Mexellent

Martha's husband Paul was coming to Marshfield from George Washington D.C. this past April 18th to run Boston for the first time. The B.A.A. gives you a lot of STUFF in your goodie bag. One of the items is a very nice long-sleeved running tee shirt that says Boston Marathon on it. In my years of running, I found them kind of useless. Too warm for hot runs and not warm enough for colder runs. When you wear it as a layer, you hide all the text on it. But when you wear it out, people know that you "Ran Boston" and that is a good thing.

Sandy and I volunteered once. I still have a Boston Marathon volunteer jacket from 1990. It is yellow, very thin, and perhaps the only poor quality one that the Boston Athletic Association EVER gave out.



My friend Tom Donovan volunteers at Boston every year. Every year he gets a better job. This year he was responsible for getting the wheel chair racers/runners to Hopkinton, among other responsibilities. You can count on Tom. As my friend Roger says, if I am combat, I want Tom in my foxhole. He has access to B.A.A. memorabilia such as volunteer jackets. He gave me this one.



We both wore them on a crisp, 55-degree, sunny, September early morning at the start of the Kaibab Trail at the Grand Canyon. It is in Arizona. Tom came up with the idea of hiking down to the bottom to Phantom Ranch along the Kaibab, and then back up the Bright Angel Trail at 5AM the next morning. It was still 80 degrees on the river, even at that time of the day, when we headed back up. I have very fond memories of that day. Tom said it was the best day that he had in all of 2006. You can read all about it in my blog. I called it “Business Cards On The Kaibab.” Part of the story even made the Boston Globe.



I ran Boston 8 times because 8 is my favorite number and I was training for my second try at the Western States 100 mile Trail Run (Squaw Valley to Auburn, California) -- and especially because it was the historic 100th running of the Boston Marathon in 1996. I had my best marathon run ever that day, because I had lost 35 pounds and I was doing 150 mile week training runs, including 40-mile outings on Sundays in preparation for W.S. So the 100th for me was truly a lark and I enjoyed every minute of it. 38,708 official runners came for the 100th Boston – its largest field ever.

I was very attached to my 2006 volunteer jacket. It was a gift. You don't give away gifts, especially when they mean so much to you and a close friend gave it to you. But I thought that Paul should have it. I asked Martha about my idea and she was cool toward it, I thought. I asked father-in-law Flaco about it and he didn't really express an opinion either. So I asked Paul, and he was really laid back about it also. Also is what Dad called me especially when he was upset.

So I gave Paul the jacket the night before the marathon. He did REALLY well and came in 366th out of around 40,000. There is no telling how many bandits ran. The very next day he went to work wearing his Boston Marathon jacket and I knew that I had absolutely done the right thing and a good thing. It is truly better to give than to receive.


Paul crossing the finish line.

Tom Donovan totally understood my thinking on the matter, even though I was giving away a gift from him.

Epilogue: Last night Tom came to my house because we were attending the book signing by Nathaniel Philbrick at the historic 1699 Winslow House. He brought along Philbrick’s book "The Last Stand," which I had lent him -- and a shiny new/old Boston Marathon Volunteer Jacket. Not just any old jacket but the one from 1996, the 100th running of the Boston Marathon. The one that runners are willing to PAY $300 for.





My 8th, my best Boston Marathon run, and my last Boston. Tom also feels that it is better to give than receive, and am I ever happy about that.

MEXELLENT

Abuelo Tocino
May 17, 2011