Marathon Monday, the day when the Boston Marathon is run, fell on April 18 this year. This is Patriots' Day, which is celebrated on the third Monday in April in six states. The Boston Marathon was cancelled in 2020, and run on October 11 in 2021 due to Covid concerns. Wikipedia (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriots%27_Day) says the Boston Marathon has been run every year on Patriots' Day since its inception in 1897, even during the World War years, except for 2020 and 2021.
We are fortunate to live near the race route, and I usually cheer the runners on and take some photos.
Here are a few select faces of the 2022 Boston Marathon.
2022 Boston Marathon - 01
2022 Boston Marathon - 02
2022 Boston Marathon - 03
2022 Boston Marathon - 04
2022 Boston Marathon - 05
2022 Boston Marathon - 06
2022 Boston Marathon - 07
2022 Boston Marathon - 08
For this next photo, in sticking to the "Marathon Faces" title of this post, I used the "faces" of the gauges on one of the fire trucks that is always standing by in case of an emergency.
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:
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.
All Smiles
And her sister. Sorry about the elbow of another child in the shot. Sometimes that is the price of capturing a true candid.
Purple Shades
The Boston Marathon has a lot of security since 2013. We never felt particularly alone, that's for sure.
Eye in the Sky
Colorful attire, and many expressions.
Orange Bottom Half
Headphones and flying hair.
Eyes on the Prize
Here's a quick video.
Sometimes eyes are to the ground, in deep concentration.
