🦶 All toenails go to heaven

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

☕ Got plans this May? Pivot! The ”Friends” Experience is coming back to Boston this spring to celebrate the iconic show’s 30th anniversary. You and your crew can immerse yourself in recreations of Central Perk, help Ross “pivot” his couch up the stairs, and more. Tickets are on sale now!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• More $$$ for the MBTA

• An MBTA bus upgrade

• Burnt retinas check

Up first…

BOSTON MARATHON

The good, the bad, and the toenails

For many runners, finishing the Boston Marathon is the dream. But getting to the starting line doesn’t always look like an inspirational poster.

From (almost) losing toenails to spelunking ensembles, here are some of the unexpected, silly, and strange things that’ve happened to first-time marathoners while training for Boston this year: 

🎶 Desperate times call for desperate playlists. 29-year-old sports writer and charity runner for Girls on the Run Lauren Tuiskula pinpointed her training’s “rock bottom” when she started revisiting the “Hamilton” soundtrack. “One really long midweek run, during a really long block, I was just like, okay, ‘Hamilton’ is coming back out,” she said. The full album is a great long run listen at two hours and 22 minutes. “I was a big ‘Hamilton’ fan, I love musicals, but when I started to listen back and I was like, ok, maybe this is a sign of my mental state.” Her favorite songs: “Alexander Hamilton,” “The Schuyler Sisters,” and “Non-Stop.”

💡 You have to get comfortable with a spelunking look. Training has become a lifestyle for 26-year-old consultant Madison Mahoney, ​​who’s running for the Pine Street Inn. Which includes her fashion choices. When her day is packed, she has to squeeze in 6 a.m. Esplanade run. And that means doing something she never thought she would: Buying a headlamp. “I look like [I’m about to] explore a cave,” she said. “I don't want to see it from the other side because I have to look so strange right now.”

🏅 Surprise! Your body might want to keep running. For Winna Brown, a 55-year-old partner at Ernst and Young running for the Esplanade Association, the last thing she expected was her body to actually crave the training. “When I go to bed on my rest days, my body is just, like, almost tingling. I feel like, ‘oh, I didn't run today … I'm missing something,’” she said. “I think I won't be able to go cold turkey. I'm gonna have to keep running because honestly, there are withdrawal symptoms, even after a day!”

🦶 Don’t expect any requests for feet pics. You’d have thought B-Side’s Emily Schario ran barefoot during her training for last year’s Boston Marathon. While she (barely) managed to hold onto all 10 toenails, they still turned every color of the rainbow: red, blue, purple, sometimes black. And don’t forget the bunions, blisters, and plantar fasciitis. The remedy? A $170 pair of sneakers that could handle the mileage. “Anyone who says running is a cheap sport has never run a marathon,” she said. But it was all worth it for this epic finish line photo.

QUICK QUESTION!

❗We’re working on a story about how young Bostonians are cutting costs in order to live in the city. So we want to know: What measures have you had to take in order to afford living here?

TOGETHER WITH THE BOSTON OUTDOOR EXPO

No more FOMO

🏕️ Tired of watching your friends have all the fun? Take charge of your own adventures at the Boston Outdoor Expo on April 27 and 28. With hundreds of brands like North Face, CotoPaxi, and more offering top-quality outdoor essentials (including a showcase of tents), you’ll find all the equipment you need for endless summer adventures. And if you’re looking for some extra fun, have a go at one of the expo’s many interactive activities (yoga classes, pickleball, bushcraft workshops, etc.). Or listen to adrenaline-filled stories from athletes, world record breakers, and Olympians, like world class explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, or ultra-runner Scott Jurek at the Inspirational Stage all weekend. Grab your tickets online (for free) using code BSIDE.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🤑 The State House is looking to give the MBTA some major $$$. Mass. House lawmakers plan to propose a record $555 million investment into the MBTA and $184 million more for regional transit agencies as part of its 2025 budget proposal. Assuming it passes, it would boost transportation funding by 41%, with funding coming from the state’s new “millionaires tax.” But it’s worth noting that that hefty price tag is still only a fraction of the estimated $24.5 billion the MBTA’s leadership has said it needs to repair the system.

🚌 Some MBTA bus stops might look a little different this spring. Now through May 3, the MBTA is rolling out a new bus signage pilot program at several stops around Boston with the goal of improving accessibility (and being able to find them). Long story short: Expect bigger, double-sided signs with larger text. They’ll also include clock symbols indicating if the stop serves one or more frequent bus routes a.k.a. whether you can expect to wait an hour before the bus comes. You can see what the signs look like and what stops they’ll be at here.

🎓 President Joe Biden is taking another shot at student loan relief. President Biden is back with a new and improved plan for canceling student debt after the Supreme Court gave his last plan a thumbs down last summer. The new plan could impact about 30 million people and focuses on pinpointing those who need the relief most, including borrowers who have seen debt grow due to high interest, have been paying loans for 20+ years, are facing major financial hardship, and more (see if you’d be eligible here). But the road ahead is still TBD, so don’t expect this to go down without another judicial fight.

🏢 It seems the South Station Tower project is trying to tell us something. Following a fire on Tuesday morning, construction on the 51-story project has been shut down for the second time in the span of one month for a job site safety audit. The fire was a result of burning construction material, officials said, and though relatively small and injury-free, it caused a whole lot of smoke and shut down Sumner Street for an hour. This all comes after a huge steel beam fell from an upper floor in late March, shattering some windows on its way down.

GIVEAWAY

Together with Tutuland

Enter to win two small tufting experiences from Tutuland! Tutuland Studio is a crafting store located in Boston, which provides the best experience of tufting, pouring arts, and decoden arts to customers. Tufting is an art form using yarn and fabric to create rugs. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

ONE LAST THING

Eclipse burn: Debunked

Spoiler: If you’re reading this right now, you probably didn’t burn your retinas looking at the eclipse. 

Based on some seriously spiked Google searches for “my eyes hurt” along the line of totality on Monday, it seems like some folks didn’t read the B-Side’s guide to eclipse viewing and put on their ISO-certified glasses. 

But thankfully, the second-long peek you took at the sun over your eclipse glasses (yes, we know you tried it) probably isn’t enough to cause irreparable damage. According to experts, if you did burn your retinas looking at the eclipse, it probably wouldn’t hurt your eyes, but instead cause some pretty major changes to your vision like blind spots or color distortion within a few hours of the event. So if you’re seeing fine now, you can rest easy.

Meanwhile, if you can’t read this right now, and you stared at the eclipse without glasses for longer than a second or two … definitely call your doctor.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🌒 Thanks for reading! Sending this to Gia’s roommate who texted her at 3:20 p.m. on Monday asking if it was okay to look at the eclipse without glasses. … And Gia’s boyfriend who managed to knock the glasses off of his own face while staring at the sun. 

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, The Boston Outdoor Expo, for supporting local journalism and helping locals gear up for a summer of adventure. 

🕺The winner of B-Side’s Nightlife Madness is … Club Café! They took the W as B-Siders’ favorite Boston nightlife spot with 58% of the final vote versus Bell in Hand. Congratulations to all and thank you all very much for voting in our little game. One reader said: “It was NEVER a question. I’m probably going this weekend, in fact!”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].