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camwynBoston Marathon postponed to September due to coronavirus
The Boston Marathon will be postponed, and rescheduled to Sept. 14, officials are set to announce Friday morning.
Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, along with officials from the Marathon and its sponsors and from other towns along the 26.2-mile route, are set to hold a press conference Friday morning at City Hall where they will announce the new date for the race. It will be the first delay in the 124-year history of the Marathon, which had been scheduled for April 20, and comes as large and small gatherings worldwide are being canceled and postponed to help blunt the spread of coronavirus.
They chose to reschedule it Sept. 14 — a Monday — in hopes of best replicating a typical Marathon three-day weekend, and to fit in among various other major events in the fall, such as college move-ins, Jewish holidays, and the Chicago Marathon, said a source familiar with the planning. Doing that will require special legislation to declare the day a state holiday — like Patriots Day — which Baker plans to file soon.
Officials are hopeful that the event — which typically brings more than 30,000 runners, and their friends and families, from 120 countries — will spark tourism and help hotels and restaurants at a time when, hopefully, the region is recovering from coronavirus-related shutdowns that are expected to last weeks if not longer.
Race organizers agonized in recent days over whether to cancel, reschedule, or hold the race only for elite runners, before settling on the new date when they hope to recreate as normal a Marathon weekend as possible. Though one thing will be different: The Red Sox are out of town.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
The Boston Marathon will be postponed, and rescheduled to Sept. 14, officials are set to announce Friday morning.
Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, along with officials from the Marathon and its sponsors and from other towns along the 26.2-mile route, are set to hold a press conference Friday morning at City Hall where they will announce the new date for the race. It will be the first delay in the 124-year history of the Marathon, which had been scheduled for April 20, and comes as large and small gatherings worldwide are being canceled and postponed to help blunt the spread of coronavirus.
They chose to reschedule it Sept. 14 — a Monday — in hopes of best replicating a typical Marathon three-day weekend, and to fit in among various other major events in the fall, such as college move-ins, Jewish holidays, and the Chicago Marathon, said a source familiar with the planning. Doing that will require special legislation to declare the day a state holiday — like Patriots Day — which Baker plans to file soon.
Officials are hopeful that the event — which typically brings more than 30,000 runners, and their friends and families, from 120 countries — will spark tourism and help hotels and restaurants at a time when, hopefully, the region is recovering from coronavirus-related shutdowns that are expected to last weeks if not longer.
Race organizers agonized in recent days over whether to cancel, reschedule, or hold the race only for elite runners, before settling on the new date when they hope to recreate as normal a Marathon weekend as possible. Though one thing will be different: The Red Sox are out of town.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
