The Utah Valley Marathon has quietly pulled off what might be the most strategic course adjustment in American road racing this year, a subtle 170-foot tweak that could make it the best Boston qualifying race in the country.
After the Boston Athletic Association announced last month that marathons with more than 1,500 feet of net elevation loss would now come with a built-in time penalty for Boston hopefuls, races across the West began scrambling to respond.
The Utah Valley Marathon, which previously dropped 1,614 feet from start to finish, landed just over the cutoff and suddenly faced a dilemma, accept the penalty or rewrite the course.
“We had to figure out what the heck to do,” assistant race director Ethan Curtis told KSL.com. “A lot of people run our race in hopes to qualify for Boston.”
Organizers wasted no time. Race director Hyrum Oaks, working without Curtis, who happened to be away on his honeymoon when the BAA announcement landed, began reshaping the opening segment of the course in the small town of Wallsburg, where the race traditionally starts.
The result, a retooled route with a net downhill of 1,444 feet, skirting under the threshold and avoiding the five-minute penalty that would’ve kicked in under the new Boston rules.
The new standards, announced June 16, go into effect this September and are part of the BAA’s broader effort to level the playing field.
Courses that drop more than 1,500 feet will now impose a five-minute time adjustment for all finishers. If the drop exceeds 3,000 feet, the penalty doubles to ten minutes. That puts famously fast races like St. George and Revel Big Cottonwood in penalty territory unless they too make changes.
But Utah Valley’s team saw an opportunity.
The reroute wasn’t easy, the rural starting area in Wallsburg doesn’t have space for runner drop-offs, so organizers rely on a fleet of buses. With the adjusted course, Oaks had to negotiate new turnaround spots with local farmers, making a series of door-to-door visits and promising their grass would be spared.
It worked.
The small reroute in the first 3.2 miles not only solves the penalty problem, it might now make Utah Valley the fastest legal course in the country for runners chasing Boston.
“For a lot of runners, the dream is to qualify for Boston,” Curtis said. “It’s a big goal, and I think our course has the best odds to do that without being penalized. It’s a great, beautiful course to try out. Even if you don’t qualify, it’s still a great experience.”
The marathon, held each June, winds through the scenic Provo Canyon and ends in downtown Provo. Of the 6,500 runners who showed up this year, around 1,300 came from out of state. More than 140 runners hit their Boston qualifying marks, a number organizers expect to rise now that the course won’t face elevation penalties.
Runners who earn a BQ are handed a commemorative shirt at the finish, a small but meaningful reward for those who hit the mark. “We try to reward people that qualify for Boston,” Curtis said. “We believe our race is, as of right now, the easiest course to do it on, and it’s also probably the most beautiful, too.”
