A Massachusetts holiday, Patriots Day, April 20th, commemorates the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord; the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. And to thousand’s of residents, visitors, runners, and the rest of the Country and the World, it is also known as Boston Marathon Day. And this year, it is the 113th running of this 26-mile route that starts in sleepy Hopkinton, Massachusetts and finishes in downtown Boston.The BAA (Boston Athletic Association) was established in 1887 and has had the mission of managing sporting events and promoting a healthy lifestyle, but no event is more famous, worldwide, than the Boston Marathon. And no runner connected to this event has more name recognition than Bill Rogers, who certainly help popularize the sport of marathon running in the 70’s. He’s also won it four times between 1975 and 1980 and he plans to be on the starting line once again. While he broke many course records back in his day, Monday he is “running for the fun of it”; being cheered on by at least a half million fans lining the route, encouraging all the 26,000 plus runners to keep on going. (Fact: Bill Rogers has as many running miles logged in as I have on my mini-van, 125,000. That's amazing!)
In my other life, before the B&B, Don and I ran the Boston Marathon. Always weekend runners, we seriously trained for a year and were so excited just to be in that line, (although, way in the back of course) as that gun went off and 10,000 plus runners slowly moved pass the starting line. Good to go for most of the route, even at “heartbreak hill”, until Donald got a blister and we had to stop about 20 miles into the route. Just the same, we will always have fond memories of the day, pain and all. Of course, Ada was just glad she was not the one to stop first, and Donald has never been able to live it down……….
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