From start to finish, with a few stray comments thrown in for good measure.
Before the Dawn: I headed out of Steve’s apartment and caught the metro to Boston Common. Runners apparently ride for free which was a nice bonus. I did notice though that a few folks I could tell were running but who opted to remain in sweats and street clothes as they boarded had to pay — no bib, no free ride, not my problem.
Despite there being 30,000+ runners at Boston, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to hear a superfast and everywhere runner pal Brian Wright call me out as I exited the metro station. He had paid the $80 to ride the Marathon Maniac luxury bus; me? I was happy to skip that expense and just ride the big yellow school buses out to Athlete’s Village.
I slept most of the way, having gotten a bit of a restless sleep the night before. Part of that is just the typical nerves before any marathon. Despite having done a number of these types of things, I still freak out that I’ll sleep through my alarm and miss getting to the start. But adding to the night’s challenges, apparently a cyclist group does the Marathon Route at 2 AM and folks were out cheering them on. I love Steve’s place and it is literally at the mile 23 marker, but, man, the one drawback was hearing these neon lit cyclists whizzing past and a smattering of crowd noise a scant two hours before I had to be up.
And despite dozing in that head constantly knocking the window thing that happens on trains, planes, and buses, I actually did feel a bit more awake once we hit Athlete’s Village. Maybe the adrenaline was kicking in. And though I was grumbling about the 10 AM start of the race and the requirement to catch a 6 AM bus, I was kinda glad I did as it afforded me a chance to get a bunch of shots around the place before it got packed with runners… and then to take some more shots as the masses congregated.
Athletes’ Village:
Having been released from the Village to make the long trek to the Starting Corrals, this was the last toilet stop before the race.
The Starting Corrals:
In 2012, I ran on a charity bib from Boston Children’s Hospital. As part of the team, I got to hang out at their official starting HQ, the John Warren Masonic Lodge. This time, having qualified on my own, I felt a 7 deadly sin swelling of selfish pride… albeit I missed the gluttonous spread at that lodge!
Slowly as the jets go flying over… Times have changed — there were spotters and snipers on buildings looking out for suspicious activity and the race announcer had to warn us that there’d be a flyby sendoff so we didn’t freak out thinking we’d gone to war with North Korea. He said the scary thing was the jets, which would fly over the entire course route, would make the trip in just over 4 minutes. I’m not sure *that’s* the scary part… I suppose he was trying to give us perspective on our own journey that was about to start. And give the guy some leeway — he’d been live announcing for hours trying to keep people apprised of the goings on.
And we’re off!
I didn’t take a lot of shots along the way… or at least not as many as I seem to have been doing recently. I think I was trying to just enjoy the day without viewing it through a viewfinder or on a screen. That’s not entirely true — I think I just was trying to get through! It was really warm in the direct sun… not as hot as in 2012 but pretty darn warm. By mile 3 I was already dripping wet and struggling a bit. As I was in the qualified corral and there were A LOT of super fast runners, I did my best to just try and keep pace — but I went out WAY too fast I think.
This guy? A Juggling jogger… albeit he stopped juggling at the water stops to get a cup. I think that’s a cheat worthy of Rosie Ruiz. ZING!
Right before the halfway point, we ran through Wellesely College. There’s a weird (and yet I’m marginally ashamed to say wonderful) tradition where the students kiss runners along the way. I stopped a few times… and only tried to snap a selfie once. It shows that though I’m a pretty lousy kisser under the best of circumstances, I’m especially awkward when trying to run a marathon at the same time. I suppose “awkward” is my move.
I kinda stopped snapping photos for a long stretch, settling into the heat and the effort to go the distance.
But I did feel compelled to grab some shots on Heartbreak Hill. It’s not that the hill is the toughest incline one can do, it’s just it comes after a string of more than rolling but not impossible hills… and it comes at mile 20-ish.
At mile 23, Steve and Alexis were there to cheer me on and it was a huge thrill and boost to see them. They even had made signs to publicize my blog, which I really wasn’t expecting. It really helped to see them and I was glad to get a few pics.
The Home Stretch:
The Citgo Sign means there’s about a mile to go to the finish.
And then it’s Right on Hereford, Left on Boylston… and straight on to the finish!
The official time according to the athlete tracking text messaging service? 3:20:07. Not a BQ at Boston but not bad… not bad at all. And significantly faster than my 2012 time.
A post run celebration at the Publick House… my one regret of the day is that I failed to snap a shot with Meg who came out after work to raise a glass. But these are pretty good closing shots of the day.
So that happened. Boston. 2017. What a thing.
But no rest for this runner… after stuffing my face with dumplings, french fries, a fish sandwich, and a German beer I’ll never be able to pronounce but was sure I could after having a couple of rounds, it’s time to get back into training for the next event.
Run Kevin Run. Run Me Run!