2023 Midnight Marathon Ride

 This year's Midnight Marathon ride was fantastic.  The weather turned out to be fine.  There had been a bit of a scare earlier in the week when the forecast looked like rain.  Instead, it held off.  It was a warmish evening (52F/11C) with some fog that turned into a heavy mist.

The scene at the finish line

In the run up to the ride I reached out to a bunch of friends to see if anyone was interested in doing some or all of it with me.  My friend Richard agreed to join me when I got to Hopkinton to ride back to Boston (I do the out & back for a nice 52 mile ride).

I left my place around 8:30 PM.  Earlier in the evening I saw the outbound group that left from The Common at 6 PM (I was the goofy guy in the car with the roof rack yelling "see you later", folks).

Unlike previous years I decided to ride out on exactly the marathon course instead of Beacon Street.  The advantage of Beacon that it's slightly less distance to Route 16 and definitely a heck of a lot quieter car wise.  Taking Chestnut Hill to Commonwealth (aka Comm Ave) meant it was far more likely to encounter a group of outbound cyclists I could ride with.  Sure enough, that's what ended up happening.

Chestnut Hill Ave

I started out wearing most of my winter cycling kit.  And it was way too much.  I stopped by BC to take off my fleece helmet liner & gaiter.  Bunches of cyclists passed me in both directions with attendant yelling & ringing of bike bells.  As I rode out Comm Ave I caught up with a group of 8-10 young women.  They said it was OK for me to tag along with them.  There was definitely a double take from one of them when I mentioned how long I'd lived in Brookline.  It was likely about as long as she's been alive.  

I stuck with them through all of Newton only splitting off when they stopped to decide about how many of them might be doubling back.  The Midnight Marathon Ride really is a do it your way kind of thing.  Do as much or as little as you like, when you like.

The Midnight Marathon: As I said to Dolores Montenegro in "Calling All Quakers!",
Have it your way, baby.

From the Newton/Wellesley line I pretty much rode on my own the rest of the way to Hopkinton.  I did stop in Natick to roll up my winter jacket and put it in my trunk bag.  A long overdue move as I was really overheating.

People zooming by all night

Just outside of Natick Center I saw two women enjoying a fire and watching all the people going by.  There is so much activity on the marathon route the night before.  There were people on one wheeled Segway type things looking like members of Daft Punk, roller bladers, runners, and of course the main attraction of Marathon Monday, the cyclists.  ;-)

They kindly offered me a beverage!

At the Ashland town line there's always a huge bonfire and a loud sound system.  They were playing George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" when I passed.  A favorite of mine.

Ashland: the original starting point of the marathon!

Riding up through Ashland and climbing up to Hopkinton you could hear the loud calls of all the peepers (frogs).  The street lights are infrequent enough that you really rely on your headlight in this section.  I had been texting my friend Richard and as it turned out we timed our respective arrival in Hopkinton perfectly.  He got a lift (along with his bike) to Hopkinton with a largish group that included another friend from my synagogue, Andy.

Also in Hopkinton I got to see my friend, Tyler and meet his girlfriend Marsha.  Tyler comes out every year just to bring me some snacks and refills on my water bottles.  I hadn't eaten anything since I left my house (uh, that's a bad move) even though I had plenty of food on me.  Anyway, I ate a couple Kind bars and filled my bottles.

Tyler was hanging out in the gazebo with a very large group of rollerbladers.

As I pulled into Hopkinton groups of cyclists were heading out onto the course.

While I was hanging out with Tyler, Richard and Andy appeared with their bikes.  While Andy is a longtime experienced cyclist, Richard is kind of new to the sport.  He also has a new gravel bike that he's enjoying the heck out of.

Just a bit past 11 PM it was time to head out.  I zipped up my jacket for the high speed descent from Hopkinton and turned my headlight onto its high setting.  It was a big foggy and getting progressively more misty too.  It made for a very chilly downhill.  But, like they say, first person to hit their brakes on a descent loses.  And like a jackass that kind of meant that I dropped Andy and Richard.  We gradually regrouped on the road.

It was amazing seeing the numbers of cyclists heading west along the route as we rode back through Ashland and Framingham.  Lots of people had all kinds of lights & reflectors, bluetooth speakers, and bells.  It's just like a rolling block party all night long.

Framingham has a couple sets of train tracks we had to cross and I made sure to give Andy & Richard plenty of heads up about them.  After Framingham car traffic dramatically tapered off to near zero.  The roads aren't closed, but it's bedtime in Natick, Wellesley, and Newton.

It was foggy and I felt the same.

Lots of roller bladers out there too

Approaching Heartbreak Hill

The route is exceedingly simple.  135 becomes 16.  So you follow that road straight.  The first turn of the night happens more than halfway through the ride, a right turn onto Comm Ave.  This brings you to a series of hills which culminate in Heartbreak Hill.  How tough that is for a cyclist depends on your experience/fitness.  It's nothing like running it, no matter how you slice it.  Still, the randomness of the songs playing quietly on my little bluetooth speaker served up something appropriate and kind of funny for this section.  And then something motivating.

First we got the theme from the movie "Chariots of Fire".  Which I thought was funny and of course appropriate for cycling over one of the most storied sections of the Boston Marathon route.  And then we got "Sweet Jane" by The Velvet Underground.  Which is not just a great song, it's a kick ass cycling song.  For long distance rides you need motivation, but not something that's going to make you redline your heart rate.  You got that, all you protest kids?

Along here I pulled up next to a roller blader & tried the usual pep talk "looking strong, you got this", but damn, she looked like she was in her own private hell.  Heartbreak Hill is tougher on roller blades than on a bike.

It was amazing to see the long line of rear facing red bike lights going into the distance in the hills in Newton.  The misty fog really made it cinematic.

One iffy call I made was to depart from the marathon route & hook around the reservoir to have a cleaner approach to the T tracks in Cleveland Circle.  In retrospect, instead of adding this distance, we could just have gone down Chestnut Hill Ave and then swung right to make the left turn over the tracks at a sharp angle.  For what it's worth, I did hear of at least two tumbles on the tracks that resulted in hospital visits.

It's very tough to bike past your house and continue to the finish line.  I live less than half a mile from the route.  Going past your warm bed so late at night to continue to the finish is a challenge.  Andy elected to bail at this point.

The Jewish Vegetarian Cyclist Club. It pays to belong.

Richard and I stayed the course and zipped through Brookline.  Beacon at 1:30 AM is fairly quiet.  

In Kenmore Square we were joined by a coworker of mine, Peter.  We chatted on the scant mile or so left in the ride.  And then we were there.  At the finish.  The Boston Police even let us cross the finish line -- something that hasn't happened with much regularity.

Richard, who has also run Boston in the past

Peter all smiles, though he had a good 12 mile ride home.

After finishing up our photo op, Richard and I had a nice mellow spin back to Brookline.  I discovered my bike computer was on the fritz, which is kind of a bummer.  

The Midnight Marathon Ride really is a fascinating and evolving local Boston tradition.  You really have to give a tip of the helmet to Greg Hum for kicking this thing off.  This year was a good ride for me and I'm looking forward to another spring and summer of long distance bike rides.