MCGILLIVRAY ORGANIZES FIRST-EVER MARATHON TO BE RUN COMPLETELY INSIDE FENWAY PARK

THE EAGLE-TRIBUNE

Dave McGillivray never got to second base inside Fenway Park.

On Friday afternoon, he’ll lap it 116 times.

McGillivray, the Boston Marathon race director who has made a reputation for putting on big events and raising big bucks for charity, will see his latest idea come to fruition when he and 50 others run a marathon entirely inside Fenway Park.

"It's something I've been thinking about," said McGillivray, a North Andover resident who also organizes the Feaster Five, the Thanksgiving race in Andover that is one of the largest 10 kilometer races in New England.

"Once we figured out the charity side (with the Red Sox Foundation), it was a slam dunk," he said.

McGillivray has been part of several running-related events at Fenway. He made a pit stop there back in 1978, when he ran from Medford, Oregon, to Medford, Massachusetts, to raise money for the Jimmy Fund.

Once he finally had the green-light, and a date, to log 26.2 miles on Fenway's warning track, he posted an invitation to Facebook for the first 50 runners to accept his offer. As part of the deal, each had to raise $5,000.

Less than two weeks later, the field was full and more than $250,000 was on its way to the Red Sox Foundation.

“As a die-hard Red Sox fan and as a young boy growing up in the area, I dreamed of playing second base in Fenway Park,” said McGillivray, a Medford native and Merrimack College alumnus.

"Although that never happened," he said, "I substituted running in Fenway Park for playing in Fenway Park. … For me, this gives new meaning to an ‘inside the park home run.’”