This Runner Captured the Entire Boston Marathon Experience in 15 Minutes With Google Glass

Roughly 36,000 people ran the Boston Marathon Monday, but just one of those runners (that we've found) captured his entire race day with Google Glass, then created a video mashup of the entire experience.

And he did it as a tribute to those who were robbed of their finish last year by the deadly bombings.

Burden gives a thumbs up to bystanders cheering him at the finish line. (Image source: YouTube)

If you've ever been even remotely curious about running a marathon, especially Boston, you must watch this video.

"A reboot, for all of us. Evil exists; good is stronger," Ernesto Burden declares at the start of the video. An avid runner who has competed in dozens of races in his lifetime, including 11 marathons and a 50-mile ultra-marathon, Burden finished the 2013 Boston race with a personal best time of 2:58:43, roughly an hour before the deadly blasts occurred.

Burden, seen here running in an earlier race, wanted to capture the emotion of the 2014 race in a unique way (Image courtesy of Ernesto Burden).

Burden said a colleague and friend gave him the idea for wearing the Google Glass during the race.

"We'd talked about the technology quite a bit, and I'm a bit (understatement) of a technology geek," Burden told TheBlaze. "He suggested I wear them ... I ran with them during a seven-mile and 11 training run to test it out first."

For non-runners, the video is a great peek into the often quirky world of marathons. If you do run, you'll laugh at the familiar runner idiosyncrasies, like seeing one of Burden's friends taping up certain body parts before the race.

Because, let's face it, when you are constantly filming what's right in front of you, you may catch some awkward moments.

Nothing to see here, just some Band-Aids. (Image source: YouTube)

"For folks who weren't running, they say the video provided a window into the race and the community of runners who do these types of races. For those who did run, they are saying it recaptures the day, which was a complex emotional climax for many of them," Burden said.

"We are a huge community, and the one thing I think the video really reveals is how close and supportive that community is. The thing that strikes me especially about this is how this relatively new technology can help to illustrate that, and be humanizing," he said.

Another viral Boston Marathon video reinforces Burden's point: A bystander recorded four runners stopping and picking up a fellow competitor whose legs were giving out so that man could finish the race.

Four competitors decide to stop and pick up a fellow runner to help him cross the finish line after his legs gave out (Image source: Twitter)

Burden said it was an honor to participate in this year's race.

"For those who didn't finish (last year), for those who suffered, and those who still suffer, I think that this year was an amazing reboot of the event; transformational. I felt deeply privileged to be able to run again, and I hope this video captured that renewed sense of optimism, joy and just plain old fun that I - and I am sure everyone - felt at the end of the day," he said.

For the tech geeks out there wondering how the Glass felt during the three-hour race, Burden said it was actually easy to use and most people were happily curious when they noticed what he was wearing.

"The first time I wore them for a run, I thought, no way, these are too hard to work with to use during a race. But that was because I was trying to use the swipe/menu functions... I just ended up using the capture button and ignoring the heads-up display entirely," he said.

OK dude, but what about your sweat?

"I was worried I'd get them sweaty when my friend suggested I wear them, but he insisted! Thankfully, none of the input ports looked like they'd be in imminent danger of saturation unless it rained," Burden said.

And were the other runners weirded out by seeing the Glass?

"Most people didn't seem to notice until they quite close to me - then I'd get really enthusiastic comments from other tech-minded folks," he said.

Check out the video yourself below, and don't miss these noteworthy moments;

• At the 1:27 mark, see what most male runners to do protect themselves against the nasty chest chafe.
• Why even the fastest runners shuffle at the start of a race, at 2:50.
• What a race "scream tunnel" looks like at 7:10.
• At 8:24 "Heartbreak Hill."
• A runner in colonial garb? at 8:34.
• Nothing like friends to talk a little smack in the last mile of a race: "Why aren't you running hard?" at 9:58
• At 13:08, Ernesto talks with fellow runner Julia Huffman after the race, who admitted she cried at mile 7 while high-fiving kids who were watching the race

Granted, it's a little bumpy, but definitely worth a watch.

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Follow Elizabeth Kreft (@elizabethakreft) on Twitter