Boston Comes Alive!

When you go to a race do you ever get the feeling that the city or town is consumed with the event?

That they have been planning for us; they have been waiting for us. The big day has arrived and the pulse of the community has quickened with excitement.

Towns Big and Small

New Bedford is alive for The New Bedford Half Marathon. Hartford is pulsating with energy when the Hartford Marathon Foundation rolls out their Marathon weekend. In July 2013, I ran the Jennifer Tinney Memorial 5K in Boxford and it felt like the whole town was there for us.

In June 2014 I travelled to Lubec, Maine for the Bay of Fundy International Marathon. If felt like the town of Lubec and Island of Campobello had rolled out the red carpet for us. These are both small communities and runners brought a lot of excitement, activity and money with them.

We runners brought home many warm feelings for the members of these communities.

For many little towns, race day is like a freight train coming down the tracks in the middle of the night: you can hear it coming for miles before it arrives, there is a brief whirlwind of commotion and then it fades off into the dark silence. The big event is over. Peace and quiet ensues.

I love races that inject a city or town so full of life it perspires. There is life and excitement where daily there may be calm and quiet: cups of coffee and letters in the mail. Months of planning and organizing culminate in a few brief hours of excitement and exhilaration. A job well done, a race well run. Memories to last a life time.

And the City Smiled

This weekend it is Boston’s turn to perspire. The hue over the city is just a bit brighter as more than 35,000 runners descend on The Hynes Convention Center and the restaurants and bars in the surround. The hotel front desk and concierge are just a bit busier with enthusiastic out of town guests. Many more excited by their first Boston than their first visit to Boston.

Even in a city as large and vibrant as Boston there is a heightened level of energy this weekend. There is a community and commonality among visitor and local. Every where you look there is a runner or someone in a Boston Marathon jacket. Non runners look at runners with a glint in their eye and a smile on the lips.

Something big is coming and we are all in on it.

Run well my friends, see you in Boston!

Andy

© anagelin 2014