At noon on Patriots Day, runners of most every shape, size, color, speed, and nationality find their way to Hopkinton, MA for the start of the Boston Marathon. Each runner has their own reasons for running this race and each has their own personal saga to tell. I'll spare you the personal saga and tell you the reasons I run the Boston Marathon.History - I'm honored to run the same roads as Tarzan Brown, John A. Kelley, John J. Kelley, Gerard Cote, Les Pawson, Clarence DeMar, Bill Rodgers, Joan Samuelson, and Cosmos Ndeti. The uniqueness of our sport allow plodders like myself to bask in the cheers run the same hills as these heroes.
Time Qualifying Challenge - You is or you ain't. Qualified, that is. Geri Conley tells a great story about using his Boston REJECTED letter as a motivator to qualify for the next year's race. It worked. The time goals aren't impossible but difficult enough to necessitate diligent training for the average runner.
Winter Goal - At a time when most of would rather be hitting the snooze alarm for the third time, a looming Boston Marathon provides us with a "get-yer-ass-out-door" boost on those icy winter mornings.
Time Goal - Boston is a tough course, no doubt about it. You may have qualified with a decent time on an easier course but Boston's ill-placed hills and topsy turvy weather will challenge you every time you run it.
Excitement - Race day and the events leading up to it (expo, media coverage, elite runners everywhere) give back of the packers like me a Walter Mitty feeling of being an elite athlete. Everywhere you go and everyone you talk to in the Boston Metro area has marathon fever. As a runner, you're treated like a hero - if only for a few days.
Despair - Okay, this is a tough one. Imagine spending countless weeks and winter months working on an intricate costume for a very special party taking place in April. When you show up for the party everyone has the same costume. This initial feeling of despair over being just another one of twenty-thousand runners quickly subsides when the cannon sounds. Still, it's a strange feeling that occurs each time I run the race.
The Crowds - The girls of Wellesley, the garage bands playing obscenely bad versions of "Start Me Up" and "Born to Run" on front lawns, the beer drinkers hanging from the porches of Framingham, the well-wishers on Heartbreak Hill, the inebriated co-eds at Boston College. Don't forget to high five the kids handing out orange slices. They, too, will someday run this race.
Heroism - Best of all, my wife and kids have always picked me out from the crowd of twenty thousand runners to hand me water in Newton. Without fail, the kids want to know if I'm going to win each year's race. In theirs and my mind the answer is always a resounding "Yes!"
Sunday, January 07, 2007 01:59 PM