The flight to Boston was with a layover in Reykjavik which is itself wasn’t too bad. Sitting in the lounge in Reykjavik the departure screen heavily implied to leave for the gate 45 minutes ahead of time before boarding if you wanted to be sure to get through passport control in time. I left the lounge as suggested and within 5 minutes I was through and waiting at the gate.
Seats on the flight on BC are “normal” seats but bigger and with more legroom. This meant that while your knees weren’t rubbing against the seat if the passenger in front of you chose to recline their seat, you still get a close-up of the monitor.
Food was ok. I guess.
We arrived in Boston around 1800 and after people had retrieved their luggage (I was travelling as part of a group) we came outside and were picked up by a handful of vehicles which could be defined as borderline limos. 5 passengers each, luxurious interior and wifi. Getting to the hotel took 10-15 minutes where we quickly checked in, and around 2100 I had passed out on my bed.
Boston from 20th floor at night.
I woke up a bit before 0500 and ended up just milling about before going to breakfast. I found out afterwards that the meal wasn’t included in the hotel room’s price. Woops! Oh, well.
I met with some from the group at 1000 and left the hotel together to go to the runner’s expo to pick up out running numbers. On the way we passed the area where we would be getting picked up by busses to take us to the starting line tomorrow morning, and the finish line. They are both comfortably close to the hotel, though I am sure that the finish line will be feeling much further away tomorrow afternoon.
Where it all started.
The expo felt chaotic and slightly claustrophobic; a lot of booths and people wall-to-wall at the convention center, but it seems like I managed to at least physically survive the ordeal. The official shirt is long-sleeved, but for some reason they have absolutely zero options of buying a short-sleeved variant. The marathon jacket is insanely popular, including the hoodies for some reason, but no t-shirt. Weird.
Coming back outside I wandered around by myself for a few hours before returning to the hotel. At around 1800 I went down to the hotel restaurant to have dinner – it was originally supposed to be a pasta dinner at the city hall, but due to Covid that had been cancelled. Everyone in Boston seem to be very invested in the run, including the hotel; a lot of runners are staying at the hotel, a large poster in the reception with a photo of the 2018 finish (I believe) where it was pouring down where you could write greetings and encouragement for the runners, and they were having a pasta dinner/buffet which was the one I was coming down for. As the restaurant was fairly small, only open for 3 hours, and there was a quite a few runners wanting to eat, I ended up waiting 45 minutes before being seated with a few others from the group. It was good to get something to eat but the food was largely unimpressive. The tiramisu was pretty good, though.
The Holocaust memorial.
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