It’s hard to get anywhere on Marathon Monday when you’re walking with Jack Fleming.
On race day, the president and CEO of the Boston Athletic Association is the most popular man on Boylston Street. He’s stopped every few feet just past the finish line by an athlete who recognizes him, a volunteer who wants to thank him, or a runner who wants to reconnect.
They often know who he is. The crazy thing? He often knows who they are.
There’s Tami Segal from Florida, whom Fleming met on Tokyo Marathon weekend when he refused to call an Uber for himself, just for Segal to usher him into hers for a ride home.
With no idea of who Fleming was, Segal was looking for a bib for Boston. Fleming introduced her to Dougie’s Team for Autism, for whom Segal ran on Monday and earned her sixth star (with Fleming providing her Boston Marathon finisher medal).
There’s Kaitlyn Litchfield of Marshfield, who once met Fleming at the finish line of the Berlin Marathon and was thrilled to hear a familiar accent.
There’s Hunter Pratt, whom Fleming encountered on a run earlier in the spring, and about whom Fleming rattled off facts from memory at the finish line Monday.
“Don’t tell me, don’t tell me,” Fleming says, fingers pressed to his forehead. “St. John’s in Danvers ... football player ... the run was seven miles, we went over the Longfellow Bridge ... and don’t tell me who you’re running for ... Children’s Hospital!”
He’s right on all counts.
There’s Susan Glover of Dorchester and Sarah Livingstone of Illinois and Thanayi Henry of Waltham and countless more, each with their own story that brought them to the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
A few ask for photos. One wraps Fleming in a tearful embrace and tells him she’s running for her young daughter, who is being treated for cancer at Mass. General. Each is made to feel like their moment on Boylston Street matters.
“We talk about delivering Boston to the people,” Fleming says. “Not trying to be New York, not trying to be Berlin, or London, trying to just be who we are. One of the things that we can be is really hospitable here in Boston.”
It’s clear that Fleming, 55 years old but with the energy of a man half his age, is having a blast on his organization’s big day. Fleming is the first to embrace the winners of the elite races, hijacks the bullhorn on the lifeguard tower just past the finish line to address the runners, and snaps photos of athletes who want a shot of themselves just past the finish line.
What’s he supposed to be doing? Who knows.
“This is not work,” Fleming says, a little mischief in his eyes. “It’s just not work. I don’t know how I would describe it, but when you’re doing something that you love … cliches are there for a reason. When you do what you love to do, you will never work a day in your life.
“At this point in my career — oh my god!”
Fleming cuts himself off and goes running off toward another finisher just past the photo bridge, leaping into a bear hug. He might’ve knocked over the man who’d just completed 26.2 miles, if Jackie Hoffman Jr. of Illinois didn’t have eight inches and 100 pounds on the BAA CEO.
Fleming gives Hoffman — executive director of Peace Runners 773, a Chicago nonprofit — his finisher medal and asks Hoffman for a signature on Fleming’s Marathon jacket.
It’s all part of his favorite day of the year.
“Yes, the job can be a lot of people work and a lot of emails and a lot of this and a lot of that,” Fleming says. “Let’s keep it in perspective: It’s a great road race. Let’s have fun around it. We’re trying to give people a great day.
“Not even just the participants — look at these volunteers, they’re having a great day. The media, they’re having a great day ...”
A smiling photographer comes running up and interrupts Fleming, capturing a few shots.
“How are you, John?” Fleming asks.
“Having the best day of my life!” he responds.
Fleming grins from ear-to-ear as the photographer skips away.
“I can’t make that up.”
Amin Touri can be reached at amin.touri@globe.com.