VIDEO: BOSTON MARATHON RACE DIRECTOR PUTS TOGETHER CROSS-COUNTRY VIRTUAL RACE

WMUR-TV

Dave McGillivray says Medford2Medford event will raise money for charities

The race director for the Boston Marathon said Friday it was not a surprise to hear that this year's event was canceled and will now be going virtual, but he's looking ahead to a new challenge this summer.

Dave McGillivray has been the technical or race director for the Boston Marathon for 32 straight years and had run the course on marathon day 47 straight years.

"It hurt, right away," McGillivray said. "It's, again, disappointing that you can't run from Hopkinton to Boston with a million other spectators, but at least you can still run."

The Boston Marathon is offering a virtual option to registrants, who can run 26.2 miles between Sept. 7 and Sept. 14 and earn a finisher's medal. But McGillivray said that for a lot of runners, there's a greater purpose.

"Philanthropy has entered the space and become a big part of why they do this, to help those who are less fortunate," he said. "And that can still happen in a virtual race."

McGillivray owns a race and event management company, DMSE Sports, that had 35 events on the calendar this year, including Boston. They are likely all canceled.

So, to keep things going, the company is doing a virtual race to commemorate McGillivray's 1978 Medford, Oregon, to Medford, Massachusetts, run of 3,452 miles.

Teams of one to 20 people can virtually walk, run and bike their way across America from June 11 to Aug. 29, the dates of McGillivray's 1978 run. They can raise money for charities along the way.

"If we can get a lot of people to do this, it will be, no pun intended, a home run, and that's what I was doing back in '78, running home and then to Fenway Park," McGillivray said.

For more information on the cross-country virtual run, go to medford2medford.com.