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Nike responds after Boston Marathon poster sparks backlash online
– I haven’t run a marathon in quite some time. Been like training for this, my space mission for about 10 years. So sort of had my heads down focused on that. I grew up right on the sidelines of this race in a town called Needham, Massachusetts, which is right next to Wellesley. So of course when we were kids, we’d all ride our bikes and go watch all these crazy runners go by. As I was growing up and graduating from high school, I was gonna join the Navy and I was lamenting in my backyard and like, oh my God, I’m gonna go away from here and I don’t know when I’ll ever be back. Very dramatic 17-year-old. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to run this race. So my mom was, I think tired of listening to me complain, and so she said, you know, get in the car, and she drove me to the starting line and gave me a quarter and said, call me if you have a problem, otherwise I’ll meet you in the Newton Wellesley Hospital area. I’m like, okay, here we go. So that’s the time when you think you’re invincible. I didn’t know what the wall was. I thought, oh yeah, you can just keep going forever. So I’m just running and it was pretty horrible. By the time I got to meet my mom. In those days, cotton t-shirt, cotton shorts, basketball sneakers. And met her at the Newton Wellesley Hospital area right off over 128 and it was like, okay, I think I can call it quits now. I proved to myself this was sort of terrible, it’s not my forte. And somebody else ran up because she had some pre Gatorade mix that she had got from the hospital and then they were like, egging me on, like, come on, you can do it. Just encouraging me like, you can do it, you’ve got this far, you can finish. And I’m like, okay, here we go. So that was the start of it. I should have learned my lesson. It was pretty horrible, but you sort of get that running bug. I qualified in Houston for the 2007 run, but that was when I was going to space and so ended up… My sister and I sort of look alike, maybe she could run it, but she was very resourceful and found the people who organized the race and got me a number for being in space and we ran it simultaneously, which was pretty cool. You have to dig a little bit. Rang very true when I was doing space walks that things didn’t go quite right. It’s very similar. Like you have to just work through it. And I think the same thing happened. I’ll just tell you a funny anecdote. I ran one after I got back from space, I think it was in 2009. So you get out there and you’re waiting around and they had like given some of those like electrolyte tablets or something and I was just bored, so I was like eating a couple of them. Oh boy oh boy. I felt terrible around the Natick mark. And I’m like, where’s the bathroom? Where’s the bathroom? I was like, okay, I’m just gonna finish this. Even though this was like, not what I wanted to have happen, just have to deal with the issues at hand and just get to the finish line. I’m a little smarter, I think I’m not going to eat that stuff beforehand. I know what to eat before running this time. I don’t think that’s uncommon to have those moments of doubt. I mean, I felt it already when I’ve been training. I think this goes back and forth a little bit because yes, there is in the back of my mind, I’ve done hard things. Like I think to myself sometimes when I’m doing something, I’ve been colder, I’ve been hotter, I’ve been more hungry in my life and I’ve got through it and I’m fine. So like the same thinking will be, I think out on the course, go out there and enjoy it. Looks like it’s gonna be a good day and be nice to each other on the course. It’s a beautiful course, it’s a fun course, there’s tons of people the whole way cheering for you. So no, the whole city of Boston is behind you.
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Nike responds after Boston Marathon poster sparks backlash online
A Nike poster displayed in Boston ahead of this week’s Boston Marathon has been criticized online for being exclusionary.Related video above: Suni Williams, who ran a marathon in space, returns to 2026 Boston Marathon The sign, which has since been taken down, said “Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated.” On Friday, Nike released a statement about the sign: “We want more people to feel welcome in running—no matter their pace, experience, or the distance. During race week in Boston, we put up a series of signs to encourage runners. One of them missed the mark. We took it down, and we’ll use this moment to do better and continue showing up for all runners.”The poster received reactions all over the internet, with some noting that participation in the Boston Marathon means meeting specific qualifying times that often make it difficult to be selected.One post recreated the ad with a new message: “No matter the speed, forward is a pace.”Robyn Michaud, a 50x marathoner and time qualifier in the adaptive division, also weighed in on the poster.”Due to a spinal cord injury I HAVE to take walk breaks. Even with a cyst in my spinal cord, I still regularly break 5 hours in Boston and plan to again this weekend. Thank you for TOLERATING me, @nike. Perhaps you should swing by the adaptive and para staging area on Monday to see what true grit is all about.”
A Nike poster displayed in Boston ahead of this week’s Boston Marathon has been criticized online for being exclusionary.
Related video above: Suni Williams, who ran a marathon in space, returns to 2026 Boston Marathon
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The sign, which has since been taken down, said “Runners Welcome. Walkers Tolerated.”
On Friday, Nike released a statement about the sign: “We want more people to feel welcome in running—no matter their pace, experience, or the distance. During race week in Boston, we put up a series of signs to encourage runners. One of them missed the mark. We took it down, and we’ll use this moment to do better and continue showing up for all runners.”
The poster received reactions all over the internet, with some noting that participation in the Boston Marathon means meeting specific qualifying times that often make it difficult to be selected.
One post recreated the ad with a new message: “No matter the speed, forward is a pace.”
Robyn Michaud, a 50x marathoner and time qualifier in the adaptive division, also weighed in on the poster.
“Due to a spinal cord injury I HAVE to take walk breaks. Even with a cyst in my spinal cord, I still regularly break 5 hours in Boston and plan to again this weekend. Thank you for TOLERATING me, @nike. Perhaps you should swing by the adaptive and para staging area on Monday to see what true grit is all about.”
