I'm off to Boston this weekend to run Monday's 112th Boston Marathon. This will be my second Boston and I'm hoping for a much better run than last year's disappointing 3:29. Also running this year is Beloit College's Scott Beaulier* who qualified to run Boston last year in Gainesville FL with an impressive 3:11.

Are there any other economists running?

The elite men and first wave of qualifiers, including Scott and myself, begin at 10 ET. (The elite women start at 9:35 and the second wave starts at 10:30.)

You can follow your favorite runners during the race by going to the Boston Marathon website where 5k splits will be shown. You can search for a runner by name or bib number. My number is 6693 and Scott's is 5678. The numbers are sequential based on qualifying times. The field should include about 25,000 runners this year.

Television coverage, which focuses on the elite runners mainly, is available on the cable channel, VERSUS starting at 9:30.

UPDATE: I was negligent in not mentioning that the U.S. Women's Olympic Marathon Trials are scheduled for Sunday in Boston. I'm looking forward very much to seeing the U.S. elite women run the course through Boston and Cambridge. The top three go to Beijing. It would be a major upset if Deena Kastor were not to win.

*Scott is moving to Mercer University in GA next year.