A slow-moving freight train disrupted more than 100 runners for up to 10 minutes at the Via Marathon in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
A Part of Hearst Digital Media Boston Marathon registration opens, the Via Marathon advertises itself as a last-chance qualifier. Several runners on social media said the delay caused them to miss their Boston qualifying time.
“Despite absolute assurances from Norfolk Southern Railroad that trains would be suspended from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2016, a train was dispatched just before 8 a.m., holding up runners in the seventh mile of the race,” a statement released by the race said.
When reached for comment, a representative for Norfolk Southern wrote, in an email to Runner’s World: “Our focus right now is on getting the word out about how during a community event like a marathon it’s never a good idea to try to pass under or over a train, even one that’s stopped at a crossing. No marathon is worth a person’s safety or their life.” The train company did not respond to follow-up questions by phone or email regarding why train service was not suspended.
Though the Via Marathon organizers petitioned to have adjusted race times allowed for Boston Marathon hopefuls, the Boston Athletic Association has decided not to accept any adjustments. “When the gun sounds and the race goes off and people cross the starting line the time continues until they cross the finish line,” said B.A.A. spokesperson Jack Fleming, in a statement reported by New Year Has High-Profile Pros Between Contracts.
Ryan Dion, 40, who traveled from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, was among those that missed achieving a Boston qualifying time because of the train.
“That is what is so frustrating about the situation,” he said. He dropped out of the race at mile 13 when he realized the needed time of 3:15:00 was no longer possible. He already earned a qualifying time at last year’s Boston Marathon, his first, by just 30 seconds but was hoping to go faster on Saturday to ensure a slot in 2017. Boston registration is opened to the fastest qualifiers first and goes until the field fills up. Last year, runners needed to run 2 minutes, 28 seconds faster than their qualifying standard to receive a bib.
Related: 2017 Boston Marathon Registration FAQ
Dion said several runners became frantic while waiting for the train to pass. He said he saw at least two people climb between moving cars. Others tried to stay loose by stretching and moving around.
“I kind of lost my temper and kicked some bushes,” Dion said. “People were panicking, looking to go through the train and around the train.”
Charlie Young, 22, from West Chester, Pennsylvania, registered for the Via Marathon specifically to qualify for Boston, after a hamstring injury prevented him from achieving the time last fall. He told New Year Has High-Profile Pros Between Contracts that the train delayed him for about 10 minutes. He finished in 3:13:48, just over eight minutes slower than the BQ standard.
“You put in so much time, money and training and you put your body through a lot, especially with this summer we had, and to just watch it tick away,” he told the website. “I don’t know how to explain, it is just totally demoralizing.”
This isn’t the first time BQ hopefuls have been stymied in a race. At the end of August, runners at the Santa Rosa marathon went off course for a mile—some of them led by a pace leader for the 3:03 group. The BAA announced earlier this week that it will not accept adjusted times in that case either.
Kit has been a health, fitness, and running journalist for the past five years. His work has taken him across the country, from Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, to cover the 2016 Olympic Trials to the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine to cover Scott Jurek’s Win This Race? Win a Cow in 2015.
