(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 14)

I’ve mentioned before that one of the most exciting things about the Boston Marathon I ran in October was the fact that after running those empty streets for months there was suddenly people everywhere.

The houses in Hopkinton were almost invisible during training - you’re so focused on the road and the cars and the running downhill that you don’t really take in the other scenery.

Then on Marathon Monday people are out on their lawns and barbecuing and music is blasting and it’s exciting.

Then, in Ashland, it’s similar - but there are even big intersections where people gather to watch and cheer.

And then you get to Framingham.

There’s a quick stretch at at the tail end of Ashland that’s quiet.

There’s a big - I think it’s a lumberyard? - and what in October was a construction site and now is the skeleton of a new building and that’s about at the 5-Mile mark.

It’s a good opportunity to collect yourself - it’s about where I take my first fuel of the 26-mile journey. (I carried my own water to start the marathon in October - I won’t be doing that in April. But I mention that because I think there was a water stop right around here too.)

But the quiet doesn’t last long….because then you enter Framingham and it’s a very exciting stretch of the Boston Marathon.

I think it’s exciting even if you aren’t from Framingham. (It’s super-exciting for me. In October I saw someone I knew at every street corner.)

It’s funny because we’ve always watched the marathon in Framingham from the train station - at about the 6.7-Mile mark. (That’s the view in the picture at the top - from the 2017 marathon.)

As you can tell, there are a lot of people there - sometimes it’s a few rows of people deep. That’s why I think it would be exciting even if you’re not from Framingham - it’s the first taste for runners of a bigger crowd - more of what you’ll see as you go further.

But because we were always at the train station, I had no idea how the rest of Framingham looked on Marathon Monday.

As it turns out, it’s pretty crowded everywhere. The western edge of the route is similar to what Hopkinton and Ashland are like - people out in front of houses and gathered along the curb…and then you get to La Cantina.

The restaurant is right at the Winter Street Bridge that goes over the train tracks and I was SHOCKED at how many people watch the marathon there. It makes sense - it’s a good spot to park and walk over…I just never considered it.

From there it’s people lining the streets until you get to the stretch of road where the train station is - if you count that as a long block, there are people watching every spot along the block.

I had my eye on the left side of the road because that’s where I knew I’d see family, but both sides of the road are packed.

And October wasn’t even as crowded as your usual Marathon.

By the time you get to the eastern edge of the Framingham stretch the crowd thins out, but there’s still good energy…and that continues right into Natick, which I wrote about before.

The Framingham stretch is mostly flat, which is good, because I wasn’t really thinking about my running when I came through in October.

I like to think I’ll be more disciplined this time and pay less attention to what’s happening around me.

But it’s too good not to.

Here’s a peek of how it looks approaching the train station, thanks to a video my brother shot in October:

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“There Is Nothing Left To Lose” - Foo Fighters
“Lungs” - Florence & The Machine
“Speaking in Tongues” - Talking Heads
“Our Time in Eden” - 10,000 Maniacs
Zoolander
Summer of Soul

This is a fun little marker - since Saturday was April 2nd it allows for an easily countable number of days. April 2nd was the 92nd day of the year and I had listened to 39 abums and watched 23 movies. So 62 in 92…not bad. That’s only doing one thing a day…there are certain days that I’ll double up. Especially this month, as I sit after the marathon without having school drop-offs and pick-ups all week for spring break. Might even triple up some of those days.

Notes

*Instead of giving you another list of links to the previous entries in the Boston Marathon Route series I’m just going to link back to last week’s post where I linked to the rest of them. That’ll catch you up on all of them if you missed any or are interested in revisiting them.

*I will also give you these links: You can Like my Facebook page here, follow me on Twitter here, and keep up on my running news by checking out my running Instagram - @johnnyrunsalot.

*Running Update: I’ve said this before - it’s so weird how my views on mileage have changed. This week was a big drop-down week for the long run…which means I ran 12 miles on Saturday. It felt good, which I was hoping. I don’t know if it felt “I could run 14 more miles” good…but it didn’t feel “I CAN’T run 14 more miles”…so I guess that’s good. It was also very cold and windy for the second half of the run. We’re almost at the point where the extended forecast reaches to Monday, April 18. The weather for that day will be something I’ll obsess over for the next couple of weeks.

*You have a couple of options if you’re still looking to make a donation to my fundraising efforts. (As a reminder, I am running for Team Framingham, raising money for the Massachusetts Wonderfund.) Next Saturday is a comedy show at Exhibit ‘A’ that I’ll be hosting, and Exhibit ‘A’ is donating 100% of ticket sales to the cause. If you can’t make the show (or are coming and want to give more!) you can donate at this link. And thank you for all the support!

*I’ve been looking forward to April for a while now. Hard to believe here we are just two weeks away from the Boston Marathon.