About the Boston Marathon

Its four days post marathon now and I have had a bit of time to reflect on the marathon. It is an extraordinary experience. Everything about it is big. The stand out thing is the local interest. To run in the marathon is seen as a big thing here. Just running in it impresses people. In the few days I was in Boston beforehand people were coming up and shaking my hand to congratulate me...and I hadn't even run it yet.

The interest is very unusual for someone from Australia. The maximum number in marathons there would be 1200 or so. In Boston there are 25000 runners who have qualified to run in it. And the fans along the way number in the tens of thousand. There are large articles about the marathon in all the local papers every day in the weeks leading up to the event.

There are many traditions associated with the event which are fun to be part of. The most memorable is the Wellesly scream. At about the half way mark the girls from Wellesly college line the street and scream their guts out. About a mile from the college your can hear the roar, like approaching the MCG on Grand final day. Passing by them is deafening, and entertaining. The girls hold out signs asking to be kissed, and a lot of runners stop. Good looking guys are actually pulled off the course. At Wellesley the really do beg for kisses and make a wall of sound

The fans line the entire course. When the race started it was blowing 50mph and and raining, temperature 10 deg C. but the fans still came out. Many fans hold out treats such as orange pieces for the runners. Rining cow bells is very popular. If you have your name or an identifying feature such as a flag on your gear the crowd loves it. They will call out your name, urging you on with all the enthusiasm of a close friend. I have never heard such enthusiasm before. The cheering is like that of the Striders or Coolrunning groups, but in Boston it is at full volume for 42km.

After the Newton hills when my legs were giving out and I was numb with cold, I started to walk. I stayed to the side of the course so as not to interfere with other runners. The crowd started begging me to run again. Then one guy wearing a Red Sox jersey (Want to get along with a Bostonian? say you like the Red Sox baseball team) started walking alongside me calling out "Cmon buddy, I am going to get you home, cmon you can pick it up, we will get you there, lets go" This went on for several minutes. He kept it up full bore, with all the crowd supporting him. The noise was alarming. So when I broke into a run again, a huge cheer went up, with lots of cries of "way to go", "atta boy" "good job, good job". The cheering guy was beside himself with joy.

The crowd was always good humored and sympathetic. It was touching that if you did start to walk other runners always stopped and urged you on. Or simply gave you a pat on the back. As you approach the city the crowd becomes several people deep. All screaming. And this was on a windy cold day.

The fans lined the whole course despite the weather

Every five kms was a timing pad, which was hooked up to a live internet feed. So fans could track your progress, you could even set up three mobile numbers to receive sms updates. This system worked perfectly. Several friends watched my progress and had no trouble logging on. Kath got updates posted to her Blackberry while she was track side.

At the finish the dechipping and post race care was really well organised except for one rain related glitch. The rain had washed the numbers off the competitors bags. So the volunteers manning the gear buses couldn't tell one bag from another. I stood for about 40 mins in the wind and rain waiting for my dry clothes. That was tough.

Afterwards as I caught the subway back to Karen's, strangers who saw me would come up and congratulate me, not just fans, everyone. They weren't concerned about what time you ran, just running it was a big deal to the locals.

The most notable thing about the weather for the Boston Marathon is that it could be just about anything. In recent years they have had heat waves, and this year record cold and rain.

Overall its a unique and unforgettable experience. The Bostonians embrace the marathon like no other city that I have heard of. This was the 111th continuous running and I understand why, Bostonians are passionate sports fans and they love people who have a go.