Keep Boston pure by disallowing charity runners

The Boston Marathon is known as the granddaddy of them all when it comes to distance running, and it should remain pure.

The Boston Marathon allocates 20 to, 25 percent of its overall entries to charity runners. These are people who just have to collect enough donations and they're in. No running a previous marathon at the qualifying pace. In a way, charity runners are buying their way into Boston.

Even after running a qualifying time, non-charity runners have to go through the Boston Marathon registration lottery, and they may not make it in even after all of that.

But charity runners don't have to worry about running qualifying times. In fact, many are first-time marathoners who may not have even run a 5K in the past.

This would be like a weekend golfer entering the Master's Tournament by collecting enough donations even though he shoots well over 100, when par is in the low 70s.

It would be like a flag football team being able to participate in the NFL playoffs because it collected enough donations. Or a sandlot baseball team being in the major league playoffs leading to the World Series just because they met the donation threshold.

I don't have anything against charity races, but they should be kept out of Boston. There are numerous other marathons, such as the Rock N Roll Series and the Nike Women's Events, that cater to charity runners.

Anything less, and it cheapens the accomplishments of non-charity runners who had to qualify for Boston and then register through the lottery.