Monday, April 21, 2014

Coda: One year later

Security was insane at the Marathon.

Every street leading to Boylston was blocked with one or more dump trucks parked diagonally across the pavement. Pedestrians were confronted with a police-operated security-and-screening gate on every street, plus two layers of steel barricades. And all the while, helicopters buzzed overhead and foot patrol cops wandered through the crowd. Yikes.

How serious was the security? In recent days, a helicopter flew the race route at low altitudes (warnings were issued to forestall public concern); the copter was mapping natural background radiation so they'd have a baseline in the event someone set off a dirty bomb or other nuclear device. Swell.

There was nothing warm and fuzzy about this year's race.

Most of the spectators were kept well back from Boylston, and the runners; to get through the security gate, (to reach the sidewalk where I was last year, for example), you had to have a security pass; say, as a registered runner's family member.

So, I didn't get to where I wanted to be.

But all's well; it's over, and safely so.

I wonder if the race will ever regain its traditional  friendly feeling.








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