I live in Boston; go to the early sox game last year and this year, but I'll watch the 'thon afterward. Where will you be?
One guy from my area is turning 60 this summer and running his 40th consecutive Boston marathon!!
Can't, not fast enough to make the cut off for my age group. :/
I'm going to the sox game on Saturday too My dad somehow managed to become one of the VIPs that gets trotted out on field before the game (he's running). Also, they're playing the Jays and I'm from Toronto so that'll make it double fun, especially if both teams keep playing the way they've started the season
As for where I'll be, probably as close to the finish line as a spot can be found is all I know right now. I've never been to Boston so I don't know the area.
I'll be at the game Saturday not Monday, so there'll be time to do what I need to do at the hotel before going out to find a spot. And I'm not planning on drinking large amounts of beerI'm looking forward to the game; I think my dad and I are going to turn it into a tradition...although I do like wandering off drunk at 11 AM to go hit on girls, gonna be weird with him there. Picture Mardis Gras, or cancun on spring break; that's Boston on Patriot's Day. It's to celebrate the battles of Lexington & Concord, and is only celebrated in Maine (formerly part of MA) and Massachusetts. Boston basically turns into a 2 million person party, and it starts early. Bars are usually at capacity by 11 a.m., so be prepared. Also you have to actually be buying food at a place to use their bathrooms, so be ready for that too. Pee a lot at Fenway. It's a blast though, it really is my favorite day of the year
As for the marathon, it will be very hard to get to the finish line. I got down one year by basically shoving people for a half hour. The finish line comes after a left turn, if you're on the opposite side of the road you can't cross so you can't get there, you have to basically back track and find a way around and then scuttle up to the finish line. Here's a couple pictures...in the first one that blue banner is the finish line, and in the 2nd a tree is blocking it. Later on it's easier to get close to the line as people filter out.
oh, and one more for the Canadians
I didn't see the finish because I was out at the 17-mile mark watching my Dad but I'll bet it was exciting.
What I did see though I didn't find particularly inspiring. There were a lot of people running without bibs, some apparently doing the whole thing, some just doing part or running with a friend for a ways. I don't necessarily object to going out and supporting a runner you know if there's room on the course, but around the end it got to the point where there were more joiners than actual runners and sometimes it was hard to tell if someone had ran the whole way or not.
That, and around the 5 hour mark, there seemed to be a lot of people who had run the whole thing but were really taking it easy. Again, not anything really wrong with that, but most marathon finishes that I've seen were really more dominated by people who were really clearly giving it all they had and that's a lot more engaging to watch.
Really? Most of the marathons I've done haven't been friendly to bandits, people running without bibs. If you want to support a friend running, you pay the entrance fee and run at their pace.