Boston Marathon Ride

Dear AdventuRiders,

The current weather forecast for Monday is looking cloudy and mild with a tail wind. Stay tuned.

Here are some lessons we learned last year. "They" don't seem to care if we bike the Marathon route early. "They" also don't make any effort to accommodate bikers on the Marathon route. Please be thoughtful and courteous since we are guests of the second largest single day sporting event, topped only by the Super Bowl!

The Marathon Route is in the process of being shut down as we ride to Boston, we are on our own as far as safety is concerned. We need to watch out for:

• Cars - there are still some on the road - especially in Framingham.
• Other bikes - most of them going much faster than we are.
• Police cars - zooming around trying to look official on their donut runs.
• Cross traffic - DOES NOT STOP for us. We need to obey stop lights, etc.
• Marathon workers - will be setting up water stops etc.
• Wellesley Women - will hopefully cheer us on this year too.
• Trolley tracks - especially in Cleveland Circle - need special care.

ALL of our normal safety rules apply, especially staying right whenever safe and watching out for parked cars.

This week is school vacation week, so we have no regularly scheduled rides. However, we are planning the second annual AdventuRides Boston Marathon Ride. The idea is to ride the Boston Marathon route before the official event. 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 16th - 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 UP to Hopkinton Center where the Boston Marathon starts. We leave Hopkinton at 7:45 AM just as they are closing the road behind us and cruise - mostly downhill - to Boston. We should get to Boston by 10:45, 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 7:45 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 7:45 AM - Leave Hopkinton for Boston.
• At 8:45 AM - We should easily get to Framingham before they close the road.
• At 10:45 AM - We should be in Boston. 
• At 12:28 PM or 3:11 PM - Take the Framingham / Worcester commuter train back to Southboro. Bicycles are allowed, and it costs $6.75 (I think).
• At 1:26 PM or 4:09 PM - Arrive in Southboro.
• Nap!

Any takers?

Bill