The Boston Marathon. What a beautiful beast. Where even to begin? Lesko and I flew into Boston on Friday night and landed at 1am east coast time. On Saturday morning, we hit the ground running (literally running) to get to the BAA5k on time. Upon arrival, you could feel the Boston buzz in the air. It was surreal. We were greeted by Volée teammates, some running the 5k, others prepping for their 26.2 on Monday, just there to get their cowbell on for our 20 teammates racing the 5k. 

Kelly Roberts showed up just in time to cheer. We knew Kelly was special, but Saturday morning really brought it home. I walked with Kelly to cowbell corner and was stopped about 10 times by Kelly fans asking if they could get a selfie with THE KELLY ROBERTS. She showed us her ways when we arrived at cowbell corner… “YOU ARE A CHAMPION”… “YOU ARE A QUEEN.” “HEY LITTLE DUDE” to the 5 year old kid out there crushing his first 5k… “YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS.” 

It was inspiring. And also hilarious. Especially when fans would stop mid race to take a run SELFIE repeat photo and then continue on. We stayed to cheer on every single runner on the course. Then left feeling fired up for our BIG Boston Marathon cowbell corner on Monday. 

On Sunday, we headed to Boston Common for a Volée shake out run. Lesko and I are both slightly directionally challenged (okay maybe it’s just me) so we wandered a bit before finding our crew. When we rounded the corner, 60 teammates were there waiting outside the Thinking Cup. Chills. So incredible to do a giant pre-race shakeout run with a pack of super heroes set to toe the line the next day. 

The Sunday shake out run was hot. Really hot. 80+ degrees in April. We tried to be cool and not talk about the unusually high temps. After sipping some coffee and catching up with everyone, we gave our racers big hugs and told them we’d be out there rocking 200 cowbells at mile 13. 

And rock 200 cowbells, we did. Our team showed up in a big way. Both on the starting line and the sidelines. Lesko and I did our usual roping up of the cowbells the night before the race. And then walked a very noisy jingle-jangle quarter of a mile to the starting line. “Ummm, what are those? And where can I get one?” We handed out cowbells to our Volée teammates and then to 150 of our new friends standing near by. Mile 13 was epic. People racing their hearts out. And thousands of fans + Una the dog cheering them on. After the rush of the elites running by, we were mesmerized by a sea of fearless super humans doing the thing. 

We did our best to spot as many Volée teammates as possible in the constant river of runners. Take a look through the magical memories captured at mile 13. 

We left Boston with full hearts and a power pack of run love. 

Like a lot of run love… LOL. Beth Gillespie. 

OUR AMAZING BOSTON MARATHON 2017 FINISHERS:

Jolene Abanses 3:33:04

Olivia Allen-Price 3:56:26

Tracey Allers 3:53:50

Katherine Alvarez 4:06:35

Alicia Amaro 5:26:13

Kim Auth 3:39:56

Rebecca Barnett 3:54:42

Allison Barr 3:18:12

Meredith Bazemore 3:17:46

Emily Benotti 4:12:56

Cory Benson 3:45:39

Allie Bigelow 3:57:42

Stacey Black 3:32:51

Melissa Bodeau 5:04:25

Lisette Bovaird 4:14:20

Jennifer Boutin 3:56:41

Brigitte Bradford 3:54:36

Kylie Breeze 3:29:45

Alison Brennan 4:47:25

Caitlin Campbell 3:28:17

June Caummisar 3:47:06

Erin Clark 3:21:28

Christy Diller 3:46:53

Kalie Dunn 3:20:24

Mary Duchesney 4:23.00

BridgetDwyer 4:06:54

Heather Dye 4:43:33

Kristi Easley 4:14:45

Jen Edwards 3:52:10

Jen Ells 3:42:11

Carrie Evans 3:48:47

Morgan Feder 3:49:29

Brittney Forster 3:32:29

Rachel Frenkil 3:54:00

Susan Friedrich 3:59:46

Beth Gillespie 5:47:53

Jeannene Gonzales 4:31:06

Celeste Goodson 3:59:55

Addie Green 3:56:46

Paige Greenberg 3:37:55

Maeluen Gruman 3:20:26

Krysta Gunvalson 3:50:08

Nicola Hallenborg 3:27:55

Annemiek Hamelinck 4:17:30

Kathleen Hannan 3:54:10

Jennifer Hardigan 4:57:00

Jenn Harowicz 4:02:06

Krystina Hawryluk 3:56:18

Jessie Hecht 3:41:21

Theresa Helsel 3:56:09

Lauren Hill 3:06:06

Miya Hirabayashi 3:50:06

Lauren Hoehlein Joseph 3:29:18

Sandra Holahan 3:40:49

Sheyna Horowitz 4:02:06

Emily Jaehnig Raykovich 3:15:03

Leah Jantzen 3:26:25

Pamela Jock 3:45:17

Ivy Jordan 3:48:33

Brittany Kaltenbaugh 3:47:14

Michele Keane 3:47:26

Kassie Keller 3:22:05

Lindsay Khan 3:40:01

Jennifer Kitchen 3:35:06

Sarah Koohmaraie 3:40:28

Lisa Kurdziel 5:18:30

Mandy Lane 3:47:17

Krista Ledbetter 4:39:02

Sarah Lee 3:38:21

Marisa Lindsay 3:14:03

Anna Linton 3:43:59

Jamie Lunt 3:53:06

Sarah Mahaney 3:15:45

Karlie Mangette 4:08:26

Carolina Margarella 3:40:35

Heather Massari 3:29:15

Jenny May 3:58:17

Liz McHutcheon 4:51:22

Jess McKenna 3:24:03

Heather McNemar 3:53:20

Kyndal Michel 4:18:37

Meredith Mikell 3:35:04

Colleen Moorman 4:06:41

Lara Mugge 3:48:09

Kathleena Mumford 3:36:32

Rebecca Murillo 3:14:24

Kimberly Muse 5:05:56

Jenna Mutz 3:17:18

Emily Nickles 3:54:32

Annie Normand 4:20:37

Siobhan O'Connor 3:13:17

Margaret O'Connor 3:44:28

Meghan O'Hara 3:34:25

Shannon Oakes 3:48:05

Lisa Overman 3:31:05

Kim Orosz 3:52:43

Erika Park 3:41:49

Katlyn Phillips 3:34:40

Christina Proctor 3:23:56

Erika Quinn 3:30:51

Emily Raykovich 3:15:03

Katharine Reilly 3:25:56

Meg Reilly 3:54:10

Jessica Rinehart 3:26:38

Debra  Rosario Cookson 3:36:20

Emily Rose 3:50.00

Leanne Rosser 4:19:41

Jennifer Rozler 3:49:23

Alyssa Rucker 4:01:22

Erin Schaefer 4:06:09

Karen Schulz 4:45:37

Sara Schwendinger 3:46:03

Sherry Scott 3:22:08

ReBecca Scott 3:44:23

Angie Sells 3:51:18

Casey Shellenberger 4:18:15

Gail Short 3:59:19

Pamela Skaufel 3:45:05

Kayleigh Skinner 3:55:52

Alison Smith 4:26:18

Dara Steele-Belkin 3:10:24

Jody Stoops 3:54:19

Nicole Strutz 3:50:20

Colleen Summa 3:50:54

Karie Torres 3:53:03

Rebecca Tadema-Wielandt 4:40:50

Michele Van Ornum 3:41:33

Kimberly Wattrick 3:38:23

Sarah Werket  3:11:56

Marissa Wickham 3:26:29

Anica Wong 3:42:18

Heather Worden Massari 3:29:15

Erin Wrightson 3:18:07

Meghan Yi 3:24:17

Margaret Zarzour 3:48:53

Emily Zavinsky 3:25:03

To all who raced, we couldn’t be more proud of, and inspired by each of you. Head up, wings out, you amazing humans, you! 

xo