For the past 4 years, Gary Allen has gone to Hopkinton at 6AM on New Year’s Day. Gary, the race director for Maine’s MDI Marathon, then proceeds to run the Boston Marathon course. It’s quiet, the roads are almost empty of cars, and the hordes that cover the course in April are still sleeping off the previous night’s entertainment.
I met Gary while looking for someone to run with while on vacation in Bar Harbor. We ended up running the first 30 miles of the Maine Special Olympics torch relay, and while we were doing that, Gary mentioned this run. I wasn’t able to get there last year, but I plan on making it this January.
Anyone is welcome to show up and run. Gary says he hopes to match the 15 runners that finished the original Boston Marathon. That would be a big step up from previous years, but there’s been a mention of the run in the Jan ’09 Runner’s World, so who knows?
[...] with three other people, I ran the New Year’s Day Boston Marathon run this morning. This is the 5th year Gary Allen has come from Maine to run the marathon course [...]