VIDEO: Hopkinton Start Run Before 2011 Boston Marathon

It was cold Saturday morning. Cold enough for the running outfitter Saucony to give away all its gloves.

Even extra-large gloves that made petite runners look like Edward Scissorhands were gratefully taken by runners. Until exertion and euphoria overcame the cold,  these folks were bundled UP.

A drive along the Boston Marathon route to Framingham later in the day showed a lot of unbundling too. Sweatpants, sweatshirts and hats hung on the bushes and lay at the roadside.

A favorite spot on the flat stone base of the sign at Hopkinton's Weston Nurseries sported a healthy pile of cotton.

"They always leave stuff there," Weston's Garden Center Manager Nancy Cassidy said. "Sometimes they come back and get it. Sometimes they don't come back."

It was cold enough that Dorothy Ferriter-Wallace, chairwoman of the Hopkinton Marathon Committee since 1998, spoke from inside a scarf swirled around her neck and up to her nose.

Police officers watched traffic and told departing groups to be careful.

"We want you to make it back here for the start of the real marathon," one said.

Police used a cruiser's flashing blue lights, orange witches-hats road cones and high-visibility yellow jackets, to alert drivers to the crowd spilling off the Town Common to the sidewalk on Main Street's north side.

Like everyone else, the police were buttoned up in cold-weather gear, gloves and face protection. 

One runner crouched at the worn blue starting line to simulate the April 18 start said, "Now all I need is for someone to fire a gun."

An officer immediately responded, "I've got a gun."

Laughter keeps you warm too.