DETOURED BY PANDEMIC, FALMOUTH RACE DIRECTOR DAVE MCGILLIVRAY FINDING HIS STRIDE AGAIN
CAPE COD TIMES
Dave McGillivray once ran 80 consecutive days across the country, from Medford, Ore., to Medford, Mass. If you’re scoring at home, that would be a total of 3,452 miles.
He followed that with a shorter jog — a mere 1,250 miles from Winter Haven, Fla., to Boston.
A couple of years ago he ran seven marathons over seven straight days on seven continents. Of course, he completed them all.
In 2019, only six months after having open heart, triple bypass surgery, he finished the Boston Marathon … for the 47th year in a row!
Next week McGillivray will turn 67 years old. Because of a busy schedule, he celebrated a month early by running and cycling miles to match his age — yup, 67 in all. He began at 3:30 in the morning with a full marathon around his neighborhood north of Boston and then biked the remaining 41 miles.
(For the record, this started on his 12th birthday when he ran 12 miles. It continued until his heart operation when he added cycling to achieve his goal. If his doctors allow, he wants to return entirely to running miles to match his age).
All these feats of feet — which have raised millions of dollars for charity — merely scratch the surface of McGillivray’s remarkable resume and highlight his extraordinary ability to cope and persevere.
This weekend he will be tested again. In the face of COVID-19 and all its increasing insidiousness, the 49th Asics Falmouth Road Race returns to in-person racing.
Last year the event was held virtually, at home, but on Sunday 8,000 runners will be back at the drawbridge in Woods Hole for the seven-mile jaunt to the ball field by the beach in Falmouth Heights.
McGillivray, the race director since 2012, has been part of a team with executive director Jennifer Edwards, the medical committee, and town health personnel. Together they have developed comprehensive coronavirus mitigation strategies, which include wearing surgical face masks at the starting line prior to running, social distancing, and hand sanitizers.
“I think people are craving in-person experiences and are ready to return,” said Edwards. “Obviously we want to protect the community as much as we can and we hope everyone does their part wearing masks.
“From an organizational standpoint, we’re in lockstep with the town,” Edwards added. “We’re following CDC, state, and local guidelines. We’re taking it day by day and making accommodations as needed.”
For his part, McGillivray knows all about facing challenges. His event management company, DMSE Sports, was nearly wiped out when the coronavirus erupted in March 2020. After being in business for 40 years, organizing more than 1,400 races and walks around the world, one by one all 35 events were canceled.
The pandemic wasn’t just a detour. The disease shut down road races completely. What McGillivray did best — gathering large groups of people together in close quarters, shoulder to shoulder and sweating for fitness and fun — was exactly how the virulent virus spread.
“I’ve always believed that what we do is raise people’s self-esteem by giving them an opportunity to set a goal and accomplish it. But then I was told we can’t do that anymore,” said McGillivray. “I pride myself on being prepared. If you’re not prepared for everything, you’re not prepared for anything, but who was prepared for a pandemic?”
McGillivray has proven he is nothing if not resilient, however. He lives by a set of rules and inspirational quotations, among them:
“My greatest accomplishment is the next one. … It’s not what I've done, it’s what I’m about to do. … Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. … The comeback is always stronger than the setback.”
He saw COVID not as a roadblock but an opportunity to pivot — “The word of the year in 2020,” said McGillivray — in a new direction.
He rationalized that he didn’t really lose his business, just temporarily lost permission to conduct it. But how long would this hibernation last?
“I went through all the stages, denial, anger, and eventually acceptance. We had to keep it in perspective knowing others had it much worse,” he said. “People were sick and people were dying. We simply lost a few road races, but we weren’t going to give up. We needed to turn a negative into a positive.”
“I told myself, put on your big boy pants and get over it. Find a way to fix it.”
While science and medicine worked on a solution, namely an effective vaccine, DMSE Sports adapted and did what it does best.
The company’s planning skills translated into helping schools hold outdoor graduations in the spring. Pop-up drive-in movie venues were organized and McGillivray rented his equipment to restaurants for street-side dining through the summer and fall.
When vaccination sites opened earlier this year, the state and CIC Health of Cambridge contracted with DMSE to coordinate and manage logistics at Gillette Stadium, Fenway Park, the Reggie Lewis Center, and the Hynes Convention Center.
“When we got the call from the Commonwealth and CIC, they said they needed a logistician. I didn’t even know what that was,” said McGillivray. “I thought I was just a race director who put out traffic cones.
“It turned out I was a logistician and what they needed was very similar to what we do to produce a race. We know how to conceptualize and visualize, lay out a course, move and manage people in a certain amount of space and time.
“Our priority (at the sites) was always safety and efficiency,” he said. “In some ways we were building the plane while we were flying it. Every day we learned a little more and made tweaks, just like we do in a road race or marathon.”
McGillivray’s team worked seven days a week, 10 hours a day into June and helped administer nearly 1.3 million vaccination shots.
“The pandemic brought us to our knees,” he said, “but then gave us the opportunity to help save lives and help keep people healthy. We certainly weren’t the clinicians, the doctors or nurses, but I’m proud of the role we played. It was humbling and gratifying.
“It's arguably the most important thing we’ve done in 40 years as a company. Now, though, we want to get back to the industry we belong in.”
Which brings McGillivray back to Falmouth this week and a return to one of the iconic events on the world's distance running calendar. Down the road, in October, the postponed Boston Marathon, also under McGillivray’s direction, is scheduled to be held with 20,000 runners.
For now, all eyes will be on Falmouth. It’s off to the races. Again.