Organizers deserve medal
Field affected by Summer Olympics
Ever since officials drew a line in the Ashland dirt in 1897, distance runners have been drawn to the planet’s foremost footrace. And each April since the organizers began offering prize money nearly four decades ago, the Boston Marathon has attracted international runners intrigued by the quirky layout and the unmatched lore.
But then there’s that fourth April, when the elite competitors are dreaming about winning the sport’s ultimate gold medal, which will be awarded in Paris this summer.
“The Olympic years are always refreshingly interesting,” said Mary Kate Shea, the Boston Athletic Association’s senior director who recruits the professional men’s and women’s fields. “You have the challenge of folks trying to present themselves in the best light for their federation to be chosen for the Games.”
Assembling the field for Boston is both an art and a science. It’s more of a challenge in the Olympic years, when the top American runners are coming off their trials and Africans who’ve made their countries’ provisional rosters are hoping to impress the selectors.
“You’re put on the list and that feeling of hope and expectation probably lasts for a week or two, and then you’re down to business,” Shea said. “Then it’s, ‘What course is going to challenge me?’ ‘Where am I going to be able to excel?’ ‘Where am I going to podium?’ ‘Where am I going to win?’ Even though you’re on that list, you still have to continually prove yourself until they make that final selection.”
So it’s mandatory for five-ringed hopefuls to run a winter or spring marathon. Some of last year’s top-10 Boston finishers chose earlier and easier courses this time.
Eliud Kipchoge, who’ll be chasing an unprecedented third Olympic men’s crown, opted for Tokyo in early March and finished a disconcerting 10th. Benson Kipruto also chose Tokyo and set a course record in winning, while Amane Beriso and Lonah Salpeter ran there, too.
Gotytom Gebreslase went to Nagoya, where she dropped out. Angela Tanui finished second in Daegu last weekend, and Nazret Weldu will run in Vienna two weekends from now.
“Boston can be an incredibly fast course, but it also can be an incredibly difficult course,” Shea observed. “In the decision-making for some of them, that did come into play.”
Yet Boston still attracted most of last year’s top-10 finishers. Most notably Kenya’s Evans Chebet, who’ll be gunning for his third consecutive men’s crown, Tanzanian runner-up Gabriel Geay and Kenya’s Hellen Obiri, the defending women’s titlist.
The field for Monday’s race features 10 men who’ve broken 2 hours 6 minutes, and nine women who’ve gone under 2:20.
“I’m always pleasantly surprised at the depth of the fields that we do get in an Olympic year,” said Shea. “The legacy and history of Boston is still a tremendous draw for international athletes. We’re definitely well represented globally.”
The BAA customarily begins recruiting the next year’s field as soon as that year’s is in the books.
“We want the field vetted,” said
Shea. “A lot of research and negotiation goes on between April and June.”
By summer, most of the field has been lined up, but the BAA reserves some spots for runners who distinguish themselves at fall marathons.
“Take Sharon Lokedi, for example,” Shea said. “Did anyone think she would win New York City two years ago? Was she on anybody’s radar? So you always want to leave some space for people who are going to jump into the limelight.”
The biggest Olympic-year challenge was the last one, when the pandemic postponed and then wiped out the 2020 race after the field had been announced and the Tokyo Games were deferred a year.
“As a sign of good faith, we provided the athletes with a level of support that would see them through another training cycle,” Shea said. “As a result, it built a great partnership, and continued to foster a nice relationship going into 2021.”
That year, Boston was conducted in October, after the rescheduled Games, when five of the marathon majors were jammed into a six-week span in the autumn.
“That was a very good year for us,” said Shea. “It highlighted the sport in such a focused amount of time because every other weekend, there was a tremendous race on, and enough depth of talent that people were interested in all of the majors.”
The perennial challenge is recruiting Americans, since the top runners almost always go to the Olympic Trials. For decades, Boston was a selection race, along with the AAU Championships in Yonkers, N.Y. That’s how the likes of Clarence DeMar, Ellison “Tarzan” Brown, and Johnny “The Younger” Kelley all made it to Olympus.
But after the USOC went to a single venue in 1968, the next several Boston victors were relative unknowns. In what Globe columnist Jerry Nason called “the year of the mystery marathoner,” Wesleyan undergrad Amby Burfoot became the first collegian to win in 1968. Olavi Suomalainen, a Finnish engineering student who’d never run a marathon and never won another, prevailed in 1972. He was followed in 1976 by Georgetown student Jack Fultz, who outlasted everybody in the “Run for the Hoses” in near 100-degree heat.
With the trials now held a couple of months before Boston, the BAA adds familiar runners who missed making the team. Shea went to Orlando in early February and served as a volunteer at a hydration station to check out possible additions.
“There were people who really wanted that spot,” she said.
So Shea signed up the likes of Elkanah Kibet, Sam Chelanga, Sara Hall, Caroline Rotich, and Jenny Simpson.
It won’t be Paris in August, but for those who want marathoning’s most revered challenge, Boston in April remains a seductive challenge every year.