Bruins, Sox spouses run the gamut of emotions
Monday’s full slate of sports led to tripleheader fun for some and scheduling conundrums for others — especially those involved in the action.
As the Bruins awaited the dates of their first-round playoff series against Florida, the Krejci family hoped Game 1 would be Tuesday.
“I was like, ‘David, can you talk to somebody? I have something on Monday,’” joked Naomi Krejci, wife of of the Bruins’ veteran center.
That “something” was the 127th running of the Boston Marathon.
Under ideal circumstances, David would have been able to support Naomi at the finish line before Naomi would do the same for her husband at TD Garden. But alas, the two events ended up taking place on the same day.
So, as David spent his morning at Warrior Ice Arena, preparing for his return to the ice after six games away, Naomi took the start line with the rest of Wave 4 in Hopkinton.
“It is what it is,” David said following the team’s morning skate.
Naomi, 42, ran her first (and, up until Monday, only) marathon in 2012, when she completed Boston’s 26.2-mile course in 6 hours 26 minutes 46 seconds. On Monday, she shaved 2½ hours off her previous time, finishing in 3:55:47.
“I’m just so happy that I actually met my goal of being under four hours,” Naomi said. “It was amazing with all the energy of the people. I thought I was going to be tired and need to slow down, but everybody pumps you up so much that it was easy.”
After crossing the finish line, sporting a Bruins hat, Naomi didn’t have much time to recover. Her plans? Go home, shower, eat, and then get ready to head to TD Garden to watch David with their 4-year-old son Everett and 8year-old daughter Elina.
Despite the tight timeline and postrace fatigue, she was not going to miss the 7:30 p.m. puck drop.
“I have to go!” Naomi said, with a smile. “It makes for one big exciting day. That’s awesome.”
Elsewhere in the city Monday, the Turner family encountered similar circumstances.
Red Sox third baseman Justin Turner thought he would be able to make it from Fenway Park to Boylston Street in time to watch his wife Kourtney cross the finish line.
Kourtney, 36, had decided to take on the Boston route after Justin signed a one-year contract with the Red Sox in January. She didn’t yet know about the Red Sox’ annual Patriots Day tradition of playing a morning baseball game. Even with the overlap, however, the Turners figured Justin could still cheer on Kourtney after the game wrapped up.
Based on Kourtney’s previous races — she’s run the Los Angeles Marathon five times, including the most recent one in March — the timing should have worked out.
No such luck.
Rain pushed Angels starter Shohei Ohtani’s first pitch to 12:05 p.m., and a second delay halted play for another 85 minutes. The stoppages meant the game was only in the sixth inning when Kourtney crossed the finish line in 5:25:28.
“That’s baseball,” she said, with a shrug.
Although her husband wasn’t able to make it to the course, Kourtney had no complaints about her first race in Boston, calling the showing from the locals “spectacular” in the rainy conditions. As someone new to the area, she thought to herself, “What better way to see the city that I just moved to than running through 26.2 miles of it?”
“There’s nothing like this,” she said. “I have never seen a city show up for something like this. Just incredible support the whole way.”