There's no turning back now. The next stop, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the starting line of the 119th Boston Marathon.
Thousands of rank-and-file runners will visit the Hynes Convention Center this weekend to pick up their numbers for the best-known marathon in the world.
More than 30,000 are set to make the 26.2-mile trek to Boston on Patriots' Day. All of them are cognizant of the marathon's long, storied history, as well as the bombings in 2013.
Introduced Friday morning at the Copley Plaza Hotel, the elite runners are in town, too. The Boston Athletic Association says five past champions will be running, including Meb Keflezighi, who won last year's male division and was the first American to do so in 31 years.
Team Hoyt will be running, but Dick Hoyt is sitting this one out. Instead, his son, Rick, will run with Bryan Lyons. Now 75, the older Hoyt will be this year's grand marshal.
