Hitting Boston's Streets, Running

March Madness has come and gone. Now it's time for Marathon Madness, as an estimated 25,000 runners--including several Harvard students--hit Boston's roads Monday for the 100th running of the famed event.

Joanna Veltri '97 says "you have to be crazy to do the running part" of the marathon, a winding 26.2 miles through Boston.

Veltri will be running as a "bandit" this year, meaning she is not registered for the race.

She says she hopes she doesn't get caught because race officials will be keeping a special watch out for bandits this year because of the huge turnout.

"The propaganda against bandits is huge this year" because of the 100th anniversary, she says.

Taking the chance is worth it, she says, because "It's fun, awesome. Boston's really fun with the crowd the whole way--26 miles of crowd and cute kids giving you oranges."

Veltri says she is "not really a marathoner" but trained a little during spring break and hopes that her fitness from intramural crew will propel her to the finish line. As a first-year, she finished in 4:06 as a bandit.

Mark Hunter '97 of Mather House says he will run as a registered runner--he qualified last summer by running a 3:06, just passing the mark by four minutes.

"My race number is like 9,000 because I have the 9,000th best time," he says. "Because of the crowds, it's going to be so packed on the course and you won't be able to move very well."

"This year, especially with the 100th anniversary, Boston is the marathon to run," he says. "It's a unique opportunity to be a student here and be able to participate in this race."

Hunter says he is afraid that his time won't be as good as it could be because the winter has slowed his training efforts.

Since this is the 100th year of the Boston Marathon, a record number of runners are expected.

Race officials expect a 15,000 person increase over the 10,000 who ran last year.

The starting line is in Hopkinton, Mass., and the runners finish in Back Bay, Boston, after traversing 26.2 miles, the same distance as the first marathon in Greece: from Athens to Attica.

This year, the so-called "computer chip" was introduced as a security measure; it is a device which is laced through the shoes and times each registered runner.

The electronic timer will avoid the effects of crowding at the starting line by electronically recording a person's time at the start, at the half point and at the finish.

Although Hunter says he thinks the new chip technology is good for accurately recording the times, he sees a downside: "Now, I can't lie about my time because I can no longer say that it took me 25 minutes to cross the starting line."

Naomi Reid '97 hopes to see her father at the finish line to "carry him home."

Her father, Ian Reid, has been running marathons for three years and hopes to celebrate his 50th birthday by completing the 100th Boston marathon.

"He's run a marathon three or four times and the Boston marathon only once before," Naomi Reid says. "I'm just going to be there to cheer him on and carry him home."