By Ashley Hernandez Ramirez
Boston University News Service
In the countdown to the 130th annual Boston Marathon, whether running in the race or simply supporting others on the sidelines, the masses have been brought out of their homes and onto the streets. The race has attracted a broad array of people from all walks—or runs—of life, some native to Boston and others visiting internationally. Tourists and locals alike have swarmed Boylston Street as they eagerly await to see their favorite runners achieve victory.
Restaurants and stores directly along the marathon route and in central Boston have been preparing to ensure their team is ready for the frenzy to the finish line. Here is how they planned for Boston’s Marathon Monday.
Lenox Hotel
The Lenox Hotel is an historic 11-story landmark located in Boston’s Back Bay. Being right near the finish line—and partnered with New Balance—the hotel has been preparing for the marathon for months.
“This is our biggest day of the year,” Haley Peloquin, Lenox’s event coordinator, said. “We’re, I think, 150 feet from the finish line, so it’s like our Black Friday, pretty much. We prepare all year, we sell out a year in advance hotel-wise and then all of our events sell out a year-in-advance too.”
Certain areas of the hotel will be changing in anticipation of Marathon Monday events.
“The lobby gets cleared out of the furniture [and] we have a DJ come, said Peloquin. “There’s multiple smaller events that go on as well that [aren’t] put on by a team, it’s just put on by the Lenox, so that’s our pride and joy—setting up mostly the lobby and getting all the celebrations ready.”
According to Peloquin, athletes and families routinely stay at the Lenox during the marathon. The Lenox Hotel has tightened security to ensure the safety of workers and hotel guests during Marathon Monday.
Chick-fil-A
One of America’s most beloved fast food restaurants (and one of the two locations in the Boston area) Chick-fil-A Back Bay has prepared for a chicken craze on the day of the marathon. In anticipation of street closures, the store has preemptively decided to close down their delivery services on Marathon Monday.
“Because it’s going to be busy, we obviously staffed up a lot of people,” said employee AJ Bailey. “Usually we have delivery drivers who will come in and pick up Uber Eats, DoorDash and things like that. We’re, I believe, closing that down at some point because they won’t have access to the street. But [we’re] also, just stocking, double checking, making sure we have everything that we need for the, I’m sure, influx of people that are going to come in after the marathon.”
Marathon Sports
A Massachusetts-founded brand with a store located adjacent to the finish line, Marathon Sports is an athletic retailer that has been supplying gear since 1975.
Store manager of the Boylston location, Chris Marino, said that prep work for the marathon begins early.
“I basically start preparing for the Boston Marathon at the start of the year,”store manager Chris Marino said. “So like January 1st, I’m looking at sales and orders from the last year and looking to see what we should have in stock.”
Marino said that teamwork is what ultimately makes Marathon Monday a success for the company.
“We’re lucky that we’ve been here, always at the finish line, but we love to work with our vendor partners to open up shops and create experiences for runners all up and down Boylston, Newbury and throughout Back Bay,” Marino said. “I’m very fortunate that Marathon Sports is a titan of retail in New England, and there are a lot of people that come together to execute this weekend and make it a really effective weekend for us as a company.”
With a highly anticipated busy week, and with Marino running the marathon himself this year, there is a lot of anticipation at Marathon Sports for the race.
Cafe Landwer
Cafe Landwer, a fast-casual Israeli restaurant chain with three locations in Boston, opened their latest franchise in the heart of Back Bay over four years ago. In the days leading up to this year’s marathon, employees say that the already-feverish weekends have transformed into bustling weekdays. The restaurant is expecting even more chaos on the day-of, enacting time limits to curb long-wait times.
“We have some certain rules [for] that day, like you cannot spend two hours [sitting as] a table of two—you need to get out by an hour or an hour and 15 minutes,” said manager Inez Juarez. “We have a lot of reservations; they are mostly for the patio, because they want to [sit] outside and everything… We don’t have a special menu or special drinks or happy hour or whatever, we are just like, we need to get ready because we have a lot of reservations.
Raising Cane’s
Another beloved American chicken restaurant, Raising Cane’s is a fast food restaurant specializing in chicken fingers. In an effort to mitigate the tasks on the day of the marathon, employees have been prepping for days.
“There’s so many people,” said employee Yohanna Pena. “As soon as we open we have a line halfway. It’s just so many people just flowing around… There’s actually a lot of [employees] scheduled to be here today because we prep on time. We over-prep and then we always schedule [employees] just because of the amount of people that we are expecting.”
First Watch
First Watch, a breakfast and brunch restaurant chain with over 600 locations in the US, opened their first Boston restaurant three months ago. While approaching their first season during the marathon, staff is unsure of what to anticipate. The restaurant has gradually seen an increase in activity, observing wait times increase by over 50 percent over the course of a few days.
“So usually we are busy on Saturdays and Sundays, but we usually have like a one-hour wait. But today we have a one-and-a-half [to] two-hour wait.” Kate Alikseyeva, a First Watch employee said on the Saturday before the marathon.
Since First Watch does not take reservations, Alikseyeva recommends that guests wishing to dine-in show up as early as possible, at 7:30am or 8am on Marathon Monday, to beat the crowd.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Lastly, one of the most well-known athletic franchises in the US, Dick’s House of Sports on Boylston has relied on increased manpower to control the business influx during Marathon week, increasing hours and the number of associates.
“Marathon is our busiest week of the whole year—It’s busier than Black Friday, busier than Christmas,” said store associate Diya Meyer. “We do 200,000 to 300,000 of sales each day; in an hour we do 40,000 to 50,000 of sales. Our back rooms are full of marathon merch, we start getting it in February.”
Dick’s begins getting marathon merch in February, awaiting the hordes of people hoping to rep the iconic blue and yellow Adidas-studded clothing.
Many businesses have had to plan far in advance to ensure smooth running for the week leading up to and the day of the Boston Marathon. Each store highlighted not only the complications that lead up to the race but also the adaptability and resilience they must have, as they attempt to show Boston’s spirit during one of the city’s most beloved annual events.
