Yesterday I mentioned some typical Patriot’s Day festivities that really get the local citizenry sputtering with pride, like men costumed as British soldiers marching on Massachusetts Avenue past the Starbucks, sushi joints and yoga studios while colonial militias yell, shot fake muskets, and encourage onlookers to join in the fun: Come on, kids, let’s all tell those British to get out of town!
Today, instead of watching “living historians” march down the streets, most Bostonians were watching thousands of skinny marathoners run down the streets. And the only thing we love more than historical re-enactments is our marathon! See, Boston knows that its marathon isn’t the biggest running race in the world, and that the weather is prone to being imperfect, and that the logistics of getting to the starting line are famously tricky, and that it’s not a “fun” course feted with live music and hors d’oeuvres. But the Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon and by far the most prestigious, making it a nice little simile for the city’s place in the world. Little, foul-weathered, cramped, boring, enduring and prestigious Boston.
Like maybe half of all working adults, I don’t have off work for Patriot’s Day. It’s a State holiday that provides a 3-day weekend for government employees, teachers, and many people who work for Massachusettes-based companies, but I have never been so blessed. So I missed watching Robert Cheruiyot of Kenya and Dire Tune of Ethiopia win the Men’s and Women’s event respectively (here).
That’s another thing about Boston that the marathon represents: Our willingness to welcome people from foreign countries to come to our city and do great things. Some ignorant folk do make catty remarks about the unflagging dominance of African runners in our most venerable sporting event, but most people are proud as hell that the world’s elite runners come to Boston to win. Whether its sports, academics, industry, arts, or commercial services, we know that Boston can only be enhanced by our foreign visitors… unless they are trying to enforce the rule of King George III, and then we will chase them down the street brandishing guns.
