The Road To Boston, Part 5 – Race Morning

Dorky Me

This is dorky me loaded down with clothes, food, water, and shoes as I left the hotel. Luckily almost all of this gear will be discarded or left at the gear check to be picked up later. It is now about 6am or so.

To The Busses!

The Boston Marathon is unique in many ways, one of which is that it is a point to point race. You start over 32 miles away (via freeways) in the small town of Hopkinton, MA. To do that, the BAA (Boston Athletic Association, the sponsors of the race) has a vast army of busses that take us all to that town early on race day morning. As you can see from the picture there is a long line but it moves fast and everyone is loaded up and ready to go in short order. It’s one of the best aspects of the race, the drive to the start. It’s when you meet other runners, eat your final breakfast items, and get your head together for the race ahead. Linda was not sure she wanted to get up so early to see my off but then decided to come and she really loved the experience. Plus she got to walk back to the hotel and go back to sleep!

At the Athletes’ Village

After an hour or so you are dropped off at the Athletes’ village. It is on the grounds of the Hopkinton Middle School I believe. This is where you go the bathroom 1 or 2 or 3 last times, finish your breakfast, gather into your corrals and await the sign to start your walk to the finish line, which is about a half a mile away.

You may be wondering why I have my shoes around my neck. The old pros have long said it’s best to not wear your shoes to the village since it could very easily be very muddy. It is also a long time from when you first put your shoes on at the hotel to when you start the race so being able to wear older, looser shoes saves your feet from being too tightened down for too long.

You can also see that I have on a white fluffy sweat shirt, something I obviously would not wear running. This was something I bought at our local thrift store, along with some old sweat pants, to keep warm in the early morning Boston chill while I made my way to the start. Most people do it this way then simply discard the outer layer right before the start. The BAA collects all the clothing and donates them to homeless shelters around the Boston area.

Here is a view of the Athletes’ Village. I was happy to find that most of the ground was covered with rubber mats so it turned out the mud wasn’t that big an issue. The advice you’ll get about the Village is that you have to sit around for a long time, but my experience, both here and at the New York Marathon, is that the time passes really quickly and before you know it you need to be lined up and ready to make the walk to the start line. As a matter of fact, I missed the line up for the corral and had to play catch up on the walk.

As I walked to the start I thought about having started running so casually 19 years earlier just because my office mate wanted to get out once in a while and run during our lunch hour. I had decided to join her and I was able to run about 100 or so yards before I had to walk the rest of the 3 mile loop around the lake. Fast forward 5 years and I actually join a couch to 5k group with my wife and daughter and achieve the amazing feat of running 3.1 miles all at one time. Two years after that I run my first marathon and now, 12 years after that first one, I have qualified for and am running in the penultimate marathon on the planet. Quite the journey. I stood at the threshold of accomplishment, filled with nerves and excitement!