This week focuses on two-time Boston Marathon runner, Ms. Santangelo.  She tells us about her experience running the Boston Marathon for the second time in a row!

Shannon Raneri: Well, congratulations on the marathon!

Ms. Santangelo: Thank you so much!  I appreciate it!

Raneri: How was it?

Santangelo: Oh, goodness.  Let’s see, it was so many things.  It was a lot of fun, it was cold, it was wet, a little painful, but overall it was amazing.

Raneri: Was the energy different the second time around when you were at the starting line?

Santangelo: Last year, the gun goes off at 11:15 and I wasn’t in my corral yet.  I was going to the bathroom and walking to the start still [and missed gun go off]!  This year, I was in my corral and then everyone started walking to the start, so I actually had that “starting line energy” whereas last time it happened so fast.  I was in the moment, it was cool.

Raneri: How long does it take for everyone to start scattering?  You start as a big group, then after a while, you’re going to scatter.

Santangelo: I would say even up until the first four or five miles is when you start having space.  The first three are still really tight, and then by mile four, mile five, you’re scattered.  There are times when you’re on your own, it’s weird.

Santangelo: I feel like I had the same “experience” as I did last year when I took the left onto Boylston, I took my headphones out, I literally get my breath taken away.  I can’t catch it.  It’s so overwhelming and you’re so close to the finish and I was just waiting to see my family at the end and there were unexpected people who I don’t even know how I heard them.  But you’re just constantly looking, like, “Where are they?  Where are they?”  I saw people I wasn’t expecting to see.  It was so awesome.

Raneri: Was the energy at the finish line different?

Santangelo: Yeah, I want to say it was because it was the ten-year anniversary of the bombings, so it was almost like, more powerful, in a way.

Raneri: What’s the big takeaway that you got from last year’s marathon and this year’s marathon?

Santangelo: Oh, geez.  I feel like I learned this right away and I say it to people all the time because people are like, “I don’t know how you do it.”  If you are out there, on that course, you will be so surprised by who is around you… it’s crazy.  So, I think that you can literally do anything you set your mind to.  That’s what the marathon proves to me.  I mean, seriously, if you can run a marathon, you can do anything.

Thank you so much, Ms. Santangelo, and congratulations on completing another Boston Marathon.  We hope to see you at the starting line again!