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Boston Marathon to Implement Wave Start, Alter Course Slightly During Final Mile BOSTON - In a change designed to provide
a better experience at the beginning of the race both for participants
and residents, the Boston Athletic Association in cooperation with the
Town of Hopkinton will implement a wave start for this year's Boston
Marathon. In employing the change, all participants
will be staged and begin on a single commercial street (Main Street,
also known as Route 135) in two waves of approximately 10,000 athletes
in each wave. No longer will runners wait to begin the race while lined-up
on residential streets. Hundreds of volunteers will escort runners
from an expanded Athletes' Village at Hopkinton High School to their
starting corrals, preventing them from stopping on or in front of private
(residential or commercial) or public property. Approximately
half of the anticipated field of 20,000 official entrants will begin
in the first wave, and the remaining half of the field will begin one-half
hour later in the second wave. The starting time for the first wave
of runners will be Noon, and the second wave will begin at 12:30 p.m.
Remaining the same as in each of the last two years (since 2004), a
few mobility-impaired participants will begin at 10:00 a.m., several
dozen wheelchair division competitors will begin at 11:25 a.m., and
approximately 50-70 of the race's fastest women will begin in a separate
Elite Women's Start at 11:31 a.m. The exact starting line itself,
adjacent to the Hopkinton Town Green, remains unchanged. "This improvement will result in a
vastly more efficient race," said Dave McGillivray, Boston Marathon
Race Director. "This change is all positive and will benefit everything
about the Boston Marathon, including our transportation plan and our
accommodation of runners in the hours leading up to the race. The effects
of this plan will be extensive: we are sensitive to our impact within
Hopkinton, and this operational innovation addresses the concerns of
town residents and officials." Another of the benefits of the wave start
is that it will reduce the amount of time that it takes for runners
to cross the starting line. Last year, with approximately 20,000
official entrants, the last official participant crossed the starting
line approximately 30 minutes after the starting gun was fired.
Although the B.A.A.'s timing and scoring system records participants'
net times, in the past it may have taken runners until several miles
down the course before they could begin to run freely and without obstruction
due to the density of runners during the race's early stages. "Whereas it took the last official
runners 30 minutes to cross the starting line last year, this year it
will take fewer than 10 minutes for each wave to cross," said McGillivray.
"It is important to note that the anticipated net difference in this
method versus previous years' one gun, one start' is only about
10 minutes, meaning the last runner will be crossing the starting line
this year at 12:40 p.m. as compared to 12:30 p.m. last year. We get
the benefit of a wave start without any significant delay in anyone's
starting time. Runners will continue to be seeded and started
according to their qualifying time, which means that in theory
no one from the second wave will ever catch anyone from the first wave.
In practice, of course, due to a number of variables, some runners from
the second wave will mix with the last runners of the first wave far
down the course. However, by that time, the race will have thinned
itself enough so that no issue will arise for runners who are passing
other runners, getting the fluid replacement that they need, or other
race services." Another change will be that runners will
be scored and ranked by their net time, which means that although
they will be starting 30 minutes later than those in the first wave
runners from the second wave will be timed and scored from the time
they cross the starting line until the time they cross the finish line.
Prize money winners will continue to be awarded by gun time (not net
time). Because the second wave will begin at
12:30 p.m., the finish line timing and scoring operation will remain
open until 6:30 p.m. Since 1997, the Boston Marathon finish line
has stayed up and running until just after 6:00 p.m., recording all
official participants who run within the six hour time limit. "These changes represent a major step
forward for the Boston Marathon and its runners," said the B.A.A.s'
Executive Director Guy Morse. "Everyone wins with this plan. Wave
starts have been implemented and received with overwhelming and widespread
success in road racing, as well as in other sports. There is no anticipated
down-side with our plan."
Benefits of the B.A.A.'s plan to begin the 2006 Boston Marathon in
a wave start, consisting of two sections of 10,000 participants each:
Start timeline for the 110th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17, 2006 10:00 a.m. Mobility-impaired athletes 11:25 a.m. Wheelchair division competitors 11:31 a.m. Elite Women Noon Elite Men and first wave of approximately 10,000 entrants 12:30 p.m. Second wave of approximately
10,000 entrants Unrelated to the wave start, the B.A.A.
and the City of Boston will make a minor course change within the last
mile of the route. In the 25th mile not far after the
runners pass through Kenmore Square, participants will go under
Massachusetts Avenue as they make their way along Commonwealth Avenue.
In the past, the course has taken runners across Massachusetts
Avenue on Commonwealth Avenue. The change allows for pedestrian and
vehicular traffic on Massachusetts Avenue while the race is in progress,
providing an outlet in the Back Bay on a major roadway which previously
did not exist. The course has been re-measured and the course change
does not necessitate any alteration of either the starting line or the
finish line. The exact distance from the existing starting line on Main
Street in Hopkinton to the existing finish line on Boylston Street in
Boston is 26 miles, 385 yards. This year's marathon will be held on
Monday, April 17; it is the 110th edition of the world's
oldest annual marathon. The Boston Marathon has started in Hopkinton,
Massachusetts since 1924. From the race's inception in 1897
until 1923, the Boston Marathon began in neighboring Ashland, Mass. Established in 1887, the Boston Athletic
Association is a non-profit organization with a mission of managing
athletic events and promoting a healthy lifestyle through sports, especially
running. Besides the Boston Marathon, the organization manages other
local events and supports comprehensive charity, youth, and year-round
running programs.
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