BOSTON MARATHON RACE DIRECTOR DAVE MCGILLIVRAY STILL PLANS ON RUNNING 26.2 ON PATRIOTS DAY
METROWEST DAILY NEWS
Dave McGillivray, race director for the Boston Marathon the past 33 years who has run the race 47 times, will be churning out the miles on Monday.
The race - his race, more accurately - has been moved. Patriots Day Monday, for the first time in since 1968, is an open date.
What will America’s long-distance running pioneer do?
The man whose lengthy list of accomplishments include a cross-America run, a 24-hour run and a marathon a day for seven days - another feat: he was 63 at the time - still plans to put in 26.2 miles.
Dave McGillivray, race director for the Boston Marathon the past 33 years who has run the race 47 times, will be churning out the miles on Monday. Without the company of a police escort and the cheers along Routes 135, 16, and 30. No right on Hereford, no left onto Boylston.
“I’m just going to get up and run a marathon in my neighborhood,” McGillivray told the Daily News on Wednesday evening in a lengthy phone interview from his North Andover home. “Nothing official, but it’s just my way of being able to cope with this.”
Because of the social-distancing recommendation in place due to the coronavirus that has postponed the Marathon until Sept. 14, McGillivray will run by himself.
Same as he did in 1978, when, long before anyone ran a marathon in all 50 states and during a time when fewer than 50 marathons were held nationwide (there were nearly 900 last year), McGillivray ran from Medford (Ore.) to Boston in a span of 80 days.
‘A strange week’
The days leading up to the Boston Marathon for McGillivray are full of meetings, press briefings and final preparations. When contacted for this story, he would have normally been unavailable to talk because of a meeting in Hopkinton with that town’s marathon committee. The next morning, a public safety meeting was planned at Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Framingham.
That would lead to appearances at the marathon expo in Boston and a pre-dawn start to the day on Monday.
Not this year.
“It’s been a strange week,” the father of five said. “More than any other week of the year, I know exactly where I’m going to be and what I need to do every single day - to the hour.
“It’s all choreographed to the second. Each day of this week, all that’s been going through my head is: ‘this is where I’d normally be,’ and right now I’m sitting in my home office. It’s surreal.”
Besides Boston, McGillivray directs more than 30 other races through his DMSE Sports business. But eight of those have already been canceled and another four have been postponed.
DMSE directs such staples as the Beach to Beacon 10K (Aug. 1), Falmouth Road Race (Aug. 16) and a pair of events in July that involve professional sports venues: the Finish at the 50 that ends at Gillette Stadium and the Run to Home Base that brings runners to home plate at Fenway Park.
Decisions have not been made regarding any of those four races, but the fate of the latter two is further unknown because the future of professional sports is unclear.
“I’m not sure what’s going to happen with them,” McGillivray said. “They’re dependent on the NFL and the Major League Baseball schedule. That’s all up in the air.”
The birthday run
McGillivray is not only known for running Boston for the past 47 years - including last year, just six months following triple bypass surgery - but for what he does on Aug. 22, his birthday.
Since age 12, he has run his age in miles.
His run in 2008 consisted of 54 miles at age 54 and finished at Fenway Park, the same ending spot to his run across America 30 years prior. Last year, because he was still recovering from heart surgery, McGillivray ran 26.2 miles and biked the final 39 as he turned 65.
But birthday No. 66 involves another mile and a new twist: Boston is just a little more than three weeks later.
That means less than a month to recover from a run that consists of two marathons - plus another 14 miles.
“I didn’t think about that,” he replied when asked about the short time distance between the two events this year.
“My plan would still be to do it. It’s a long way and it takes all day. I could do it a week or so before my birthday and then have four weeks before the Marathon. We’ll see.
“My motto’s always been: my game, my rules.”
The (uncertain) future
McGillivray was out running with his 14-year-old son Luke on Tuesday. They talked about how no races are planned for the foreseeable future, which means dad’s calendar of directing races is wiped out for much of the summer.
More time to spend with the family.
“But he said, ‘dad, that means we won’t be able to run in any races,’” McGillivray said. “And that hit me: Imagine going the whole summer without any races to run in.”
At some point, a race will go on as planned. Cooped-up runners will emerge. Who wins won’t matter.
“Whenever it is and wherever it is and whatever it is, it’s going to be epic; the first time everyone is able to get together and celebrate the sport.
“It would be great if it was Boston.”