The Future Of The Boston Marathon

Neil Swidey of the Boston Globe wrote a great story about the future of the Boston Marathon in today’s editions. In it, he looks at how runners have coped with the post-marathon sadness and anger and poses questions about how this year’s race will be looked at the future through the lens of revisionist history.

Writes Swidey: “But if the next Marathon will be a reaction and a corrective, what will the race look like in five years? Ten years? And by the time we get there, how will we be telling the story of what happened in 2013?”

In his story, he recalls other historical marathon stories laced with tragedy and sadness, though certainly not all to the same degree, including tales of Kathrine Switzer, Frank Shorter and Jacqueline Gareau.

So how will the Boston Marathon change?

“If you had to predict now what the Marathon will look like in five years, the safest bet would be more camera surveillance and stiffer security with a “contained” start and finish,” he begins to conclude. He suggests it could even involve moving the finish line again.

“But locking down the beginning and end of the race may just be the only option we can imagine right now, other than making no changes or moving the event into a 26-mile steel tube.”

For more: The Boston Globe