Mike's Marathon Blog

Keep in mind it is 10:30 in the morning on a weekday. The sidewalks are 5 deep all the way down East Main Street. A giant platform with rows of chairs stood at the starting line holding members of the BAA, John Hancock execs, Senator Kerry and Olympic Gold Medalist Hannah Kearney of Vermont, who served as the honorary Grand Marshal of this year’s marathon. Covering a big hill just past the starting line was at least 150 people cheering, snapping pictures and waving their American flags.

Kids were reaching their hands into the streets hoping to slap runners’ hands on the way by. Once a hand came into contact with their own, their faces would light up like a Christmas tree. You’d think they were slapping the hands of Miley Cyrus or Harry Potter. Today, we were the celebrities. A new spectator would yell my name every couple of feet. ‘Go Mike’, ‘you can do it Mike’, ‘good job Children’s Hospital.’ It was insane! People were sitting on guardrails, on porches, on lawns, on fences, in trees, in windows, on cars in driveways, everywhere and anywhere a person could be.

The first few miles of the race travel through the very rural towns of Hopkinton and Ashland, so crowds are either gathered on the sides of the road, in front of residential houses or at small commercial businesses. The residential sections were made up of families, their kids, their friends and a few amateur lemonade stands for the runners. The younger crowd would cheer, attempt to slap hands, hand out orange slices and attempt to slap more hands. The adults would continuously cheer on individual runners by reading the names on their singlets. You knew every runners’ name within a 10 foot radius because the crowd was constantly shouting their names. For the first few miles, the residential crowds definitely helped calm the nerves with their positive cheering and support.

The commercial crowds were also very supportive, just in a completely different way. The small business crowds were absolutely crazy! Restaurants were serving food and beer in the parking lots, a gas station had a full rock n’ roll band on their roof, bars were overflowing with already annihilated bikers, drunk women in American flag bikini tops were screaming on the sidewalk and an insurance company had giant speakers blaring the theme song to Rocky.

I finally caught up to Brian around mile 5. I believe we hugged it out again, mid-run, and gave recaps of how our first couple of miles had been. We ran together for a few minutes until it was time for my first GU stop. I pulled to the side, popped some GU and washed it down with some water. You know in the movies when someone eats something bad and they play that unpleasant sound of a stomach not really accepting whatever they just swallowed? I was unfortunately the star of this movie at mile 6. Whatever was in my stomach was not getting along wit the GU and water that I just introduced them to. I tried to shake it off and made my way back up to Brian. We talked for a few more minutes and I took off at the Framingham train station.

My stomach was not getting any better. I felt like a cement mixer running down the middle of the road. With my positive attitude sinking a bit and approaching one of the toughest sections in that area, I felt a tap on my right shoulder. Did Brian catch up to me? There’s no way, I thought. I left him over a mile ago. As I turned my head to the right, I saw the person that I had been searching for since we left the lodge. We started in different corals, so I had around a 5 minute head start. I slowed down for a mile or so when I saw Brian, which gave my new running partner time to catch up. Who was this pleasant surprise from the back of the pack? It was pace girl!

To be continued…………