I walked to work at seven-thirty AM, crossing Boston Common. We had a perfect spring morning: a clear sky and the lightest breeze, just crisp enough for jacket and gloves. The trees are beginning to leaf. Today is Patriot’s Day, a state holiday commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord, so the streets were uncrowded, rather quiet. Everything seemed unhurried. On the opposite side of the Common, I found some commotion: a line of buses alongside the park, with hundreds of runners climbing aboard for transport to the starting line, in nearby Hopkinton. I took this photo:
The runners milled about with mixed enthusiasm and nerves. They looked eager and glad for the starting line. Young and old, so full of health. I found it impossible not to envy their excitement. A foot-race: few things are so blessedly uncomplicated.
Then the entire caravan set off, a procession of twenty buses lined one after another, many hundreds of athletes aboard, with police at each intersection, waving and whistling them through. Quite a sight! People on the sidewalks yelled and cheered. A perfect spring morning in Boston.
An Armchair Academic. 
My poor country. I think it must have been another person with a sick understanding of Concord and Lexington, like Timothy McVeigh. Though I really doubt it was anyone from New England.