2019 Boston Marathon

As we are lucky to live near the path of the Boston Marathon, it was my pleasure to be able to get a closeup look at the participants as they raced by from my vantage point roughly five miles in. Most of the runners (and wheelchair participants) are still in pretty good spirits and still feeling very energetic at this stage, as they've still got some 21 miles to go to complete the race.

This year's event threatened to be a washout with all the potential rain forecasted, but it stopped raining more or less just as the racers got going. You can see the puddles and rain spray in some of the photos.

The racers are started in groups (stages) depending on ability, gender, and assistant device (wheelchairs with no gears and "hand-cycles" with gears).

These first two photos show two of the wheelchair racers. At 1/1000 of a second exposure, the frozen mid-air water droplets from the wet wheels make a nice backdrop to the hard-driving efforts of this participant.

Motion Spray

Pure Drive

This entrant is hand cranking with all the power she can muster. The hand-crank vehicles were pretty much all unique custom-built machines.

Feel the Burn

Certain young spectators, while they did enjoy watching the race, found other activities also fun. Some intersections had emergency vehicles at the ready. The firemen who ran this fire engine invited a few young visitors to sit briefly in the cockpit.

Future Fireman

On the far right of this photo is Worknesh Degefa of Ethiopia. She is going to win the women's race. I didn't know which of these front runners, if any, might win as they zoomed by.

Future Winner Degefa Speeds By

The future men's winner is Lawrence Chorono of Kenya. Here he is early in the race running in the lead pack. Amusingly, I happened to catch him passing a tissue to the runner on his right, likely a close acquaintance based on their similar clothing design. Turns out, that runner, Wesley Korir, is a Kenyan elected Member of Parliament for Cherangany Constituency and he won the Boston Marathon in 2012!

Future Winner Cherono Begins Tissue Hand-Off

Completion of the tissue pass, along with smiles to have helped a friend!

Future Winner Cherono Completes Tissue Hand-Off With a Smile

Tattoos, Sunglasses, and Beard

Pure focus on the job at hand. His concentration is frozen in time; this is taken at 1/800th of a second as he passed directly across from me:

Portrait of a Runner

It's always nice to see smiles:

"That's Fine Track Club" Gets a Good Laugh

Determined Runner

Levitated Feet

I'm always impressed by the sheer numbers of runners who participate:

Enthusiastic Running Crowd

Runners and spectators make contact with high fives:

High Five

All photos © 2019, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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