Colbert: Preparing for the Boston Marathon

I’ve been hustling to get this column done before leaving for Boston to run the marathon on April 20. After hitting a qualifying time last year, I had no choice but to run this esteemed event once in my lifetime.

At least, that’s what every single person I encountered who had run at Boston told me I needed to do. To be quite frank, though, I am not overly excited about the endeavor.

Not the race itself, which is the pinnacle for any road runner, but all the logistics and finances that go into it, such as a hefty entry fee, jacked-up hotel prices and air travel.

Additionally, a runner must be bused three hours in advance from downtown Boston to Hopkinton, where the race begins. Once you arrive at the starting corrals, there is a long wait in chilly weather until your particular group is called to the starting line.

Unlike the Chicago marathon, where you start and finish at the same spot, Boston is considered point-to-point and the complicated set of logistics is necessary to service an event with 33,000 entrants. In Boston, they even go as far as to set all the stoplights to green, as the buses make the 26-mile journey out of town.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a first-class affair and I look forward to the actual running part of it, with 500,000 spectators lining the course and joining competitors from all 50 states and 136 countries as we make our way from the suburbs into Boston on such an iconic course. It truly is the Super Bowl of all marathons.

But, as an older guy who is content with the simplicity of life, I pondered how much easier things would be if I just stuck to my usual routine of running all the wonderful trails we have around Ogle County.

I’ll report back next week and tell you if the trip to Boston was worth it.

In the meantime, how about some local sports news.

In a long overdue venture, Forreston hopes to soon begin construction on a $10 million school expansion with much of it focused on athletics. Rather than raise taxes, the plan is to issue bonds.

The trend to upgrade school athletic facilities has taken hold all over the country, certainly a reflection of societal priorities. What Forreston is doing is a drop in the bucket compared to what is spent on some high school football stadiums in places like Texas.

While Forreston doesn’t have the same rampant fervor as Texas for football (then again, who does?), the community has a tradition of being supportive of all its sports for decades. I really feel that townspeople there see the value in improved facilities for sports training and competing.

However, money can be a sticking point for many folks, no matter how much they appreciate going to games and cheering on the teams. A question raised could be – we’ve had state-caliber teams in the past with the status quo, why the need for new and better?

That’s where school officials and the community can engage in open dialogue, which hopefully will open the door for this project to come to fruition, perhaps as early as August 2027.

In the same vein of good communication, Amboy scored a win-win situation between its school district and the Lee County Fairgrounds. The school was installing new bleachers and hoping to find a use for the old ones rather than dispose of them.

Enter the Lee County Fair board, who saw life in the old bleachers.

“The old bleachers were not in the best shape and were not ADA-compliant. The new bleachers will have aisles with handrails, wheelchair spaces and a ramp for access,” Joshua Nichols, Amboy schools superintendent, said.

The new bleachers, which will be installed in time for the first home football game at The Harbor in August, will seat around 755 on the home side and 162 seats on the visitor side.

The old bleachers, which were moved from their former location at the old Amboy Junior High School football field in 1999, were declared surplus property by the board at the February 2026 school board meeting.

“Either we could try to sell them or scrap them or dispose of them. I chose to give them to a local nonprofit who could and would haul them away. That way, the school district would not have to pay to demolish them or scrap them,” Nichols said.

On March 28, fair board members and community volunteers showed up with pickup trucks and 10 gooseneck trailers to lift and move the bleachers to their new home. That’s small-town cooperation.

Finally, a big congratulations to senior Camryn Jones of Polo for being named the MVP of the 27th Annual Rising Stars Classic in Rockford. In an all-star basketball game that pits the NIC-10 against the area’s best, Jones had 20 points to lead the area girls to a 69-52 win.

I distinctly recall covering a Polo game when Jones was a freshman and being impressed with how hard she played. Rarely do you see kids so competitive.