I found a few Marathon Monday photos from years past, so I thought I’d share them. And tell a few stories while I’m at it.
I grew up north of Boston and went to college in the city, but it wasn’t until I moved away and came back home again that I started my love affair with Marathon Monday. When I took over as midday host at WBCN in 2003, I also took over the tradition of BCN’s annual Marathon Monday live broadcast. Every year, we’d set up shop at MIT’s Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity house right outside Kenmore Square.
Phi Sig treated us right. They’d yield their common room so I’d have a quiet place to broadcast…and so I could keep tabs on the Red Sox game on their gigantic TV. Meanwhile, the brothers would set up on the sidewalk with a dunk tank, giant grill, and cold beverages (non-alcoholic, of course). We’d cheer the runners as they passed through Kenmore Square. Mr. Butch would hold court in the park. And one year, BCN Promotions Guru Chris Rucker fell asleep on the couch. Classic Rucker move.
When BCN went off the air in the summer of ’09, I eventually landed back at WFNX, where I had started my radio career. After a couple of years off, I came back into action on Marathon Monday 2012. FNX Promotions Kingpin Mike Snow and I took the T down to Boylston St. and did an impromptu bar crawl. No sponsors, just me armed with my iPhone. I recorded breaks on the voice memo app and sent them back to the studio for the board op to play on air. Cutting edge tech for 2012!
Then came 2013. I told my story on my radio show the day after it happened. My alma mater, Northeastern University, has the audio archived. I’ll leave it at that.
7 Marathon Monday Photos and a Few Funny Stories
2014 was something else. If you were in the city for Marathon Monday that year, you know what a cathartic, triumphant experience it was. I returned to Forum on Boylston St. with my team from RadioBDC, anchored the live broadcast, and in doing so capped off a decade of Marathon Monday events. There’s no better day to be out in the city; there’s no vibe like it in Boston. I hope my Marathon Monday photos capture a bit of that.
