The 2026 Boston Marathon is in our rear-view mirror. Yes, it was quite a weekend with all the sports and historical pageantry involved. But the high to me – virtually unrivaled by any other highs that I’ve recently experienced – occurs on the night before the Marathon. Because of the rain this year on the day preceding the 26-mile event, my wife and I visited Copley Square on the Saturday night, to be free of the downpours. It’s a time for seeing people from all over the world taking in the beauty of the finish line, smiling and being polite/respectful of each other, posing for selfies, and hamming it up for their loved ones. Not to get spiritual, but maybe it’s the way our Creator wanted His/Her peoples of all nations to interact.

There are no items to be purchased, no tickets to be bought, no money involved: the touring of the finish line is free, and the wonderment of seeing people from many differing backgrounds – especially the runners – basking in the harmony of the moment is stirring. No amount of alcohol can create the vibes that are present in that block of Boylston between Dartmouth and Exeter. My only regret is that I’ve only started such visitations in the past dozen or so years: it should have been started with the children when they were young.

Almost equally exhilarating is seeing and cheering the runners as they make their way on Comm Ave through Brighton on the day of the Marathon itself: the crowds cheer for all. We’ve done it for years. To make my trifecta complete this year, a day after the race ABC national news ran the clip of two runners eschewing their own personal records to lift up an unknown, fully cramped runner to virtually carry him several hundred feet to the finish line – wow, what an act of humanity!

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If there was a low this year, it was seeing all the trash cans on Newbury and Boylston overflowing with trash. It’s too bad that with all the money appropriated by the city for the event none, if any of it, addressed emptying the city’s trash receptacles in a timely manner in the area filled by tourists and other visitors.

No doubt the city’s first responders are salivating over their overtime checks for that weekend. It was certainly nice that no untoward events occurred, but was all that overtime really necessary along the Marathon route hours before the crowds assembled and the lead runners even approached? Many of the elderly in the city – house-rich and cash-poor – are trying to scrape enough cash together to pay their exorbitant quarterly real estate tax bills, which are at the beginning of May: if you’re a homeowner, get the checkbook out.