Running

Utica Boilermaker Road Race

The Nation’s Largest 15K has Earned a Reputation
as One of the Great Runner-Friendly Race

by John Pitarresi

Diane Legare is one of the top masters road racers in Canada. The petite Montrealer is a delightful, enthusiastic personality who brings energy, color and pizzazz to every competition.

An annual entrant in the Utica Boilermaker Road Race and a two-time champion, Legare is passionately taken with the event and especially the thousands of fans who line the course every second Sunday of July to cheer everyone, from the fastest runners in the world to the greenest neophytes.

“The crowd gives me some wings,” Legare says in her charmingly accented English. “The crowd is amazing. The people participate. I mark it down on my calendar. It is my event of the year.”

Legare hardly is alone in her assessment. The Boilermaker, to be run for the 27th time July 11, is one of the most celebrated road races in America. The 15K (9.3-mile) run through the leafy neighborhoods of Utica – ending at the F.X. Matt Brewery, to the endless gratitude of the 10,000 runners and another 20,000 of their fans, relatives, friends and recent acquaintances – has earned a reputation as one of the great runner-friendly races in the nation. The fans, thousands of which have occupied the same spots on the course almost since the race was inaugurated in 1978, are a major reason.

Throw in dozens of world-class runners, hundreds of regional stars, thousands of recreational runners and 5,000 volunteers, and the Boilermaker becomes a very special experience.

“People do one of three things with the Boilermaker,” said Lisa Buster, an agent for many Kenyan runners, including four-time Boilermaker champion and former world marathon record holder Catherine Ndereba. “They’re running it, watching it or volunteering. It seems no one is sitting at home.”

No, they’re not. The mayor of Utica runs. The chief of police runs. Everyone wants to be a part of it. The Boilermaker long ago became the Utica’s signature summertime athletic and social event and a source of great pride to the community. Most years, more than 40 states and a dozen countries are represented. Many of the runners from around the country have roots in the area, but there are knots of competitors from New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Toronto, Montreal, and beyond who have heard about the race by word or mouth or through coverage in national magazines. The locals want to show them a good time and prove that the Utica area can put on a first-class production.

Again, the unbridled enthusiasm of volunteers, fans and public officials helps make that happen.

“It is the sense of community that makes it powerful and very uplifting,” said promoter and commentator Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon, and a member of the inaugural class of the National Distance Running Hall of Fame, which is headquartered in Utica. “Also, as a runner, it’s hugely buoying. The crowd just takes you up the hills. And the upstate New York area in the summer is really beautiful. The sweep up the golf course hill (a little more than three miles into the race) is particularly glorious, and takes away a little of the agony of that hill.”

The course is steep in spots – the trek up through Utica’s Valley View Golf Course is no picnic, and a long, gradual, unshaded incline up Burrstone Road leading to Utica College can be taxing – but it’s fair. “It’s a nice course,” Buster said. “I think it’s challenging on those hills in the golf course, but you still get good times.”
Indeed. The best times aren’t bad – 42:54 by Joseph Kimani in 1997 and 48:06 by Ndereba in 2001. The open division runners’ first concern is to earn the $5,000 top prize. A record time will bring an extra $1,000, though, so that’s always a consideration if the field cooperates and the weather falls into line.

The elite fields are very competitive, especially the men’s. The women’s fields have become increasingly tougher, especially with the advent of Eastern European runners. In addition to Ndereba, distinguished champions include former men’s world marathon record holder Khalid Khannouchi, Brigham Young University cross-country coach Ed Eyestone, who was the last American winner in 1991, and a horde of Kenyan runners, including road racing ace John Korir, who won the men’s title in 1999, 2001 and 2003.

Utica businessman Earle Reed founded the Boilermaker in 1978 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his father’s company, Utica Boilers. There were about 800 entrants in that first race, a modest beginning. The area already had a hard-core running community, however, with many outstanding scholastic and collegiate distance runners and a smattering of older competitors. The race caught on quite quickly, but it wasn’t until affable, outgoing distance running legend Bill Rodgers arrived in 1983 that it truly captured the public’s imagination and attracted national notice.

Rodgers won in a record time, and the Boilermaker suddenly was big time. Reed, still the power behind the whole enterprise, always has credited Rodgers with putting the Boilermaker on the map, and Rodgers and Olympic marathon champion Frank Shorter still run the race every year, adding their considerable star power to the mix. In addition, Reed said, there are two other major reasons for the race’s success.

“Whenever we’ve had runners’ concerns, we’ve addressed them,” Reed said. “We’ve moved starting times, we’ve changed things so runners can be more easily processed. We’ve been careful to address the issues the runners care about. Also, we’ve had satisfied customers. They’ve walked away from Utica, New York at 12 o’clock and said, “It’s been a special day.” We’ve done something that all corporations want to do: we’ve satisfied our customers.”

The Boilermaker isn’t just a race. There is a golf tournament, a health and fitness expo at Utica’s Masonic Home, a 5K training run, an 8K walk, a youth run and other events. The Hall of Fame normally has its induction the night before the race, too, but won’t this year because of scheduling conflicts.

It all winds up with a mammoth and spirited awards ceremony and party in the brewery parking lot, with the show band Nik & The Nice Guys’ of Rochester usually providing the entertainment. “The beer at the end is divine,” Switzer said. “The party marvelous.”

Divine and marvelous – that’s how many feel about the Boilermaker in general, and, again, those fans in particular. “I think it’s the best race in the country,” said Joe Wilczysnki of Whitesboro, one of 20 runners who have run all 26 races. “I can’t say enough about the spectators and the volunteers, too. I’ve run all over the country. You can’t beat the spectators at the Boilermaker.” Information on the race is available at www.boilermaker.com.

John Pitarresi of New Hartford has been a sportswriter with the Utica Observer-Dispatch since 1973, and has covered the last 20 Boilermakers. His 2002 book “Utica Boilermaker: America’s Premier 15K Road Race” is a narrative history of the first 25 years of the race.

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