The Finish Line in all its splendor back in October.

(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 15)

I mean, you had to see this coming, right?

Finish up writing about the spots along the Boston Marathon route with the final possible spot along the Boston Marathon route?

For those of you who don’t know, the Boston Marathon Finish Line is always on the ground in Boston. (The same is true of the starting line in Hopkinton.)

Both of those lines look a little worse for wear for the majority of the year…but right now they are having their moment - a fresh coat of paint and a whole lot more.

I was kind of hoping the picture above would have served like the Sunday Paper banner usually does in that space…but it doesn’t stretch across. Oh well.

It’s appropriate, though - me crossing the Finish Line back in October.

I can’t remember why, but also back in October I was in downtown Boston about ten days before the marathon. (Oh, I do remember why - it was my daughter’s birthday and she was in Boston with a friend and I was waiting to pick her up.)

I walked past the finish line and saw the risers being put together and the barriers being put up - it was exciting.

That’s what you see there at the right - Boston kind of transforms at marathon time.

It’s cool.

I told you about how by my old apartment the barriers would go up…you start seeing “No Parking - Event” signs go up everywhere, and then there’s all the activity around the Finish Line.

That activity comes to a head with the Expo the weekend before the race - which is when I was back at the Finish Line for a second time in October.

I went back on the Saturday before the race to pick up my bib….and to spend way too much money at the Expo at the Hynes Convention Center.

At left here you see what happens: People come from all around the country - the world, really - and some are seeing that Finish Line for the first time.

You can see what the finished product finish line looks like there from the October race.

And then, of course, I was back at the Finish Line on Monday afternoon in the picture you see above, finishing the marathon.

Now here we are again, about ten days before the marathon…the risers are being built. The finish line has probably been given its fresh coat of paint. In less than a week I’ll be at the Expo to get my bib (and spend too much money on marathon souvenirs) and I’ll take a peek at the finish.

And then a week from Monday if all goes well, sometime in the afternoon I’ll make that left turn on Boylston and head for that spot.

I’ve written it before - it’s exactly the feeling I hoped it would be.

I was really overcome by the emotion of it all in October…and with the emotion and the tiredness by the time I hit the finish line it took my brain a few seconds to process the idea that I could stop running now.

There are a couple of spots I am hoping to have the presence of mind to smile for the cameras. One great picture is at the Citgo sign in Kenmore Square.

The other one, I’m hoping, is at the Finish Line.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“Daddy’s Home” - St. Vincent
“I Love You, Honeybear” - Father John Misty
“WE ARE” - Jon Batiste
“The Desired Effect” - Brandon Flowers
tick, tick…BOOM!
Juno
The Blind Side

The remarkable thing about last week’s data - I had listened/watched 62 new things in 92 days (I had a 7-for-7 this week so 69 in 99 - hey! today is the 100th day of the year!) is that I’ve been listening to and watching a lot - but even with missing only the occasional day here and there I’ve already missed a month’s worth of days. That’s wild. (My week in February where I was away for part of it was an outlier - there were only a couple of things I actually listened to and watched that week, which definitely skewed the numbers.)

I think I’ll be making up for that sitting around after the marathon next week.

Notes

*If you care to catch up on the rest of the ‘Spots Along The Boston Marathon Route’ series: Here’s the link to last week’s post, and then the week before that has the links to the rest of the posts. You can find everything through there.

*The final Team Framingham run is actually this morning - usually I do the longer runs on Saturday but this week’s is today, which will shift nicely for me into the final week of training. I’ll do runs on Tuesday and Thursday, with a shakeout run on Sunday (this is a change - hopefully for the better - from what I did in the fall), and I’ll do some of the other weight training on Wednesday and Friday, depending on how I’m feeling. At this point it’s just trying not to overdo it this week.

*I’ll remind you once more: I am running with Team Framingham, and raising money for the Massachusetts Wonderfund. If you would like to help me reach my fundraising goal, there’s still time - you can donate at this link.

*A huge thank you to Exhibit ‘A’ Brewing Company for, well, everything. They’ve been awesome to me, what with letting me host a comedy show there once a month. But in particular, last night was amazing: They donated 100% of ticket sales from the show to my fundraising. I don’t have a final number yet, but the show (as it always does) sold out, so that’s hundreds of dollars and it’s quite generous. As for the show, it was a great crowd and a great show and a ton of fun.

*Don’t worry if you haven’t been watching the Marathon Monday weather obsessively - I’ve got you covered. The temps are looking like mid-to-upper 50s - that’s A+. The winds should be blowing west to east at a pretty good clip. (That’s much better than the other direction.) Those two things have remained pretty consistent. The precipitation is the real wild card. For a while there were afternoon showers in the forecast, and the latest look seems to indicate rain will hold off. It might be overcast, but that’s OK. If it stays dry I will be happy. 25% chance of rain right now…which is the lowest it’s been all week.

*One more link, which I’ll post again next week. This is the brand new, updated Boston Marathon app for this year. I don’t know why they didn’t just update the old one and are making you download a totally new one (I guess you might have a better picture of that than me since you actually used the app last year and I was…um, in the app, I guess?), but that’s what you can use to track me on Marathon Monday.

*When baseball started sporadically on Thursday I was like, uh-oh. This isn’t good. I’m not as excited as I usually am. But by Friday, with an almost full slate of games, I am on board. It helps that the Nationals stink and the Mets had a good opening couple of games, but I do enjoy watching the team they have right now. And I LOVE Buck Showalter as manager.

*Next week I’ll be writing my second “How You Can Follow John On Marathon Monday” post in six months, which is wild to me. A couple of years ago at this time I was about to give up on the “Running a Marathon” goal, and now here we are with my second one coming up in just a week. I appreciate that and I know how lucky I am to be able to do that. Thank you for your help in making it happen whether it’s through donations or support in some other way. I appreciate it!