happy runner

Most of you probably followed Tom's progress on the Web, so I'm assuming you have a litle knowledge, but you may not know all the hullabaloo leading up to and after the race. (I'll skip the 10-hour drive to Boston on Friday. Who has the record for the most rest stops?)

If I do say so myself, he couldn't have had a better support crew, both the one from Maryland and the great crew in Framingham. Saturday night Amelia figured out that Tom would be in trouble if he just sat around eating Mary's very good chili, so she organized some training races for him. She was the starter, Ellen and Tom were in every race, and Ellen won every race. I think those defeats spurred Tom on in the big race. There were "cousins" of various ages all over the place at Mary's and I did a really bad job of documenting all the little ones. But the four older cousins did the lineup thing. I've always said Tom is the happiest runner on any race course. This is in Wellsley, at a little over the half-way point. We followed the Runner's World recommendations right down to parking in the little parking lot about half a block away and we were there only about 10 minutes before he appeared. Notice the headphones. Sprint ought to use him in an ad. A lot of the runners were using cell phones after they crossed the finish line, but I didn't see anyone else talking away during the race.

We made it back into Boston, left the car at the hotel, and were at the finish line before Tom crossed it. If you look really hard, you can pick out his white hair in the center of the picture.

And unlike lots of runners who were the walking wounded, Tom kept moving. A 20-minute walk back to the hotel, stretching, a shower and a good beer at the quietest Irish bar in Boston—surrounded by construction scaffolding, which kept the crowds down, and less than a block from the hotel. Is Bridget the best advance person or what?