Hey, 2018 Boston Marathon Runners—The Expo Is Moving
It will not sit right at the finish line this year, runners.
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The Boston Marathon Expo Is Moving
The Hynes Convention Center, with an entrance right near the finish line on Boylston Street in Boston, will not host three-day expo this year. Apparently it’s booked.
According to Runner’s World, the 30,000 runners planning to make the run from Hopkinton will have to race over to Seaport World Trade Center to pick up their bibs and race T-shirt. The location is about two miles east of Hynes.
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Tom Grilk, CEO of the Boston Athletic Association, told RW that there was no choice in making the move; the venue was unavailable, and the BAA does not “have any special preference in obtaining its use.”
The 800 Boylston location is apparently booked for a 2,000 annual Ambulatory Surgery Center conference. (To compare, the Boston Marathon expo attracts around 100,000 attendees every year.) Although Grilk made it clear that this location is their preference, he does say there are advantages to moving the pre-race action to 200 Seaport Blvd.
“It’s a newly expanding area of Boston and has been the source of a large amount of development in the last few years with hotels, retail establishments and lots of restaurants going in,” he told RW. “So if the expo is not going to be in the Back Bay where we can keep the experience compact, then the Seaport area has a great deal to offer.”
Grilk says the Boylston location is ideal due to geographical convenience and the fact that it makes up for any lost business for local storefronts and restaurants due to road closures in the days leading up to Patriots’ Day. More information regarding the location is on the marathon website.