Marathon Monday

Michael got up at some godforsaken time to take the bus to Hopkington and I went back to bed to “sleep”.
Yes.  Sleeping is what comes naturally when you think about your partner taking the bus the 42.2 kilometres out to run one of the most prestigious marathons in the world (that you also qualified for) while the newscasters are calling for potentially record-breaking heat.
I tossed and turned for about an hour and then turned on the live coverage at the start line to see if Michael was on tv. 
He was not.
Then I took a Motrin and went back to bed and woke up to see the start of the Boston Marathon.  It was pretty emotional and it sucked to be sitting alone in a hotel room watching twenty some odd thousand runners embark on something that they had strived to qualify for, that they had trained and suffered to get into.  Runners from all over the world about to experience the journey, the crowds, the accomplishment.
After watching Canadian Josh Cassidy’s win for the men’s wheelchair race I left to attempt to see Michael on the course.
Dude: it was fucking hot.  Sweat was dripping down places that it ought not have been dripping down.  I did not feel so well.
I ducked into some coffee shops for respite from the sun and to refuel and all the while I couldn’t believe how hot it was and that there were close to thirty thousand runners out there running a marathon in the driving heat and sun.
I watched runners collapse and be taken off the course.  I saw runners with their shirts off.  I watched the coverage before I left the hotel room about how “slowly” the lead  pack of marathon women were moving to conserve energy due to the heat.
I was nicely situated standing on a railing waiting for Michael about a mile from the finish.  He typically runs around a 3:14 marathon.  At 3:30 I hadn’t seen him pass and so I thought I might have missed him in the crowd and so I tried to make it to our agreed upon meeting space, thinking that he had possibly finished, not seen me, and headed back to the hotel.
But, due to the heat, he finished much later than was anticipated (as did almost everyone) and so he actually showed up later than me.  Almost a thousand people were hospitalized during the race due to the heat.  People along the route were offering glasses of ice and oranges and spraying people with hoses.  The firefighters opened up fire hydrants for the runners to run through.
The heat had really done him in and it was a long, long and quiet walk back to the hotel.
Nonetheless he made a brilliant recovery and we took a taxi to Fenway Park to celebrate it's 100th anniversary.