What’s it like to run in a crowd of 30,000 people through the streets of Boston in front of a million spectators?
Prince George runners Wray Ahlstrom, Pam Mulroy and Dana Doerksen found out for themselves on Monday when they completed the 127th annual Boston Marathon.
“It was amazing, it was an incredible experience, almost hard to explain because there was so many people on the course, it was really cool,” said Mulroy. “I never thought I would go to Boston.”
It was the first time to run Boston for all three.
On a rainy and cool day with the temperature hovering around 10 C, Mulroy, 41, ran stride for stride with her 35-year-old best friend Doerksen and each crossed the finish in 3:39:01. Their feet got soaked in the downpours and that made their blisters worse, but it was worth it for them to get to experience such an iconic race.
“It was such a next-level experience to be training for two years with a friend and to experience that energy with over a million people, it was special,” said Doerksen. “We thought there would be gaps of no people but literally it was shoulder-to-shoulder (with spectators) for 42.2 K.”
Doerksen is an operating room nurse at UHNBC and Mulroy works for Northern Health as the executive lead for primary care and they are neighbours. They qualified for Boston in 2019 but the 2020 race was cancelled because of COVID and both had to requalify.
“Dana is faster than me but she ran with me to keep me company,” said Mulroy. “It made it go by fast. I was totally happy with our time.”
Ahlstrom, a 52-yer-old Canada Post letter carrier, finished in a personal-best 3:09:31, placing 431st in the men’s 50-54 class and 6,999th overall.
