Wednesday, September 18, 2019

The Boston Marathon

Chapter 1
The Boston Marathon

Two men were running along Commonwealth Avenue in their underwear. The second runner was about 50 feet behind the leader, but he seemed to be running his own race, completely ignoring the one ahead. As I was watching, a third runner came into view quite some distance behind the two leaders.

I grabbed a jacket on my way out through the front door and ran the quarter mile distance to where I had seen the runners. The first two had disappeared up the long hill which leads to Boston, but the third man was right in front of me as I came to a stop at Commonwealth Avenue. Then I noticed that he had a bicycle and rider going beside him. As I watched, the rider took a large sponge from the pail hanging on his handlebar and squeezed it right over the runner’s head, drenching him from the top of his head down to his toes.

Before this third man disappeared over the long hill leading to Boston, several more men appeared, accompanied by their bicycles and riders, and soon they too disappeared over the hill.

As no more runners were in sight, I walked home to find my mother was just frying some eggs for brunch. She told me that it was Patriot’s Day and a holiday on this 19th of April and I had been watching the Boston Marathon which was held every year on this particular day.

I was just 3 years old at this time, and I saw two more marathons before we moved to Long Island in New York State. In all three Boston Marathons, there were less than 100 contestants., and I am amazed that there are now thousands of men and women running in this event.

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