This Week - Marathon Ride - School Vacation

Dear AdventuRiders,

This week is school vacation week, so we don't have any regularly scheduled rides. However, we are planning the First Annual AdventuRides Marathon. Apparently its a cycling tradition to ride the Boston Marathon route before the runners start. The wheelchair racers leave first, and they are wicked fast, so we need to leave well before they leave at 9:00 AM.

On Monday, April 18th - Boston Marathon.

OK, here's my plan. We park at the Southboro MBTA train station, its about 32 miles and 41 minutes from Groton Center. It cost $4.00 to park, and you need (4) one dollar bills. We leave there at 7:00 AM  and ride the 3 miles to Hopkinton Center where the Boston Marathon starts. We leave Hopkinton at 7:30 AM just as they are closing the road behind us and cruise - mostly downhill - to Boston. We should get to Boston by 10:30 ish, how hard can 26 miles, 385 yards be? The top runners will shame us by running to Boston in just a little over 2 hours.

I think if we leave Hopkinton by 7:30 AM we should be all right, at least until we get to downtown Boston. I'll bet Boyleston Street will be a madhouse, but we can always walk the last 4 blocks. We can get brunch in Boston, watch the Marathon finishers and grab the train from Back Bay station back to Southboro. Here is the MBTA schedule.

The weather is look quite nice at this point. It will be partly cloudy and CHILLY in the morning with windchills in the mid 30s - dress warmly. It is about 3 miles UP to Hopkinton with a couple of significant hills and we will have a crosswind. About half of the elevation gain on the ride is getting up to Hopkinton. After that it is mostly DOWNHILL to Boston and we will have a strong TAILWIND. Even "Heartbreak Hill" shouldn't be particularly noticeable since we are not running or close to "hitting the wall". By the time we get to Boston it should be SUNNY and near 50 degrees. 

Our route from train station to train station will be about 30 miles with 500 feet elevation gain. Here is a route map. Its all on road, and I plan to bring my road bike.

RSVP if you are interested in carpooling from the Shaw's parking lot in Groton (35 minutes to Southboro).

Here's the schedule:

• At 6:50 AM - Meet at the Southboro Commuter Rail Station. Its $4.00 to park all day. Here is a starting point map.
• At 7:00 AM - Ride the 3 miles to the starting line in Hopkinton.
• At 7:30 AM - Leave Hopkinton for Boston.
• Before 10:30 AM - We should be in Boston. 
• At 12:16 PM - Take the Framingham / Worcester commuter train back to Southboro. Bicycles are allowed (and they are free) and the fare is $6.75.
• At 1:14 PM - Arrive in Southboro.
• Nap!

Hope to see you there,

Bill