Patriots Day

As a life long Red Sox fan and runner who has completed my fair share of marathons, the third Monday of April is an exciting and special time for the citizens of Boston. Patriots Day commemorates the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the Revolutionary War, and Paul Revere's famous "Midnight Ride."

The celebratory festivities for Patriots Day predominantly revolve around two sporting events, an early morning Red Sox game [usually starting at 11 AM EST], and the annual running of the Boston Marathon.

The former was won by the defending World Champions by a score of 8-3 over the Texas Rangers, and the latter by Dire Tune of Ethiopia, who won the women's division by posting a time of 2:25:25, and Kenya's Robert K. Cheruiyot in the time of 2:07:46.

Coming in at 488th place in a time of 2:50:58 was Lance Armstrong. The seven-time Tour champion qualified [the 36-year-old easily met the qualifying standard for his age bracket; a 3:15 for 35-39-year-old age] for 112th edition of the Boston Marathon by finishing the 2007 ING New York City Marathon in 2:46:43.

According to Armstrong, "Heartbreak Hill" lived up to its reputation.

"They are harder and they do come at a difficult time in the race...You can’t compare the pounding of running with the efficiency of a bicycle. Nothing even comes close to comparing the pain, especially it seems like this course, with a significant amount of downhills that really take their toll on the muscles."

Our Boy Lance (OBL) ran the event with approximately 50 Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) teammates in order to raise more funds for a bigger marathon, the battle against cancer. In a twist of irony, the Runner's World correspondent sent to cover OBL's run was none other than his former wife, Kristin Armstrong [who has become quite the runner in her own right].

In the 4 part series interview filmed at the Liberty Hotel on the eve of the event, the two talk about running and marathoning.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:


If you're thinking that OBL is slowing down in his old age because he was approximately 4 minutes in arrears from his New York Marathon time, forget it. Armstrong plans on running NYC again in the fall and was using the earlier run Boston Marathon as part of his training regimen in the hopes of posting a time under 2:30:00 later this year. He has completed 3 marathons to date.