Warning.  There will be a story, then I’ll summarize today’s marathon and then pictures.  If you have no interest in the prose, scroll down now.

Hi, thanks for staying.  Well, here’s the story.  I’m kind of a cheese ball about sports and I remember the exact moment when they set in.  It started with the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.  For some reason, this was the first Olympics I watched.  To say I became obsessed with the Olympics after this is an understatement.

But 1984 has always had a special place in my heart.  We had been in America about three years at that point but I felt this tremendous swell of pride in the nation.  The Los Angeles games showed this at its best.

There’s a three hour documentary about the 1984 Olympics called 16 Days of Glory.  The colors are a bit 80s, the soundtrack is a bit old fashioned but the sentiment remains.  Here we watch the people at their athletic peak on the world’s largest stage.

The narrator at the beginning of 16 Days of Glory says “the world is coming to Los Angeles.”

Well, today the world came to Boston.  The Boston Marathon is the best day of the year here in the fair state of Massachusetts.  There were very dire predictions about the weather but they didn’t come true, thank god.  I might have gotten a bit of a sunburn today.

Even after all of these years I still get chills when I see the timing car coming, with the eventual winner of the marathon behind it.  It reminds me of the first shot in 16 Days of Glory when the torch bearer approaches the Olympic stadium.

This year the women’s winner, Worknesh Degefa had left the field far behind by the time she got to Kenmore Square, where I was.  The men’s side was a bit more of a horse race.  Lawrence Cherono out-sprinted Lelisa Desisa at the finish line.  I saw them when they were neck and neck.

I stick around after the winners run by.  I’m constantly amazed by the number of countries I see represented and how many different abilities I also see in front of me.

It’s always a great day.  It’s the day when the world comes to Boston.