“The street leading up to an open baseball field was packed with people running in the marathon,” she says.

Water, sports drink, and Powerbars were passed out to the runners.

“I had my first Powerbar ever,” says Madigan-Curtis. “I actually really liked it. It tasted like a candy bar.”

Gordon and her friends also encountered the tents, but didn’t stick around long, opting instead to stretch and drink water in preparation for the event.

At noon, the runners began moving to their corrals, but for Gordon and Madigan-Curtis, the race did not start until a half hour later.

The two got pledges to run in support of Harvard China Care and were positioned with the other charity runners toward the end of the pack.

“We walked to the starting line, and that took 20 minutes,” Madigan-Curtis says.

...GO!

The first five miles proved to be difficult for Madigan-Curtis as she tried to get into a rhythm.

For Gordon, the first stretch mirrored her five-mile short runs during training, so she essentially breezed through them.

But despite the auspicious start, she worried about her pacing, she says.

She and her two other running partners “didn’t really know what it would feel like when we got to mile 22,” she says.

The course winds through the western suburbs of Boston, and both Madigan-Curtis and Gordon mentioned that passing by unique fans at local colleges was invigorating.

At Wellesley College, for instance, women lined the streets, and some held up “Kiss Me” signs, Gordon says.

“There was one man we actually saw going by and kissing a lot of women,” she laughed.