The Boston Marathon versus the Penn Relays

First off, I shouldn't put these venerable athletic events in competition with each other.   They're quite distinct and are rites of spring for two major east coast cities.   But, having grown up in Philadelphia and currently living in Boston, right on Heartbreak Hill, I might add, I have been pondering a high-schoolish compare-and-contrast essay on the Boston Marathon and the Penn Relays.

Both events started roughly the same time - Penn in 1895, and Boston in 1897. Their inception corresponded with a period of growth in athletics as both a participatory and spectator sport.   Both elites and lesser athletes compete side-by-side.

As a guy who grew up sprinting, however, I personally have to give the edge to Penn.   In the community of track and field fans, Penn tends to be a much bigger deal than Boston.   In the community of non-track fans, Boston seems to be a bigger deal, but this is just my perception.

I hate to say it, but I've acquired something of a dim view of marathoning, which is probably not deserved, but you have to look at it from the perspective of a guy who has run his entire life.  I've raced in grammar school, in middle school, in high school, in college, and as a master.   I've run everything from the 50 yard dash up through a marathon.   You name the distance, I've run it.   I settled into the 400m and 800m as a personal favorite event, although now I'll pop up to a 5k or road mile every so often.

Every event is challenging, but built as I am with heavy bones, I find that the marathon is just a slog.   People talk about "running through pain".   There are different kinds of pain, really.   The pain you feel at the end of a 400 race when your legs go numb from accumulated junk from a long sprint is one thing, but it seems to me that running through the pain of a deteriorating knee cartilage mile after mile just isn't a terribly good idea.

If a person is inclined for distance, what about running a fast 5k?   To look at the marathon from a competitive runner's perspective, consider the following:   the longest competitive distance in high school track is usually 2 miles.   In elite competitions, you'll see a 5k.    In college, the longest event competed is a 10k.    Of course in cross country, 5k is a standard high school distance.

Now, consider the competitive marathon.   Typically the exceptional 10k runners will graduate to a marathon, and then they have maybe 5 or 6 good years in them before their body starts to give out.

Consider the perspective of someone who runs on a regular basis and will occasionally go to the masters indoor nationals or the Penn relays to run in a 4x400 meter relay.   I'm out on the road every season of the year or on indoor tracks.   I usually run alone - in the rain, in the snow, in the heat, in some musty indoor facility.   That's what it is.  I don't expect any deference, I run because it makes me feel alive.

Now consider what it's like from February through early April running on Commonwealth Avenue.   All of a sudden the road fills up with marathon hopefuls wearing BAA (Boston Athletic Association) jackets, training for the marathon.   There are people on the side of the road, every mile, with water jugs, shouting at people "you can do it!!"  and "live your dream!!!".     These folks have signed up for some training/charity program sponsored by local institutions.   I even once saw a guy dressed in a gorilla costume high-fiving runners going by.  

Don't get me wrong, this is far better than someone lying on the couch, eating potato chips.   Making the determination to get out and train for a major goal and get healthily is by far a fantastic thing to do.   But, I think there comes with the training a certain lack of awareness that some of us have our own goals and aren't quite as deferential to the goal of a marathon as they expect us to be.    On a number of occasions I would be mistaken for a marathoner-in-training and had the people handing out water shout "live your dream!" at me.

Consider the point of view of a spectator.  If you're on the side of the road at Boston, you will see the wheel chair people zipping by, people cheering, but then they're gone.   To catch their race, you have to run home to the television to see the live feed from the truck in front of them.   Then comes the men's pack. They're gone in a flash.   Then the women's pack.   They're gone in a flash.   Then the not-quite elites, and then the long slog of humanity, some dressed in face point or some goofy garb, just jogging the darn thing.

Start of a relay.   I should note that a local Boston-area team, Acton-Boxborough High School is on the left hand side, out shoving other competitors.   Gotta love it!

Boston's course does not count for records.   This is due to the large down-hill nature of the course from Hopkington to Boston.    Consider the other marathons around.   Many high-level marathoners will skip Boston and choose another venue, say, Paris, to log a hot time.    Still, being one of the oldest marathons and the history of it, it has quite an aura.

Penn, on the other hand, has a huge variety of events.   High school 4x4's, 4x1's, 4x8's, distance medleys, sprint medleys, and individual events.   Colleges compete in the same events, and then some.   High school teams will come from all over the country.   Caribbean teams, particularly Jamaican high schools will come.   Every so often high school teams from Ireland and England will come.

And, at Penn, there is the relatively new USA versus the World competition that attract olympic caliber athletes that compete in relays that aren't even competed at the Olympics.   There is no venue on the planet that I'm aware of where you can see the US, Kenya and Ethiopia compete in a distance medley relay.   Sure, you can see individual US, Kenyan, and Ethiopian runners in the Boston Marathon, but that's only for the brief 20 seconds they're in eyeshot.   But, at Penn you can see a *relay* of  four of them for the duration of the entire race.   Advantage: Penn.

OK, I'm partisan, I will admit.   And, my hat is off to the organizers of Boston and the runners who compete.   But ever April, during the inevitable pre-marathon hype, my eyes are focused on Penn as the  real athletic highlight of the spring season.