The weather in Boston

As far as I can tell, this blog has regular readers in four locales.
1. Sunny Southern California, where it never rains, snows or anything. Although I hear the surf gets rough sometimes. Check out the April 13 post - too bad I don't know how to post those photos.
2. Beautiful Northern California, where I guess the weather is nice, but not as nice as southern California.
3. Hot and humid Georgia, where anything can and probably does happen.
4. Tornado alley, the type of weather that might cause a race director to reconsider running a marathon. Except most races start early in the morning and tornadoes tend to come late at night.

This brings me, of course, to Boston, where they've had some really crazy weather lately. And a really big race tomorrow. I just did a quick google news search on "Boston Marathon and weather" and found some interesting stories I thought I'd share with you.

One, from the New York Times is about Deena Kastor who will make her Boston Marathon debut. She says her training has gone really well in the last four months and that's nice.
But here's the quote I particularly liked: "I love running in adverse cold; I can run through puddles."

I can also identify a bit with Kastor because she said, "I don’t feel pressure. I don’t feel a burden. I’m not carrying any weight of my country on my back."
It's funny. When I run, I also don't feel like I have the weight of my country on my back. However, that's a bit depressing when you think about it because with such a light load I should be able to go faster.

I also came across what looked like anAssociated Press story on the Boston Marathon weather.

It was a bit of a fun story with Kenyans joking around with reporters. An excerpt:

Although Kenyans certainly have run in the cold at high altitudes back home -- and in all kinds of weather when they train abroad -- several said that they are not used to fighting against strong winds. "I don't like that," Stanley Leleito said playfully, burying his head in his hands when told of the forecast.

"The problem is that wind," he said. "But only rainy is OK."

Four-time champ Bill Rodgers said that bad weather tends to lead to upsets and a more tactical race.

Which prompts this idle speculation - could this be a year for the first woman to finish before the first man? Probably not. But if it happens, you read it here first.