Boston Marathon--Part I-Hopkinton and F-15's
I’m going to break the marathon into a few segments. Here is the first part.
After more than a year of training and 3000+ miles in my running log (same for Cathy), race day had finally arrived. I slept better than expected and we were up at 5:30 A.M. and out the door a little after 6:00 A.M. We met 40+ other Boston bound runners in Nashua for the ride to Hopkinton on the bus chartered by the Gate City Striders. After a quick roll call by Dan Dugan the bus was on the road and on its way down Rt. 495 toward Hopkinton. The mood on the bus upbeat and you could feel the excitement build as traffic began to slow on Rt. 495 as thousands of other runners converged on Hopkinton. When I ran this race 27 years earlier we just weaved our way into Hopkinton through a few back roads from Sudbury and my parents simply dropped me off right near the town green where I sat for a few hours before hopping into the back of the pack. Things are different now. With more than 25,000 runners it is difficult to describe the level of organization and logistics in place. Local and state police stand at every intersection, flashing temporary road signs every ¼ mile, two way streets turned into one way streets, helicopters buzzing overhead, TV satellite trucks and what seemed like hundreds of yellow school buses one after another winding their way to the Athletes Village from their loading point 26 miles to the east in downtown Boston. It is like a major military operation and somehow it all works.
After more than a year of training and 3000+ miles in my running log (same for Cathy), race day had finally arrived. I slept better than expected and we were up at 5:30 A.M. and out the door a little after 6:00 A.M. We met 40+ other Boston bound runners in Nashua for the ride to Hopkinton on the bus chartered by the Gate City Striders. After a quick roll call by Dan Dugan the bus was on the road and on its way down Rt. 495 toward Hopkinton. The mood on the bus upbeat and you could feel the excitement build as traffic began to slow on Rt. 495 as thousands of other runners converged on Hopkinton. When I ran this race 27 years earlier we just weaved our way into Hopkinton through a few back roads from Sudbury and my parents simply dropped me off right near the town green where I sat for a few hours before hopping into the back of the pack. Things are different now. With more than 25,000 runners it is difficult to describe the level of organization and logistics in place. Local and state police stand at every intersection, flashing temporary road signs every ¼ mile, two way streets turned into one way streets, helicopters buzzing overhead, TV satellite trucks and what seemed like hundreds of yellow school buses one after another winding their way to the Athletes Village from their loading point 26 miles to the east in downtown Boston. It is like a major military operation and somehow it all works.
When we finally arrived in Hopkinton about 8:15 A.M. we quickly checked our bags in and headed over to Pam and Jim Thyne’s house on Rt. 85, about ¼ mile from the start. The Thyne’s took very good care of us for the next 45 minutes on what was a chilly 40 degree morning. We were able to watch the start of the elite women’s race on their wide screen TV.
As we arrived at the start hundreds of volunteers lined the starting area along metal barriers and they carefully checked our bib numbers before letting us into our designated corrals. Cathy and I said our good bye’s and she headed up to the 7th (faster) corral. I ran into fellow Strider Jim Belanger from Nashua who was running his 15th and (he says) last Boston Marathon (I doubt it). He had actually created a mini-banner to unfurl at various times to the crowd announcing his retirement. The National Anthem played and just as it was concluding two F-15 fighter jets appeared high in the sky flying overhead from the east with a roar and then (and this may be one of the most incredible thing I have ever witnessed) just when I thought they were gone looped back around from behind us, sank low and literally flew right over our heads in a second louder roar seconds before the start. Finally, the gun went off.
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