Boston '09

I took the day off from work today so i could make the annual trip up to the Boston Marathon to watch and take some photos. George Ross, Glen Guillmette and myself left Warwick at 8am and headed to Framingham to see the runners at 5 1/2 miles. We then planned on going over to the 20 mile mark to catch the action and then back to RI. 

The lead womens pack at 5 1/2 was large and at a somewhat casual pace, but the men came by at record pace and it showed, the lead pack had already distanced itself from the rest. Nice to see Ryan Hall setting the pace, even if it was a tad quick into the headwind. I did not see a whole lot of familiar faces out there, but  DoubleJ Jim Johnson came by looking good, wish i could say the same of him at 20, not a good day for JJ. Don't fret Jim, there will be others. My teammates, Don Henderson and Patrick Meacham came by looking comfortable, as did Scott Bessette. Don and Scott lost time over the second half where Patrick stayed pretty close to first half pace.

At 20 miles, the women were still bunched up where the men had blown things apart. It must have been a fun womens race to watch coming in, but it is not like i could have recorded it since it wasn't on tv in RI. This must be the first year in a while that it hasn't played on national tv, must have been something more important on, like a poker game! 

It is always a fun time coming up to watch, it almost makes me want to run it again. Last time i ran Boston was 1981 and that was a DNF. I could never really see the lure of this race, but i would like to do it again sometime. 

Want to see shots from todays race? Go to scottmasonphoto.com