3rd House Journal: Marathon

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Marathon

[Finish line, evening before the Boston Marathon; 4/15/12]

It was a fun, if perhaps a bit too busy, weekend. Up to the New Hampshire seacoast on Saturday afternoon to hang out with a bunch of old friends, then to Boston on Sunday afternoon to stay with D and enjoy the big Marathon Weekend in the city.

Monday's marathon was one of the hottest on record, with temperatures as high as 88°F under blazing sun. We walked down to watch the elite runners come in a couple of blocks from the finish line and even standing there for 20 minutes or so wilted me. After walking around to get a few different vantage points further back on the course, I had to go back inside and cool off and rest - after just standing up! We went back out later on, when runners were finishing after almost 5 hours of running in extreme heat, and I saw a lot more runners walking the final stretch of the race than I've seen before. Reportedly about 4300 registered runners opted out of the race, and about 2000 who did race needed some kind of medical support along the way. Runners also had ample support from the good citizens who stood out in the heat along the route offering water, ice, wet paper towels, and cool pops (be sure to read Lorianne's moving report from the race route).

[Gatorade tent after the finish line]

With a sudden influx of too much freelance work, I have my own sort of marathon to get through over the coming weeks. I expected I'd have more free time to get back to my blog, others' blogs, reading, writing, photographing, walking, etc., but it's a fast and crowded start at the beginning of this race, so I'd better get to it before I find myself falling behind. Hopefully I'll be able to get into a more comfortable rhythm further down the line.

[Exhausted runner, after the finish]