Boston Marathon – Jimmy Fund Walk

Location: Wellesley High School To Copley Plaza, Boston

Date: Sunday, September 25, 2016; 8:30 am-12:30 pm

In the beginning...

After last year’s walk, I had decided never to do this again…similar to what I had said the year before that.  But then as the event came closer, I changed my mind and called my buddy Som to give it one more go.  He said that we should do a half marathon this time, and I agreed.  I wanted to be lighter than I was the previous year and so started a diet, losing a lot of weight and feeling good enough to wish that I was doing the full marathon instead!  But my buddy insisted on half marathon and so that was it.  I visited him in Connecticut a week prior and we did a 6 mile hike on a trail.  I also did a 3 mile trek the day before the walk in a park in Massachusetts.  I was ready as can be.

The start for us was at 8:30 am from "Wellesley High School" and we arrived there to see that festivities were underway.  It was a bit chilly in the morning, but nowhere as chilly as last couple of years when I started at 6:30 am.  We put on our “walk shirts” and affixed a sticker “I walk for” and this year we were doing it for my buddy’s brother and our friend, both of whom were undergoing treatment and are cancer “survivors”.  Besides that, I also added “All the kids of MAW”. 

...and the end

After taking some pictures we got underway, joining the walk on “Washington Street”.  Because we had started right around the scheduled start time, people were grouped together and with narrow lanes to walk, we had to find ways around some of them if we wanted to maintain our pace.  We had decided to not stop if we didn’t need to; and so skipped the lunch area from last year without pausing.  As we went past various stops, we were greeted by the volunteers, who were as enthusiastic as previous years.  The mile markers were passing by and we were maintaining a good pace.  We saw that most of the walkers were in teams, and had special t-shirts.  One such group had a shirt to honor a young woman who had been born on June 11, 1992 and passed June 13, 2016 – just 2 days after her 24^th birthday.  As we went past them, I mentioned to the group that my birthday was on June 11^th as well.  It wasn’t much, but a small connection. 

We arrived at “Heartbreak Hill” and going up it was tough, but not as much as it would have been if we had done a full marathon.  Each mile marker board had a story and at one of them, the boy whose story was on the marker board, was sitting right next to it; giving “high-5s” to everyone.  We entered “Beacon Street” and the crowds grew bigger and there was more traffic on the sidewalk.  We passed “Fenway Park” and then were on the home stretch, where we spent most of the time wondering where to go for lunch.  It seemed like a breeze and before we knew it, we were in “Copley Plaza”.  We had completed the walk in less than 4 hours and weren’t even that tired.  We made a promise to do at least a half marathon every year for as long as we are able.