Yesterday was the 3rd day of 2011 that I did not post. And no, it was not because I was watching the Oscars. Although I’ll jump on that theme and mention that movies were something of a topic on the Saturday run. The DVD of my favourite movie Ugetsu Monogatari by Kenji Mizoguchi is now making the rounds of our group albeit slowly. And next week, I’ll hand off another favourite, Johnny Guitar a Nicholas Ray film, beloved by Truffaut and Almodavor to name a few. If you love film, you owe it to yourself to click on my links to information about these two classics.
Mainly the absence of a post was due to a thematic vacuum. Jumping off from a point I made in my last post about how lovely those long straightaway marathon finishes are I’m going to assign a 5 star rating system to final mile of some of the marathons I’ve run.
| Boston Marathon | ***** |
| Detroit Marathon | ****1/2 |
| California International Marathon (Sacramento) | **** |
| Columbus Marathon | ***1/2 |
| National Capital Marathon (Ottawa) | ***1/2 |
| Chicago Marathon | ***1/2 |
| Mississauga Marathon | **1/2 |
| Toronto International Marathon | **1/2 |
I like the finish on Ford Field of the Detroit Marathon and the separate finish for men and women and the California International Marathon but nothing beats the final mile of Boston with the final turn onto Boylston Street, a slight downhill grade and the stupendous crowd support with the finish line in sight. Check out the this footage of the turn on to Boylston.
And this exciting footage of Dire Tune and Alevtina Biktimirova battling it out in the 2008 Boston Marathon. I’ll be there in 14 months and counting!
Mind, Motion & Matter 
March 2, 2011 at 6:24 pm
My favourite marathon finish line is the Marine Corp. It’s a very steep hill, yet short, hill up to the Iwo Jawa memorial. But once you crossed the finish line, you were led to an area where they setup a series of single-file lines as only the Marines could do, and have you go through the chutes. At the other end of the line were Marines in their dress whites and he draped my marathon medal onto my neck. The Marine and I spoke awhile because it was both of our birthdays on that day. So, it was a nice borthday memory.
It was the best finisher area because I had the time to relish receiving the medal. Seems like the Marines understood all you had just went through to cross that finish line!