Marathon bandits will be missed this year

[Capt. Obvious]

....

For the first time this year, the Boston Marathon is officially banning bandits. The Boston Athletic Association has forbid uncredentialed runners for years, but always looked the other way when it came to enforcement. For 2014, only runners with numbers will have access to Athletes’ Village at the starting line — an understandable precaution in the shadows of the Boylston Street bombings last year.

But security officials say the crackdown on party crashers has nothing to do with terrorism. Unnumbered runners in running clothes pose no threat — they have no place to hide weapons or explosives. The real reason for the ban is to guarantee breathing room for this year’s expanded field of 36,000 runners, an increase of 9,000 more than 2013.

....

In an infamous diatribe, Runner’s World executive editor Mark Remy once wrote “there’s a special circle of hell reserved” for bandits. Last month, he snapped selfies while pretending to shoplift sneakers from a running store. It was a not-so-subtle metaphor for those who “steal” from marathons by jumping in the back of the race and avoid the entry fee. Reality check: Paying isn’t even an option for slower runners.

....

Curious how widely shared Remy’s views are, I recently posed the question in a Facebook running group. The response was overwhelmingly vicious: We’re thieves, we’re losers, we’re disrespectful to the runners who deserve to be there. One conspiracy theorist alleged that bandits usurp complimentary cups of water from registered runners and gobble up the official finishers’ medals for themselves.

Boston Globe

I grew up with a competitive bandit for a father. Every year he'd go to Hopkinton and work his way through the crowd (including 3 guys dressed as the Marx Brothers, another 3 guys dressed as the Stooges, and a group of people dressed as a long dining table, and so forth) to get as close to the front of the lessers so that he could quickly separate himself from the pack and set his pace.

The Marathon used to be a circus, but it was all in good fun.

I remember my mother bringing us down to the finish line to see my father cross - though I really just remember the trips to Brigham's Ice Cream. That was always my favorite part.

I asked my father recently about his Marathon exploits - he always ran as a bandit; he trained hard every year pushing himself to 70 miles a week; days after the marathon he had to walk stairs backwards; by Thursday he could start to jog again.

I forgot to ask him his best time.

To the bandits

[geckosfeet]

1. Hmmm. i ran Boston as a bandit a couple times. In general it was a wonderful experience. A carnival

atmosphere as you say. But still a world class challenging course.

[Capt. Obvious]

2. Marathon Monday was always a big deal in my house growing up

We either watched it in person or on tv.

We even had the Boston Marathon board game which I loved playing.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18230/boston-marathon-game