A World Class Editor
& Mid-Pack Marathoner
Asks Race Directors to Consider
12 THINGS By Patrick Stiegman
Let’s talk toilet paper.
But there was … an issue.
It’s a balmy October morning, I’ve disembarked from the bus in Hopkinton and am excitedly approaching the start line of the 2021 Boston Marathon, my fifth Boston but first in-person marathon since the pandemic gripped the globe and — in various degrees — disrupted the running industry, creating chaos for race directors now facing a moving target just to keep us all moving.
A few hundred yards from the start line was a massive U-shaped phalanx of Porta-potties, and despite hundreds of my fellow mid-packers seeking last-minute pit stops, the queues were relatively short. But I immediately noticed runners ahead of me rapidly opening and closing Porta-let doors, scurrying and stalking the now suddenly elusive toilet paper, stall-bystall, square-by-square. It was like “Let’s Make a Deal” with runners betting who could pick the door with the prized TP.
There is no better organized or more resilient race than Boston, and the 2021 version came with new-normal protocols and enormous logistical challenges: vaccination confirmation, testing and masking requirements, social distancing, etc., and, in a fortuitous turn (focus group of one) a rolling start to the 125th edition of the world’s oldest marathon, all expertly implemented by the B.A.A., Dave McGillivray, and a world-class operations team and platoons of volunteers. 30 | RACE DIRECTOR MAGAZINE
Witnessing the desperation and panicking at the implications of 26.2 miles without, well, having properly taken care of business, one runner (I can neither confirm nor deny it was me) pulled a pair of discarded Strawberry Shortcake leggings out of a nearby donation bin, you know, just as a failsafe. Let’s be clear, here: McGillivray orchestrates a
