Some people never know when to quit. Have you ever heard that saying, wondered what was meant by it or ever given any thought about it?
Well, I have heard the phrase many times and it usually is in reference to something I have done that seems like way too much for most people. For me, it is just something I do, will continue to do as long as I am able and not worry about what others think is enough and what is “normal”.
Part of the reason people say things like that, is they do not understand what I am capable of because they, themselves, have not experienced the distances I have run. I know my capabilities and also know my goals, and yes, limits.
I would like to think the only limits I have are the thoughts between my ears, but I have learned there are limits we are all strapped with and there is not much we can do about it. This year I was going to limit myself to running two marathons, back to back.
Every April, many runners trek to Boston to experience the oldest, continuously run, marathon in the world, first run in 1897. Many people consider these people elite, yet by the standards imposed, compared to those running at the front, the gap is quite large and one could wonder if going to Boston qualifies you with the moniker of an elite athlete.
When I attempted to qualify for the Boston Marathon the first time, I was up against a much stiffer time standard than is imposed at the present time. In the early ‘80s the time for someone in the open age category, meaning under the age of 40 was 2 hours and 50 minutes for men and 3:20 for women. In 1987, they eased the standards to 3:00 hours for open men and 3:30 for open women.
Initially, the B.A.A. (Boston Athletic Association) had imposed time standards to keep the size of the marathon controllable. That backfired as more runners had a goal to try and reach.
With new technology, they were able to accommodate more runners and the city wanted the Boston Marathon to following the footsteps of other major marathons in attracting more entrants and filling more hotel rooms. The standards now in place, 3:10 for open men and 3:40 for open women (18-39) and a change from ten-year age groups to five-year groups, took place in 1990. These changes added to the numbers of those capable of qualifying to run and insured the larger fields the hotel owners desired.
Run on Patriot’s Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts, commemorating the role of New Englanders in the Revolutionary War, the B.A.A. chose the day for a specific reason. Just like the Greeks chose to commemorate a messenger, Pheidippedes, when they introduced the marathon distance to their list of races at the 1896 Games in Athens, the Bostonians would commemorate Paul Revere.
This year’s race date, April 19, 2010, coincided with the 3rd anniversary of my wife, Gail, passing away, just two days after I returned from the 2007 Boston Marathon. I have returned each year to honor her memory. This year would be special because of the day it fell on. I was asked by Sean Ryan, the race director of the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon and others, in 2009, to run with him, a few others and the race director, Dave McGillivray. That was the Sunday before the race and I already had a flight booked for departure Monday following the race, but I said I was interested in 2010.
I decided to run the first race with 25,000 others in Gail’s memory, but the second one would be in honor of a high school friend, struggling with cancer. I thought of both of them as I ran. I was surprised to get a 2nd finisher’s medal, when we crossed the line in 4:26. I held back for the first run, running 20 minutes slower than the previous year, in 3:34, knowing I would be getting in a car and driving right back to Hopkinton to run it again.
In the hotel lobby, while waiting for everyone to get ready for a post run dinner, I ran into Bill Rodgers for the 3rd time in 3 days. The first was at a reception, Saturday, for John Hancock, the title sponsor, where the Greek contingent presented the company president with a silver laurel wreath. The second time, on Sunday, I was at the Bill Rodgers Running Center booth at the expo, obtaining Wigwam arm warmers for Monday’s race.
I was telling Bill about the 2nd run, when Dimitris Kyriakides, the son of the 1946 Boston Marathon, acting as the ambassador to the Mayor of Marathon, Greece, asked me to present the 2nd medal to the mayor, in a ceremony, for inclusion in the Battle of Marathon Memorial Museum. I told him I was going to give it to a friend with cancer and he was elated after I told him I would give him mine, the one I got for the first finish.
Later that evening, I met the president of Ashworth Awards, the suppliers for the medals and told him the story of where my medals were going and he gave me his business card and told me to send him my address and he would send me another. Clearly, Gail was sending her blessings down on me, and I thought of the Irish poem she used to say when I left to run a marathon or longer. It started out, may the wind be always at your back and the sun on your face, and for 52.4 miles on April 19, 2010, it certainly was just the way she would have wanted it to be for me.
Upon returning home, I presented the medal to my friend, on a rainy and dreary day. Once I hung the medal around her neck, you would never have known the weather was dreary, as the sunshine emanated from her face.