The Cormorant, the Dragonfly, and the Bee: Marathon Monday

Friday, April 21, 2017

Marathon Monday

The Boston Marathon provided plenty of photo fodder. I watched the race around mile five. So these folks were just getting going as most of their 26 mile run was yet to come.

Lenses used: Olympus 12-40mm for the first few shots, 75-300mm for the rest.

The scene as the elite runners approached:

Elite Entourage

Here were the front runners of the men, as they passed by me. These are some of the fastest men on earth.

Leaders of the Pack

The cool thing is that I can predict the future! Would you guess that maybe one of these guys won the Boston Marathon when they got to Boston? Yup. Sure did. Take a look at the very last runner in the shot above. In the next shot, taken just a fraction of a second later, he's fully in frame. He's wearing a red and white top. He is Geoffrey Kirui, of Kenya. He is running in his first Boston Marathon, and he will win this 2017 Boston Marathon, after another hour and a half or so of running. Not bad for a newbie. Who eventually came in second, you ask? That would be Galen Rupp, an American! He's the white shirted runner very near the front of the pack.

Leaders Advance

Runners do not all start at the same time. The elite runners, seen above, have an earlier start than most of the other runners. In fact, the majority of the runners come in four specific waves, labeled wave 1, 2, 3, and 4. Each wave contains a *lot* of runners, and they tend to be much closer together in this earlier part of the race. Here's a typical burst sequence I took. These were taken in the "low" burst mode of my camera at around 5 frames per second. In this mode, the camera refocuses for each shot.

Burst Sequence

Here's a shot of me with my gear, moments after arriving on the scene. The street is empty, as the elite runners had not yet come by.

Amateur Photographer Arrives With Gear

Photo is courtesy of Carol Griffin

As if it weren't difficult enough to run 26.2 miles, some chose to add on certain activities. Would you believe this guy juggled three balls the entire race?

The Juggler

Another way to look at the race:

Multiple Exposure For Multiple Runners

The runners were not the only subject worthy of photographing. The viewers cheering them on were giving high fives and having a great time. The joy of the younger observers was particularly fun to capture.