4:09:43 by Hal Higdon

Author:Hal Higdon
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781450497114
Publisher: Human Kinetics
Published: 2014-12-15T04:30:00+00:00

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On Sunday, Michele Keane had told her daughter Shannon not to bother going to the finish line. “It’s too crowded, way too crowded.” Mother and daughter decided on a spot near Kenmore Square, also near Fenway Park, where the Red Sox played baseball. The game was over. The Sox had beaten the Rays 3 to 2. Many of those who had cheered the Sox victory were now standing near Kenmore Square cheering the marathoners. It was a good day to be in Boston. A lot of beer had been drunk that day, though not by the runners. “You can hang out with your college friends,” Michele told Shannon. “You’ll have a lot more fun. That’s what Marathon Monday is all about.”

When Michele spotted Shannon in the crowd, she started to walk, then stopped and gave her daughter a hug. “Mom, keep running,” Shannon advised. Michele didn’t care. Boston today was not about a fast time. She would run another marathon in the fall to achieve one more BQ time that would allow her to return in 2014. She just wanted some Quality Daughter Time, just as she and her own mom had shared Quality Daughter Time years ago handing the runners water in Natick.

“Mom, get going!” Shannon insisted again.

Michele Keane later would estimate that she had wasted only a minute or so stopping to hug and chat with her daughter. The time was well spent.

The Scotsman John Munro was having a bad day. “I didn’t have the run I hoped for,” he sighed afterward. “I cramped several times. I threw up. I was overheating and could not keep my heart rate low. As I came into the closing miles, I was close to tears with frustration and pain. I was going to run 15 minutes slower than my target, despite the best training of my life and having no alcohol for nine weeks. I ran so hard, but it just wasn’t happening, yet over the second half of the course, as my race fell apart, I had to keep trying because the crowds just grew and grew and grew and kept urging me on.”

The Scotsman knew that his last-mile agonies were his own fault: “I had pushed just a wee bit too hard.”

Among those struggling in the shadow of the CITGO sign was William Greer, except he could not see the sign. Greer was legally blind; nevertheless, he had run six marathons and earned his way into the race with a BQ time of 3:55:14 at the San Francisco Marathon. He had as his guide that day Peter Sagal, host of the National Public Radio show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me. After the day’s events, Sagal would write for runnersworld.com about his experience guiding a blind runner.

“William Greer was really hurting, in that very particular, very painful way known only to Boston Marathon rookies, the hurt that comes from taking the first half too fast and getting hammered by the Newton hills.”

Greer kept wanting to walk. He asked: “How far is the 24-mile marker?”

“Just up ahead,” said Sagal.

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