On the drive out to the east coast I encountered Jon’s slight, but noticeable, pig style snoring. Last night I perfected a technique to prevent him from waking up our two hosts. It involves me rolling over and “accidentally” nudging him. Works every time. In the morning we gathered our things early and road the metro green line over to the Lenox Hotel near downtown Boston. In the lobby we received our credentials and meet information. New Balance hosted a press conference with Jen Simpson, Mo Farah, and Alan Webb on the second floor of the hotel. Jon and I were invited to grab some pre-race comments from the athletes. I had a good chat with Britain’s Mo Farah, who will be racing the 3000 meters.

After the press conference, Jon and I returned to our dorm room on the Harvard campus. Now in our running attire we ran around the Charles River with the sun on our backs and snow under foot. Some of the snow had melted under all the sun, so some of the sidewalks were now canals of icy water. I managed to keep my feet dry through most of the run by jumping side to side from snow bank to snow bank. I would love to come back to Boston when the snow has melted to really appreciate the place where thousands of Boston runners get their miles in.

We returned to the Lenox Hotel for some more pre race interviews. We sat down with Craig Huffer from Australia who now runs for Adams State in Colorado. I had a great chat with Liberty’s three-time NCAA championship runner, Sam Chelanga and his coach. They were really awesome. Jon and I plan on rolling through Virginia later this year to catch up with them. Alan Webb gave me his thoughts on the race and his goals for the season. Finally, when the athlete dinner was wrapping up, I talked with 5000 meter high school record-holder Lucas Verzbicas. His dad was a bit apprehensive about another interview, but Lucas seemed eager. I’m looking forward to see what he can do with the big boys in tomorrow’s New Balance elite mile.

Check out the RunnerSpace event page, New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, for race results, photos, interviews, and more.

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Follow our adventures at RunnerSpace.com/Travels! We'll be posting a blog update each day until "RunnerSpace Travels Season 1" is done at the end of June.  You can also expect school visits and fun adventures to be posted along the way as we hit up many of the top meets from around the country to provide the RunnerSpace meet coverage we all know and love!  Make sure to leave a comment below about this update or post on our guestbook to say hi!