Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Tonight I’ll let Race Director Dave McGillivray describe the slight course change at the Boston Marathon. (I’ll provide the graphic.)

In an effort to provide vehicular relief on the Back Bay, we have also agreed with the City of Boston’s request to have the race go under the Mass. Avenue bridge rather than across it. This will have a significant impact on relieving the North and South traffic gridlock in the Back Bay that is normally created by the race.

True, this means another slight decline and incline for the runners at the 25.4-mile point in the race, however, it is not severe and if runners know this in advance (which they will), they should be able to adjust their stride accordingly and handle this without any degree of difficulty.

Bottom line is that the second half of the race field is slower today than years ago, thus tying up city streets much longer and as such we need to respond to city requests to offer some relief. And, although it is Patriot’s Day (Monday) in Boston, it has become less and less of an off work day than in the past, thus generating much more vehicular traffic during this rush hour time of day.

Source: BAA