That is my pass for the 117th Boston Marathon. The black letter F on the yellow dot means that I was allowed access to the finish line area.
It is the same type of pass that I have been giving for the past four years.
Prior to the race, I walked right down Boylston Street stopping here and there to say that things look good to the people that I knew putting the finishing touches on the area. I also walked down either side of the sidewalk and stopped in the Starbucks along the way.
Everything did look good so I drove to the other side of town to check on what was going on with the Patriots Day Parade and then drove by Tufts Medical Center to check on something else and then headed back to the finish line area.
Things still looked good.
The people that run the marathon have been doing it for quite some time. It is a huge event but most everything happens the same as last year. The set-up sometimes get tweaked but no big changes.
I walked the sidewalks one last time and then I left. The things that I was there to address would have already made themselves evident if they were a problem. There were no problems so I went to lunch.
I watched the end of the Red Sox game and would peek at the other tv with the Marathon on it occasionally, as I ate something called Cajun chicken Alfredo and sipped a cheap draft beer My friends asked if I was working. "I was but I'm not now. I don't like to milk the overtime so when there is nothing to do: I leave." was my answer. After lunch and a couple more beers I went home.
The first couple of times I was asked to worked the marathon I would stick around longer, trying to find stuff to do. I would walk up one side of the sidewalk and down the other. I would do it seven or eight times. I would never see anything.
This year, I would have seen something.
Some people reached out to make sure I was okay. I told them that I was but I could not help reflect on what might have happened if I didn't leave when I did.
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