It's only 10 days away from the Boston Marathon! This will be an exciting and also emotional return to Boston for me. While I've been back to Boston quite a few times since I moved away from there in 1985, doing the marathon will really mean I've come full circle! When I lived in Boston from 1981 to 85 (not entirely sure about dates) my life was going nowhere. I worked various crappy restaurant-related jobs as a cook, busboy, and waiter and my life consisted of living in broken-down apartments or worse, in scary neighborhoods, getting drunk and high, and that was about it. A friend challenged me to run the Boston Marathon with him even though neither of us was much of a runner at that time. I recall we started training in the late fall and ran longer runs through the winter on weekends, taking the green line further and further west and running the course into the city from there. I think we got as far as Newton, about 13 or 14 miles for our longest run.
The morning of the race, I think it was 1983 or 84, even though we weren't registered, they let us take the bus out to Hopington for the start. They even gave us numbers that said "back of the back", but we had to wait until all of the official runners had left the start area before they let us start. That was the first race of any kind I ever did! It was a blast, even though we weren't official. We were so far back that it was more of a party than a race. I recall running down the main street through Ashland, MA. We had cousins who we were close to growing up but I had lost touch with them by that point. I knew they lived in Ashland since we had visited them many times, but I didn't realize they were right on the race course. As I ran by, they were all out in the yard cheering on the runners. I'm not sure who was more surprised to see each other, them or me. We waved and they cheered for me. I also recall going by the Wellesley Women's College (I think it's just Wellesley College now) and having beer spilled on my head by partyers in the crown. It was literally only wide enough that we had to run through, single-file.
Maybe the best part was finishing at the Prudential Center (or was it the John Hancock building back then?) and seeing my brother, Kim, and his partner Dennis, waiting for me.
That was '83 or '84, so I'm sure a lot has changed. Now I have an amazing coach, I'm in far better shape even at 66, and I actually have a life with people who depend on me! It won't be the same race at all, but still, that race marked a huge turning point in my life! I owe a lot to that friend, Jim. I tried contacting him. He worked at Tufts University and I found his email and phone number and tried both. But he never replied. That's ok, it wouldn't be the same and likely he doesn't attach the same significance to me or that race. I'll definitely be thinking of Jim, looking for my cousins' old homestead when I run through Ashland, thinking about how my life has changed since 1984 as I run, and looking forward to seeing my brother at the finish line!
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