Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 2

Saturday, April 15, 2023, was the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing. One of the reasons that I made sure to be in town early on Saturday was so that I would be able to attend whatever memorial ceremony they held. No, I didn't know anyone who was directly affected by the bombing, but it still felt necessary. So, I had a goal of being near the finish line before 2:30pm.

First up on the agenda for the day was meeting up with a friend and her family in Walden, at Boda Borg.  But while I was waiting for them to arrive, I decided to make my second Dunkin' run:

Think of Boda Borg as an alternate version of an escape room. LOTS of fun. I had been there two times before, and had one specific room/puzzle that I wanted to finish solving, since the first time around, my group never finished the last room, and the second time around (with a different family), we wound up not going into this particular room in the first place. So, how did we do? We failed LOTS of times, and had a blast doing so and trying to figure out what we were doing wrong. Rats definitely got the best of us for the first hour of the two hours we were there. Definitely need to return at some point, but must have 2-4 others joining me to do so.

Given a confluence of events, the five of us wound up leaving at about 12:30. Laura and family went to lunch near Faneuil Hall, and I took the chance of being able to both get through the expo (well, pick up my bib and shirt, at least) and get lunch prior to the ceremony kicking off. I managed it, but just barely. 

I got through what I wanted to do at the expo (which is SO much smaller than it was pre-pandemic) and picked up a really tasty salad at Eataly on my way to the ceremony. Timing was tight enough, though, that I didn't wind up sitting down inside the Prudential Center to eat. Rather, I made my way outside and stopped at the first of the two memorials.

I wolfed down the salad in a few minutes' time to make sure it was finished before the ceremony started. (It would have been highly disrespectful, IMO, to have been eating anything during the ceremony.) Ironically enough, at this memorial, the crowd that gathered was solely watching the honor guard, mostly standing at attention. We were able to hear it when the ceremony started up at the memorial right by the finish line, but we weren't able to really hear much of anything, unfortunately. However, I was able to watch video of the ceremony later that evening. Simple yet moving.

Afterwards, I made my way to Copley Park to get my Celebration jacket customized with the patch -- something that Adidas has been doing at a pop-up stand the past couple of years.  The line was short but not brief -- it took about an hour. I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of the panel Q&A of some of the men's elite field, even.

Shortly afterward, they were introduced by Dave McGillivray to the assembled crowd in the finish line area.

I milled about a bit, spending some time taking some of the standard photos around the finish line area -- certainly less crowded than it was earlier, and much less crowded than it would be mid-day on Sunday.

How to kill some more time before the new Boston Lights show in a few hours? Go back to the expo and see what's there!

(Replica of the finish line and the various light pole banners)

(Part of the historical display at the expo - replica of the gold-dipped laurel wreaths the winners are awarded.)

(The Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Championship medal I will finally be able to claim after I finish the Chicago Marathon. You're mine... in six months.)

I took the chance going into the Adidas merch area -- it really didn't take all that long for me to get through the entry line, to find the ball cap that is my traditional on-site purchase (as I always get the Celebration jacket online when it first comes out), and checkout. I wound up seeing the Hyperice booth, and luckily was able to purchase the carrying case designed for the boots that I bought several weeks ago. And between stopping at he Sydney Marathon and Marathon Tours booth (to enter their raffle for an entry into the race and several days' vacation), I ofnd out that they had some pre-race ponchos available, and how I was supposed to ask for them. Much nicer poncho than the one from Tokyo that I had brought for race day.

Dinner by the finish line and a couple of additional photos of the memorial lit up at night (below), and it was not all that long before the Boston Lights show kicked off.

Boston Marathon Weekend: Day 1

The 127th Boston Marathon has come and gone, now, and it was a great weekend overall.

For first time in 6 years, I flew up on Friday for the full weekend's festivities. This year, I wound up connecting through Newark Airport (ugh). It was a long enough layover, I wound up making my first Dunkin' run there: 

Apple fritter. No great shakes from Dunkin' -- I've had FAR better fritters. But it was sufficient to tide me over for a little bit and get me even more in the Boston mood.

Finally landed at Logan Airport, I got my Charlie Card for the week and board the Silver Line to the Red Line towards my hotel in Quincy. I had heard about the delays on the T prior to my arrival, but didn't realize just how bad they were. Good lord! First of all, once I transferred, I had to wait about 35 minutes for the Red Line to arrive at South Station. (It was 20+ minutes for about 15 minutes.) Then, aside from it going slower than normal through much of it, there is one segment of two consecutive stops where it CRAWLED -- between JFK/UMass and North Quincy, which should be somewhere around 7 minutes (I think) was taking 20 minutes (!). Great; note to self: pad on a fair bit of extra time!

Finally checked in at HoJo's (don't judge me -- it's actually a really good, comfortable room, they have breakfast included, and it's comparatively inexpensive), I unpack my bags and hit the road, hoping that I could get to the expo before it closed at 6pm. Nope, no chance. Not only did it take a while for my train to arrive in the first place, but the travel time to the convention center took me past 6pm. Conveniently enough, though, there was a huge meet-up scheduled for dinner at Wagamama's in the Prudential Center, so I made my way there a bit early. Plenty of people were already there. I chatted for a while with some friends sitting at the next table over, and gradually as my table filled up, conversation shifted to the people I was seated with. It was definitely a good time. Good food, good company -- what more can you ask for? Before departing, the Trattoria Dopeys (+1) took a "reunion" photo:

Look at that -- it's nearly 8pm. Time to book it over to the Fairmont Copley Plaza for Boston Lights.

Alas, I don't have any ay of effectively transferring the videos that I took on my phone onto my laptop to then upload here. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights the marathon put on a different show (about 3 minutes long repeated every 15 minutes for 2 hours) that showed different scenes from the history of the marathon (typically from the past 10 years, actually) and had different music and/or voice-over to match. It was well done, and certainly helped amp up the mood, especially in the lead up to the anniversary being commemorated on Saturday.

Last forecast before packing

Well, I have to make some decisions on what to pack tonight. Each of multiple options, or just commit to one? And if I do the latter, am I prepared to make last-minute purchases if it looks like that's necessary. While weather.com is predicting the possibility of heavy rain, WeatherUnderground.com implies that it will be, at worst, a mist.

The temps will be great, just need to make sure I don't get soaked through while waiting around in Hopkinton.

Looking forward to toeing the line on Monday! Just hoping it doesn't become a similar sort of "swim" to 2018. (Being 15+ degrees warmer, it won't be nearly as bad.)

Downturn in weather, for now

It was surely too good to last for the entire lead-up to the marathon.

Temps are getting to a better range for the race, but good chance of rain, and now the winds are looking to be a headwind rather than a tailwind. sigh

Keeping feet dry in advance of the race if it is raining an appreciable amount is somewhat difficult. Fingers cross at least the rain forecast shifts away.

Boston Weather - still looking good

 We finally got our first forecast for race day. And, boy, does it look pretty darn good.

It's rather notable how much the temps for the early part of the weekend have jumped since just a few days ago. And the possibility of rain on Sunday, while somewhat annoying is MUCH preferable to having it on race day. (Yes, I see the 24% chance on race day.)

While the overnight low into Monday morning looks to be 52 at the moment, that's approximatey at sunrise. The race doesn't start until 10am (for we non-elites), so it should be closer to 60 at that point, and nearing the high for most of the runners before they cross the finish line. 

And the winds look like they might actually be helpful to neutral. WNW winds amount to a tailwind. The winds will apparently shift to S (and by the evening to WSW). Crosswind isn't so bad.

I'll take it. Let the weather gods keep up the god work, please!

GWR attempt #3

Well, I've finally taken the plunge. Not only have I registered for the Sydney Marathon, but I just submitted my application with Guinness for another Guinness World Record attempt. This time, it would be as fastest marathon dressed as a scientist (male). The time to beat is 3:14:16 -- something I know that I'm capable of achieving, having run faster than that on multiple occasions, including my prior successful attempt in Toronto in 2019.

Now, I'm just hoping that Sydney Marathon and Guinness re-establish the relationship they previously had where people making an attempt during the marathon did not need to do any of the usual documentation. Somewhere between my original (and aborted) registration in 2020 (thanks, COVID) and the current race, that relationship seems to have ended. But maybe I'll be lucky and they'll re-establish it in the next few months. Not sure I really want to be on the hook for getting all that documentation handled - especially the video of the entire attempt.

Boston Weather - not an April Fools' joke

It's April, and the Boston Marathon is barely over two weeks away. Everyone's favorite game is starting up: weather-checking!

The temperatures are starting off looking like it just may be fabulous. But, time will certainly tell. The forecast for the Boston Marathon usually changes at least a couple of dozen times in the couple of weeks leading up to the race. And a few times in the last day, even. 

So, remain hopeful - but vigilant for an extreme shift one way or the other.