8 of us, myself, Dick, Clint, Warren Mine, Lou, Kenn, Scott, and Robert flew to Boston to accomplish our longtime goals of running the Boston 100th.

Leading up to the race, we were excited, overwhelmed, amazed, and sometimes nervous. Everywhere you looked in Boston, people were wearing expensive running shoes and sporting lean, athletic bodies. Since 25,000 of the runners had to be qualified marathon runners in the top 15% of their age group, it was truly rewarding to be in the "scene".

April 15th, Monday morning, 850 school busses drop off the 40,000 runners at the Hopkington High School which becomes the "Athletes' Village". The start is at the Town Common. The course travels through Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston. The first 16mi drop 440ft, then climb 180ft to mile 21, then down 220ft to the finish. The finish is at Boylston and Exeter St near Copley Square.

In our "corrals" at the start we were grouped with a thousand other runners that were also 3:08 marathoners! Weird to be surrounded by so many runners in almost the identical shape as yourself. My goal was to run a conservative pace and try for 3:15.

The excitement was paramount: helicopters, planes and a blimp buzzing around, spectators hanging from trees, and thousands of runners shedding excess clothing into yards, tree, or the collecting hands of excited kids.

You could hardly hear the start gun. Should have been a cannon. Our starting positions were: Scott 3448; Lou 4500; Dick 10102; Troy 10397; Kenn 11124; Clint 11357; Warren 18000; and Robert 16191. It took Scott about 1 min, Lou, Dick & I, starting in the 10,000 group got to the start in 3:48. Runners in the back only waited 24 minutes which is amazing considering the small Hopkington streets trying to funnel 40,000 runners down the same road!

After a 9:20 first mile of being overwhelmed by the crazy crowds, TV cameras, and beautiful scenery, we quickly settled into 7:30 pace. Unlike any other race, everyone was running the same pace! There was plenty of water & food but it required strategic maneuvering & dangerous lane changes to get to it. 7 downhill miles went by fast. We could tell this was to be the most exciting and enjoyable race of our lives. The record crowd of 1.5 million people lined every inch of the course. There were 100,000 people lining Central St. in Natick, some of which watched the race since childhood. The runners also included the Blues Brothers, Elvis, Forest Gump, clowns and a guy carrying a church while maintaining 7:30 miles!

During the next 6 miles, Dick realized hat despite awesome training, the muscles in his legs were rebelling, cramping up, forcing him to change form, emphasizing new muscle groups, and working harder. I was also noting pains in my knee that changed with pace. Lou felt fine. We all felt better as we entered Wellesley and slapped the hands of the hundreds of screaming college women. It was like we were rock stars touching our fans!

We were 1:38:10 at the half as we crossed over the mats that sense the electric chip on our shoes. The Champion Chip allows the times of each runner to be logged automatically as they cross the start, half-way point, and finish line. The next 3mi were flatter and the smell of ribs and steaks BBQing in each town were tempting... but we carried on.

The next 6mi meant focussing on the legendary hills of Newton. All the while remembering why Heartbreak Hill earned its name. We met up with Kenn. We all did well on the hills. I ate 1 Gu (energy packet), some banana, and plenty of water during the run. Getting closer to Boston, the crowd was louder, larger and the Citco sign finally came into view. I felt really happy and proud for some reason (I guess thousands of people cheering for you does that), my form straightened up and I charged down the last streets onto Bolston where I saw the huge blue and gold "100th Boston" finish line. The 1/2 mi took forever but finally I was done! And my watch said 3:14:43! The crowds showed looks of amazement and excitement as hundreds of runners poured into the finish chutes every minute. All having run 26 miles and 385 yards.

We were herded another mile as we got blankets, food, drink, clothes bags, hot soup, our beautiful medal and congratulating hugs. I saw Dick, Lou, Robert, Ed Casey, & Kenn and we were all on "cloud nine" although we walked with cement-like legs.

Clint and Warren took pictures along the route. Clint joined every party along the way. It seemed for one day that the whole world wanted to party with us, the runners. The countless hours of training, the many isolated miles of pavement, for once, seemed minimal compared to the reward of being apart of the largest running celebration in the world!

Our unadjusted times were: Ed Casey, 3:05:52; Scott Bang, 3:11:37; Troy Soares, 3:18:20; Kenn Sturtz, 3:20:15; Dick Kirkpatrick and Lou Armstrong, 3:22:42; Clint Gaver, 3:47:49; Warren Mine, 4:06:04; Mo Chambers, 4:21:08; and Robert Salinas, 4:23:49. I finished 3500th in my age and 5600th out of 38706. 233 women finished ahead of me which is neat considering for many years women weren't allowed to run Boston because it was thought to be too difficult.

There were 3 things that totally amazed me about our once-in-a-lifetime experience at the Boston 100th.

First, the organization. With 10,000 volunteers, thousands of National Guardsmen, an army of police, and a brilliant race director, 40,000 of us were directed through registration lines, served major pasta quantities, handed free goodies, shuttled by busses, and placed nice and orderly in starting corrals.

The second amazement was the weather. From Tuesday to Sunday it rained, snowed, iced, and scared us all into bringing ski gloves and wool caps. On Monday, race day, we awoke to a gorgeous, sunny day and experienced excellent running conditions. On Tuesday, it was snowing again.

Finally, I couldn't get over the incredible support, excitement, and craziness of the thousands of friendly, cheering fans that lined the entire course and offered food, water, and high-fives without ceasing until the last finishers came to Boston. I really believe, as the newspaper stated, that "People of Massachusetts live for this day".