MARATHON MCGILLIVRAY: RACE DIRECTOR REFLECTS ON HIGHLIGHTS IN ADVANCE OF 50TH CONSECUTIVE BOSTON MARATHON
Dave McGillivray will hit a major milestone Monday if everything goes as planned, which is almost always the case with the famed Boston Marathon race director.
The 67-year-old North Andover resident and Merrimack College graduate will be running his 50th consecutive Boston Marathon.
Streaks and discipline have long been part of McGillivray’s life, particularly when it comes to running. Since turning 12, he has run his age, in miles, on his birthday. Most recently, he ran at least 3.5 miles every day for a year, regardless of the weather.
He has also run across the country — twice. and he’s run up and down the East Coast, as well as run seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. He’s also done nine Hawaiian Ultra Marathons and about 40 triathlons.
But running his 50th Boston Marathon? That’s his biggest feat. This is the one that all of the other accomplishments have revolved around, he said. This race shaped his life as an athlete, race director and long-time race promoter, including the Feaster Five Road Race in Andover on Thanksgiving Day.
To honor his 50th straight Boston Marathon, The Eagle-Tribune asked McGillivray to detail 50 highlight memories from over the years.
1. ORIGINAL INSPIRATION
My inspiration for running Boston in the first place was Ron Hill from Great Britain. Ron won the 1970 Boston Marathon. He set a then- course record of 2:10 in the pouring rain. I was listening to that race on the radio while helping my Dad work on his car in the garage. I recall turning to my Dad and saying, “Someday I’m going to run in that race, Dad.” Three years later I finished my first Boston.
2. YEARBOOK PROMISE
I wrote in my 1972 high school yearbook that “my ambition in life is to do for my children what my parents have done for me AND to run the Boston Marathon!” Well, at least one of them came true.
3. FIRST YEAR FALLOUT
I ran in my first Boston in 1972. I dropped out at mile 20 and got taken to the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in an ambulance. My parents had to come and pick me up in the hospital, but I committed to them and my grandfather that I would train and would be back the next year.
4. OFFICIAL OFFICIAL
I ran in my first official Boston in 1973. I got sick the day before and as such almost dropped out at 21.5 miles, but I did manage to finished in 4:30, my very first marathon overall, too. I committed then to run this race every year for the rest of my life.
5. THE NEW STARTER
I was offered the job as technical coordinator in 1988, mainly due to a wheelchair accident at the start and a tripping incident that year. I got rid of the rope at the start and replaced it with a human chain of volunteers and implemented a controlled start for the wheelchairs. I’ve had the job ever since.
6. STORY FOR THE AGES
The Boston Globe did a major story titled “A Fine Start” about how the start went smoothly for the race. Story probably helped change the course of my career.
7. SNOW WAY!
A few days before the 100th Boston Marathon, we had a snowstorm and had to “remove” all of the snow from the Athletes’ Village and around the start line. We needed this extra work like a hole in the head.
8. URINAL RUNNERUP
For the 100th, we were able to bring in the longest urinal in the world from the NYC Marathon team. However, they left 10 feet of it back in New York so that they could still always claim that theirs was the longest.
9. 26.2 EQUALS MARATHON
A young woman, Katie Lynch, asked me if she could “run” the Boston Marathon. She was 36 inches tall and had countless operations at Children’s Hospital. Her marathon was 26.2 feet. I barricaded 26.2 feet at the start and she did it in her walker right before the start of the race. One of my most memorable Boston Marathon moments ever.
10. TROOPER DAN’S HELP
In my first few years of directing, I would start the races, let all the runners cross the starting line and then State Trooper Dan Clark would drive me to Natick along the back roads and I would jump into the lead vehicle as it came by. Whatever were the spectators thinking seeing me doing that?
11. EPIC FORECAST
A local meteorologist forecasted “a storm of epic proportions” in 2007. And, we did have a classic New England Nor’easter. In the early morning of race day, the rain was coming down so hard it was pelting against my hotel room window. I made a bunch of phone calls trying to decide what to do. We had to decide before we started letting runners on the buses to transport them to the start. I got a report from the National Weather Service saying it would calm down a bit just in time for the race so we went for it and generally speaking the conditions did get slightly better. Phew.
12. HEAT FROM HELL
In 2012 weather again -- this time HEAT. It was like an inferno! Go or no go. Around 90 degrees throughout the day. Over 250 runners transported to area hospitals and about 2,500 treated in our medical tents. During my run at night, I noticed so many water bottles and popsicle sticks on the side of the road, which was an indication of how the spectators purchased water and popsicles to hand out to all the runners. Pretty amazing.
13. THE BOMBING
The 2013 bombing: I was back out at the start ready to do my run when I got a call saying there were two explosions at the finish. We rushed right back to the finish. I was worried about my own family who were sitting in the bleachers. I could write a book on this day alone.
14. WHAT A REBOUND
In 2014, the most epic marathon of all time. We took back our race, Boylston Street and the finish line. Meb Keflezighi wins the race.
15. BYPASS DIDN’T STOP ME
The 2019 finish: I had open heart triple bypass surgery in October of 2018. Six months later I finished my 47th Boston Marathon. This was the most memorable and meaningful marathon of all time for me.
16. PANDEMIC RACE COURSE
In 2020, the pandemic hit in March. We postponed then cancelled the marathon for the first time in the race’s history. I still decided to run the marathon three times – once on Patriots Day around my neighborhood, then in September during the real virtual time-frame around my neighborhood again. Then I decided that since I had not run the actual course yet that year, I went out a week later and ran the actual course by myself.
17. MY HERO JOHNNY KELLEY
Johnny Kelley – he was always my role model and inspiration. When finishing one year, I walked into the hotel and saw Johnny. He asked me what number Boston this was for me and then said, “You will break my record (58), but I won’t be around to see it.”
18. TV REPAIR MAN
Another Johnny Kelley story: I was getting off the elevator in the hotel and there he was in front of me. He looked at me and said, “Hey, you are the ‘technical director’ of the race. Get in my room and fix my TV!” Which, of course, I promptly did.
19. HELICOPTER VIEW OF HISTORY
At the 100th running of the marathon, I started off the race and waited for everyone to cross the starting line. It took 29 minutes when everyone thought it was going to take hours. I then hitched a ride in a State Police helicopter back to Boston. What a way to watch the race go down the course.
20. NEVER OVERSLEPT
The only nightmare about the race I ever have is that I oversleep and miss the start of the race. Well, so far, I’ve never been late, nor have I ever missed any key committee meetings.
21. FULTZ TRIVIA QUESTION
In 1976, Boston winner Jack Fultz ran with me at night. As we approached the finish line, he pulled back and let me finish ahead of him and thus he finished last that day. So, the little-known trivia question that was born: Only one person has won the Boston Marathon and finished last in the Boston Marathon: Jack Fultz.
22. DIRECTOR ... AND PAINTER
In the early years, I actually used to go out on the course myself the day before the marathon and paint the locations of all the water stations and medical stations, risking life and limb as I had no police coverage while doing it.
23. MY RUNNING SUPPORT SYSTEM
I’ve been so humbled by some of the folks who have come to the finish of my run at night, folks like Meb Keflezighi, Joan Samuelson, Deena Kastor, Jackie Gareau, Lance Armstrong, Sean Astin, Rosa Mota and so many others. The running community is amazingly supportive.
24. RAISING $100K FOR CHARITIES
Giving back: One of my proudest achievements has nothing to do with running, but with fundraising. In 2017-19, through the generosity of many friends, I was able to raise over $100,000 each year for three different charities – the Jimmy Fund, Martin Richard Foundation and the Joseph Middlemiss Big Heart Foundation. I’m on track for doing that again this year, too.
25. OLYMPIC TRAILS
Although not the Boston marathon itself, one of my highlights was directing the 2008 U.S. Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston. We designed a multiple-loop course starting and finishing right at the marathon finish line on Boylston Street. It was a thrill to both direct and watch the race unfold. I was on the lead motor scooter and saw firsthand the outpouring of support for all the participants, especially the 1984 Olympic gold medalist Joan Samuelson, who was 50 years old and the oldest woman in the race. She predicted she would break 2:50 and she did. Very exciting to watch.
26. MY HOPKINTON BROWNIES
Every year when I get to the start in Hopkinton at 5 a.m., there is one woman standing on the sidewalk at the starting line waiting for me. She hands me pictures of the start she took the previous year and a plate of brownies. At first, I had no idea who she was. I do now and I am so touched by her annual generosity and kindness. Great way to start the day.
27. ANNOUNCING MY SON
A very proud moment was when my son Max trained for and ran in the marathon. I was actually at the finish line when he was finishing and jumped up on the announcer’s platform, grabbed the microphone and announced my own son finishing the race.
28. MARATHON VS. MANURE
One year I got a radio call 10-minutes before the start of the wheelchair race informing me that there was a pile of horse manure all over the road at Mile 2, but they could not tell me how much and where on the road. I debated if I should delay the start or signal for the gun to fire and hope for the best. Just in time, I received another call that it was all cleared out of the way. Phew.
29. MARATHON VS. WATER MAIN
Another year I was awakened by a call telling me there was a water main break on Beacon Street in Brookline. They asked me what the minimum width of the road we needed for the race was at that point in the race. I thought about it for a second and said 25 feet. They said fine and gave us 25 feet and then began digging up the road right away to get to the leak. I kept my fingers crossed that I had calculated enough distance.
30. POLICE’S ROLE
Police officers from the local police departments along the course, on numerous occasions, have actually run with me a bit, escorting me through their towns and even set up small water stations for me. It’s all about relationships.
31. DOWNED WIRE
In Ashland one year a wire went down across the road right before the race started. Again, what does that mean? Was it live? It’s all about getting information and more importantly, credible information. I received another call saying it was cleared from the road, again, just in time.
32. FRAPPE SAVES MY DAY
One year while running at night, I was struggling big time. I was hypoglycemic and felt I needed some sugar so I stopped at an ice cream shop (Emack and Bolio’s) in Brookline, bought a huge ice cream frappe, ate it, recovered, and easily made it to the finish line.
33. LONGTIME SUPPORT CREW
My support crew at night has always been my brother Bob and my friend Ron Kramer, who is also the lead vehicle coordinator of the race. Ron used to drive the official pace car back out to the start and leapfrog me down course in the car. One year as he was doing this, he drove through a red light in order to stay ahead of me. Next thing I see is the blue lights of a police car. Ron got pulled over and then almost arrested for trying to explain what he was doing and why he went through the red light. Luckily, he was just given a warning and let go.
34. RUDY RAN/BIKED BOSTON
Actor Sean Astin (star of the movie “Rudy”) is a friend. He ran Boston in 2018, the year it rained pretty badly. He was also training for the Ironman so he finished the race, grabbed his bike and got a ride back out to the start hoping to catch us running the course at night. All night I kept looking for him and worrying that maybe he got lost. He finally caught us on Boylston Street with only about 400 yards to go.
35. LOCKED IN THE POTTY
True story. One year I was mistakenly locked in a port-o-john at the start for about 10 minutes right before the start of the race. I was rescued with about five minutes to go before giving the signal to fire the starter’s gun.
36. RODGERS LOCKED, TOO
Speaking of being locked in a bathroom – a few of us from the Greater Boston Track Club would be invited into the home of a local runner who lived in a house right at the starting line. The race was about to begin and we all left the house to head to the start — except one runner. When we got to the start line, everyone was asking, “Where is Bill Rodgers?” (He’s the four-time winner of the race.) He was nowhere to be found. I ran back to the house to look for him and found him locked in the upstairs bathroom. We got him out just in time for the start of the race.
37. HEART ATTACK IN HOPKINTON
A man there to watch the race at the start suffered a heart attack before it started. The Hopkinton Fire Department had to perform CPR on him practically right on the starting line. Again, this was right before the start of the wheelchair race. I had no idea how long this delay would be, which of course didn’t matter in comparison to saving a life. They transported the man by gurney to an ambulance. I believe the man did survive and the race, once again, still went off on time.
38. CHAMPIONCHIP’S FIRST RACE
I always felt there was a better way to time and score the race other than manually. I met the folks from “Championchip” timing at the NYC Marathon in 1994. They weren’t timing the race but just exhibiting at the expo. I asked if they would bring their equipment to Boston the next day so our team could look at it. The next year we used it for our wheelchair division and then we used it the following year at the 100th to time the 38,000 runners in the race, as we never would have been able to do that manually.
39. DEFEATING ‘URINEGATE’
In the days of one gun, one wave, we had to line up the runners on some of the residential streets in Hopkinton. As they were waiting for the gun to fire, many would jump the barricades, and run behind someone’s house to relieve themselves. It got to the point where many of the residents were complaining very loudly and the media was picking up on it. We then decided to go with wave starts, where we then just lined up the runners on Main Street and took them off the residential streets. I coined the phrase “the year of urinegate” when this all happened.
40. NIPPED ... BY CAR!
I qualified one year by running in the Silver Lake Dodge Marathon in Newton. In those days, they did not close the roads to vehicular traffic, so you really had to run with your head up. I got nipped by a car coming out of a perpendicular road, but still managed to finish and qualify. I was on crutches for the next week thinking my Boston Marathon streak was over and that I’d never be able to run in the race, which was only a few months later. But I recovered enough in time to run that year and finish. Lucky me.
41. SICK AT FINISH
In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, the race finished at the Prudential Center down Ring Road. Once we crossed the finish line, we were directed into the Prudential Center garage. This is where water and medical were located. Ever year I went into that garage, looked for the nearest trash barrel, got sick, then felt fine and left to go find my parents for my ride home.
42. CHANGES FOR THE BETTER
Over the years, we had to make many logistical changes to the race. Change doesn’t come easy with an event over 100 years old, so it did take time and sometimes a lot of arm bending. Some of those changes included moving the noon start time to 10 a.m., creating an Athletes’ Village at the start, implementing wave starts, adding water stations and then staggering them along the course, and going under the Mass. Avenue bridge rather than over it, thus having some runners lamenting, “Hey, you just added another hill.”
43. APPRECIATING ALL RUNNERS
Nowadays, I help start most of the races then jump on a motor scooter to drive down course to observe, inspect and help manage things if needed. It’s inspiring many times to catch some of the wheelchairs, duos and para-athletes along the way, like the Hoyts and Adrianne Haslet, one of the bombing survivors.
44. FAMILY JOINS CAUSE
Now there are four other members of my family working the race: my nephew Matt West in charge of the finish; my nephew Mike West helping with the timing and scoring; my son Ryan handling a lot of the race equipment and working the start; and my daughter-in-law Courtney helping with some of the administrative duties. Proud to see that after all these years, the next generation is starting to take over.
45. SCOOTER TROUBLE
Last year I arrived in Hopkinton only to find out that my “trusty” scooter would not start. The battery was dead. I kept on trying to kick start it. I started worrying about how I was now going to get back to Boston. Finally, by a miracle, it started. I never shut it off for fear it would never start again, but I then worried that it was going to run out of gas. Never easy.
46. PAINTING MY NIGHT RUN
Every year my friend and race announcer, Jack Leduc, paints a nice image at the start line commemorating my night run. The images are always different and creative. Start coordinator Andy Deschenes has done this the last few years.
47. MY OFFICIAL TIME: 9 TO 11 HOURS
When I cross the finish line every year at night, Mass Track and Field Official Chris Lane hands me a card with my official finishing time on it — that is, from the 10 a.m. start. Thus, my times show something like nine hours, or 10 hours, or even 11 hours, all mainly depending on the time I start.
48. WELLESLEY GIRLS
One year as I was running through Wellesley, a few Wellesley College women just happened to still be hanging around so they picked up some of the signs lying on the ground and started cheering for me. It was my own version of the “Tunnel of Love” at Wellesley College.
49. FAMILY RUNS TOO
I’m always excited when other family members run in the race, too. My brother Alan did it 10 times and my wife, Katie, did it once. As noted earlier, my son Max ran, too. I’m guessing my son Luke and daughter Elle will be running someday when they are of age. And, it’s also inspirational to see other McGillivrays in the race who may or may not be directly related to us.
50. 50TH ... AND HOPEFULLY MORE
And, lastly, this year, my 50th. I just need to cover this 26.2-mile course one more time to join the Half Century Club.