(Sunday Paper, Year VIII, Issue 44)

I’ve been spending a lot of time telling you about the differences between my runs in the different marathons I’ve done.

But the marathons themselves were pretty different too.

I don’t mean in the terrain - that’s obviously something that can’t be replicated from course to course.

Each marathon is unique in that sense.

But I assumed there was some kind of uniformity in the way the major marathons were run in the organizational sense.

I’m here to tell you that is not the case.

I will admit in the past to having a New Yorker’s superiority complex over Boston as a city.

Things here are different than New York in some ways where New York is better. (The T service stopping in the middle of the night was one that always got me.)

When it comes to running a big marathon, though…I think you’d be hard pressed to find a place that does a better job of it than Boston.

That was one of the first thoughts I had after Chicago. It’s hard to compare these things, because they were both great experiences…and Chicago did a great job.

It’s just that Boston does an extra great job. Whatever the next level is.

I’ll explain.

One of Boston’s faults as a marathon is that it’s kind of exclusive. It’s a hard race to get into for qualified runners…and the charity bar is pretty high.

I really lucked into running Boston twice. If I didn’t live where I live, it would be extremely difficult.

That’s one area Chicago has over Boston - it is extremely accessible. Amazingly accessible. Everything about registering for Chicago was 100x easier than Boston. They open the lottery and registration immediately following the race and if I wanted to run next year I could sign up today with a charity and be in.

But after that, things tip in Boston’s favor.

This became clear at the Expo - the shirt from Chicago? Eh. The gear at the expo? There was a lot of nice stuff…but no consistency to it. Boston has everything kind of streamlined - the ‘official race gear.’ Chicago has gear, but it’s kind of a mish-mosh.

I got a very nice sweatshirt and a really nice pullover…but unless you know they’re Chicago Marathon-related you wouldn’t know they’re Chicago Marathon-related. They could just be Chicago touristy stuff.

So that was one surprise - I just assumed the major marathons (for those who don’t know, that’s Boston, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, and London) had a consistent look in the registration gear and souvenirs. They don’t.

They also don’t have uniform water policies on the course.

This one’s on me for not researching better sooner - but the day before the marathon was when it sunk into my brain looking at the materials that the water stops were not exactly every mile in Chicago. I was just assuming the race would unfold the same way it did in Boston. (They were like every 1.2ish miles? Something weird like that.)

Same at the start of the race - very different. This one I realized was kind of out of necessity for Boston. In Chicago we just kind of got going and it was on us - like in most marathons - to decide when to shed our extra clothing and trash at the start.

And in Chicago that’s all in one spot - Grant Park - which serves as both the start and finish of the race.

With Boston, as you make your way from the ‘athlete’s village’ to the start line, people collect your things - trash, donated clothing (if you wear something warmer while you wait for the start of the race you can shed it and the organization will donate it) - but that’s also because you’re basically walking through someone’s neighborhood and I guess it helps keep people from just dropping clothes and trash on people’s lawns. (And then everyone leaves Hopkinton and I guess it just helps control the mess.)

I just thought it was interesting - I only compared Chicago to Boston because they were both World Majors. And I was struck by how different they are.

If you run all 6 world majors you get a special 6-star medal - not only do you get the race’s finisher medal for the sixth race you run, but you also get the special medal to show you finished all 6 of the races. I don’t really have my sights set on that. (I have no desire to travel the world. Maybe London…I don’t know. Maybe if someone flew me to Japan I’d consider all 6.)

But I would like to run New York. I’ll keep entering that lottery and see what happens. I feel like I’ve exhausted my fundraising so unless I have an opportunity with a great charity I don’t know I’ll do that again. Lotteries it will be for the foreseeable future.

I’d be very happy with 3 stars - Boston, Chicago, and New York.

And I’m curious how the greatest city in the world compares to Boston when it comes to marathons.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

I was in between shows and started watching The Bear on Hulu. It took me a few episodes to really get into it but now I’m rolling. I’m really enjoying it.

Notes

*Today is my first of the ‘trips to watch the Jets in New York’ of the season. It’s remarkable that I’ve been able to watch every game here on TV until the end of October. The only one that wasn’t on here - and I wouldn’t have been able to see anyway, because I was in Chicago - was the Denver game.

*At 3-3, they’ve kept their season alive until now, so that’s exciting. Not only that, but they have been playing really well. I wasn’t sure that would be the case after Aaron Rodgers went down…but I’m glad there are important games to watch back home. Lots of winnable games on the schedule the rest of the way…but that’s what I thought at the end of last season too, and that didn’t go well.

*New World Series matchup, with Arizona-Texas, which is always a good thing to me.

*Changes are coming in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know about it all next week, but remember you can always keep tabs on things at the social media links below. Thanks for reading and following along!