Cheers to the Boston Marathon

   Like I said in my last post, this week marks the close of all of the training and the start of the marathon festivities.  Thursday night served as the kickoff of marathon week.  Over the past 11 years, the kick off party has taken place at the Hampshire House down on Beacon Street in Boston.  Renee and I were lucky enough to attend this function last year and with the help of our friends Tom & Lyn we were able to snag an "invite" for this years party as well.
    The kick off party is actually a pretty interesting event.  It consists of the "Who's Who" of the Boston Marathon.  The majority of the attendees are either involved in the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), their sponsors or well know marathoners (there were at least 3 or 4 past Boston Marathon Champions present at the event).  In addition a certain number of invites are given out to local running clubs, some of the sponsored charities and occasionally some randoms like Renee and I can be lucky enough to score an invite!
     Its definitely a fun event that consists of beer & wine, hor dourves and networking.  During the introductions, they also give a special mention to an honorary guest.  Last year, it was Teddy Bruschi due to his involvement in organizing / running his stroke charity which normally receives 5-10 charity spots for the race.  This year's honorary guest was a man named Clarence Hartley.  At first I had no clue who he was and neither did our friend Tom (which told me he probably wasn't all that well know in the Boston Marathon community).  It turns out that Clarence Hartley is actually the oldest qualifier for this years Boston Marathon.  At 81 years young, after serving in two wars (Vietnam & Korea) and surviving cancer he was able to run a qualifying marathon early in the year at 4 hrs and 39 mins (21 minutes under the qualifying time for his age group).  He gave a great speech and seemed like a genuine guy and real class act. 
     As always, Tom & Lyn introduced us to tons and tons of people.  Unfortunately, I am awful with names and can't remember half the people I meet.  Regardless, its great to meet new people especially when they are in the running community.  Its definitely cool to be around people that enjoying running so much and to see how they continue it no matter what their age is.  After the function ended at 9 pm, Tom, Lyn, Renee and I headed down to Cheers for one last drink before retiring back home. 
    Next ... the number pick up and marathon expo on Saturday!!  Only a couple more days until the race and thankfully the weather looks great (trust me, I have looked at the weather forecast at least 100 times in the last 5 days or so).

Cheers to the Boston Marathon!

Renee, Lyn, Tom and I.

Renee and I with Dave McGillivary.  Dave is the race director of the Boston Marathon.  He is also the person that I wrote about back in January who gave a great motivational speech.  He is kind of a super freak athlete and has run over 140,000 miles in his life.  He has run the Boston Marathon almost 40 years in a row and now that he is the race director, he actually runs it alone at night once the actual race has finished.

Clarence Hartley (black jacket).  He was the honorary guest since he is the oldest qualifying runner in this year's marathon.  He qualified for Boston at the age of 81.

Renee and I at Cheers

Renee and Tom

Tom and Lyn