Hundreds of runners took off from Malcolm X Park in Roxbury early Saturday morning to complete 26.TRUE, a community-organized alternative to the Boston Marathon that passes through neighborhoods overlooked by the famous race.
Two hundred and fifty people got bibs for the “unsanctioned’’ race, which relied on around 180 volunteers to direct runners along a 13.1-mile double-loop course through Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, and Mattapan, according to the race website and an organizer.
The 26.TRUE Marathon seeks to encourage runners who do not fit the marathoner archetype of affluent, white, and extremely athletic, or do not have the social network to raise thousands of dollars for entrance fees, organizer Alíese Lash said.
While the Boston Marathon requires runners to submit qualifying times, 26.TRUE reserved one hundred spots this year for first-time marathoners.
“The event allows us to think outside of the box and really rethink and change the narrative, change the history about who deserves to be running,’’ Lash said.
More than 50 people lined up on Dale Street along Malcolm X Park, ringing cowbells and cheering for runners as dancehall music boomed from a Red Bull-branded truck.
“Pain is temporary, Strava glory is forever,’’ one supporter’s sign read.
Chloe and Peter Hinrichs, who work respectively as an accountant and a landscape designer, traveled from out-of-state to watch their son race. The couple said they were happy to join a supportive environment cheering on the runners along a memorable course.
“It just highlights all the great neighborhoods of Boston,’’ Peter Hinrichs said. “In the Boston Marathon, they don’t really run that much in Boston.’’
26.TRUE originated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when PIONEERS Run Crew, a running club led by people of color, arranged an impromptu marathon route for members who had registered for the canceled Boston Marathon.
“‘Let’s use this as an excuse and an opportunity to run through the streets of our neighborhoods and really spotlight the city of Boston in a way that the namesake marathon, the Boston Marathon, does not do,’’’ Lash recalled thinking.
PIONEERS intended 26.TRUE to be a one-time event, but participants quickly expressed interest in running the course again the following year, Lash said.
As the event has expanded, organizers have adapted the course to their mission of highlighting marginalized neighborhoods. This year’s route includes a “civil (dis)course’’ that took runners past Malcolm X’s childhood home, Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, and the Melnea A. Cass Recreation Complex.
“Those three civil rights leaders and activists are huge motivators to us,’’ Lash said.
Organizers wanted to “encourage the runners to really soak up and understand what the meaning of their impacts means for us,’’ she added.
Jade Lozada can be reached at jade.lozada@globe.com.
