Adirondack Sports May 2024

COMMUNITY
MAY 2024 45
◀ BIG SMILES!
EARLY MILES
OF THE BOSTON
MARATHON.
◀ SHAMUS
RECORDING A
PODCAST DURING
RACE PREP IN
HOPKINTON.
▶ FINISHING WITH THE
BROKEN CHAIR AT SACKETS
HARBOR MARATHON.
Our Boston Marathon
By Shaun Evans
Shamus and I have been running together since he
was old enough to sit in a jogging stroller. Shamus
led the way as I trained for dozens of marathons
in his early years. In 2013, Shamus became more than
just my training partner. That year he and I began racing
together. Since then, we have run countless road races
of every distance, trail races, triathlons, ultramarathons,
and of course, our transcontinental runs across America
in 2015 and length of the Mississippi River in 2017. Over
the years, running Boston together was always in the back
of our minds. Shamus had heard me speak about the
Boston Marathon for years… the history, qualifying standards,
Dick and Rick Hoyt paving the way for duo teams
like us, the party atmosphere of the race, and of course,
the hills! While Boston was always something we wanted
to do, it was never an immediate goal because we knew,
per Boston Marathon rules and regulations, that Shamus
could not participate until he turned 18.
The years passed and as Shamus neared 18, we knew it
was time to run a qualifying time. Duo teams must qualify
in the time of the duo runner. For me, a man who would be
46 years old on race day, we needed to run under 3 hours
20 minutes. We had run sub 3:20 in every marathon that
we had tried so we felt confident we could succeed.
Initially, we planned to qualify at the Buffalo
Marathon, Memorial Day weekend 2023, but our plans
were altered when Shamus and Simon’s Odyssey of the
Mind team earned a trip to World Finals last year! We had
◀ RACE
DAY! EARLY
MORNING
BUS TO
HOPKINTON.
to find a new race before the Sept. 15 registration deadline
for Boston. We opted to run the inaugural Sackets Harbor
Marathon, on Lake Ontario in Jefferson County. The race
directors welcomed us with open arms and were thrilled
to have us attempt to qualify at their race. The event, volunteers,
scenery, and course were phenomenal. However,
for the first time ever in a race, Shamus and I had a chair
malfunction. At mile nine, the handlebars snapped, and
the back of the chair broke leaving me with nothing to
push on except the sharp metal that remained. I typically
push with my elbows flexed and my hands at chest height.
Instead, I was forced to push the remaining 17 miles bent
at the waist pushing at knee-level. While the conditions
weren’t ideal, we were still able to qualify for Boston with
a time of 2:59.35!
The company that manufactured the chair had
replacement parts to us within 10 days, and we reassembled
the chair in time to run the Marine Corps Marathon
in October, and then set our sights on Boston in April 2024!
With Shamus being a high school senior, involved
in numerous activities at school, and searching for colleges,
we didn’t have the opportunity to run together
from October through April with the exception of the
Christopher Dailey Turkey Trot in Saratoga Springs, and
a three-mile shake out run in Orlando, Fla. in February
with a borrowed chair when we were there to watch the
Olympic Trials Marathon with our fellow ASICS ambassadors.
No exaggeration, those were the only two runs we did
together between the Marine Corps Marathon and Boston.
I knew that wasn’t ideal going into race day. Although I had
been running, I wouldn’t say I had been marathon training.
I was running four to five days per week and had not
run more than 13 miles on any of my long runs all winter
long. I was then sidelined for two weeks from February
26 to March 11 in the lead up to the marathon when my
doctor instructed me not to run due to some medical concerns.
I knew that Boston was going to be a challenge. I
felt undertrained to run Boston as an individual, let alone
having to push Shamus up the Newton hills.
In addition to less-than-optimal training, our schedule
made the logistics for running Boston a little tricky.
Shamus and Simon’s Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team
competed in the NYS tournament on April 13 in Syracuse.
The event took place all day Saturday with the awards ceremony
occurring that evening. We stayed for the awards,
where their team was recognized for their sixth-place finish
and where Shamus was presented with the NYS OM
scholarship! We then drove back to Galway late Saturday
night, unloaded the OM props, slept fast, and then woke
up to load the van with our racing chair and Boston
Marathon race-day gear.
We arrived in Boston just in time to check into our
hotel and pick up our racing bibs at the Hynes Convention
Center. It was packed and we didn’t stay long. Instead, we
strolled around Newberry Street, picked up some bagels
for breakfast, and then grabbed dinner at the hotel restaurant,
brought it up to our room, and settled in.
We got a short night’s sleep before our 4am wake up
call. We gathered everything to walk to the accessible
buses to take us to Hopkinton. Shay rolled in his wheelchair
while I pushed the racing chair. We checked-in and
then waited until volunteers were ready to load our racing
chair onto the truck. Shortly after, Shamus and I boarded
our bus with our fellow duo runners and riders.
We headed to the start line in Hopkinton with very low
expectations as far as pace. Our goal was to simply enjoy
the experience. Our race in Sackets Harbor had already
qualified 2025 (there is a small window of dates where a
marathon can run and qualify you for two years) so we
felt no pressure. Having fun was our genuine objective!
See COMMUNITY 47