This April I'll be lining up for my eleventh Boston Marathon. Over the years I have purchased three different official race jackets of various styles and colors. After 2023, when I purchased this lovely grey number that you see to the left, I swore to myself that I wouldn't buy any more jackets no matter how many more times I was racing. But then I saw the 2025 jacket. And I really like it. Like, a lot. More than the other three. And I really like those, too. So, to make myself feel better, I decided I would give away my 2023 jacket. I posted on Instagram and asked people to share their craziest race stories. (full post
here) Good race or bad, didn't matter. Any distance, any outcome. Now, I would be lying if I said I didn't do this mainly to hear some epic race stories. I did. But, I was also. more than happy to give this jacket a new home in the process. I had no intention of writing up a post about this but then the stories that were shared were so freaking good I had to publish them here on RWM so you, too, could read these crazy tales. Before I list them all out, I do want to share my own epic race adventure. I'll try to keep it brief. But it's the one I would have used had I entered my own contest. Back in 2017, I ran the
Sugarloaf marathon up in nowheresville Maine. No disrespect. It is a beautiful area. But aside from our hotel, there was not much going on. Normally, this would be fine. But, I was not prepared for the lack of shopping options and it bit me in the ass. In a nutshell, on race morning I went downstairs to get coffee and was told that the breakfast staff hadn't shown up and therefore there was no coffee made. I definitely cried a little when I heard this. Then I got my shit together and hopped on the bus that would take us out to the race start. It was 6am and the race was starting at 7am. Obviously our bus broke down. It started to make loud noises and couldn't get up the hill. We had to go back to the hotel and get on a new bus and it was now basically minutes before the start of the race. We finally got off the bus and found the start and as we checked our bags and tried to calm down the freaking gun went off. Literally, I was holding my bag and looked around like WTF? I got rid of my bag and started rolling only to eventually run up alongside
Joan Benoit Samuelson. No big deal, right? Just, like, one of the greatest running legends of all time in the flesh. We ran about 5-6 miles together and then she dropped out as she had only planned to do 18 as a training run in preparation for Chicago. But still, I ran a marathon with Joanie. And she was awesome. She knew I was trying to break 3 hours and encouraged me along the way, pushing me to pass people and to stay focused. I mean, you can't make this shit up. Alas, I did not break 3 hours, but ended up running 3 hours and 16 measly seconds. Both heartbreaking and awesome as I'd also never come that close to my goal. I found Joanie after the race and thanked her for pushing me along. She told me not to worry, that sub-3 was coming. And, she was, of course, right. It took a while, but it did eventually happen. Needless to say this was my wildest race story and I love going back and reading the race review as it always makes me smile. Also, I never travel without a coffee machine anymore. So, that was a very valuable lesson. I will never forgive that guy. Okay, back to the gems below. Here are some of the stories that were shared with me last week. The two highlighted in orange were the winners. Both incredible. I couldn't decide so I gave away a second jacket. You know what that means, right?? Enjoy!
TOP 10 WILDEST RACE STORIES
w/ Joan Benoit Samuelson at the Sugarloaf marathon, my craziest
1. In 2023, I went to run the Blue Ridge half marathon. We stayed right outside of town and I drove our car to a parking garage. I did not know anything other than the floor. I parked and walked straight to the starting area kind of on auto pilot; anyway at the end of the race - which was fine - no major snafus, I went to go back to my car and realized that there are multiple parking garages in the city of Roanoke. I had to walk through each one to find my vehicle. It took about four!! from that moment on I learned to drop a pin.
2. I was at mile 23 of NY marathon. A guide-runner, running with a blind man, had to drop out. He grabbed the tether and asked me to help the blind man finish…and then told me he only spoke French. We tethered him to me and I used my high school French skills to verbally guide the runner to the finish.
3. Once I put the wrong city in my GPS when I was going to the race. Got to my "destination" and realized I was over 30-40 min away from where the race actually was. I pulled into a parking garage at the time the race was starting, sprinted my way to the start and straight through the line (2 minutes after the gun went off) and finished 3rd female
4. Still being in the porta potty at the Asheville half marathon when the gun went off (typical for little miss late)….still podiumed, miraculously ;)
5. In 2011, my first Boston, there was a fire alarm at our hotel at 4am and the entire hotel of runners were in the parking lot. THEN, on the bus, the women around me had to pee, so did I, I always have to pee. The bold one asked the bus driver to pullover so they could. He did, and I joined them for relief. We get back on the bus. It had poured the days before and the driver didn’t just pull over on the shoulder, he dropped the right side of the bus off the side and IT WAS STUCK IN THE MUD when he tried to go. I prepared myself for the lord of the flies attack from the panicking runners, but instead, the entire bus got out and pushed the bus out of the mud! Then everyone used the loo and off we went again. What a site we must’ve been!
6. One night prior to a race I woke up to take an ibuprofen because I had a raging headache (I normally take 800mg for my headaches). I accidentally took 4 Imodium instead…no shit…literally!
7. Ran 25 miles of the MCM w/my husband. Looked down watching my feet a second (you know “left, right, left, right” mantra) looked up and couldn’t find him. Every blooming man running had on a shirt similar colored. I climbed the hill by security dogs and watched left and right for him (he had no phone with him). Gave up and went to the finish line. Dry heaving and panicked. Called our kids at the hotel who said he hadn’t tracked as finished. Got as close to the finish line as security would let me and waited. 30 mins later I see him coming. He also looked down, lost sight of me, ran backwards over a mile, saw medics helping someone, panicked til he realized it wasn’t me. Finally hobbled to the finish where I was able to wave him down (not thrilled that I beat him but he also ran 28.5 miles that day.)
8.Tracking glitched during the run of a 90 degree half ironman - instead of assuming there was no way I’d run a 3 minute mile and then a 15 minute mile my mom panicked that I’d collapsed and sent my dad out to go look for me and he missed the finish.
9. I ran a half marathon and called my friend in the middle of it for motivation. *Okay, this one doesn't sound too crazy compared to the others but it is because Franz, who share it, is a thrower at LHS and never in a million years would I have guessed he'd run a half marathon.
10. Two years ago, my 10 year old daughter convinced me to sign up for a 5k - our first race ever. This year, on January 1st, we ran in the Resolution 5k at Magnuson Park in Seattle. We both placed first in our respective age groups! *And this one isn't too wild either but I love it for obvious reasons.
Listen to this:
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