Marathon Monday

Many organizations in Massachusetts celebrated Patriots' Day yesterday with work closures, community parades and other such festivities. Patriots' Day also is when the annual Boston Marathon takes place - and I'd been informed that it's a big day of celebration for Bostonians each year.

Since our workplace does not recognize the holiday, I went to work last year on Patriots' Day, just like any other day. This year, however, I decided to take the day off and join in the revelry, mostly because friends were in town from DC to run the thing.

Cheering for marathons is kind of crazy. I'm also very bad at it. I met up with my friend toward the end of the route, and we watched out for Poochie, whose pace we were monitoring on the BlackBerry. Before he passed us, I noticed all these hundreds of people, running, limping and crawling by. Some were being carried off on stretchers and others simply looked like death. It reinforced that I never want to run one of these things.

When Poochie came running by, I totally missed him (like I missed Puppy in the Chicago Marathon several years ago), but I did get to catch up with him at the meeting point at the end and congratulate him on finishing. And re-qualifying for next year's Boston Marathon, which I can't decide is a good or bad thing.