Runners grateful to be back in the Boston Marathon

 

Photo courtesy of the Wampanoag Road Runners
A group of runners from the Wampanoag Road Runners line up to run their virtual Boston Marathon in September 2020 after the Boston Marathon was canceled. Twenty-three Wampanoag Road Runners participated in Monday's 125th Boston Marathon.

With the 125^th Boston Marathon returning to an actual road race on Monday for 20,000 runners --- another nearly 30,000 will be doing the marathon virtually as everyone was forced to do in 2020 due to the pandemic --- I’d like to share this story focusing on how many Attleboro area runners are feeling about doing the race.

At the end is also a story featuring an interview with a BAA spokesman about all of the COVID-19 protocols that will be in effect during Monday’s race.

Check out the story, as it appeared online at The Sun Chronicle website:

Link to Oct. 9th Boston Marathon preview story in The Sun Chronicle:
https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/an-october-marathon-monday-local-runners-ready-to-run-a-delayed-boston-marathon/article_ca25481e-9b27-52b3-ada6-b26fc1db8ac6.html

This story was published in the Oct. 9-10, 2021 edition of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA:

Runners have always considered the Boston Marathon the ultimate endurance test, and that’s never been truer than in 2021, because the road from Hopkinton to Boston has been paved with unprecedented challenges since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020.
Over the last 19 months, the Boston Marathon was first postponed from its traditional Patriots Day date to October and then canceled altogether, replaced with a virtual run last September.
The 125^th edition of the race was similarly postponed from this past April until Monday, which offered more uncertainty to runners trying to maintain a training regimen.
The good news is that the race will be held on Columbus Day, or Indigenous Peoples Day, as many communities now call the holiday. The disappointing news, driven by the pandemic, is that the race will look different. The changes include:
* The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) capped the field at 20,000 (instead of 31,500), including runners from 87 countries and all 50 states.
* All runners must produce proof of being fully vaccinated or a negative COVID-19 test.
* A separate virtual race is being held on marathon weekend; the field was capped at 70,000; nearly 30,000 signed up worldwide.
* There will be no Athletes Village, the traditional gathering spot in Hopkinton. Runners instead will be taking buses from the Boston Common to Hopkinton at assigned times from 7:30 to 10:15 a.m.
* The starting times have been pushed up an hour (8 instead of 9 a.m. for elite runners and 9 instead of 10 a.m. for everyone else.) There will be a rolling start to promote social distancing, with 3,500 runners starting the race in each wave.
* Runners must wear masks until they reach the starting line in addition to wearing them indoors, on the buses taking them to Hopkinton and in the medical tents; they won’t have to wear them on the course.
Despite those COVID-19 protocols, Attleboro area runners, including 23 from the Wampanoag Road Runners, are grateful to be back on the marathon course. In interviews with The Sun Chronicle, they said they’re not worried about the size of the field.
“I’m not nervous; I’m very curious” about what will happen, Lauren Farkash of Plainville said about the race size, adding she’s prepared to “roll with the punches.”
Jenn Bernazzani of Plainville echoed that sentiment, saying she’s more concerned about a more traditional worry: “I’m hoping for cool weather.”
No one interviewed objected to the BAA requiring either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. “It’s a privilege to run it, and you go along with it,” Bernazzani said of the protocols.
The runners we spoke with ranged from a woman who will be doing her first Boston Marathon after doing the virtual Boston race last year to a pair of runners who’ve done more than 25 straight Bostons to earn the BAA’s Quarter Century Club status that affords privileges, including making it easier to meet qualifying times and lower bib numbers. The latter will be especially important given this year’s staggered start as the lower numbers will permit those runners, Joe Kvilhaug of Taunton and Dave Santoro of North Attleboro, to begin the race earlier than most non-elite entrants.
They were interviewed at DB Sports in North Attleboro --- a popular gathering spot for runners, whose owner Kevin Downing has made the Hopkinton-Boston trek 15 times, the last in 2015 --- and by phone. All the runners interviewed met the BAA’s qualifying times, except for one runner who is part of a corporate team. Brief profiles follow:
Sandy Sheehy, 57, North Attleboro
This will be her 15^th Boston after running in and helping to organize the club’s 2020 virtual race for about 30 marathoners over a course that started in Westwood Estates in North Attleboro and traveled through Attleboro, Mansfield and Plainville before finishing in Westwood Estates. The course included its own “Heartbreak Hill” on Landry Avenue.
Sheehy said a local virtual race will be run on marathon weekend for those who didn’t make the cut for the in-person race.
Sue Carey, 53, Foxboro
She’ll be running her first actual Boston Marathon after doing the virtual Boston last year with the Sam Adams corporate team. She found her first 26.2-miler “really tough,” noting that “the training seemed to never end.”
She’s “very excited” to be experiencing Boston for the first time.
Jenn Bernazzani, 49, Plainville
This will be her sixth Boston, and she’s running for the Last Call Foundation, which provides funding, education and research to advance firefighter safety.
She can’t wait for the race after running a virtual marathon on what would have been marathon day in April 2020, because she had already collected money for the Last Call Foundation, and wanted to honor her commitment to the charity. So, she ran 11 loops around her neighborhood, a run that made her yearn for the real Boston Marathon.
“I’m looking forward to the crowds this year. I think that will be the cherry on the sundae,” she quipped.
Theresa Tattersall, 78, North Attleboro
This will be her 14^th Boston, and she can’t wait for the real thing after acknowledging that last year’s virtual marathon proved difficult.
“I thought it was going to be a snap,” she said, only to find it to be tough mentally.
She missed the spectators’ encouragement, specifically “kids giving high-fives” and people handing out popsicles and orange slices. “The first time I ran it, I thought it (Boston) was a smorgasbord out there” because of all the free food given to runners.
Lauren Farkash, 52, Plainville
She came to the interview from a King Philip Regional High School cross-country meet, where she’s been the coach of the girls’ team since 2016. This will be her 14^th Boston Marathon.
The cancellation of the 2020 race helped Farkash, who wouldn’t have been able to run Boston had it been held that April due to a knee injury. The delay “gave me time to rehab my knee,” she said, and she used last fall’s virtual marathon as a training run-walk to ease back into running.
Joe Kvilhaug, 71, Taunton
Kvilhaug has earned the Quarter Century Club status conferred by the BAA for runners who’ve done at least 25 straight; this will be his 26^th consecutive Boston. He kept his streak alive --- which he started in the 100^th in 1996 ---- by running last year’s race virtually with a friend on the Blackstone River bikeway in Rhode Island.
He did his fastest Boston in 3 hours and 24 seconds 20 years ago at age 51, and said the year of the bombings in 2013 was one of his toughest, even though he (3 hours, 27 minutes) and his older daughter Amy (3:20) finished before the first explosion about four hours into the race. “That was harrowing,” he said.
Another tough Boston was 2018, held during a driving rainstorm. “The rain was coming down sideways,” he said.
He can’t wait for Marathon Monday. “It’s the most fun day in the world. I love the crowds, the excitement,” he said.
Dave Santoro, 58, North Attleboro
Santoro, who’s been running since his Bishop Feehan High School days in the late ’70s and early ’80s, will be doing his 32^nd Boston and 67^th overall marathon since doing his first Boston in 1991, which was his  fastest at 2:58. He’s piled up that many marathons by doing two a year: Boston and Chicago.
One of his toughest races was the rain-drenched one in 2018, which he’ll never forget thanks to this T-shirt his son gave him: “I swam from Hopkinton to Boston.”
Santoro ran the Wampanoag’s virtual marathon last year, finishing in 4:14, a tough race, because running virtually means “basically you’re out there by yourself. No one does the same pace.”
Besides being a qualified runner, Santoro for the 10^th year will be raising money for the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, which was started by the former New England Patriot to support cancer patients and their families. Before that, he said he raised money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for 17 years.
Larry Kessler is a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor and can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com

The BAA explains the COVID-19 protocols …

The Boston Athletic Association has made several COVID-19-related modifications to its procedures in order to have the 125^th Boston Marathon, postponed from April, go off as scheduled on Monday, Oct. 11.
The procedural changes were developed after extensive consultations with public health, safety and government officials, the BAA said.
The Sun Chronicle discussed the daunting challenges associated with planning this year’s marathon with BAA Communications Manager Chris Lotsbom. His edited email interview follows:
SC: Do you foresee any problems enforcing the COVID-19 protocols, and what’s been the reaction of the runners to them?
LOTSBOM: “All athletes participating in October’s race have signed our participant waiver at the point of registration, agreeing to comply with all of our race policies leading up to and on race day. This includes any policies in place to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
SC: There will be a staggered start for runners. How will that work? Will runners be required to wear masks while waiting to start the race?

LOTSBOM: “This year’s Boston Marathon will feature a rolling start. Participants have been seeded based on their qualifying times (very similar to past years’ waves) and have been assigned corresponding, staggered bus-loading times. Thirty-three buses will leave every 15 minutes from Boston Common (these departure times coordinate to the approximate start time in Hopkinton and to the flow of the rolling start)” from 7:30 to 10:15 a.m.
“Once buses arrive in Hopkinton, participants will have time to stretch, use the facilities and hydrate before starting their races whenever ready. The rolling-start procedure significantly reduces the amount of wait time for participants in Hopkinton, and will aid in social distancing. Participants will be required to wear masks on event transportation and will be asked to keep masks on until they reach the starting line.”
SC: Are there any specific COVID-19 guidelines just for international runners?

LOTSBOM: “We continue to urge all participants, regardless of international or domestic, to follow local, state and national health and safety guidelines within their communities.”
SC: Are there any contingencies in place in case the marathon is canceled at the last minute due to the rise of the delta variant or are you fairly confident that the BAA will be able to pull off the race safely?

LOTSBOM: “The 125^th Boston Marathon is scheduled for Oct. 11 and we look forward to a historic race that prioritizes the health and well-being of our participants, volunteers, staff, spectators and community members.”

SC: The pandemic has made planning for the 2021 marathon particularly difficult. How would you compare planning for this race to two other challenging years: 2014, the year after the terror attacks, and 1996, the 100^th?

LOTSBOM: “Planning for every Boston Marathon is unique, and everyone at the BAA has been working diligently to ensure a safe and successful race. Since September 2020, the BAA has regularly met with a COVID-19 Medical and Event Operations Advisory Group to guide the BAA’s leadership in planning for (the race). While we look forward to welcoming our reduced field on Oct. 11, we are also excited to have nearly 30,000 participants completing our race virtually around the globe Oct. 8-10.”