On Patriots’ Day each year, the residents of Hopkinton, Massachusetts, welcome roughly 30,000 runners from around the world. They open their homes to friends and strangers, throw marathon parties, cheer for the runners, and help make the Boston Marathon Running in the Cold.
In exchange for their hospitality, they have one request for the runners: When nature calls, please do not relieve yourself on our property.
Unlike most major marathons, the Boston Marathon begins in a residential area. It gives those who live near the starting line and Athletes’ Village an up-close view of the race—both the good and the bad.
Mary Scarlata-Rowe, who lives close to the starting line, said that when her kids were young, the highlight of marathon day was watching the athletes in the wheelchair race warm up on her street. Her family would awake early to the sound of helicopters overhead and buses rumbling by. Then they would go outside to watch the wheelchair racers prepare to compete.
“I think it affected the kids so much that in second grade, [my son] was asked to draw a poster of the marathon and he won a prize because he drew a wheelchair [athlete]," Scarlata-Rowe said. "The marathon, to him, was the wheelchair racers.”
On the other hand, each of the Hopkinton residents we spoke with who lived near the race’s staging area had a story about runners relieving themselves in inappropriate places.
Karen Terry lives between the Athletes’ Village and the starting line, which means approximately 30,000 runners walk by her house to the starting line each year. She said that about 10 years ago, the B.A.A. didn’t have enough portable toilets, so the land between her house and her neighbor’s “was literally a toilet.”
That was not all. “In the back of my yard, I have a pool with big trees all around it," Terry said, "so women were going back there and there were tampons and everything else back there, because it was secluded.”
Hopkinton residents who live near the start and the Athletes’ Village receive a letter from race organizers each year to make them aware of what to expect from the race. It also tells them who to call if there is a problem. Terry called the number she had been given and said the response was prompt. “They sent a hazmat crew out and cleaned it all up.”
Terry gives the B.A.A. credit for fixing the problem the following year by bringing in more portable toilets.
“They have it down to a science now, they really do. It’s kind of amazing," Terry said. "Ten years ago, would I have been saying I was happy? Absolutely not. They finally figured it out that this is my home.”
Dale Danahy, who lives within the first quarter mile of the race, said there are still some problems once the gun goes off. She said she has hundreds of runners using her yard as a toilet each year. Despite the B.A.A.’s attempts to prevent it from happening, the problem persists.
While she wishes these problems never happened in the first place, Danahy still loves the race. She has run it four times. Last year, her business, Colella’s Supermarket in downtown Hopkinton (which recently closed after 70 years in business) made 1,000 sandwiches for race volunteers in Hopkinton. Danahy woke up at 4 a.m. to help make sandwiches, then at 6:30 a.m. she joined her son Alex in volunteering with the mobility impaired and wheelchair athletes, which she has done for the past six years.
“You can't help but be part of the race in one way or another if you live in Hopkinton,” Danahy said.
This year, she will add a special task to her list of marathon day responsibilities—she will fire the starting gun for wave four of the race.
Alicia Shambo, who has lived in two different locations close to the starting area, has also volunteered in recent years. She does so 26.2 miles away at the finish line, however. For the past five years, she has handed out mylar blankets to runners shortly after they cross the finish line.
Shambo had served as a hospital corpsman in the Navy and has taught CPR and EMT courses. When the bombs went off in 2013, though she wasn’t at the finish line as a medical volunteer, Boston Marathon Finish Cutoff Time Is 5:30 p.m. Other Hearst Subscriptions.
Chances are that if your friends know you live in downtown Hopkinton, they’re going to hit you up with a request for shelter the morning of the race. Those who live downtown are accustomed to opening their homes to friends, friends of friends, and even strangers.
Last year, Scarlata-Rowe let 125 firefighters hang out under a tent in her yard while they waited for the race. For four to five years, Terry hosted approximately 100 Team in Training runners at her house, before, she said, the B.A.A. decided it wanted the group down in the Athletes’ Village last year.
While it’s possible for Hopkinton residents to leave town on race morning as long as they get out before the roads close, Scarlata-Rowe said she enjoys staying home.
“It’s a big deal for us," she said. "We never plan on being anywhere else, and we’re not runners, we just love the fun of it. The excitement of it.”
Terry said there are Hopkinton residents who aren’t pro-marathon. “[Some people] are very down on it—the tie-up of traffic—and I always say, ‘It’s just one day,’ and it’s actually sort of just half of a day," she said.
And once the last wave of runners has started toward Boston, Terry said, it’s not long before trucks start coming through to collect portable toilets, barricades, and discarded clothing. After that, Hopkinton returns to being the relatively quiet town it is the other 364 days of the year.
“It’s kind of corny, but when we travel and people ask, ‘Where do you live?’ We say, ’26 miles outside of Boston, it’s where the Boston Marathon starts,” Terry said. “It kind of gives you a claim to fame, since there’s nothing else to claim.”
