Stay ConnectedThe first ever Boston Marathon podcast, presented by the Boston Athletic Association and media partner WBZ-TV.
We invite you to join us as we bring you stories, the people, and the issues, that make the Marathon what it is, both today and through history – in Boston and around the world.
The 2018 Boston Marathon Champion discusses the ups and downs of her running career, and a really wet, cold, and glorious day in Boston.
Roger Robinson, a professor, a writer, and a world-class runner, joins Tom Grilk on the Boston Marathon podcast. With years of experience in a myriad of areas, Robinson shares his perspectives on literature, running, the intersection between them, and the current state of running.
And, he's married to women's running pioneer Kathrine Switzer, making he and she a top candidate for the world's most recognized running couple.
While training with her coach in the Winter of 1966, Kathrine was told that 'women were not allowed to run the Boston Marathon'. Flabbergasted, the Syracuse University student set her mind on doing just that - and in 1967, she made way for Boston. She signed her name 'K.V.' on the application form and started the 1967 race without incident. But a few miles down the road, race director Jock Semple got wind of a woman in his race, and he saw her, he tried to take her bib numbers away. After all, the Amateur Athletics Union did not allow for women to compete in the B.A.A. Boston Marathon, and Jock wasn't about to let an 'imposter' run in his race. The pictures of the incident went around the world, and Kathrine became an icon for women and their right to an even playing field near and far. Today, with her creation of Fearless 261, her work continues. She sat down with B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk in May of 2018 to talk through the day that was, and all that has happened since.
There are many inclines along the course of the Boston Marathon, but they don't phase five-time champion Tatyana McFadden, who has overcome far greater obstacles in her time. In this episode, Tatyana sits down with B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk and B.A.A. Board Member Cheri Blauwet to talk about her success and struggles both in and out of the sport. And, as Tatyana explains, if anything scares her, it's the early downhills of the Boston Marathon.
Cheri Blauwet grew up in Iowa as an involved student - student council and academic groups filled her schedule. Sports and competitive racing rarely drew her interest. After all, Blauwet used a wheelchair to get around, and didn't feel that the track team was something she was cut out for.
But with the persistent encouragement of a high school advisor, Blauwet eventually joined the track team, and once she started pushing laps, she never looked back. She went on to compete at the University of Arizona, several Paralympic Games, and road races around the word, where she often found success. Blauwet won the 2004 and 2005 Boston Marathon, and today serves on the governing body of the Boston Athletic Association, the organization which hosts the annual race.
Since her racing days, she has excelled in a myriad of other roles: a professor, a doctor, and most recently, a parent. Cheri sits down with B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk to talk about her long resume and all that is ahead.
The B.A.A. Medical Coordinator Chris Troyanos manages an enormous team of medical professionals to help care for thousands of runners at each Boston Marathon, and he does it sometimes under the most difficult weather conditions.
From the cold, wind, and rain of the 2018 Boston Marathon, to the heat of 2012 and 2004, Chris and his team are prepared for nearly anything on race day. That preparation was no more evident than on April 15, 2013, when two bombs exploded near the finish line and the Medical Tents and the people who worked within them performed quickly and as planned. The quick thinking and decisive actions of experiences professionals and race volunteers helped save lives.
Chris joins B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk to talk about that day, and all days in which the medical services of the Boston Marathon are put through different tests. The Boston Marathon Podcast is presented by the Boston Athletic Association and WBZ-TV.
The 1968 Boston Marathon Champion reflects on his decades of contributions to the sport of running, as both a competitor and a writer.
Amby has seen many changes sweep through the sport of running since his first impressions of the Boston Marathon as a Wesleyan Student in 1965. He has experienced them as a competitor, and as a long time contributor and editor to Runner's World magazine.
He shares these observations with B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk, just days before he takes on the 2018 Boston Marathon on the 50th anniversary of his win in 1968.
Winning the Boston Marathon had been a goal of Greg Meyer's for several years, and one day in 1983, it all came together and he broke the tape in 2:09:00. He sat down with Tom Grilk in March of 2018 to talk about that special day, his training leading up to it, and the state of the sport, both then in the 1970s and 1980s, and now.
In the 1960s, there was a belief - by some - that women were not physiologically able to run long distances, like a marathon. Roberta Gibb disagreed. She would run for hours, regularly, in Southern California. One time, she ran into Mexico by accident. In 1966 she rode a bus from California to Boston, allured of a new challenge - the Boston Marathon. She convinced her mother to take her to the Start Line, hid in the bushes, and after the gun fired, hopped into the race. She never looked back. Five decades on, she sits down with B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk and shares her stories of running the Boston Marathon, and the wide array of endeavors she has pursued since.
This podcast, and all episodes, are sponsored by the B.A.A. and WBZ-TV, in Boston.
You could say it all started for Meb as a seventh-grader who ran a 5:20 mile in gym class. But, you would have missed an unbelievable journey that preceded it – a civil war that threatened the already-destitute conditions in Eritrea in the 1980s, a refugee voyage to Italy, and a test of a family’s resilience to get to America, that thrived once on its shores. This resilience would be tested throughout Meb's running career: through the death of a training friend, excruciating injuries, and the loss of his main sponsor. It was fitting, therefore, that Meb, an American citizen emboldened by these years of resilience, broke the tape in the 2014 Boston Marathon. “That moment, when I won the Boston Marathon,” Meb says, “I knew I was on this earth to be impactful through running.”
B.A.A. CEO Tom Grilk sits down with Meb in this week's episode.
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