And you gotta admit that one cannot get enough Venetian palate cleansers after marathon overload, or can they?  Wait.  No they can’t.  So here goes:

I just noticed that the front page of this blog is covered in photos from that certain event that took place on Monday that involves running a distance that is considered long via car.  I am not changing the name of this place to “wrong side of the marathon.”  That said, I love the marathon and am counting down the days until the next one.

However:

The show must proverbially go on.

Like this guy playing the accordion.  Really, did not care about the commotion across the Common:

I think the Boston Marathon is quite beautiful in and of itself, but here is some actual beauty:

As you all may already know, running any distance for me is a great accomplishment. Not to mention running 26.2 miles is to me a super accomplishment, so imagine my surprise when this man wearing this jacket walked in front of me:

I mean OK, he ran the marathon 20 times and that makes him I don’t know bionic or something, but I’d like to call your attention to the item next to the asterisk*. It includes the words “leg in cast.” I am an extremely accident prone person and I’ve had my leg in a cast quite a few times and the thought of running in that does not make me happy. So, kudos to this nice man who ran all of these marathons.

But with some kind of a cushion.  My butt — kinda sensitive:

I bet half the reason people even run the Boston Marathon in the first place is to get these silver blankets.  Although blowing in the wind, the silver blankets kind of looked like capes and the people who finish look like superheros to me.

Witness:

Above, our lone warrior in repose.  Below our warrior is having cape tangling issues:

Here, our marathoner looks like he is about to get airborne:

So do these guys in the second photo.  These next two have their capes under control.  Good for them:

Sadly this year there were no Red Cups.  I must begin with that, because I know that my droves of readers (I mean both of you) were eagerly awaiting the reappearance of those gentlemen on this blog.  Alas, my research from the internets told me that one of the Red Cups ran far away, but then I found out that they were actually around, but somehow did not appear on my radar screen.

So yes, I attended the 114 running of the Boston Marathon and really, it did not disappoint.  Marathon Monday is a day off round these parts and everyone, EVERYONE (people, dogs, Elvis) attends this annual event.

Last year my photos of the actual runners kinda sucked because I didn’t have the proper equipment.  This year I had the proper equipment, so I could engage in some real, honest to goodness sports photography.  Note to the photo nerds out there — I did little to no manipulation of the following images:

Ten photos, you get the point.  I have a zoom lens and gosh darn it, I know how to use it.  I posted so many of the sports photos to prove to myself that I could do it.  I had a real fear of sport photography for a while, and I think I might be getting over it.

Let’s take a look at the more interesting participants in the marathon.  Exhibit A:

Mind you, this was at the finish line.

This next one is for my Polish speaking readers.  For the rest of you, look this word up in the Polish-English dictionary I know you all have laying around.  Here goes:

Now most of these folks choose nice, traditional clothes to run their marathon in.  This next group should consider taking a trip to their local Under Armour fine retailer:

I was expecting some kind of naked person among all of these people, but no one showed.  The costumes were much better than the possibility of anyone naked.

Last but not least, Elvis Presley ran the marathon, despite being 75 years old.  And dead.  Really, really, really dead:

Note to readers: this is not me:

I promise. There will be a huge entry about the race itself tomorrow or so. For the time being, just check out the cast of supporting characters: