Boston,
Mass. — Olympic bronze-medalist and Boston-area native Shalane
Flanagan will headline the field for a new B.A.A. Invitational Mile on
April 19, the Boston Athletic Association announced today.
The
Invitational Mile, to be held in conjunction with the inaugural B.A.A.
5K the day before the 113th Boston Marathon, will feature mile races
for professional men and women, plus mile races for scholastic girls
and boys from Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley,
Newton, Brookline and Boston – the eight cities and towns along the
Boston Marathon course. The races, which will be run criterium-style in
the Back Bay, will end at the Boston Marathon finish line.
“The
B.A.A. Invitational Mile is another event we’re excited to add to race
weekend this year,” said Guy Morse, B.A.A. Executive Director. “It’s a
great opportunity to give the young athletes from our host cities and
towns the chance to compete on the homestretch of the Boston Marathon
course, and we’re especially proud to carry on a B.A.A. tradition of
hosting scholastic races. Add to that the professional miles and the
B.A.A. 5K, and we expect a fun and successful day.”
The
Boston Athletic Association has offered scholastic races as far back as
1890, including the B.A.A. Schoolboy Games that began in the mid-1900s
and ran through the early 1970s.
In
that spirit, it is fitting that Flanagan highlights the professional
races: Flanagan was a high-school star at nearby Marblehead (MA) High
School.
Flanagan
brought home the bronze medal at 10,000 meters from the 2008 Olympics
in Beijing. She is only the second American woman to win an Olympic
medal at 10,000 meters, after Lynn Jennings’s bronze in 1992. The
27-year-old Flanagan also holds four American records on the track, at
5,000 meters and 10,000 meters outdoors and 3,000 meters and 5,000
meters indoors, and has had good fortune competing in front of
home-town crowds in Boston: both indoor American marks were set in
Boston.
The
series of races in the B.A.A. Invitational Mile will begin with the
girls’ scholastic race at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, April 19, immediately after
the B.A.A. 5K, a new road race that will begin at 8 a.m. The Mile will
follow a three-loop course, beginning on Boylston Street, left on
Dartmouth Street, left on Newbury Street, left on Exeter Street then
left onto Boylston. Both the 5K and Mile will begin on Boylston Street
near Copley Square Park, and end at the Boston Marathon finish line.
Registration for the 5K is available at www.baa.org; the field is
limited to 4,000 runners and is filling up fast.
Total prize purse for professional miles is $14,500 divided equally between men and women, including $3,000 for the champion.
Additional
information about the B.A.A. Invitational Mile, the B.A.A. 5K, the
Boston Marathon and the Boston Athletic Association can be found online
at http://www.baa.org/
Boston Athletic Association
Established
in 1887, the Boston Athletic Association is a non-profit organization
with a mission of managing athletic events and promoting a healthy
lifestyle through sports, especially running. The B.A.A.’s Boston
Marathon is the world’s oldest annual marathon, and the organization
manages other local events, including the B.A.A. Half Marathon
presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund, and
supports comprehensive charity, youth, and year-round running programs.
Since 1986, the principal sponsor of the Boston Marathon has been John
Hancock Financial.
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