Spectating the Boston Marathon in Style
It’s been a while since I’ve actually run a marathon, but I’ve perfected the art of watching them on TV. Here’s how I spent Marathon Monday this year… First off, several weeks ago I requested the day off work. My work schedule isn’t really flexible, but I can get days off here and there. In this case, I arranged to go in on another day to make up the hours. Very important: when requesting the day off to watch the Boston Marathon, do NOT tell anyone this is why you’re taking off. Most people can’t fathom why in the world you would want to sit and just watch people run for hours and hours. (Non-runners… sheesh!) I woke up early as usual and went for a run. I listened to this Running Rogue podcast, “All Things Boston Marathon.” Chris talked about the elite men’s and women’s fields, top Americans, and also gave advice to people who would be running. Fun podcast to listen to on Marathon Monday! After my run I whisked my daughter off to school, showered, and prepared my breakfast. In honor of the day I took out my runner girl mug. At 8:30 television coverage started. I had my oatmeal, my tea, my phone, and my laptop. I had the B.A.A. app on my phone so I could track specific runners, and my laptop ready in case I needed to quickly google the weather in Boston, or the name of a runner I’m not familiar with. It was like a little Boston Marathon headquarters. This year was the 50th anniversary of the first Boston Marathon where women were officially allowed to run. It was in 1966 that Roberta Gibb famously and unofficially ran the race, the first woman to do so. Why in the world did it take six more years for women to be official participants? This year a 75-year-old woman named Valerie Rogosheske ran. She was one of the original eight women who ran the 1972 Boston Marathon. NBC had a nice story about her- she said when she was 25 years old she wanted to run the Boston Marathon. She had heard stories of women hiding in the bushes and jumping into the race illegally and figured that’s what she would do. But then that year, in 1972, women were allowed to compete officially. She said that because of all the work Roberta Gibb, Katherine Switzer and other women had done to pave the way, “all I had to do was show up.” All eight of the women who ran in 1972 finished the race. This year, Valerie ran with 14,000 other women, two of whom were her daughters . It doesn’t get any better than that! Luckily NBC celebrated this 50 year anniversary by covering the women’s race well (because there have been times in the past where their coverage was horrendous.). It helped that the two top females battled it out to the very end- Peres Jepchirchir finished four seconds ahead of Ababel Yeshaneh. Yep, it was a big day for the Kenyans and Ethiopians! Three Americans were able to hang in there to finish in the top ten (Scott Fauble, Elkanah Kibet, and Nell Rojas.) The three bloggers I was tracking all finished well- yay Janae! Yay Jessie! Yay Elizabeth! I’m looking forward to the race recaps. And I had a real life friend who ran and finished- yay Karola! I really enjoyed watching and tracking. I’m sad Marathon Monday is over! As you can see, I make the most of my marathon spectating. Can’t wait for next year! Did you watch the marathon? Or are you one of those people who don’t see the excitement in watching people run for over two hours?- My kids think I’m completely insane.