Boston Marathon Transportation Logistics Legend Retires After 5 Decades of Service

Larry Murphy of Somerville has been the transportation logistics legend behind the Boston Marathon for nearly five decades. His job is to get runners from Boston to Hopkinton before they race from Hopkinton to Boston.

Over his years of service to the Boston Marathon, Murphy has gone from managing 30 buses to approximately 600 buses. His system looks like hieroglyphics, printed planning sheets filled with acronyms and numbers.

Supporting him in his work are volunteers that Murphy said he selects from among his own family.

"They come in on race day and just turn around and go through. They know the system and everything else," Murphy said in an interview with NewsCenter 5 Boston. "All of the nieces and nephews and cousins. I'm like, 'You're going! We need help. Get up here!'"

According to Murphy, in all the years he's been at the helm of transportation logistics for the Boston Marathon, there's only been one time when a runner was inadvertently left behind. He stated that with his system in place, this incident won't happen again.

In recognition of his long-tenured service to the Boston Marathon, Boston Athletic Association officials are giving Murphy the honor of starting the Wave 2 runners. The 129th running of the Boston Marathon takes place on Monday, April 21.