We were surprised when organizers of the Twin Cities Marathon decided last spring that they would henceforth allow only Americans to win our race. This, of course, instantly got up the dander of non-runners, liberals, and non-running liberals throughout the area. Within days of the announcement, the Minneapolis City Council was looking into ways to “punish” Twin Cities Marathon, Inc. Among people who run only once every four years, it looked like discrimination. And so it was.
To be fair, though, the problem depended entirely on your point of view. City boosters who think of our marathon as a great preening moment—the same people who repeat the unsourced compliment that ours is “the most beautiful urban marathon in America”—understandably believe that our footrace should reflect our values: racial diversity, inclusivity, doughnut holes at all water stops, and so on. But to serious American marathoners, it is a salve to the national ego to win in our own backyard now and again. The Kenyans and Russians can stay at home and dominate their own marathons, thank you very much.
This is not strictly a local attitude. There are more than three hundred marathons each year in the U.S., and aliens have worn out their welcome at nearly every one of them. For native joggers, winning is not everything—losing is. An American has not won any of our three biggest marathons in two decades. Roberto Salazar won the New York City Marathon in 1983. Greg Meyer won Chicago in 1982 and Boston in 1983. And that was our last hurrah, at least among the marathons that matter.
See, there’s the rub: We desperately want the Twin Cities Marathon to matter. We want a unique selling point. Boston, New York, and Chicago are the granddaddies of all marathons, and they hardly need to distinguish themselves. Each admits fields in excess of thirty thousand runners. By contrast, we cap ours at ten thousand, we tell ourselves we are beautiful, and we try to keep foreigners out.
Still, in our own way, we’re just following the cues of the Big Leagues. New York, Chicago, and Boston have all trotted out proposals intended to give a second wind to American pride. Last year, New York introduced the Salazar Award to the top-finishing Americans. Chicago’s plan to double the purse for American winners had the interesting effect of causing a top Kenyan runner to apply for and gain citizenship and continue winning. (If he’s going to be a millionaire, he may as well be an American.)
It is admirable that Twin Cities Marathon organizers softened their position. Competitive runners can certainly use every boost they can get in terms of reputation, since they are the fitness world’s cock-of-the-walk. Following the aspersions of the Minneapolis City Council, TCM directors decided to offer a general purse for all runners, regardless of which godless country they might come from, and a separate purse for top American finishers.
The Twin Cities Marathon does have a unique selling point, as it turns out. We have been designated the site for the USA Track & Field National Championship for the next two years, and we have hosted the National Master’s Championship for the last fourteen. There was logic behind efforts to institutionalize a policy of exclusion.
But one should be careful not to break what isn’t fixed. The relatively modest size and location of the Twin Cities Marathon has itself guaranteed a cup of hope to patriots and xenophobes. The truth is, not many foreigners come here, so our odds are good. In fact, a natural-born American won in 2002. (Eddy Hellebuyck, last year’s winner, has American citizenship, but is Belgian by birth.) He was Dan Browne, a Californian, who handily beat dozens of foreigners. But we’ll be keeping an eye on him and his kind. If too many Californians win our race, we can always limit the field to non-Californian Americans.
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