Dear AdventuRiders,
Is anybody interested in doing the Boston Marathon by bike on Monday? RSVP if you're interested. I will have trouble getting up that early without company :-)
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. 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 lunch in Boston, watch the Marathon finishers and grab the train from Back Bay station back to Southboro. Here is the MBTA schedule.
Here's the schedule:
- At 7:00 AM - Meet at the Southboro Commuter Rail Station. Its $4.00 to park all day. Here is a map.
- Ride the 3 miles to the starting line in Hopkinton.
- At 7:30 AM - Leave Hopkinton for Boston.
- At 8:45 AM - We should easily get to Framingham before they close the road.
- At 10:30 AM - We should be in Boston.
- At 12:16 PM or 2:46 PM - Take the Framingham / Worcester commuter train back to Southboro. Bicycles are allowed, and it costs $6.75.
- At 1:14 PM or 3:44 PM - Arrive in Southboro.
- Nap!
Any takers?
Bill