GARDEN CITY, Idaho — Hundreds of runners woke up early on Sunday morning and braved the elements to run in the Boise Marathon, the popular race returned after being virtual a year ago because of the pandemic.
The Boise Marathon features something for everyone with a marathon, half marathon, 10k and 5k with the best runners around competing for a chance to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
"I'm so glad it's back in action this year a lot of people had been missing it and it is just great to get everyone in the community together to qualify for Boston and have a great day," said one of the race organizers Julia Sanchez.
Race organizers spaced out the different races to help runners social distance and they also removed the finisher festival in an effort to put on a safe event.
They also moved the start of the race to Garden City so runners wouldn't have to wear a mask as they gathered at the start.
The marathon route took runners down the Greenbelt past the Highway 21 Bridge near on the way to Lucky Peak where they turned around and came back on the other side of the Boise River. Click here to find race results.
Every race has a story and in this one, it's easy to focus on the rain, but every runner also has their own story and there might not be a more inspiring story than Randy Woodward.
Woodward got blown up by an EID in Iraq back in 2005 and Boise marks the 64th marathon he has run in 40 different states.
"Doctors said I would never run again," said Navy veteran Randy Woodward. "Now I run marathons with the American flag."
Sutcliffe went to high school with Woodward and then went on to the marines, this marked Sutcliffe's first attempt at a marathon.
We also learned that there were problems with the marathon including routes being poorly marked, disorganization and several runners highlighted those problems in this thread.
