Expert: Nicholas Cifuentes - 7/11/2011

Question
Nicholas,
I will be in Boston for two days this month for business.  I will be staying at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.  I am an avid runner and would love to run a few miles of the Boston Marathon course.  The problem is that I've never been to the area and I'm having trouble finding a route from my hotel, to the closest part of the course, and then back.  
I know by looking at the Marathon Course map, that I am in somewhat close proximity to the later miles in the race.  Could you give me turn by turn instructions on where to go from the hotel out to the course?  I don't need to run a lot of the course, just a mile or so to say I did it!  I am not good at directions, so I will need turn by turn ( Example: left turn on Main street, go .5 miles, right turn on South street, etc).   I hope you can help.     
Thanks!
Teresa

Answer
Teresa

It's a bit tough with where you are staying to really take you to the route, unless you don't mind running several miles to reach the course? The problem is your hotel is near the very end of the course, and normal days, except for the marathon day, the street is open to major traffic, but you can still get around it by running through it. I'd say if you don't want to have to drive or run several miles out to a clean part of the course where it's not too crazy with traffic, you can do the last mile of the course pretty easily from your hotel.

You are here: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Hyatt+Regency+Cambridge&ll=42.351646,-71.107271&sp...

if you go outside of your hotel and hang a right on the river, go up to the BU bridge, about .3 miles away and go over it to the Boston side of the river. Once you are there, hang a left you are on COMM Ave that runs down to the Cisco sign toward the boston common. Hang a right on Exeter, and then left on Boylston and head toward the finish line at the Library.

Ideally, I'd say you can get a much nicer run around the Charles River, and can vary it in lengths. this is an idea - http://friendfit.com/routeview.php?rtnum=257

you can really open up lengths here and get some great sites of boston in the same run.