Marathon Monday

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Marathon Monday

Julia Hardy, sophmore at Wellesley College, watches the wheelchair contestants under her umbrella during the 111th Boston Marathon on Monday April 16, 2007 in Wellesley.

I was assigned to cover the Boston Marathon for one of my papers this past Monday. This is the second time I have covered it, the first time being last year in Brookline.

My job this year was to go camp out in Wellesley along the route and get some shots of what was going on. It being a local paper the story was more on the people watching rather than the contestants. The big story in Wellesley is the Wellesley College scream tunnel. Basically a whole bunch of Wellesley students line up along the route, right next to their campus, and scream and cheer on the contestants. They also offer up kisses for good luck. I have never covered the scream tunnel and have to say it was pretty cool. The runners love it and it seems to give them an extra push as they approach the halfway point.

A group of Wellesley College students cheer on a runner at the Wellesley 'scream tunnel' during the running of the 111th Boston Marathon on Monday April 16, 2007.

Now I couldnt just focus on the crowd. I mean there were 20,000 or so runners passing by, so I turned my camera on them as well. The shot below was completely and totally inspired by another shot I have seen. I wanted to try it myself and the results weren't bad. But I should also mention that I almost got stepped on, which was my own fault, stopped in a not so safe place.

Runners exit the Wellesley 'scream tunnel' and head towards the halfway mark of the 111th Boston Marathon on Monday April 16, 2007.

A flurry of runners cruise down Central Street just after race's the halfway point in Wellesley Center. Looking on in the foreground are, left to right, Kirstin Fiorentino, Lexi Fiorentino, Mandy Fiorentino, Ashley Cantwell and Val Cantwell.