As you read this; I’m out there, somewhere between East Main Street Boylston Street Boston
From this website, you can follow me.
Now, let’s not get all melodramatic about this seemingly herculean task that I’m engaged in: there are, after all, 24,999 other runners going through the same thing that I’m going through today (although I hope they’ve not all suffering from the same injuries that I seem to find myself afflicted with).
This is Patriots Day in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts , and I am running the 114th Boston Marathon . That means that I will, starting at around 10:45 AM EDT or so, begin running from a small town to a fairly large city. That’s exactly 26.2 miles (or 42.195 kilometers) in case you were wondering, an annoyingly long distance to drive and an impressively long distance to run.
Throughout the day, you can check in on this website to hear, see, read and track the experience of my 26.2 miles long journey.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
You’ve undoubtedly noticed a large and annoying map displayed at the very top of this page. As fascinating as this may sound, THAT map will show my exact and precise position (within about 600 feet) as I run this years Boston Marathon.
That’s right: I have, strapped within a very lightweight, discrete and unassuming holder, a Droid smart-phone (because I’m wicked-shmaht) that will upload my GPS coordinates to this website every 2 to 3 minutes as I run!
If you want to know where I am along the course, you need only refresh this page to get my latest location and speed.
WHY would you want to follow my progress in the 114th Boston Marathon? What kind of question is that? I HAVE NO IDEA …except, I suspect that you know me pretty well, and that means that you have a friend running the Boston Marathon today.
Go ahead and tell someone: “My friend Steve is running Boston
If you should see that my position is at Newton Wellesley hospital you can tell them “Uh, not so well”, or if it’s 11:00 at night and I’m still in Newton Boylston Street
I’ll upload a video and look for all your Tweets and Facebook posts: know that I’ll be lifting an ice cold Sam in thanks to you!
I’ll also be wearing a “timing and scoring chip” on my shoe, which computer sensors will detect at the 10K, Half Marathon, 30K and Finish line; uploading my projected finishing time throughout the day. There are a couple of ways you can read those updates:
I’m going into this race with some obvious trepidation (and pain) but I’ll be careful and expect to have a lot o’ fun (I’m kinda twisted that way).
I’m hoping to finish in under five hours AND finish strong enough to enjoy a frosty Sam Adams at the finish line!
I’ll have episode Fdip232: The 114th Boston Marathon available for download in a week or so after the race, check my Twitter and Facebook pages for updates, and subscribe to Phedippidations on iTunes (there’s a link on this website, in the upper left column). If you're already subscribed, could you leave a review on iTunes today? (Thank you!)
To everyone running Boston
Steve “Runner” Walker
114th Boston Marathon Runner #24624
