Putting them in the running
With bibs from BAA, cities and towns on route boost charities by giving residents a shot
The instructions for running the Boston Marathon go like this: Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, Boston. Right on Hereford. Left on Boylston. Straight on to glory.
It’s been that way for generations, and for those eight cities and towns along the route, Marathon Monday has become a defining day in their annual stories. It’s a tradition to cheer, of course, but it is also a tradition for the people who live in those places to test themselves, to say “This is the year” and take on the world’s most famous distance challenge, with the community watching.
The Boston Athletic Association has long allowed runners from those eight communities to pin on a bib and cross the start line in Hopkinton through a program that awards each community a chunk of numbers to distribute to their residents each year. Each town has a slightly different method for how it distributes its numbers, but the bulk go to small charities that enlist local runners willing to fund-raise a set amount. It is also common to set aside some entries for first responders.
Otherwise, getting a bib to run the Marathon is famously difficult. To qualify for a number, you need to be performing at nearly an elite level in your age bracket. Not just a regular marathoner, but a very good one. The BAA also runs its own charity program, which awards thousands of bibs to select nonprofits that recruit athletes willing to raise funds for their cause.
But the bibs awarded to the cities and towns are viewed as a way to reward and connect with the communities that have
long shared the joy, and the burdens, of Marathon Monday.
“It’s an incredible way for someone to accomplish a life goal while supporting a local organization for whom $5,000 is a lot of money, whether that be a food pantry or an arts group,” Hattie Kerwin Derrick, Newton’s director of community engagement and inclusion, said of the bib program. “And when people list the reasons they want to run, it’s always really compelling, really heartfelt. It’s a special thing for the city to be a part of.”
Hopkinton, where the Marathon and the Charles River begin their journey to Boston, receives 65 numbers, a not-sosubtle thank you for the huge disruption the BAA causes each year with the logistics required to get nearly 30,000 runners in and off.
Last year in Hopkinton, the 65 bibs were used to raise more than $500,000 for local organizations that covered everything from youth sports and the humane society, to food pantries and mental health organizations.
Brookline, which receives 40 entries, formed Team Brookline in 2013 as an umbrella organization for the five organizations that share the bibs to pool their fund-raising and training together.
“I can’t tell you how emotional I get when I see those runners every year as they pass by our cheering station,” said Nancy Vineberg, chief development officer of The Brookline Center, which runs Team Brookline. “We’re out there all day, and we won’t leave until that last runner comes through. And every year, we seem to have that one runner on a sixhour pace, and it’s so emotional when they come through because you know how hard they worked.”
Wellesley receives 25 bibs, and 29 nonprofits applied for a program that requires they be used to raise at least $5,000 per entry.
“A lot of these nonprofits don’t often have a chance to raise that much money, so it’s an incredible opportunity,” said Stephanie Hawkinson, the public information officer for the town.
“But it’s also an amazing opportunity for our runners to experience the special role we play in the Marathon,” Hawkinson added. “You enter [the town] with the scream tunnel at Wellesley College and you leave going downhill, you cross the halfway point in between, and the whole town comes out to watch you do it.”
In Ashland, which arrives minutes into the race and greets runners with the famously raucous party at TJ’s Food and Spirits, officials would not say how many bibs they receive. (The BAA also declined to provide the numbers it allots for each community.)
Susan Robie, executive assistant for the town manager, said they received 45 applications for this year’s bibs, which come with a $3,000 fund-raising requirement.
“Our focus is to get the bibs in the hands of Ashland residents who will use them to put money back into the community,” Robie said. “One of the biggest things supported each year is our youth sports, and that leads to all kinds of unique ideas in town, because a lot of those runners don’t want to ask family and friends for money so instead they come up with clever events.”
Newton, which is home to the longest and toughest stretch on the course, with four good-sized ascents ending in the infamous Heartbreak Hill, receives 45 bibs each year. The city keeps a few for itself, as well as the police and fire departments, then awards the bulk to local nonprofits that can each apply to receive a single bib. If there are more applicants than numbers — always the case — the mayor simply draws the winners from a hat.
A representative for Boston did not respond to a request asking what the city does with its bibs, but under former mayor Thomas M. Menino, they were distributed to charities, while each of the 13 city councilors could apply to receive two bibs for charities in their district.
Former Boston councilor Matt O’Malley, who has run the Marathon himself several times, said the BAA practice of awarding bibs to host communities deepens the connection between the two, and is a just reward for “literally and figuratively opening their front doors to a millions runners and spectators” each Patriots Day.
“The option for people in the community to take on the Marathon, while raising millions of dollars for their communities, is one of the great legacies of the people’s race,” O’Malley said.