Local runner brings Boston Marathon to Boise as Idaho races go virtual, too
After 26 miles, Sarah Quilici was nearing the end of the Boston Marathon on Sunday. She crossed the finish line to cheers and applause, but instead of ending the race on Boston’s Boylston Street, she finished her run on the track of Boise High School.
Quilici was one of thousands of runners to take part in a historic Boston Marathon — the first held “virtually” as the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend daily life in the United States.
When Quilici, a Boisean and the superintendent of Idaho’s Catholic schools, first learned the race would take place remotely, she nearly dropped out.
“At first, I thought, ‘I don’t want to run a virtual marathon,’ ” Quilici said in a phone interview. “Then I thought, ‘Yes, I want a medal and a shirt from the year the Boston Marathon didn’t happen.’ ”
And as Quilici hit the Boise streets for her Boston run last weekend, local race organizers were taking their own marathons and 5Ks online.
Race events go virtual to stop spread of coronavirus
Virtual races aren’t a completely new concept. Before the coronavirus pandemic, participants could sign up and use GPS technology from smartphones, wearable technology and other devices to report their times and routes. But there’s been a surge in virtual events as the pandemic and social distancing made the typical race day experience — a crowded route flanked by cheering crowds — an impossibility.
In Boise, local race organizers realized early on that their annual events wouldn’t look the same.
“Like Boston, we started planning back in January for this race that was supposed to be in May and then we canceled because of the pandemic,” said Allison Evaro, race director for the Treasure Valley YMCA’s Famous Idaho Potato Marathon, in a phone interview.
Eric Stride, director of St. Luke’s FitOne, said his team also made the choice in May to do the September half-marathon, 10K and 5K event virtually.
Both organizers said they used RaceJoy, an interactive race app, to give participants a taste of the race day atmosphere they were missing. Users are greeted with a video from race officials cheering them on and thanking them for their support as they start their route. FitOne participants get virtual “shoutouts” at different mile markers, Stride said, and both races offered participants an official race route to follow or the option to create their own. Participants will still receive race swag, including T-shirts and medals.
But the experience is undeniably different.
“This race isn’t as big as it typically is as an in-person event,” Evaro said. “I would imagine most races that are going virtual are experiencing that.”
Stride said St. Luke’s has registered nearly 5,000 participants for the event, which last year drew a crowd of 12,000.
“That was about our goal this year going virtual,” he said. “If you compare our numbers to other virtual races in pretty big markets … we’re up over them pretty substantially.”
Participants can still sign up for both races online. Registration for FitOne will remain open until Friday, Sept. 18, and confirmation of race completion must be submitted before Oct. 1. (St. Luke’s extended its race dates due to the unhealthy air quality Idaho is experiencing with wildfire smoke.) Registration for the Famous Idaho Potato Marathon is open through Saturday, Sept. 19, and races must be completed before Sept. 21.
Bringing the Boston Marathon to Boise
Quilici, the Boise runner, had committed to running the Boston Marathon long before the pandemic existed. An avid runner for more than a decade, she ran the Boston Marathon once already in 2016.
“That ignited this whole excitement to run races outside of Idaho,” she said.
She has since run the New York Marathon (she calls it “the highlight of my running career”) and qualified for the 2020 Boston Marathon when she ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Quilici was ready to race in Boston on April 20 this spring.
“Last winter, (Sarah) said: ‘I want to really go for it. I want to do Boston at my peak potential,’ ” said Gretchen Hurlbutt, Quilici’s running coach, in a phone interview. “I trained and worked with her all winter, and she was in such great condition at the end of March.”
Then the Boston Athletic Association postponed the race to Sept. 14. By the end of May, the organization said it would scrap the in-person event in favor of a virtual race.
“I just know how devastating that was,” Hurlbutt said. “I don’t think (Sarah) wanted to feel as emotional about it as she did, but you’ve worked so hard for this goal and you have no control over it.”
Quilici rallied from the disappointment but let up slightly on her training. She asked Hurlbutt to design a marathon route to keep her run interesting and special.
“I told her, ‘I don’t want to just run the Greenbelt out and back,’ ” Quilici said.
Instead, Hurlbutt created a course that started at the Boise Art Museum in Julia Davis Park, headed east to Barber and Marianne Williams parks before turning west to Warm Springs Golf Course and the Old Idaho Penitentiary. From there, she ran to Memorial Park in the North End, where her running team, the Boise Betties, were there to cheer her on. Next she ran along Hill Road to Collister, to Sunset Park on 32nd Street and back onto the Greenbelt past Esther Simplot Park. When she ascended the incline of Garden Street, she was on mile 21 — the same spot where she would have climbed Heartbreak Hill in Boston. At mile 23, she passed the Boise Depot only to find the view of the skyline obscured by smoke. Finally she came down Capitol Boulevard and into downtown, finishing at Boise High School with a time of 3 hours, 52 minutes.
Along the way, Hurlbutt had posted signs reminiscent of the Boston route to help bolster Quilici’s spirits — including an “Entering Boston” sign that Quilici passed near Myrtle Street as she headed downtown.
“I could see all of the effort that she’s put in twice over, and I wanted to do my best to try to match the positive energy that is the Boston Marathon, that’s the magic that makes people want to run this marathon,” Hurlbutt said.
Quilici had no shortage of positive energy along the way.
“I had a friend show up every 4 miles with water and oranges,” Quilici said.
Her husband rode his bike alongside her for the entire route, while her three children took turns riding for portions of the course. Quilici said that reminded her of her first marathon around Lake Lowell, when her family followed in their car and cheered her on. When she arrived at the Boise High track on Sunday, she was greeted by friends and family.
Quilici said she missed the race day atmosphere — the camaraderie with other runners and the excitement of the crowd. But she found plenty to enjoy about the virtual Boston Marathon.
“I got to sleep in my own bed the night before,” she said. “I didn’t have to use portapotties. I’m not flying home today when I’m sore. Really there were so many benefits.”
Quilici said she loved seeing the different segments of Boise, from the park visitors at Julia Davis to the cyclists on Hill Road and the surfers at the Boise River Whitewater Park.
“The New York Marathon has been my favorite (race), but what I loved about that was running through all five boroughs and seeing the unique culture,” Quilici said. “In a lot of ways, I got to do that in Boise.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
