The Best Holiday Ever…Second Only, Perhaps, to the Birth of Jesus
April 23, 2008 by Punch the Keys
Here in Massachusetts there’s a little holiday called Patriots’ Day. It’s the only holiday I know of that everyone in the whole state (or Commonwealth, as it were) gets off except for the Post Office, which is reason number 47 why it is so magical.
Patriots’ Day is a time when people all over New England (or Massachusetts or something) come together to do one of two things: 1) Go watch Revolutionary war re-eactments or 2) Go watch the Boston Marathon. BC and I opted for the marathon, and it was A-MAZ-ING.
In an effort to explain to my parents how amazing the Boston marathon actually is, I realized that it’s one of those things you kind of have to actually attend in order to realize its amazingness. But if you’re going to continue to reading, I’m going to continue writing. So here goes:
The marathon started before I woke up (3-day weekend, hello). So when I rolled out of bed at quarter to 10, I just flipped on the TV to catch the beginning and then made myself some tea. There’s something about watching an event on TV and then going and watching it live an hour later that makes it all the more celebritorious, if you’ll allow me to make up words for description’s sake.
After lounging for a bit, BC and I got it together and headed out to watch the rest. Reason #3 Why the Marathon Rocks: There is no money involved. You know how community events that involve congregating at a central location with many other town dwellers usually involve the purchase of $5 cotton candy, $2 bottled water, $10 parking and 35 dollars in Tilt-A-Whirl tickets? Not so with the marathon. There is no exchanging of funds at all. None. At all.
Reason # 17 Why The Marathon Is Amazing: There are a lot of people, but there aren’t a ton of people, so while it’s a big exciting event that involves half the city, you can still get right up close to the action to see the runners.
For instance, here is a picture of some kid bearing his teeth who was standing next to me.
He, I, and his family all arrived after the action had already begun, but we still managed to get pretty darn good seats.
Reason #1 Why The Marathon Is Now My Favorite Thing in the World: There’s an immense feeling of civic pride and duty in going out and cheering for the runners. BC and I stood right at the curve where runners go from just running to being able to see the finish line. So it’s pretty much amazing to see upwards of 20,000 people go from looking like they’ve just done a walking tour of hell to looking like Great Aunt Eunice opening the door to Publisher’s Clearing House. Even better than that, a lot of them have their names written on their shirts or on their arms so you can encouragingly shout shout at them as they go by in a fashion such as:
“GO, DAN, GO”
“COME ON, MARIANNE! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!”
And when they don’t have names written on them, but rather identifying places or organizations:
“DON’T GIVE UP ROSLINDALE RUNNING CLUB! YOU CAN DO IT.”
“GO, PARAGUAY, GO!”
The best part is when someone stops running in front of you for reasons such as they are having a heart attack or they’re bleeding from the head:
and the whole crowd rallies around the person and starts shouting their name or country of origin and when the person is done talking to Jesus and starts to run again the crowd goes absolutely wild for him/her. It’s pretty much amazing.
If you’re interested, I’ve included a video. It’s not Oscar-worthy or anything, but it’s moving media, which seems to be all the rage nowadays. You might want to take some Dramamine before watching it. And please disregard the parts at the end when I insist on continuing to film even though you can no longer see the runners. Also disregard when I point the camera at the street because I’ve neglected to notice it’s still filming. If that wasn’t enough fun for you, here’s another one.
[ALERT: The gd videos aren't posting. Or rather, I am not posting them the right way. I need to go to bed so I'll work on fixing this issue tomorrow. Apologies.]
A final noteworthy tidbit: all the pictures thus far in this post have been mine - no ripping off anyone else’s labor. That’s a first. But since my photo collection here isn’t that extensive, you should check out these other photos on flickr if you’re interested in seeing more of what the day looked like.
