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

Mini Family Vacation with Wedding & Stop at Manassas

Just back from a wedding in Virginia. Wonderful time. Kezia's first marriage performance. Martha Heberlein -- daughter of our longtime friends/neighbors Enid & Jerry Heberlein -- married Paul Jacobs.





Neil, one of Enid & Jerry's grandsons, sat with us.




photos by Sandy


Marnie did a 27 person yoga class.



Our 4 year old grandson put on a dancing exhibition at the reception that had everyone howling.


photo by Sandy



When asked where he learned the moves he said they came to him in a dream. By the end of the three-day weekend EVERYONE knew Abel.



A baggage handler at Dulles Airport asked Abel how old he was. Abel answered, and then asked him how old he was.



We even had time to swing over to Manassas before flying back, to show the girls and Chris where Daniel Webster's son Fletcher died in the Second Battle of Bull Run. (We live on one of Daniel Webster's 1,200 acres -- that's why so much interest. Fletcher Drive, down the street from us, is named after him).

Shot through the right arm and chest, Fletcher, a Union Captain, stayed alive long enough to ask a Virginia Rebel soldier to please send his wallet home. Three months later the wallet reached the house on Webster Street in Marshfield.



Members of the 12th Massachusetts hauled a large rock all the way to Virginia to mark the spot where he died during Second Bull Run in 1862 -- or as the Rebels called it, Manassas. The spot is up on Chinn Ridge where the 5th Maine and 12th Massachusetts Infantry, led by Webster, were overrun by Longstreet's Division. The Federals lost both battles.

Nine hundred men died at the 1st Bull Run (also known as First Manassas) and 3,300 at the second. Bull Run is a small stream that still flows north of the battle field. First Manassas is also where Rebel General Barnard Bee said of General Thomas Jackson's Brigade, "There stands Jackson like a stonewall."



It is a beautiful, carefully preserved, part of Virginia farmland where two great Civil war battles were fought. Citizens of Washington D.C. came out in their wagons and carriages to see the first battle in 1861 -- but you can get there in your car in no time from D.C.

All photos © CDB Photography (son in law)except where noted.