I’d just like to make a comment about those who run the Boston Marathon without qualifying for it and without paying the entrance fee. As a longtime runner, I’ve wanted to run the Boston Marathon since high school, but since I was born without “speedy genes,” I’ve had to content myself with volunteering at the Marathon and running the Boston Half-Marathon, which does not require qualifying times, just your money.
I understand that these “bandit” runners are not mean-spirited, and as in your Marathon article (“BU students volunteer, run marathon on day off,” April 20, pg. 3), many just want to cheer on the runners. Who can fault that? But the truth of the matter is that bandits take up resources (water, Gatorade, space blankets), and even if they avoid any of those, they also take up space allotted to qualified runners.
In a 2002 article from The Portsmouth Herald, one of the Boston Marathon public relations contacts discouraged bandits from running Boston. “We don’t aggressively pull people off the course, but we strongly encourage people to run only if they are qualified entrants,” said Julia Beeson of the Boston Athletic Association. “Supplies, manpower – all provisions are made with the qualified field size in mind, and we want to ensure the enjoyment of all the official runners.”
I know that plenty of people do not agree with my stance, and that’s fine with me. I can’t stop anyone from running as a bandit, nor do I want that to be my job. I just wanted to let students know that there are at least a few reasons to cheer participants from the course sidelines rather than actually run the Marathon.
Kate Ramey CAS ’04
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