Patriots’ Day aka Marathon Monday has to be one of my favorite things about living in Boston. Not only do I get an extra Monday holiday, it’s a great excuse to go to a Red Sox game. And who doesn’t love watching the Boston Marathon?
There are some things that are sometimes embarrassing about living in Boston (people yelling “Yankees suck!” with no Yankees anywhere nearby and our public transportation shutting down at midnight come to mind). The crowds at the Boston Marathon? Not only have they never embarrassed me, they make me proud to hail from Beantown. It seems like all of Boston throngs to the race route to cheer on thousands of people that they don’t even know. Families with small children, college students, elderly couples, Red Sox fans… They’re all happy, supportive and completely upbeat and positive. I get misty eyed every single time I join them.
My sister, Christina, and I spent the day at the Sox game and then watching the Marathon. I think that this is now, officially, a tradition as we did the same thing last year.
This year, I was smart and bought tickets ahead of time. We had great seats, all the better to watch the Sox get completely and utterly annihilated. But you know what? Going to Fenway is always fun. It doesn’t matter if we lose (bad), win (better) or win in a close game (best, because I’m weird like that). Going to Fenway is just always fun. Even when it’s raining. Even when it’s hailing. Even when it’s snowing.
And everything is always more fun when my sisters are involved.
We made friends with the people who were sitting around us (easy to do at Fenway). We made fun of J. D. Drew (depressingly easy to do these days). We paid way too much money for hot dogs and we split a pretzel. I could have used a little more sunshine and better Boston run production, but it was definitely not a bad day for baseball.
Continuing our annual “tradition,” we spent an hour or so cheering for the Marathon runners. I love cheering. I love seeing people respond to the crowd. I love seeing people pump up a struggling runner. I love reading someone’s name off of their jersey and yelling “John! John! John!” while John smiles and waves. I love the fist bumps, the high fives, the pure energy and adrenaline that people can feed off of.
Can I admit something corny here?
(Of course I can, this is my own private fiefdom)
When I’m having a hard time during a run, I imagine that I’m running through Kenmore and the people along the side of the road are all cheering for me. It’s kindof silly, but it puts that extra spring back into my step.
I don’t, however, imagine that I’m trudging my way up Heartbreak Hill. That’s just madness.
When we’d had our fill of the crowds, we headed back home, by way of Toscaninis’ Ice Cream. Hey, watching people physically exert themselves like that gives me an appetite. We chatted with a Marathon finisher on the walk over. He’s planning to run another marathon next weekend, because he may or may not be a little bit crazy. He told us about how he runs 4 marathons a year and this was his 103rd marathon.
I can’t tell if this was totally inspiring or totally insane. I’m leaning towards inspiring, but I’m not entirely sure.
I’ll tell you this, though. Toscaninis will give you a free ice cream if you finish the Marathon. Now that is inspiring. I’ve been considering attempting to run Boston, and that just might push me over the edge towards running.
Priorities, I has them.
“He’s planning to run another marathon next weekend, because he may or may not be a little bit crazy.”
LOL!
Also, I love how people chant/yell, “Yankees Suck.” It’s almost as silly as the West Coast cheer, “Beat LA.” Not that I disagree with either sentiment
We made fun of J. D. Drew (depressingly easy to do these days). Good. Make fun of J.D. Drew 24/7 with the highest level of snark and scorn you can muster. I don’t care how many years have passed since he sat out a year rather than come to the Phillies as our first round draft pick. We Phillies Phans do not forget a major league diss. We’ll boo him until he retires, or dies, whichever happens first.
You always do the coolest things!
I wish I could comment on the baseball-yness of the post (it’s baseball, right?), but I don’t actually watch it. Only had to play rounders (which is similar, I imagine) at school- so perhaps you’ll explain the rules of baseball to me some day?
If this is actually American Football, that works too. Explain the rules to me some day? 😉
When I used to play field hockey, I always imagined being at the world cup and having to take a penalty shot and the crowd cheering for me and the sweet moment of victory that would come when it would land beautifully in the corner of the goal,,, the crowd would go wild, people would stream onto the pitch and hoist me onto their shoulders…
…yeah, we all need something to give us a boost, to inspire us to greatness: even if it is corny. x
Yankees suck! Did that embarrass you? Just kidding. It sounds like you had such a great day!
Risha, baseball is somewhat close to cricket. I have no idea what rounders is. :p