Marathon Monday

It's Patriot's Day here in Boston, the day of the Boston Marathon. Because the finish line is about half a mile from my work, we get the day off- forget about getting to the office through the mob zone on Newbury Street. Poor David wasn't so lucky: he had to be in Hopkington at 4 am with the National Guard for crowd control.

I, on the other hand, woke up at around 8:15, since my roommates didn't have the day off and did the usual morning competition for the bathroom outside my door. I made a leisurely breakfast, and watched the runners on TV while perfecting a cover letter. At around 11:30, I got a call from Diane, who was coming to Coolidge Corner to watch and wanted to know if I was interested in joining. We got a good spot on the Tanbark of the T stop across from Trader Joe's and watched for about an hour and a half. We saw the first women pass, the first men, and the first wheelchair racers. My batteries died after the first few women, but I did manage to take this picture of the first and second place ladies:





Dire Tune (#7) was the winner, and Alevtina Biktimirova (#8) was second. There were no American women in the top 10, and I was surprised the Russian women do so well- they placed 2nd and 9th.

The change in group dynamic between Needham (when I first tuned in) and 23 miles in was striking: instead of being in a pack, they were distinctively spread out.

At about 1:30 I felt like I was going to burn, so I suggested we go inside. We got some coffee and talked for a little bit. She told me about her new guy, and I told her about Seattle. We agreed that seeing the Marathon was something cool to check off of our "things to before leaving Boston" lists.

The check from my subletter arrived over the weekend, and I am going to cash it tomorrow or the next day; even if the bank was open today, I didn't feel like braving the mob to get there. The weather has been gorgeous, so that and the Marathon inspired me to go for a run after coffee. I ran about 3 minutes then walked from my apartment to BU to St. Mary's and back. The race was still going at around 4 pm as I walked home along Beacon street, mostly the old and feeble. By the time I went grocery shopping at 5, they had opened up the street and forced the stragglers to complete the race on the sidewalk.

Now I'm making chili for Len's birthday tomorrow- the last PACE Potluck I will ever need to endure. It's killing two birds with one stone: last minute bonding with my boss (good for the rec) and using up all my dried beans.