{"id":320,"date":"2013-04-15T05:10:54","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T05:10:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/?p=320"},"modified":"2013-04-15T05:12:45","modified_gmt":"2013-04-15T05:12:45","slug":"runners-served-pasta-smiles-at-annual-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/runners-served-pasta-smiles-at-annual-dinner\/","title":{"rendered":"Runners Served Pasta, Smiles"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"<\/a>
Boston Chief of Public Property Michael Galvin (right) serves food to runners outside City Hall on Sunday evening during the annual pre-marathon pasta dinner. (Lisa Kashinsky\/BU News Service)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Lisa Kashinsky<\/b><\/p>\n

BU News Service<\/em><\/p>\n

City Hall was transformed into a sea of blue and yellow Sunday evening as thousands of runners donning their official race jackets poured into the sunlit plaza for the annual pre-marathon carbo-loading dinner.<\/p>\n

Groups of Wellesley College students enthusiastically greeted runners, their families and friends, as they exited the Government Center T stop, causing many to break into grins. Music floated through the air as runners chatted animatedly while waiting to fuel up for the 117th<\/sup> Boston Marathon tomorrow morning, imbuing the plaza with a festive atmosphere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a celebration of people who run,\u201d said David Lindgren, 55, a Minneapolis resident who is running the marathon for the 11th time in a row this year. \u201cIt\u2019s part of the ambiance of the whole event.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 400 volunteers were on hand to help run the event and serve approximately 3,000 lbs of pasta to 9,000 guests this year\u2014a third of the 27,000 total runners\u2014according to event coordinator Melissa Goodhart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a labor of love,\u201d Goodhart said. \u201cThis is my 27th<\/sup> year doing this and I watched it grow from a 4,000 person thing into a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the volunteers, 175 were Wellesley students, the mark of a longstanding tradition of student involvement with the race.<\/p>\n

First time volunteer Stephanie Kim, a Wellesley senior, had a constant smile on her face as she directed runners through the waiting line for food.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of camaraderie there that they\u2019re going to be doing something amazing tomorrow and for us to be a part of it,\u201d said Kim, 22. \u201cOne of them thanked me for volunteering and I was like, no, thank you!\u201d<\/p>\n

Wellesley College senior Jean Lee also said she enjoyed meeting the runners. Lee, 21, has volunteered at the pasta party dinner for four years and has been a coordinator for the last three.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very different than cheering them on during the marathon,\u201d Lee said. \u201cHere you actually get to interact with them. They\u2019re very supportive of us. They love Wellesley and the Wellesley scream tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindgren grinned as he spoke about the signs made by Wellesley students in the tunnel, many of which include phrases about kissing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fan support is fantastic,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t go very far without hearing someone cheering for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s Chief of Property Management Michael Galvin gave runners encouragement and support from the city as he spoke on behalf of Mayor Thomas Menino, who was in the hospital undergoing surgery for a leg injury.<\/p>\n

Other speakers included 1973 Boston Marathon champion Jacqueline Hansen and 1983 winner Greg Meyer, the last American male to win the event. The speakers joined volunteers in serving pasta, salad and rolls of bread to runners.<\/p>\n

Meyer plans to join Lindgren and a sea of other repeat runners who are racing either professionally or for charity. While Lindgren said he has qualified in the past, he is running this year as part of the American Medical Athletic Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful wandering through the New England countryside,\u201d Lindgren said. \u201cThis is my 116th<\/sup> marathon and Boston is my favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City Hall was transformed into a sea of blue and yellow Sunday evening as thousands of runners donning their official race jackets poured into the sunlit plaza for the annual pre-marathon carbo-loading dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-the-race","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":336,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bunewsservice.com\/marathon2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}