Marathon Runners Enjoy Annual Pasta Dinner, Talk Weather Concerns
BOSTON (CBS) -- The weather was a big topic of discussion at Sunday's night annual pasta dinner ahead of the Boston Marathon. The latest forecast includes warm temps, rain, and a chance of lightning.
Runner Mike Stone is ready though. Monday's race will be his 100th marathon and seventh Boston appearance.
"When you get cold and you get wet, there's like no salvation," said Stone.
He has run in far worse conditions, though: "Forty-two degrees below zero windchills, as much as 10 miles, where when I've come back there's been frost all over my head and face and I've had icicle going all the way down my chest."
The forecast already forced race organizers to make a number of changes to the schedule. The B.A.A. will be monitoring conditions and per usual, medical stations will be along the course, in the event runners injure themselves.
Most of last year's medical tent visits were a result of the weather conditions.
In the race's 123 years, it has never been canceled due to weather.
B.A.A CEO Tom Gruilk said, "The weather never was such a danger that it was unsafe for people to run. We've been close to those boundaries but so far, the runners who are very strong, the volunteers who never give up, and the spectators who take care of their runners on their course."
Stormy weather can sometimes have unexpected upsides, though. At the pasta dinner, Sara Mae Berman, a Boston Marathon pioneer for women, said her fastest time when "it was windy, it was rainy, it was sleety, it was absolutely terrible conditions."
But she added, "last year was the worst conditions we've ever seen."