Student Runners Take To Boston Streets

With the weather as beautiful as it was yesterday, the possibilities for outdoor activities were endless: tossing around a Frisbee, soaking in the sun, or, perhaps, running 26.2 miles.

For Megumi R. Gordon ’05 and Aidan S. Madigan-Curtis ’07, it was the last option. They ran alongside over 20,000 others and numerous students from Harvard to compete in the 109th annual Boston Marathon.

Gordon and Madigan-Curtis began the day near the grassy lawn in front of Lowell House, chatting with about 10 other runners while the bus that would take them all to the marathon’s starting point, Hopkinton, Mass., patiently idled.

Waking up only 45 minutes before the bus’s scheduled departure time of 8:30 a.m., Gordon says she didn’t do much beyond her normal morning routine to prepare for the marathon.

Madigan-Curtis got up earlier, at 7 a.m., in order to pack her bag and grab a few bananas, she says. Worried that she might oversleep, Madigan-Curtis decided to enlist some outside help.

“I had five wake-up calls this morning because my alarm and my body are not to be trusted,” she says.

To get pumped for the race, Madigan-Curtis sang such quintessential adrenaline-building tunes as the theme from the Sylvester Stallone boxing movie “Rocky” to herself.

About ten minutes after 8:30 a.m., Madigan-Curtis, Gordon, and the last few runners were herded onto the waiting bus by Atomic Runners’ Collective Marathon Coordinator Eric T. Hoke ‘06, who helped organize the transportation to the marathon.

“We’re leaving?” Madigan-Curtis exclaimed with palpable excitement.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET...

For Gordon, the trip to Hopkinton was uneventful.

“I was exhausted and still hadn’t woken up yet, so I was sleeping,” she says.

But Madigan-Curtis and a friend were busy psyching themselves up thinking about how far they were traveling—over 30 miles from Cambridge.

“The bus drops you off and then you have run all the way back,” she says.

When the bus arrived in Hopkinton, the runners were left with three hours before the start time. Madigan-Curtis took the opportunity to mill around the impromptu runners’ village, comprised of tents and a stage, that was set up in the area.

“The street leading up to an open baseball field was packed with people running in the marathon,” she says.

Water, sports drink, and Powerbars were passed out to the runners.

“I had my first Powerbar ever,” says Madigan-Curtis. “I actually really liked it. It tasted like a candy bar.”

Gordon and her friends also encountered the tents, but didn’t stick around long, opting instead to stretch and drink water in preparation for the event.

At noon, the runners began moving to their corrals, but for Gordon and Madigan-Curtis, the race did not start until a half hour later.

The two got pledges to run in support of Harvard China Care and were positioned with the other charity runners toward the end of the pack.

“We walked to the starting line, and that took 20 minutes,” Madigan-Curtis says.

...GO!

The first five miles proved to be difficult for Madigan-Curtis as she tried to get into a rhythm.

For Gordon, the first stretch mirrored her five-mile short runs during training, so she essentially breezed through them.

But despite the auspicious start, she worried about her pacing, she says.

She and her two other running partners “didn’t really know what it would feel like when we got to mile 22,” she says.

The course winds through the western suburbs of Boston, and both Madigan-Curtis and Gordon mentioned that passing by unique fans at local colleges was invigorating.

At Wellesley College, for instance, women lined the streets, and some held up “Kiss Me” signs, Gordon says.

“There was one man we actually saw going by and kissing a lot of women,” she laughed.

While the weather was cooler than last year, Gordon says that it was hotter than would be ideal.

Along the path, however, house residents helped out with their hoses, and Gordon took advantage, she says.

As the finish line grew tantalizingly near, the last three miles became the most physically demanding of the race, Gordon says.

“Three is hard and long after you’ve already run 23,” she says. “Our energy at the end was entirely coming from the people telling us to dig.”

Finishing in downtown Boston, Gordon clocked in at four hours and 18 minutes. She collected her medal and her family and friends and went back to Leverett House for dinner.

“I’ll have to celebrate in a more active way later,” she says.

Madigan-Curtis finished after four hours and 30 minutes. She talked to the China Care members who came to watch and then took a taxi back to campus.

“I’m going to study for my Chinese test later,” she says, lamenting how she has fallen behind because of the race.

Gordon and Madigan-Curtis both say that they enjoyed their marathoning experience, they probably won’t go through the ordeal again.

The training, Gordon says, forced her to change her lifestyle.

“There were times when I wanted to not have to think about keeping my body healthy and be able to drink a lot of alcohol,” she says.

Madigan-Curtis says that after accomplishing her personal and charitable goals, she probably won’t be motivated to run again.

Asked whether this was her first and last marathon, she says, “It very well could be.”