So on top of my swim at Harvard (see post below) there were a few other things that made this year special at the Boston Marathon…
Before the race, we and about 100,000 other people made the trek to the Official Boston Marathon expo. For you triathletes out there who think that Ironman has cornered the market in over-priced “Official” gear, they haven’t… Boston knows how to do it just as well! But what the hell… you spend so much time and money getting to either event that you might as well get the gear too!
Since I wasn’t running this year I didn’t really have much to buy though… however I did find something cool to buy… a book… by Dean Karnazes! Now you may not know who Dean is… but safe to say he is one of the greatest ultra-marathoner’s of all time… he’s run 50 marathon’s in 50 days in 50 states… he won the infamous Badwater Ultra in 2004… won the Vermont 100 Trail Race… ESPN’s ‘Best Outdoor Athlete’ Award in 2007… ran 350 miles (560 km) in 80 hours and 44 minutes without stopping (2005)… 148 miles (238 km) in 24 hours on a treadmill, 2004… Eleven-time 100-Mile/1 Day Silver Buckleholder at the Western States Endurance Run… amongst other amazing accomplishments. So, ya, he’s a pretty good runner.
The cool thing is that we have a friend in common. So when I finally worked my way to the front of the line, I casually brought up the speech I had been rehearsing in my head for the last 25 minutes about how he likely knew a friend of mine, Ray Zahab (another world class ultra runner!), and I knew Ray too. He said “oh you know Ray! Too bad! haha”… I said “haha, you do know Ray!” (PS. Ray’s a great guy!) That was it. I didn’t really have anything else, but I figured it was something more interesting than “what’s the hardest race you’ve ever done”… or “what’s your marathon time?”.
Anyway, we actually got chatting and he asked Joanne and I if we were running Boston… and I said I wasn’t but Joanne was. He asked why I wasn’t and I said because I was doing the Tampa Bay Marathon Swim next weekend. Then I got one of the best compliments one could possibly get from Dean Karnazes. He said “really… um, how far is a ‘marathon swim’?”… I said this particular one was 38 km. He said “WHAT?… 38 km?… that’s insane!!!”… and I said… “wow… that’s pretty cool… when Dean Karnazes thinks something you are doing is crazy!!!”
He laughed… I laughed… Joanne thought I was weird. He wrote a good line in my book… “Never stop Adventuring!”. We parted the best of friends. I expect I’m on his Christmas card list now. It was pretty cool.
Joanne still thinks I’m weird.
Cheers,
Rob