UPDATE: According to a representative from the B.A.A., "unauthorized participants," like ruck marchers, will not be allowed on the course due to the increased field size of 36,000. However, 130 National Guard members will be marching the course, with bib numbers. Read an update to this developmentwith comment from the Massachusetts Emergency Managment Agency.
Through an exclusive partnership with the National Parks Service, Tough Ruck has relocated their march to the Minuteman Battle Trail, part of the Minuteman Historical National Park. The march will take place on April 19, two days before the marathon.
A decade long tradition will be missing from this year’s Boston Marathon. Due to the new, stricter security guidelines released by the Boston Athletic Association last Wednesday, ruck marchers will not be allowed to make the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boylston because they are considered "unauthorized participants."
Active members of the military have participated in ruck marches at the Boston Marathon for years. Donning full fatigues and carrying 40-pound rucksacks on their backs, ruckers march the length of the course in support of families of fallen soldiers.
However, according to the new B.A.A. restrictions, “units or groups such as military ruck-marchers and cyclists, who have sometimes joined on the course, will not be allowed to participate.”
Tough Ruck was one of the ruck marching organizations planning on rucking this year. The B.A.A.’s announcement of the new security guidelines came as a surprise to Tough Ruck founder, Stephen Fiola.
“My first reaction was of course disappointment, but I understand that there are safety and security concerns,” said Fiola, a member of the National Guard who would have been rucking for the seventh time this year. “We knew that there were concerns, but we did not know that a policy was going to come out prior to the B.A.A. announcement.”
Last year, about 20 to 30 people marched with Tough Ruck, but Fiola said there was an increased interest in this year’s Boston Marathon. When registration for Tough Ruck closed on January 31, Tough Ruck had 746 registrants from 29 states.
According to Fiola, Tough Ruck is still planning on rucking 26.2 miles, they just have to come up with an alternate location, which has yet to be determined.
“The message is supporting our fallen brothers and sisters,” he said. “It’s not about raising money; it certainly isn’t about the Boston Marathon itself.”
Last year when the bombs went off near the finish line, members of Tough Ruck, including Fiola, were among the first responders to help the wounded. Carlos Arredondo, a Tough Ruck volunteer who is credited with saving the life of Jeff Bauman who later went on to positively identify alleged Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was also at the scene.
“There was no problem with throwing my face, Carlos Arredondo’s face on magazines, but when it came to ‘Hey we have this program, we want to be involved,’ everyone just seemed to go away,” Fiola said.
“The marathon is a marathon. It’s not a military event I understand that,” said Fiola. “But, there are ways we could have all worked through this. We could have all communicated.”
Melinda Arredondo, wife of Carlos Arredondo, said the new security changes were supposed to be worked out between the National Guard and the Department of Public Safety.
“It was a little strange that this announcement came out without those parties involved,” she said.
Arredondo said she and her husband had planned to volunteer with Tough Ruck again this year but now their plans are changed.
“[Carlos] is disappointed,” she said. “We wanted to finish what we had started last year.”
The B.A.A. deferred comment to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), who did not respond before publication time. This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
Additional reporting by Megan Hetzel.
Hannah is a former Social Media Editor for Runner’s World. Hannah started running in February 2012 with a Couch-to-5K program and less than seven months later ran her first half-marathon. You can follow Hannah on Twitter @byHannahMcG.
