2014 Boston Marathon is coming on

The Boston Athletic Association has vowed that the world’s oldest annual marathon, the Boston Marathon, will be held as scheduled next year. This was after after Monday’s race was interrupted when two bombs exploded near the finish line, leaving three spectators dead and nearly 180 maimed or bloodied.
“The Boston Marathon is a deeply held tradition — an integral part of the fabric and history of our community,” BAA executive director Tom Grilk said Tuesday afternoon in a statement. “We are committed to continuing that tradition with the running of the 118th Boston Marathon in 2014.”

Competitors passed under the Boston Marathon banner at the finish line.

With race officials busy working with federal, state, and city investigators, checking with medical staffers at local hospitals, and helping runners locate their belongings, it was unclear whether the thousands of entrants who were prevented from finishing the race would be offered a place in next year’s race without having to qualify again.

“Right now we are still focused entirely on meeting the needs of people who run this year,” Grilk told the Globe. “We certainly will address those issues and all of the other issues that will come up with the utmost care. Today is not the day for that.”

Monday’s truncated event marked the third time in six years that a major American marathon was either halted or canceled. The 2007 Chicago race, during which one runner died and more than 300 others were picked up by ambulances amid brutal 88-degree October heat, was stopped after 3 and a half hours, with the remaining competitors prevented from continuing past the midway point. And last year’s New York City Marathon was scrubbed two days beforehand amid the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. New York offered its 47,500 registrants either a refund or a guaranteed place in either the 2013, 2014, or 2015 races or in last month’s half-marathon, with half of them choosing a deferred entry.

Among the thousands of runners who never reached the finish was Amby Burfoot, the 1968 champion who was marking the 45th anniversary of his triumph by running with two friends.

“We had already started our celebration of another completed Boston Marathon,” Burfoot noted in his report for Runner’s World, where he is Editor-at-Large. But like many others, he and his companions were kept from making the 90-degree turn onto Hereford Street that leads to the final straightaway on Boylston.

Finishing the race not only provides personal fulfillment validated by an official time but also a beribboned medal emblazoned with the BAA’s signature unicorn head. Runners who picked up their personal effects Tuesday were given medals whether or not they’d completed the race.

“We have not denied anyone a medal who came to pick up their belongings who felt they deserved one,” said Grilk. “It would have been callous to deny a medal to anybody who honored us by coming here.”