Looking Back on My 2005 Boston Marathon Photos

I lived in Boston for seven years in the late nineties, but it wasn't until I'd returned to the West Coast that I punched my ticket for the Boston Marathon in 2005.  I was in the middle of a training block for an Ironman (it was before my ultra days) and not really in any sort of marathon fitness.  But it was a great opportunity for some hard miles on storied ground - the same ground I'd gone to year after year as a spectator to watch the likes of Uta Pippig, Moses Tanui, and Cosmas Ndeti unravel their opponents.

So on that warm spring day in 2005, I toed the line and carried my camera (yes, even back then) and snapped some photos on the trip from Hopkinton to Boston.  A few times a year, I think about some of the photos I took that day, but I hadn't actually looked at them for a number of years - until Monday, after the bombings.

What I see in the photos from that day - more so now than ever - is a community in celebration stretching the full 26.2 miles, and it comes to a head on that final stretch down Boylston Street, where five deep crowds and their roar push the mid-packers and leaders alike to the finish.  It's like nothing else I've experienced in sport, really.

I know I can't really add anything to the discussions of the past few days that hasn't been said.  I simply wanted to share the photos from my experience that seemed to capture the spirit of the Boston Marathon - a spirit that no event, however tragic - will ever suppress.

Early miles

Getting close to the Newton Hills

Baby on board

Spectators the full length

One for the road

The half

Near the Citgo sign and Fenway Park

Down Boylston to the finish

Silverbacks