Patriot's Day

There was a time when I referred to the weekend of the Boston Marathon as my ‘Christmas in April.’  I consider myself very fortunate to have had the opportunity to run in the greatest footrace in the world 12 times.  When I first started running in 1978 I dreamed of one day lining up with the finest runners in the world in Hopkinton to run the fabled 26.2 mile route to Boston on Patriot’s Day, a civic holiday in Massachusetts commemorating the anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. 

My first experience in Boston, perhaps my finest and certainly my most emotional was in 1987.  I can still vividly remember choking up as I ran the final stretch on Boylston Street and the finish line banner was clearly within sight.  To think that someone like me could run in this, the most prestigious marathon in the world, was indeed quite the thrill.  I feel honored to have experienced that thrill 11 more times over the next 23 years, my last trip to Boston being in 2010.  Ironically it was the first time Cindy made the trip with me.  Although I didn’t run particularly well in my Boston swan song, I was glad Cindy finally got to see me run beneath Boston’s finish line banner.

I have some great memories of Boston.  I lowered my personal best marathon time at my first Boston in 1987.  I ran on the Atlanta Track Club Men’s Masters Team several years, breaking three hours (my personal indicator of a solid effort) three times; my younger son Josh made the trip with me and witnessed one of them.  In 2003 I ran the course from the finish line to the start and then turned around and ran the race with everyone else to celebrate my 100^th lifetime marathon (Note: I was training for the Badwater Ultramarathon, an event I would be running three months later).

Nana, my grandmother on my mom’s side and arguably my biggest supporter in running passed away the weekend of the 1999 Boston Marathon.  When I called my parents to tell them how I did after the race (my fastest Boston since my first one in 1987) my mom told me that Nana had passed away the day before…but she waited until then to tell me because she knew Nana would not want me to be distracted from running well.  Ironically I was running in the pair of running shoes Nana had given me for Christmas four months earlier. 

I had the privilege to meet many of my running idols during the Boston Marathon weekend: Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter and Bobbi Gibb, to name a few.  I feel honored to have told Bobbi’s story in my book A Passion for Running: Portraits of the Everyday Runner.  Bobbi was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon and her story is remarkable (I won’t tell you about it here in hopes that you’ll track down a copy of Passion!).  I met Bobbi in person after the 2010 Boston Marathon (my 12^th and in all probability my last) and will always remember what a genuinely nice and sincere woman she is.

I won’t be running the Boston Marathon this year.  Many of my friends will be, however and for them I have one piece of advice:

Savor every step.