This was a "" Race for me.
I rated my performance a 5 out of 5.
Race Notes: 26.2 Miles to Boston
Flying over 2,000 miles for the opportunity of running 26.2 miles may seem a bit nuts. But there I was on Sunday morning taking a bus tour of the Boston Marathon course on the day before the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. As we toured, I said to Pam, my wife who accompanied me, that the course was “pretty unremarkable” – a narrow 2-lane road from Hopkinton, Mass – stretching through 4 towns lined with strip malls, train stations, fire houses, gas stations, auto repair shops, etc. The next day I discovered that the Boston Marathon is truly about the huge number of spectators who line the course -- over 750,000 spectators standing shoulder-to-shoulder for 26.2 miles. In some places – 8 to 10 people deep on both sides of the road – unbelievable.
The night before the race as I laid out my gear, I decided to place my name and state on the front of my shirt. I had been told that the crowds love to cheer and are searching for any identifying words that they can use to cheer on a runner.
Monday, April 21 was Patriot’s Day, the traditional day for the Marathon and the city of Boston was shut down for the holiday. The weather was almost perfect – 50 degrees, slight breeze and sunny. This brought out even more spectators including families holding front-yard BBQ’s, Elvis impersonators, rock bands, boom boxes blaring the theme from “Rocky”, accordion players and thousands of Wellesley College coeds with their signs “kiss me I’m single.” (BTW: I notice several younger guys taking advantage of a quick, sweaty peck-on-the cheek, before pressing on!). All-in-all it was a great day to run with the other 21,963 runners who were supported by over 7,000 volunteers.
At 10 am, my assigned start time, I had lined up with my florescent “GREG” sticker on the front of my black shirt. The crowds could yell their hearts out – and they did! I never went over 15 seconds during my 3 hours 52 minutes on the course without hearing my Boston fr