President Bacow's team to raise University money in Boston Marathon

A large team of stampeding Jumbos led by President Bacow will compete in Boston's most famous annual sports spectacle, the Boston Marathon, this April.

The 39 students, faculty and alumni runners who run with Bacow will take part in the "President's Challenge" by competing in the 107th Boston Marathon in an effort to raise funds for Tufts Personalized Performance Program, a University athletic program.

The program aims to prevent illness through collaboration between the Athletic Department and the Tufts School of Nutrition, Athletic Director Bill Gehling said. "It is very important to the long term health of our nation and is a very worthy cause as well," he said.

A ten-mile run in January qualified 18 of the 50 students interested in running to join the team. Runners not associated with student organizations had to go through an extensive registration process including the presentation of a qualifying time from another marathon. Men between the ages of 18 and 34 must have a three hour and ten minute time, and women in the same age group must be able to run a 26 mile race in three hours and 40 minutes to be eligible.

The student runners were asked to raise $1,000 for the program while alumni and friends of the university were asked to pledge $5,000 each.

So far $170,000 has been raised, with a goal of $250,000 set to be collected.

"We are very pleased with the fundraising effort and the response of the Tufts community to this program," Gehling said

However, not all Tufts participants approve of the team's fundraising purpose.

"I am not overly enthusiastic about the Personalized Performance Program," one anonymous runner said. "I think that it is a novel and great idea for institutions that have money to burn... I would much prefer money be raised for medical school cancer research, lower tuition or things along those lines."

Many charities are also awarded a specific number of slots for their runners to participate in the marathon. The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) works with selected charities to give each organization a guaranteed number of entries for their fund raising purposes.

"We recognize 16 official charities," BAA representative Julia Beeson said. "There is an application process where we select the benefit. They then oversee their own program [by] selecting their own athletes and [contributing] a minimum of $2,000."

This year's selected charities include Children's Hospital, the American Liver Foundation, Muscular Dystrophy and the Boys' and Girls' Clubs.

According to Gehling, "[Bacow] has been a strong supporter of the Tufts Personalized Fitness Program from its very beginning."

This will be the first time Tufts has sponsored a team in the marathon. The President has also called for student volunteers to man water stations along the race course and support their fellow Jumbos.

Tufts will send 40 runners to the marathon this year. 18 of these participants are students (nine undergraduates and nine graduates), and the other 22 runners are alumni, friends of the university, or faculty members. The students have differing levels of running experience, but most have been training for this marathon since early January.

Maintaining a regular training schedule is difficult for many of the runners, third year medical student and three-time marathon participant Chris Chinn said. "It is hard to get on a regular schedule and to clock the necessary mileage [in training]. I've been trying to run eight miles every other day."

For Ian Cohen, a less experienced student runner, the running team marks the resurgence of an old pastime. "I ran cross-country in high school. It was only this past summer when I rediscovered how much I enjoy [it]," Cohen said. "I try to do one speed work out and one hills workout each week. And, every Sunday I try to do a longer run -- 16-plus miles."

Since 1897, the Boston Marathon has hosted runners from around the world for this Patriot's Day display of athleticism. The race has grown from a mere 15 participants in its inaugural year, to over 20,000 competitors expected this April in the BAA organized event. The marathon attracts over half a million spectators and volunteers.