Happy Marathon Monday! Today is the 2012 Boston Marathon and guess who lives about half mile from the finish line? This girl.
If you do not live in the area, you might not be aware that we are going to be experiencing record heat. By the time the women and men reach the finish line, it will be about 88F. This is not only going to effect times significantly, but it’s also very dangerous. The Boston Athletic Association even asked people with preexisting conditions or first timers to sit this one out, allowing them to defer until next year.
I have a couple of friends running this year and none deferred. Understanding the time commitment that comes along with training, I don’t think I would train either. We had a very mild winter, which were ideal training conditions. Would you defer?
Boston is unique and in order to run, you either need to be wicked fast and qualify or raise over $3500 for a charity. Over 26.7K people were registered to run on Friday. Of those registered, 16% decided to defer. I also found out that 10 of the elite runners decided not to run, and 4 that did were taken to the hospital. This is unconfirmed but was rumored in the VIP bleachers that I was lucky to get my hands on.
Celebrities running the 2012 Boston Marathon include Ryan Sutter or The Bachelorette fame, former Patriot Tedy Bruschi, soccer star Kristine Lilly, and a bunch of other local radio and TV personalities. Lance Armstrong, Will Farrell, Valerie Bertinelli have all run in the past. I’m curious if we will see any Biggest Losers as well.
Other people to look for, are barefoot and funny costumed runner! Good luck to everyone.
I’ll be tweeting, facebooking and tumblr‘ing photos and updates from the finish so make sure you follow me.