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4/23/08 - 112th Boston Marathon: Summary Palm Beach County and the PBRR were well represented in Boston this past Monday. Kathryn (Ryn) Buscemi, Leo Contreras, Andrea Flynn, Bill Mathers, Julie Bishop, Suzanne Senzatimore, Allen Metsky, Kelly D'Aoust, MIchele Kitson,Dale Ruth, Diane Dabb, Gary Walk, Michelle Kramer and me (Ian) all ran and finished the 112th Boston Marathon. There were new PR's and a lot of happy smiles. The finish times were 2:56, 3:10, 3:25, 3:26, 3:28, 3:37, 3:39, 4:01, 4:05, 4:10, 4:10, 4:14, 4:16 and 4:24. I am not placing the names and times together because what really matters is that we all did our best and had a great day of it. I should note that Dale Ruth at 70 was our oldest member finisher and hopefully I did not miss anyone. The day started out cold (48 degF) and cloudy. Forecast was for a mid sixties high, clouds and a 30% chance of showers. At five minutes to race time two F-18A fighters broke off their usual patrol over the skies of New England, dove through the clouds and buzzed Hopkinton. They also managed to burn off the clouds so we had sun the entire race (note to self: sun screen next year). The 25,000 plus runners went in two waves half an hour apart. As luck (or skill) would have it I was in the first wave at 10:00 am and crossed the start line in just under six minutes (it took a lot longer to cross the finish). My goal for the day (as it is in any race) was to beat Matt Triggs. Unfortunately with no Matt available I picked out a target (with an Ipod and a 20 degree list to port) a few 100 meters in front and convinced myself that person was in fact Matt. Worked out well as I got a new PR by 3 minutes but the Matt turned out to be a cute girl from Norway named Gretchen. I did hear grumbles at the finish line about a once famous cyclist that although not an elite, started up front with the elites, and ended up causing a bottleneck on the course. He attracted spectator runners that slowed down to run with him and impacted the pace of all the faster runners behind him. I did not better my PR by five minutes as a result of this traffic jam yet Dave McGillivray would not allow a correction of my time . It was like Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy, the man was slowing down everyone behind. Stick to the bike is my advice. - Ian Kulin
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