Boston's Run to Remember

            This race was organized to raise money for the memorial fund of all the Boston Police Department officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty.  Since it was Memorial Day weekend, this seemed to be the perfect race to run, plus it made for a good excuse to run up to Boston for a couple days.

            I arrived the day before the race and decided to venture to Boston’s always packed Italian district to enjoy a solid pasta dinner.

Afterwards I wandered around the area a little while and happened across the Old North Church, which is where they held up the lights to signal the British were coming and started Paul Revere’s historic ride.  I think it was kind of fitting to spend part of the Memorial Day weekend at such an important location from the Revolutionary War.

     

As for race day, first I learned from Nashville and my hotel was only a half mile from the starting line…just in case.  The race itself was pretty uneventful, but was very scenic.  The race started at the World Trade Center Seaport.  It was a little less than 80 degrees, hazy and humid.  We headed North through downtown and took the Longfellow Bridge across the Charles River Basin to run along Memorial Drive.  For those of you not from or without knowledge of Boston, this road runs along the Charles River, the main river through Boston.

Memorial Drive is a four lane road, two lanes either direction separated by a large grassy median.  Once across the river, we ran to the 6 mile mark on the tree lined part of the road.  The trees created a nice shade as the sun began to come out and burn off the haze.  During this part of the race, we ran past MIT, which in all fairness I didn’t realize was MIT until after the race.  We continued along past the Duke University of the North (commonly referred to as Harvard) and turned around. 

The return took me along the side of the road closest to the river, which allowed for a great view of downtown.  The downside was that the sun burned off the haze and began to cook this non-shaded side of the street.  The temperature climbed above 80, which made it the hottest race I had run thus far.  Nevertheless this was my favorite part of the race because it had the best view and there was something soothing about looking out across the water.

We had a water stop at the 8.5 mile mark, which we had available every mile and a half or so, and that’s where the fun began.  We kept running along Memorial Dr. and turned back across the bridge.  Across the bridge was the 10 mile mark, but there was no water stop.  I kept running and there was a good crowd gathering along the road, but the heat was making me so thirsty that I almost stopped and took this guy’s Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee to lick the condensation.  Needless to say it was hot and I was dying for water.  Finally at the 11 mile mark we got another water stop.  Anyone who has run these races knows that 2.5 miles is a long time to go between water stops, especially on a hot day in the later part of the race.

The last mile two miles of the race took us past the Boston Common, through downtown and the finish line was back in front of the Seaport.  There were actually an incredible number of people at the end, so many that it actually narrowed the portion of the road we could run on.  It was pretty exciting to have that many people at the end cheering and supporting all the runners; all the support helped push me to kick it in at the end.  Overall it was not my fastest race, but it was a good race and, more importantly, it was a good race to get back into after the debacle I made out of the race in Nashville.

As I mentioned earlier, this race was a memorial race for all the police officers who had died in the line of duty.  In honor of that, the medal was in the shape of the Boston PD badge and is my favorite of my races thus far:

After going back to the hotel and soaking in the tub for a bit, and having a couple beers, I decided to go to the Barking Crab for my post-race meal.  This is one of the more famous seafood restaurants in Boston and I decided to go all out and had chowder, oysters and king crab…it was fantastic.  The rest of the weekend was spent with good friends in Connecticut, having a Memorial Day BBQ and going out on their boat. 

The Barking Crab

Oysters

             

More important than all of the above, I want to take a moment to pay my respects to all those who paid the ultimate price for the freedom we enjoy in this great country and their families.  Being raised by a veteran, and having friends who have served or are currently serving, I remember that the sacrifice they make allows me to sit here and write this longwinded description of my running and raise money for a great cause.  This also includes the Police Officers and Firemen who have given their life in duty; they too spend their days doing their part to make this the greatest country in the world.  Thank you to them, especially my best friend who is a SWAT officer in Miami.  Thank you all again.