🏅 How to Marathon Monday like a pro

Happy Friday, Boston.

💛 Saturday is One Boston Day, when we honor those lost in the 2013 marathon bombings and recognize the strength of community with acts of service and kindness. Find ways you can give back to Boston here.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Docs leak traced to Mass.

• It’s NBA playoff szn

• Record, schmecord

Up first...

BOSTON MARATHON

Your guide to Marathon Monday

The world's oldest annual marathon is back. Over 30,000 runners from 121 countries will make the trek from Hopkinton to Boston on Monday. The course covers eight cities and towns: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, and Boston.

And if you’re one of the approximately 500,000 spectators going to watch the race, here’s how to have the best Marathon Monday:

WHO TO WATCH

👀 Keep an eye out for a few familiar faces. Big Papi is the grand marshal of the race and Bruins legend Zdeno Chara is running the 26.2 miles for the Hoyt Foundation. Former Red Sox players Brock Holt and Ryan Dempster are running for Dana-Farber and the Lingzi Foundation, respectively.

🏃‍♂️ Elite men to watch. Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder for the fastest marathon time, will make his Boston Marathon debut. He’ll be competing against other previous Boston Marathon winners, including last year’s champion Evans Chebet. 🏃‍♀️ Elite women to watch. Previous winners Edna Kiplagat, Atsede Baysa and 10-time Boston Marathon runner Des Linden are hitting the course again. ♿ Elite wheelchair racers to watch. Both the men’s and women’s wheelchair defending champs are back. Daniel Romanchuk is hoping to take home his third win and course record holder Manuela Schär hoping to secure her fifth. You can see a full list of professional racers here.

GETTING AROUND

🚗 If you’re planning to drive around the city on race day … don’t. Re: the full list of road closures and parking restrictions.

🚃 Instead, use the MBTA. Marathon Monday service on the Red, Orange, Blue, and Silver Lines will be business as usual with extra service before and after the race. However, the Green Line’s Copley Station will be closed all day and South Street, Kent Street, and Saint Mary’s Street stations will be closed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Definitely capitalize on the Commuter Rail’s $15 Marathon Pass for unlimited travel across all zones on race day.

BEST SPECTATOR SPOTS

📣 It all depends on your crowd vibes. The first few miles of the course have smaller crowds, so you can easily find parking and a front-row spot. But runners really need motivation heading into the Newton Hills, especially Heartbreak Hill. If you love rowdy energy, Cleveland Circle though the finish is the place to be and super accessible via the Green Line. You can see the full list of other great spectator spots here.

🛋️ If you're cheering from the couch, WCVB’s marathon coverage begins at 4:30 a.m., and ESPN picks up at 8:30 a.m.

👏 Can’t get enough of the marathon? Check out the video below with four marathon weekend things to do.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

📝 There’s a Mass. connection to the leaked Pentagon docs. Mass. Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was taken into custody by the FBI in connection with the highly classified military documents. The documents held information about the war in Ukraine and appeared on Discord. The 21-year-old will be charged with unauthorized removal of classified national defense information and appear in federal court in Mass., according to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

💰 Not everyone is a fan of a Harvard grad school’s new name. Harvard’s Graduate School of Arts and Science will be named after Ken Griffin, a Harvard alum and hedge fund billionaire, who recently gifted the university $300 million. But some members of the school’s community aren’t thrilled about his previous donations to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a conservative firebrand whose controversial policies are constantly making headlines. Griffin also said he’d back DeSantis in a presidential bid.

🏀 NBA playoff season starts Saturday. The Celtics will take on the Atlanta Hawks at TD Garden in the first round of playoffs. How likely are they to make another run to the finals and win it all? 538’s NBA Predictions give the C’s a 33% chance of making the final round and a 23% chance of winning the Larry O’Brien trophy — the highest of any NBA team. Also, the Boston Playoff Hub on Canal Street will return on Saturday, creating a car-free zone for fans to gather during home playoff games.

🐶 New England’s first-ever dog bar is open for business. Park 9 Dog Bar in Everett held a leash-cutting ceremony to officially open their bar and dog park combo this week. The new spot has an indoor bar and lounge where dogs can hang (on leash) with their humans, along with indoor and outdoor dog park areas. Don’t have a pooch? No worries. All are welcome. It’s the one place where cocktails and Cocker Spaniels can co-exist.

THINGS TO DO

Marathon food deals

🍝 Marathoners can carbo-load on unlimited free bolognese from Tuscan Kitchen all weekend long.

🍹 Sip on a Wellesley Kiss cocktail from Bully Boy Distillery from April 13 to April 16. Proceeds will be donated to Project HOPE, the Roxbury-based nonprofit.

🍨 Cool off with a special edition JQ’s 26th Mile Sundae from Boston Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops this weekend. A portion of the proceeds will go to The Greg Hill Foundation.

🍔 Get a free meal from PKL, a pickleball and game bar, if you’re running the race.

☕️ Caffeinate with any size of Blank Street Coffee’s Speed Dial brew for $2.62.

ONE LAST THING

Record, schmecord.

World records broken in the Boston Marathon don’t actually count.

World Athletics rules state that only marathons that are more or less in a loop can count for world records as opposed to “point-to-point” marathons like in Boston. Point-to-point marathons could cause runners to deal with a headwind or tailwind the whole race, giving them a disadvantage (or a boost from the wind). Plus, the elevation on the Boston Marathon course changes too much for World Athletics rules.

So basically, even if Eliud Kipchoge beats his own world record time on Monday’s run, it won't really count on the books.

🏃‍♀️ Thanks for reading! While Kipchoge will probably finish before I start on Monday, I too will be running the Boston Marathon for the first time. Wish me luck!

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