Tired Marathon runners beat feet to Hub fetes

The Boston Herald/April 16, 2002
By Gayle Fee and Laura Raposa

It was party time at the Finish Line on Boylston Street yesterday where Boston Marathon madness was running hot and sweaty in the bars, restaurants and out on the sidewalk. Just call it Kenya on the Charles!

Single men with deep pockets - and nice cars - could be had at the Mercedes Benz/Boston maggie party at Abe & Louie's. It was a cash bar, but there were plenty of generous guys, including BoMag publisher Dan Scully and car czar Tom Silva, willing to buy rounds.

Upstairs at the steakhouse, WBZ chieftain Ed Goldman schmoozed his clients over shrimp, mimosas and tales of his treadmill workouts while over at the WZLX-FM VIP tent, Bruins biggie Joe Thornton hung out to take in the olive wreath action. Hope some of that winning spirit rubs off on the hockey hunk for the B's run for the Stanley Cup starting Thursday. . . .

Anyway, Kenyans Rodgers Rop and Margaret Okayo weren't the only big winners yesterday. We'd say L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics people scored a major marketing coup along Boylston by handing out 3,500 helium-filled yellow balloons from Hereford Street to Copley Square.

"We'll get at least 50 to 100 calls today,'' reported one Church of Scientology disciple, who was manning the hotline number printed on the balloons.

"Last year after the marathon, a guy called from Mansfield who had read the Dianetics book and then one of the balloons landed in his backyard,'' said the hotline Hubbardite.

Obviously, it had broken away from the pack.