On the morning of April 20, Jon Schoenberg donned his race singlet and shorts. He started his run at 10 a.m., the time when the pop of a starting gun should have marked the beginning of his wave of the 124th Boston Marathon. This year, though, there was no marathon. Instead of Hopkinton, it was Harvard; instead of Heartbreak Hill, it was Prospect Hill; and instead of the thundering feet of more than 31,000 competitors, it was just him, his thoughts, and a few tranquil miles.
The world’s oldest annual marathon, run through both World Wars, the Great Depression, and the 1918 flu pandemic, was canceled for the first time in 2020. Originally postponed from the traditional third Monday of April to Sept. 14, the Boston Athletic Association and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced last Thursday that the event would be canceled due to health concerns surrounding the coronavirus.
In place of the in-person competition, the B.A.A. is hosting a series of virtual events in September and encouraging qualifiers to participate in a virtual marathon by submitting proof of a time run consecutively on any 26.2-mile course between Sept. 7 and 14.
Jon Schoenberg at a previous Boston Marathon. (Courtesy photo)
Schoenberg, one of five Harvard residents who qualified for the 2020 Boston Marathon, has run the race 26 times, beginning in 1989. He is a member of the B.A.A. running club and said he agrees with the decision to cancel the race. “It’s for the greater good in terms of the safety of participants that come in from all over the country and all over the world, also for the people who spectate,” he said, pointing out that the event typically attracts well over 100,000 spectators. “I just think that the resources of our first responders are better applied toward addressing the pandemic.”
Schoenberg is turning his attention, instead, to the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, which he plans to run in October. He said he might run the virtual Boston Marathon while training for that. Though he doesn’t have a specific plan yet, he imagines running it on the Nashua River Rail Trail, starting in Ayer and running to the New Hampshire border and back.
Sue George, Harvard’s only female qualifier, said she had been holding out hope that the race would be held on the Sept. 14 postponement date but wasn’t surprised when it was canceled. She has run the Boston Marathon for five consecutive years and was hoping to better her personal record of 3 hours, 25 minutes, 55 seconds, which she ran in 2017.
George was also planning on running the London Marathon this year, which would have fulfilled her longtime goal of completing the Abbott World Marathon six star challenge. To complete the challenge, runners compete in six major marathons around the world: Berlin, Chicago, New York City, Tokyo, Boston, and London. “If you do them all you get this enormous medal and it’s quite an achievement,” she explained.
The London Marathon has been postponed as well, and George expects it to be canceled. If it is, she will chase her goal into 2021, when she hopes to run both London and Boston on their regularly scheduled dates. In the meantime, she will continue training. She hopes that some smaller marathons will be held this fall, and she will likely participate in the virtual Boston Marathon in September, possibly with a group of other qualifiers put together by her coach.
Harvard’s three other qualifiers were Christopher Candon, John Lee, and Yong Xue.
