In 2017, I ran a charity fundraiser/unsanctioned road race against Boston’s B Line, an MBTA Green Line trolley that very much does not put the “rapid” in “rapid transit”. In that event, approximately 120 folks raced alongside what we call “the T” for about four miles. The course began at the line’s terminus at Boston College and followed along Commonwealth Avenue to Blandford Street, the last aboveground stop.
That race took place on a cold January day, and I ran hard just to stay warm. When it was over, I had posted a solid 27:18 over 3.97 miles, for a 6:52/mile pace. And yet, the T narrowly beat me.
As you can see, I was displeased with that result, and no amount of free bananas or nifty race medals could console me. I was, however, comforted by reports from spectators who rode the train itself. A B line ride is generally a pokey affair, and seldom causes passengers to yell “Whooooooaaaa!” as though they have suddenly found themselves on a roller coaster. That day, they did just that. That particular operator really got into the spirit of competition, and drove extremely aggressively. So I soothed myself with that idea that I could certainly beat a fairly driven T. But I didn’t actually go back to prove it.
Until eight years later, that is. In 2025, I signed on for the Charlie Card Challenge. This is a similar race, but rather than stopping at Blanford when the train disappears underground, the course continues on for two more miles to Park Street. For the first two-thirds of the race, it‘s possible to see your opponent, but after that, you’re racing blind.
Visible opponent or not, I felt good about my chances. Though I was coming off a nagging injury, my race paces were significantly faster than 2017. The T ride I took to get to the starting line was even encouraging, in its otherwise depressing slowness.
It turned out to be a tougher race than I’d have guessed. The T ran a lot faster headed inbound than it had outbound, and there was more vehicular traffic to dodge than I expected. Stopping at traffic lights and watching the seconds tick up while cars streamed past was mentally painful.
In the end, I managed a 44:34 over 6.03 miles. That’s a 7:23/mile clip, slower than in 2017, but enough to edge out the particular train I was racing by an utterly delicious 5 seconds. Victory! Vindication! Vengeance, even!
[Photo courtesy of P. Kafasis]
Still, I knew I had gotten a bit lucky. The race featured 8 different waves, and while my time beat their 46:51 average, 2 of the 8 trains were faster than I was. Had I run in Wave 1 or Wave 5, my 44:34 would have come up quite short. This was not a decisive win.
So it was that this past Friday, I set out to slay the T for good. The 2026 Charlie Card Challenge again featured eight waves, with hundreds of runners, including a Boston Globe reporter (whose article is, alas, paywalled). It also got non-paywalled coverage from WBUR and GBH. Clearly, people continue to enjoy a man vs. machine tale.
I’m in better running shape than I was last year, but there are no guarantees when it comes to an unsanctioned road race against a train on city streets. The MBTA has also been focused on extensive work to speed up their entire system. So while I believed I could beat the T, I didn’t know if I would.
I took another slow ride out to the starting line, and at a few minutes before 7 PM, I set off at the front of Wave 7. For half a mile, I led the way at a sub-6 minute pace, before tapering off a bit. Despite that fast start, the train quickly got ahead. I snapped a picture as it did.
You’ll have to forgive the blur, the train was moving and so was I.
The train and I battled back and forth over the first two miles, but I eventually put it behind me for good, at least as far as I could tell. At around two and a half miles, I heard its bells one last time, but I refused to give the trolley the satisfaction of even a backwards glance.1
While racing along the remainder of the aboveground portion, I delighted in reading the arrival estimates as I passed each station. Seeing the time for the next train climb from “1 minute” to “3 minutes” provided a notable boost. As I powered past Blanford, I knew I had a good lead.
However, last year’s race had taught me that I’d want a cushion to combat the pauses that would be forced upon me. The open-course nature of the race puts the runner at the mercy of traffic lights, and I had to stop for several, losing perhaps 60 to 120 seconds. Speeding up or slowing down to catch a pedestrian walk signal was an essential strategy, particularly in the final Back Bay section.2
I caught the signal at Charles Street, the final road crossing, and churned into the last half mile in Boston Common. I felt good, until I didn’t. The park was crowded with people and vendor carts, due to a large festival going on. The pungent air suggested this was some sort of weed fest, which later research confirmed. Passing through a marijuana rally as you attempt your finishing kick is certainly an experience.
In the end, my watch showed 41:59 for 6.00 miles, a 6:59/mile pace. I beat my train by a good two and a half minutes. In fact, I beat all eight trains, and even the fastest train we’ve seen, last year’s Wave 5 that put up a 42:24. I can now proudly and only a little foolishly declare that I’m faster than T.
For reference, here are results for all four years of the race thus far.
Charlie Card Challenge Average Train Speeds
2023: 47:13/7:52s (Race date: September 8, 1 train)
2024: 52:07/8:41s (Race date: September 13, 6 trains)
2025: 46:51/7:49s (Race date: September 5, 8 trains)
I’ll close with cheers and thanks to Tom Aye and Dirty Water Running for putting on this ridiculous and ridiculously fun race. At this point, I’m not certain I’ll be back to race again next year. I’m satisfied that for now, the T is no match for me. If the MBTA eventually manages to implement signal priority for the Green Line though, I’ll definitely be there for another rematch.
Footnotes:
As Satchel Paige said, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you”. ↩︎
The more fearless/reckless runners may even take to dodging moving cars, though that’s certainly not recommended. ↩︎
You might notice that after a substantial speed up between 2024 and 2025, the trains got a bit slower in 2026. I’m curious how the date of the race might affects train speeds. Being a little later into the new school year might mean, say, more college students going downtown, slowing down the trains. ↩︎
