First Night" in Boston! We had a blast. For 2 reasons; My husband has always wanted to see the fireworks over Boston Harbor (sort of a bucket list thing) AND I was going to run the Boston Marathon course 6 am on 1/1/12!
Tips for parking and eating in Boston for practically nothing:
1. Park OUTSIDE the city and take the Subway in. We paid $5.00 for overnight parking!
2. Walk or take the T when IN the city.
3. Why do people pay so much to stay in a hotel in the city. FYI: there are ways to travel for little or no cost. (Couchsurfing is one way) or HOSTELS are another. We stayed in a hostel when we went to the NYC Barefoot event and we stayed in a Hostel for this trip as well. For $60.00 a night you have a comfortable place to sleep. Instead of paying $2-$300.00 a night! Who wants to pay that! We were able to stay in Back Bay for under $100.00 a night. 40 Berkeley is the name of the Hostel. Would recommend this to any traveler needing a place to hang a hat for a night. (single rooms are about $30.00 a night).
4. Eat in Chinatown! We found a great place. Please see the pic. See that price? There was so much food we shared 1 plate! $5.50 for lunch oh yah!
Other cool things we did. Saw Suzanne Vega in concert in Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory. Had a beer at the Barking Crab (a little bar and restaurant next to the Harbor while keeping warm to wait for the fireworks), stood on the wharf and watched the fireworks; WELCOME 2012!, had a weird conversations with some drunk guys on the subway, had 7-Eleven sandwiches and chips at 1:30am slept 3 hours and got up to meet at the finish line of the Boston Marathon course to catch my ride to the starting line out in Hopkinton.
So the greeting 2012 with a 26.2 mile run...it was fun! Why? Every year for 8 years my friend and fellow Crow, Gary, has run the course on New Year's Day. He always invites whomever wants to may join him. Just for fun! And because when I ran the Boston Marathon in April there were so many people that I didn't remember what the course looked like! Also, I'm not running in the official race this year, yes I qualified, but I will be participating in other events surrounding the marathon weekend (which I will post info. about soon). That said... I started a little after 6am in the dark with about 30 other runners. Some from the Hopkinton Running Club and others from Crow Athletics. It was about 30 degrees and VERY icy. I decided to wear my VFF. A wise choice I think. I was able to enjoy the run and the scenery. It was a quiet run. I ran the first half into Wellesley with 2 runners from the Hopkinton Running Club. They were running my pace and it was nice to have the company. They were only running half way. So they gave me some directions and I set off to make my way to the finish.
(Pic was taken in front of Wellesley College)My husband was suppose to be following me and finally found me around mile 14. I quickly gave him everything I didn't want to carry anymore and took off. I ran barefoot about a mile and then changed into my new slippers. Then decided that wasn't working and added toe socks with the slippers and that was fine. I also had part of a chocolate donut and water too)"yum" It was a fun to run heartbreak hill and actually SEE what I was running. Alone, not swerving past walkers or racers throwing up. Ran about the last 1.5 miles barefoot. It was sunny and near 40 degrees in the city and the road and sidewalks were dry.
Made it to the finish where my husband took a photo. Then we went to Starbucks for coffee and a pastry. The other runners were still there so it was nice to see them and catch up. After that we made our way to the North End to purchase Mike's Pastry as a gift for our friends who were watching the kids and then we headed home.
Again, WELCOME 2012...I hope this is a good year! :)
Go-o-o, Theresa!
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