Man’s Virtual Boston Marathon Just Like the Real Thing If the Real Thing Were a September Event Held in Kansas and Had One Participant Whose Name Was Gordon
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A Kansas man yesterday ran a virtual Boston Marathon in his hometown that he later described as “just like the real thing,” except that this Boston Marathon was run in September, not April; featured a looped, pancake-flat course in America’s heartland, rather than the historic, hilly, point-to-point route from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to Boston’s Boylston Street; and had a field size of one, i.e., Gordon Robinson, the man in question.
“It was really something,” Robinson said. “Always a thrill to run the Boston Marathon.”
Robinson, 64, a longtime runner and marathoner who has run 11 Boston Marathons, said that this year’s virtual edition was “spot on,” despite its obvious limitations.
“I mean, I didn’t gather with thousands of others in the morning for a ride on a school bus to Hopkinton,” he said. “And I didn’t get to experience the Athletes Village, or the adrenaline buzz of the start, or that fast downhill first mile, or the experience of passing through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, the Newton fire station, the Newton Hills, Boston College, Brookline, and all that.”
“And of course, I didn’t get to make that final left turn from Hereford to Boylston Street, cruising to perhaps the most iconic marathon finish in the world before a roaring crowd of spectators.”
“Other than that?” he said. “It was pure Boston.”
Robinson acknowledged feeling a bit lonely during his solo 26.2-mile race, especially around the halfway point, where, in a normal year, he would be listening for the Wellesley “scream tunnel.” He added, though, that his race wasn’t completely silent.
“I did hear a cowbell,” he said, “around mile 8.”
“It was on a cow.”
