Adirondack Sports May 2024

◀ LATE MILES…
STILL SMILING!
CHASE FLEMING
PHOTOGRAPHY
MAY 2024 47
▶ RIGHT ON HEREFORD.
FLOW STATE CREATIVE
COMMUNITY cont. from 45
The race morning energy was pumping in Hopkinton.
We visited with other teams as we prepped in our holding
area at St. John the Evangelist Church. Although we were
there a couple hours before “go” time, the minutes were
ticking by fast as we went through our morning checklist…
hydration, nutrition, sunscreen, bibs, pre-race bladder
emptying for both of us, getting Shamus at a comfort level
of 10/10 in the chair, etc.
We had a brief prerace interview with our local news
affiliate and before we knew it, we were leading the walk
of 20 other duo teams to the start line. While I walked,
Shamus was recording a podcast “on location” with
Ainsley’s Angels. The plan was for him to give his experience
as an athlete rider in real time from the most historic
of marathons. The recording came out amazing as Shamus
described the start and first few miles of the race… it can
be found at the “Together, We Shall” podcast, episode 50:
youtube.com.
While Shay recorded, I tried to savor the moment and
took some deep breaths. I had told Shamus about the fast
downhill start and asked him to remind me to reign it in.
I knew the emotions of our first Boston together and the
incredible Boston crowd, paired with the steep decline
after the start line, could easily lead to destroying my legs
in the early miles. I wanted to avoid that at all costs so
that Shamus could experience a strong finish on Boylston
Street 26 miles later.
When the gun sounded and we were released from
our corral, my best laid plan of taking it easy quickly
went out the window. I simply leaned on Shamus, and
we were flying! Once we were rolling at five minutes per
mile pace there was no slowing us down, at least not right
away. We settled in a little bit as the course leveled out
but went through the 5K under 18 minutes (5:45/mile). It
was shortly thereafter that my wife Nichole texted Shamus
and said, “Shay, you might want to tell dad to slow down,
he’s running sub-6s, save something for Heartbreak Hill.”
Shay read me the text and I knew Nichole was right. I
had told myself a million times not to go out too fast and
there we were speeding down the hills. While Nichole’s
text should have been a wakeup call, it ended up having
the opposite effect. When I found out that she was tracking
us from school (she’s a teacher), I got a little boost
of adrenaline, and we kept right on cruising. We went
through 10K in just over 36 minutes, and we were having a
blast, both of us soaking in the crowd. Shamus commented
how fast the miles were going by. He wasn’t referring to
our pace, but instead, to how much fun we were having,
and we seemed to be ticking off mile after mile in the blink
of an eye.
Shamus had learned of the famed scream tunnel at
Wellesley College earlier in the morning, and the college
students didn’t disappoint with their exuberance. We high
fived as we rolled by and crossed the halfway mark in an
hour and twenty minutes. My legs were feeling good, but
the Newton hills were looming in the distance.
As we entered the hills, we finally stuck to our plan
and backed off the pace on the uphills. My goal was to
avoid cramping at all costs, while also keeping forward
momentum and not slowing to a walk. We executed that
plan perfectly as I repeated to myself out loud and Shamus
echoed “easy on the uphills.” Then we would let it fly on
the down hills whenever they presented themselves over
the final 10 miles. I leaned hard on Shamus, extended my
stride, and we both beamed as the crowd roared as they
saw us zooming down the hills. On the uphills the encouragement
of the Boston Marathon faithful fans was equally
helpful! At one point, Shamus and I were both surprised to
hear someone in the crowd shout “There goes that famous
father-son duo that ran across America!” as we rolled by.
We both laughed in shock that anyone knew who we were.
As we closed in on mile 20, the real famous runners –
the elite women – were catching up to us. Shamus had his
phone ready to record as the leaders approached. Just as
we started to climb Heartbreak Hill, Shamus saw that Sara
Hall, one of our all-time favorites, was striding up on our
right. Her presence was just the jolt I needed in my legs to
propel us up the most infamous hill in Boston. We were
greeted by a sign at the top reading, “You just conquered
the Newton Hills.”
We immediately took off on the next downhill. In a
phone call after the race with my younger son, Simon,
he told me that he was tracking us from his physics class
and saw that we had run a 9:06 mile (that was the mile
including Heartbreak). It was much slower than the pace
we had been running and he was worried my legs were
done. Then he said, “I saw your next mile was 6:08, and I
figured you guys were completely fine!”
He was right! We sailed through the miles. I kept waiting
for the hammer to drop, for my body to hit the proverbial
“wall,” but it never happened. Our hydration and
nutrition had been perfect. The thousands of miles we had
run together over the years had triggered the motor memory
in my legs to go on autopilot.
The crowd kept us smiling from start to finish. As we
got ready to make the famous, ‘right on Hereford, left on
Boylston,’ we heard the crowd chanting in the distance.
It sounded like a crowd at Fenway Park shouting “Let’s
Go Red Sox (clap-clap, clap-clap-clap). As we got closer,
we realized it wasn’t the Red Sox they were cheering
for. Instead, the crowd on both sides of Commonwealth
Ave were chanting “Shaun and Shamus” repeatedly. We
could not believe what we were hearing! How did all these
people know who we were? There was no time to pause
and ponder, we hung a right on Hereford, as the crowd
went wild. We powered up the hill and took the left onto
Boylston as we pushed toward the most famous finish line
in marathon running. I glanced at my watch and for the
first time in the entire race I said to Shamus, “Shay, we are
going to break three hours!”
A minute or so later, that is exactly what we did, finishing
in two hours and 55 minutes – our fastest marathon
together, propelled by the boisterous Boston crowd and
our own unyielding smiles. Link to WNYT race day footage
and interview with anchor Chris Onorato: youtu.be/
mgA5dav-kU8.
Shay summed it up best when we hugged just after
crossing the finish line. As we cried tears of joy at our surprising
finish time, he looked at me and said, “Dad, my
smile muscles hurt!”
Boston… thank you for the 26.2 miles of smiles. We will
definitely be back!
Shaun Evans is a physical therapist and the senior VP of
programs with Ainsley’s Angels of America. He resides in
Galway with his wife, Nichole, and sons Shamus (18) and
Simon (16). Shamus Evans is a senior at Galway High
School, and plans to attend the University of Albany next
year, where he’ll study engineering. You can follow The
Evans Family on social media: @power2push.