By: The Mizuno Shoe Guy
If you’re one of the 25,000 Boston marathoners who has qualified to run the 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to the finish on Boylston Street on Patriots’ Day (April 20th), congratulations. Just getting to the starting line is a noteworthy accomplishment for the many thousands of Boston Marathon qualifiers.
Boston isn’t the biggest marathon in this country–New York City and Chicago are larger–but it is still the greatest road race in the world. But what makes Boston so great isn’t the fact that it imposes qualifying standards. Rather, what makes Boston so iconic is its 119-year history, its deeply rooted traditions and the fact that the course is basically the same one which was first used in 1897.
Nowhere is a marathon more revered than it is in Boston. It’s on the bucket list of every marathoner to run Boston. Unfortunately, the strict qualifying standards eliminates untold thousands of marathoners from ever having the opportunity to run Boston.
I’m not an advocate of loosening the increasingly tough qualifying times. Instead, I firmly believe that every red-blooded American marathoner—qualified or not—should have the chance to run the Great American Marathon once. But, just one time.
This isn’t sour grapes on my part. I’ve had a BQ in just about every marathon I’ve run and running Boston is one of the most memorable experiences in my life. I loved every step of the way.
My opinion is that Boston should institute some sort of lottery which allows a certain number of non-qualifying marathoners (say, 5000) the once-in-a-lifetime chance to run the marathon. Again, just once.
Please hold your objections for a moment while I point out that approximately 20 percent of the marathon’s spots are held in reserve for runners who get in through charities, sponsors, local running clubs and the municipalities along the course. Typically, about 5000 runners get in this way and more than half of them raise a certain amount of money for one of the two dozen official Boston charities. Most of these runners have not met the qualifying time standards (some have never even run a marathon), but they still run along with all the other qualifiers.
Are they slower? Well sure. Last year, I met some friends near the Boston finish line in the late afternoon and watched some charity runners finish the race in five and six hours. Their struggle to get to the finish—it was warm—was just as difficult as the qualified marathoners who finished 2-3 hours earlier.
My take: Good for them. I’m glad they had the chance to experience Boston, regardless of how they got in. Those that finished can proudly call themselves Boston marathoners, just like any other Boston finisher.
I fully realize I’m an outlier in this belief that the Boston Marathon should open up to a few thousand more non-qualifiers. Admittedly, many of the runners I train with who are running Boston this year would probably reply, “Boston isn’t for every runner. I had to qualify. I’ve earned it.”
That’s absolutely true.
But the inclusion of a set number of more non-qualifiers wouldn’t diminish the accomplishment of qualifying for Boston any more than the charity runners do. Nor, would the non-qualifiers interfere in the least with the qualifiers starting in the first three waves. A fourth wave would have to be added for the lottery-chosen, non-qualifiers who would start in the back of the back of the pack, 30-40 minutes after those with hard-earned Boston qualifiers.
Can the Boston course and infrastructure handle even more runners? Certainly. The Centennial Boston in 1996 had nearly 39,000 entrants and though it was congested in spots (I ran it), nobody came away from that race with any less of a Boston experience.
Rather, it was just the opposite. Thousands of runners who had never run Boston before ramped up their running to qualify for the Centennial and discovered what makes running Boston so unforgettable.
There’s nothing like running up and down the Boston hills in front of half a million spectators. Those final 3 ½ blocks down Boylston Street to the finish in front of the Boston Public Library is the crowning achievement in so many of our running lives. Clearly, adding a few thousand slower runners would do nothing to change that. Rather, it would broaden the experience.
Boston has a special place in American history. We celebrate it as the cradle of liberty and freedom. It’s also the birthplace of modern marathoning.
Opening up Boston to a limited number of non-qualifiers would enfranchise thousands of more marathoners who could then call themselves Boston marathoners. Every marathoner should have that one chance to experience Boston.