Aaron Donovan loves when friends jump into the Marathon to run for awhile with their friends.

Paul Kelleher captures the women leaders at mile 17 (he took more Marathon photos, too).

This little kid just stood in Washington Square with his hand out today. It was amazing how many runners gave him a hand slap.

Faegirl spots the modern-day Paul Revere after he rowed across the Harbor to Charlestown.

Once again, the Regulars marched right through Lexington Green at dawn, killing a few colonists standing in their way as they headed toward Concord in search of militia munitions.

You learn a lot at the annual re-creation of the battle (which from start to finish, takes maybe five minutes, and most of that is the British soldiers assembling, locking bayonets and shouting "Huzzah!" before they shoot the first Minuteman and then stomp on him). To start, somebody from the Lexington Minutemen gives you an explanation of what you're about to see.

But you also learn that there are a couple thousand other insane people willing to get up before the crack of dawn to watch the battle. And because of that, and because Lexington Green is flat, you learn that if you ever make the trek again, you either need to make like the veteran battle-goers and bring a ladder to climb up on (or, at the minimum, a sturdy bucket) or you need to be nine years old and adept at worming your way through the crowd to the very edge of the battlefield.

It was puzzling at first to hear the victorious Redcoats march off the Green while their fifers played "Yankee Doodle Dandy," until I remembered that they were playing it to insult the Minutemen - who, by the end of the day, adopted the song as their own.

Father: So what'd you think?
Son: It's the same every year.

The dead, the dying and the incongruous:

Calm amid the chaos:

BattleRoad.org has a complete calendar of events for today and tomorrow - and historical info.

J.L. Bell finishes up destroying every myth we hold dear about Paul Revere, ending with the fable that his ride actually made a difference.

Photos: Patriots Day in Concord.

All the cool kids are joining the Boston Paper Hat Air Marching Band:

The first BPHAMB event will take place on Saturday, April 19th (Patriot's Day) at 1:00PM on the Boston Common near the corner of Beacon and Cambridge Street. The event will begin with general aimless milling around, followed uniform craft time (paper hats for everyone!), instrument selection and finally a VERY brief rehearsal.

Tape lets us know that besides Massachusetts and Maine (originally part of Massachusetts), the only other state that celebrates Patriots Day is Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is also the only other place where people drink water from a bubbler.

J.L. Bell reports from what would soon become the first front in the Revolution:

... Two hundred thirty-two years ago tonight, British troops in Boston were preparing to cross the Charles River, the first leg of their mission to Concord. William Dawes, Jr., was already riding toward Lexington with a warning for Patriot leaders about that march. ...

Tom in Boston recounts a long-standing tradition in his family. Perfect reading for a day like today when the Sox might not play.