Boston “closing in” on postponement until fall

Boston is a brutal place to find a hotel room in the Fall. Why? Because of leaf-peeping season. Insane numbers of people flock to northern New England to see the leaves change colors. I don’t associate Boston with that, but I travel there on business all the time and it is jammed then. Better do it early September before that starts.

People could do the Chicago/Boston/NYC triple.

I hope that they don't compel the legislature to create a new state holiday specifically for this one time event to occur on a Monday. Just put the race on a Saturday or Sunday in the fall.

Run it on Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day. It's a Monday (nod to tradition) and the Red Sox season will be over (They will be out of contention by early June.) eliminating traffic issues around Fenway.

That it's on a Monday is the worst thing about Boston. Use the opportunity to do it on the weekend.

Portland Hobby Jogger wrote:

Run it on Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day. It's a Monday (nod to tradition) and the Red Sox season will be over (They will be out of contention by early June.) eliminating traffic issues around Fenway.

A Red Sox game is what I was most looking forward to.

Why not wait until about 2 weeks out to decide this? Postponing right now makes no sense especially if things end up not as bad as predicted. This option is still available right up until race weekend before people start arriving in town. Still gives them 5 months to figure out things logistically if they wait until 1-2 weeks out.

Seriously mate? wrote:

Why not wait until about 2 weeks out to decide this? Postponing right now makes no sense especially if things end up not as bad as predicted. This option is still available right up until race weekend before people start arriving in town. Still gives them 5 months to figure out things logistically if they wait until 1-2 weeks out.

Agree that this would be more ideal, though no doubt the driver of this is the city officials who want to settle this and get it off their plate and move on to other aspects of the crisis.

Seriously mate? wrote:

Why not wait until about 2 weeks out to decide this? Postponing right now makes no sense especially if things end up not as bad as predicted. This option is still available right up until race weekend before people start arriving in town. Still gives them 5 months to figure out things logistically if they wait until 1-2 weeks out.

I think it’s because people want an answer now, so maybe BAA is giving scared people what they want.

The local news just said Labor Day is out because of College move in and Columbus day is out because of Chicago.

Dates wrote:

The local news just said Labor Day is out because of College move in and Columbus day is out because of Chicago.

Why in the world does Chicago factor into this?

IndyJ wrote:

Why in the world does Chicago factor into this?

I don't know, just saying what I heard on the news. Maybe they don't want to have 2 world majors on the same day?

Bc I'm planning to run both

Disko Eric wrote:

Seriously mate? wrote:

Why not wait until about 2 weeks out to decide this? Postponing right now makes no sense especially if things end up not as bad as predicted. This option is still available right up until race weekend before people start arriving in town. Still gives them 5 months to figure out things logistically if they wait until 1-2 weeks out.

I think it’s because people want an answer now, so maybe BAA is giving scared people what they want.

I personally would like to know sooner rather than later so maybe i can make accommodations (like finding an alternate marathon, or switch training and tackle a tri on the spring or something) .

At the end, it doesn't matter. They know they will cancel the event. They know the chances of reschedule are small. They know they will not reimburse the money. The more they push they cancellation, the more they can argue they did the best they could have, so no reimbursement of the race.

Seriously mate? wrote:

Why not wait until about 2 weeks out to decide this? Postponing right now makes no sense especially if things end up not as bad as predicted. This option is still available right up until race weekend before people start arriving in town. Still gives them 5 months to figure out things logistically if they wait until 1-2 weeks out.

Easy. Because the continued planning for an event that is destined to be cancelled or postponed is a waste of time, money, energy, and resources. Cancelling or postponing now will give people a chance to cancel/change their reservations, etc. and will free up resources for things such as, I don't know, containment. Make no mistake, Boston is not happening on April 20.

Pinto wrote:

Boston is a brutal place to find a hotel room in the Fall. Why? Because of leaf-peeping season. Insane numbers of people flock to northern New England to see the leaves change colors. I don’t associate Boston with that, but I travel there on business all the time and it is jammed then. Better do it early September before that starts.

the BAA already puts on an event in the fall. The BAA half, so it kinda make sense. It would be cool to run in the fall ,but early OCT there isn't much change in the leaves yet.

Dates wrote:

IndyJ wrote:

Why in the world does Chicago factor into this?

I don't know, just saying what I heard on the news. Maybe they don't want to have 2 world majors on the same day?

The elites are not going to run all these fall marathons including the Olympics. Many only run 2 per year. Most have or will run their countries Olympic trials. They will be running the Olympic marathon if they qualified and it is held. One option people have mentioned is delaying the Olympics to later in 2020. So the elite fields of all the world majors are affected already will be more so if Boston is moved to the fall. There is no guarantee that Covid-19 will disappear with warmer weather or that it will not return in the fall but a fall return may not occur until temperatures drop later in the fall--say November.

Registration closed for the 2020 Chicago Marathon on December 2. I ran both the 2017 Boston and Chicago races. I ran the 2018 Boston race and registered for the 2018 Chicago race but did not run it due to injury. I assume many others run both but won't be able to if they are close to the same dates this fall.

Buck up, daffodil. I've run Chicago and NYC in the same year. It's not a big deal.

I can't access the article because of a paywall . . .