Inside the Run for Boston 5K

Someone told me today that organizing a race is a lot like planning your wedding - you plan and plan and when the day gets here, you just have to wing it and hope for the best. The difference is that no one will ever tell you if your wedding sucked.

I got up super early today to buy water and cups, then arrive at Independence Grove by 6:45 a.m. to get rolling with set up for the Run for Boston 5k. We devised a plan for what would go where, then started unloading, building tents, unwrapping snacks and trying to anticipate what people would need.


Once the runners started showing up on the scene, we worked to get race packets distributed and keep everyone dry as the weather got dicey.  We also set up our beer and pizza vendors.

After a moment of silence to remember the Boston Marathon victims, our 300+ runners were off!

The fastest man finished in 16ish minutes and the top woman wasn't far behind.  Fasties.

Post race, we had a ton of snack options which went fairly fast. We didn't have enough water, which really bummed me out. Luckily, we had enough beer and pizza, so there's something.

The weather wasn't the best, but it was cool and shady, which is great. We learned a lot through this experience about how to gain sponsors, organize people and manage athletic events. There are certainly things we would do differently now, but our goal was to provide a great race experience while raising money for Who Says I Can't, a foundation that assists amputees in regaining their passions. Because of the generosity of our sponsors, every last cent that runners paid went to this foundation. The shirts, the water bottles, the snacks and the water were all provided by sponsors who came together to help the community and show that we are more than runners. We are a unified community that faces obstacles and overcomes them together.