"I never ran officially in high school," Nagiel said. "My uncle had run

Boston before and he told me I cold do it. The long runs challenge me and I had really never run that far before."

Seniors tend to dominate the Harvard contingency, using the last year of college in Boston as motivation to run the marathon.

"I wanted to do a marathon before I got old. I'm in Boston and have the chance," David B. Amerikaner '01 said.

A tailgate party organized by the class marshals will await the senior runners near Cleveland Park at mile 22, directly after the steepest portion of the course.

"What will keep me going up the hills is knowing that they are all up at Mile 22 waiting for me," Amerikaner said. His mother and younger brother have flown in from California and will join the tailgate.

Training for the marathon is a commitment that begins for most in January. A series of short weekly runs with the occasional long weekend run comprise most of the training. Balancing the long runs with a Harvard schedule, though, can be demanding.

"It was tough to keep training with my thesis, but I tried to run about