Marathoning in 2021

Two weeks from today is Patriot’s Day.

If you’re a running or someone who grew up in and around the Boston area, that can only mean one thing.

The city (or Town as the locals call it) shuts down and a little more than 30,000 runners line up in Hopkinton and just over 26,000 runners cross the finish line on Boylston Street in Boston’s Back Bay area.

This year the Boston Marathon was moved to October. And without getting into the Majors being back to back (that might be another post), I’m becoming more optimistic that racing will actually return by the end of this year.

The race director for the NYC Marathon has said without equivocation that the race will go on.

Ted Metellus’ exact quote to the NYTimes is:

“Is the marathon going to happen? Absolutely,” said Ted Metellus, the race director for the New York City Marathon, planned for Nov. 7. “It’s what it is going to look like that’s in question.”

Will it look like it has in past years? Most definitely not. What it will look like remains to be seen. And there are a lot of other details we don’t know.

But at this point, the Chicago Marathon has opened registration in a signal that the organizers plan to hold the event come October.

My thoughts on the matter?

Given the increase in access to the COVID vaccine, and the amount of people actually getting it, if given the chance (and I think I have a good one) I am thinking I’ll lineup at the foot of the Verrazano bridge on the first Sunday in November.

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I mean, why not? It’s not like they’re going to let us cram by the thousands in a corral only to be released to the start line to be crammed with more runners, right? Right?

As I said up top, I’m a lot more optimistic than I was earlier in the year. But until safety protocols are decided and released, I’m reserving the right to decide at a later date.

Right now I think there’s a lot of talk. And that talk has gotten a lot more positive, but as I said months ago, things are changing dramatically day to day. And at this point, we have no idea what next week is going to look like, let alone this fall.