Just a quick note this morning: I happened upon a great article at BU Today where a first time Boston runner interviewed some noteable folks about the Boston Marathon with a bent towards getting tips for a first timer.
It’s a great ready, and features advice from John Kelley the Younger, Amby Burfoot, Bruce Lehane, Mary McQueeny, Rick Hoyt, and “Bricklayer” Bill Kennedy’s great-great-nephew Patrick.
Any one thing that stands out about your first Boston?
Driving into Hopkinton, there was half an inch of snow on some rooftops from a little shower, but it was melting fast. The crocuses and forsythias were everywhere. It fulfilled all my romantic images of winter passing and spring arriving and all of it getting mixed up in one glorious Boston Marathon day. The first thing I saw was Old John Kelley warming up on the side of the road and then the Japanese runners in their white Rising Sun uniforms. It felt as if it had happened just for me.The other main anecdote is Heartbreak Hill. If you had read about it as much as I did, it loomed second to Everest in one’s notion of magnitude. I literally had the experience where I thought I should have been approaching Heartbreak and I was turning to the spectators and asking, “Where’s Heartbreak Hill? How much farther to Heartbreak Hill?” And they answered, “You just went over the top.” The expectation of a mountain made it easy.
You can read the article here:
http://www.bu.edu/today/arts-entertainment/2009/04/07/picking-marathon-brains
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