THE BOSTON MARATHON, 2011

Today, the Boston Marathon will wind its way yet again, from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, past Lowell Avenue in Newtonville where Marash Girl grew up and along Commonwealth Avenue to Boston.  [For an interesting history of this 115 year old event, click this link to Tom Derderian's 1996 publication, BOSTON MARATHON: 100 Years of Blood Sweat and Tears]

Every year, ever since she can remember, Marash Girl would walk from her family home on Lowell Avenue in Newtonville, Massachusetts, up to the corner of Commonwealth Avenue across from the Newton City Hall at around noon time on the third Monday in April in order to cheer the runners running in the Boston Marathon.  Her father. who would join the family (Marash Girl, her sister, her brother, her mother, her aunt, her cousins) would ask, just to be funny and/or philosophical, Why are they running?  What are they running away from? Where are they running to?  Why are they in such a hurry? 


Marash Girl remembers cheering the runners with all her heart, up until last year, because all her heart was no longer there; her father had passed away the month before.