2008 Woodie Awards
Lamarche completes Boston and four-year AC Marathon
Geoff LaMarche
Issue date: 5/3/04 Section: Viewpoint
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The heat had gotten so bad my shirt stuck to me like a possessed cheese wrapper. Right before I hit the famed, all-female Wellesley College, I peeled my shirt off and tossed it to the side of the road. The cheers that followed made me run like my dog, Bailey, chasing a chipmunk in the yard.
It was expected to be 15 degrees warmer than last year's temperature by the middle of the 26.2-mile race. Water and Gatorade were my new best friends as the race began and throughout this long run. Even as I waited for the race to begin my feet were very hot from the warm pavement.
A thought came to mind that this marathon was shaping up to be like my college career and any other college students' college experiences. A challenge was at hand, and a challenge was ready for defeat. Freshman year, we entered college with many expectations, some simple and some complex, that we expected to achieve in these next four years. The simple ones we knew-we would make friends and succeed in classes. One thing we did not expect were the relationships that would form with faculty, staff, and professors, just as I did not expect the heat to have such an effect on me.
As the racers ahead of me began to walk and then picked up to a jog as I crossed the starting line, the race began. I started my watch. I remember how I started my college career with orientation and our color groups (I was in Silver Bullets), fun games, and a dance with more beautiful college girls than I could have imagined seeing all at once. Something I would become used to, love, entered the picture and made me smile and laugh throughout each of my days here. The dorms became a place to meet friends and shaped the wonderful community. I was now part of AC, what I like to call "Always Community." Just as I went to "gatherings" and parties during freshman year in the dorms, figuring out the dorms and where new friends lived, I again did this the week before the marathon going through all the dorms collecting money.
It was expected to be 15 degrees warmer than last year's temperature by the middle of the 26.2-mile race. Water and Gatorade were my new best friends as the race began and throughout this long run. Even as I waited for the race to begin my feet were very hot from the warm pavement.
A thought came to mind that this marathon was shaping up to be like my college career and any other college students' college experiences. A challenge was at hand, and a challenge was ready for defeat. Freshman year, we entered college with many expectations, some simple and some complex, that we expected to achieve in these next four years. The simple ones we knew-we would make friends and succeed in classes. One thing we did not expect were the relationships that would form with faculty, staff, and professors, just as I did not expect the heat to have such an effect on me.
As the racers ahead of me began to walk and then picked up to a jog as I crossed the starting line, the race began. I started my watch. I remember how I started my college career with orientation and our color groups (I was in Silver Bullets), fun games, and a dance with more beautiful college girls than I could have imagined seeing all at once. Something I would become used to, love, entered the picture and made me smile and laugh throughout each of my days here. The dorms became a place to meet friends and shaped the wonderful community. I was now part of AC, what I like to call "Always Community." Just as I went to "gatherings" and parties during freshman year in the dorms, figuring out the dorms and where new friends lived, I again did this the week before the marathon going through all the dorms collecting money.