<p>Any women over 50 qualify for Boston with a 4:00 marathon or greater, and men over 64 (4:10 for 65-69). There are many, many Boston runners in those age groups, so it is not correct that most of the runners over 4 hours are charity runners. Also, many runners may have qualified with a lower time, but due to injury or just wanting to not push as hard at Boston may be running 4 hours or longer. Things have improved since I last ran Boston, but back in the day it was NOT an easy race in which to run well from the pack. It was crowded (no chip timing or wave starts back then) and the overall logistics were a nightmare. That’s part of the reason I haven’t been back, despite my respect for the tradition. I have qualified again over the years, but I prefer races that aren’t so large. After this, I want to go back and I’m trying to figure out how I should do that. The qualifying time for my age group is one of the ones that is considered very “off” compared to the statistics used and the times for other age groups (i.e. older women time about 10 minutes too fast). We’ll see. Maybe it’s time. This is just so awful.</p>
<p>My good memories are eating cannolis all weekend, great Italian food (is there a theme here?), seeing the Kenyans training along the Charles River path, the stupid CITGO sign (in an unfortunate twist, we have a CITGO sign near the finish of the Country Music Marathon, too), walking backwards down stairs for 2 days due to quad trashing from the downhill course and backing down the jetway onto the plane. The crowd support is amazing, of course, and I have the utmost respect for the race administration and how the city gets behind the event. That isn’t easy to pull off, as many cities can attest.</p>
<p>Supposedly pressure cookers are perfectly safe. They have a means of venting overpressure and locking down the lid until its safe to open. Supposedly early ones did have a possible issue with metal failure on the pot itself, so there is somewhat of a dangerous reputation. </p>
<p>My wife uses pressure cooking all the time. I prefer to braise. </p>
<p>Kudos to MomOfWildC and other runners! I so admire runners and wish I could run, but can’t make it past 5 miles if it kills me so I’ll just stick to step aerobics, LOL.</p>
<p>I use the pressure cooker all the time and they are perfectly safe. Mine I just purchased couple of years ago so perhaps the older ones are not so safe. Love them for cooking beans for veggie dishes and softening tougher meats. Cuts the cooking time at least by half. Of course it’s not like a slow cooker that you walk away from and leave on all day. You have to watch it. At most you need to use it for an hour or so, depending on what’s in it. Beans - normal cooking time 2 hours; with pressure cooker - 30 min. </p>
<p>linz, thanks for sharing the links for the man with the cowboy hat. What a hero. He was shaking in the video and hope he is OK. Though physically he looks fine, mentally and emotionally he must be going through a lot after describing what he saw, and especially with regards to the past with his sons’ deaths.</p>
<p>ognopgod–I also felt for him, he was shaking and clearly had just been so impacted by what he saw, I wanted to hug him, offer him a chair. Honestly I wondered how the folks he was sharing his story with didn’t reach out to offer him a hug. Of course in the moment everyone was impacted…but he really did likely save Jeff Bauman’s life.</p>
<p>On the issue of the bombing going unsolved. Currently at least 1/3 of US murders go unsolved. With the memory of the Atlanta Olympic bombing investigation in mind, I hope there is a very methodical and accurate investigation of these recent bombings. </p>
<p>There are specific groups within the government that are assigned the responsibility to monitor and try to prevent terroristic acts within the US. My understanding is that there are separate groups for domestic and non-domestic. Needless to say part of both group’s efficiency is prevention. </p>
<p>I hope we catch the person or persons actually responsibile and that the efforts to do so aren’t rushed by the depravity of the acts or hampered by trying to establish that the perpetrators were or weren’t domestic v. foreign supported.</p>
<p>What they keep repeating is that a former FBI guy says this has the hallmarks of both domestic and intl terrorists. What I heard the guy say was: depending on the expertise of the individual investigator, he/she will see the hallmarks from that perspective. That’s different.</p>
<p>I’m surprised to learn that so many of you are using pressure cookers. I think of them as a throwback to the innocent days of my childhood, something my mother used when we had black-and-white TV with 2 channels, and computers were not something that most people had heard of, they occupied enormous rooms in a few universities and the defense dept.</p>
<p>It seems strange to me that these innocent devices are being used for bombs.</p>
<p>Some magazine covers were shown on TV this morning. Sports Illustrated used the photo of the over-70 marathoner who was knocked down by the blast. I thought this was a great choice, as it highlighted the dedication and remarkable accomplishments of so many runners, and the resilience of the human spirit. Time Magazine has a special issue with a cover photo that I hadn’t seen before, a first responder carrying a very young boy, with red hair and an expression of extreme distress on his face - much emotional content.</p>
<p>I read the man with the cowboy hat’s story. I can’t imagine the anguish he has endured. I imagine that the opportunity to save a young man’s life, after he was unable to save his sons, was somewhat healing.</p>
<p>I imagine that if this had taken place anywhere else, without hundreds of medical personnel within feet and at least 6 top hospitals within 5 minutes in an ambulance, many more would have died from loss of blood.</p>
<p>Besides the heroism of so many, I am also touched by the stories of ordinary Bostonians doing what they can. One man who lived in the neighborhood came out with his friends carrying trays of food, orange juice, coffee, to feed the runners and other distressed people. One woman took in about 6 runners from another state, who were unable to stay in their hotel.</p>
<p>Mostly. For fast cooking and tenderizing. Can do what a microwave can’t. Quicker than a slow cooker. Sorry for my part in this diversion. The Marathon turn of events is so troubling.</p>
<p>My only exposure to pressure cookers was years ago when my family grew and made some of its own foods. </p>
<p>My only recollection of its use was in “canning” (which, notably, did not involve cans, but rather glass jars and parrafin wax sealing). When you’re storing your own cooked food for extended periods, it needs to be heated to a temperature that will kill bacteria and other bad stuff, and then tightly sealed. You can only get to those temperatures under pressure (raises the boiling point of water), thus the need for a pressure cooker.</p>
<p>I’m not up to date on the modern uses, apparently.</p>
<p>From it I learned a few things. Hydrogen peroxide can be used for bombs. There was an attempt in Colorado that was prevented when police learned that the bomber had bought a large supply of HP in a beauty supply store. Does this mean that the store staff found the purchase suspicious and notified police? I would never have imagined that HP was a bomb component. </p>
<p>And it seems that even a not-so-bright HS student could have made these bombs. A circuit board was used - these aren’t so easy to find, it seems that they might be able to trace the purchase.</p>
<p>dadx, my mother canned things in glass jars, too. I guess she must have used her pressure cooker, although I seem to remember her using the same specialized pan that was used to prepare bottles of baby formula.</p>
<p>Actually, the opposite was said when I was earning to cook (back in the dark ages) - cooking in a pressure cooker shortens the cooking time significantly thus nutrients tend to be less destroyed by the process. I dk what current thinking is.</p>