Boston Marathon 17th April 2023

By Alison Jones

This is the second time I have run the Boston marathon, the first was 2016 when I was running all the Abbott’s world marathon majors, so I was as surprised as anyone to be back again, but circumstances dictated and here I was.

The oldest marathon in the USA, this is the 127th year of running and the 10 year anniversary of the bombing, so there were plenty of memorials and tribute ceremonies taking part.
The start is in Hopkinton so the day starts with a ride in a school bus, this time in the pouring rain, which continued until we lined up to start, then it eased off and started to warm up a wee bit, but the rain came back and stayed on for the rest of the day.

Nothing like a downhill start to ensure you go off too fast, although the uphill that follows gets you back on track.
It’s then a case of running through the small villages of Ashland, Framingham, Natick next comes the Wellesley Campus where the screams would deafen you, then on to the hills of Newton including Heartbreak hill (not as bad as it sounds although you have run 21 miles by then, but they have never finished a long run in Crowthorne) from there it’s on to the finish line in Boylston street.

A great race, with crowds lining the route from mile 1 to mile 26 my only criticism would be the expo where the only merchandise on sale was the official Adidas marathon merchandise, which was horrible, whether this was the BAA or Adidas’s doing I am not sure and also I think it is pretty bad when a major marathon runs out of medals, something has gone wrong in the planning.