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Sports
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A Day at the Races
by
Leslie Brokaw
In the dog days of summer, it’s difficult to remember
the deep freeze that locked up Boston just four months ago.
In March, the Boston Globe used a graphic that showed the winter
snowfall to date— 78.1 inches—stacking up taller
than Red Sox slugger David Ortiz.
Through it all, the Tufts Marathon Team trained, outdoors,
for the Boston Marathon. “When it was twelve degrees
in January, we were out there running together,” says
President Lawrence S. Bacow, the team’s leader. The training
was a special opportunity to turn an individual sport into
a group activity. “We did our 20-mile-long runs together,” says
Bacow. “There’s a lot of camaraderie—it’s
so easy, especially in the dead of winter, when you need to
get your mileage in, to roll over and go back to sleep. But
when you know that the team is meeting at 6:15 in the morning,
you don’t want to let people down, so you’re there.”
Don Megerle, a longtime swimming coach at Tufts, coordinated
the team’s efforts this year. “I’d be out
there with bagels and Gatorade on Sunday mornings,” he
says. “Even when it was two degrees in February, we had
30 people training.”
All that work paid off on April 18, when a record 189 members
of the Tufts family—students, faculty, staff, alumni,
and friends—took to the 26.2-mile course in matching
electric yellow T-shirts. All but two team members finished,
a remarkable feat for a group made up of marathon novices as
well as longtime runners. It was a glorious day, says Megerle: “I
give them high marks all around.”
Angie Lee, now a junior at Tufts, was one of the most visible
of this year’s runners. Featured on the cover of Boston
Runner magazine in April, she documented her training and the
big day on her own website, angierunningboston.blogspot.com. “Probably
the best part of the day was running parts of the Marathon
with four of my best friends,” she says. “My roommates
split up the course into sections and met up at different mile
markers,” giving her running company from mile eight
until the end of the race. “Sharing this experience with
them was awesome,” she says.
More than 330 Tufts volunteers helped at the Marathon as well,
working at water stations and other points along the 26.2-mile
course. “This has become a huge community-building activity,” says
Bacow.
This year’s Marathon was a comeback for Bacow, 53. He
led the charge for the first “President’s Marathon
Challenge” in 2003, but in 2004 was unable to compete
after coming down with pericarditis, an infection in the lining
of his heart, about five weeks before the race. The illness
put him in the hospital briefly and he had to take close to
a month off work. He began running again last November with
his doctor’s permission. “I couldn’t make
it one mile,” he says, but five months later he was ready
for Boston. “I am a runner, and you do come back. I worked
at it. I think the marathon training has been a really important
part of my recovery.”
Bacow’s 23-year-old son, Ken, ran alongside him every
step, both with their names written in pen along their arms
so the crowds could cheer them on by name. Bacow’s 25-year-old
son, Jay, also participated.
The whole idea of putting together a fundraising program to
get Tufts people involved in the Marathon began with a casual
conversation in 2001, says Bacow. He was talking with David
D’Alessandro, then the CEO of John Hancock Financial
Services, the life insurance company that is the principal
sponsor of the Boston Marathon.
“I was describing to him a program we have at Tufts called
the ‘Personalized Performance Program,’” he
says. Targeted primarily at students, the program provides
entering undergrads with a complete diet and fitness evaluation,
a personalized diet and training regimen, and follow-up over
the course of a year. “I told him how the program had
been successful, and how we were interested in expanding it,
and that we needed to raise some money. And we were sitting
there and I said, ‘You know, it would be great if we
could get some numbers from the Marathon to use for fundraising.’ And
that’s how it started.”
To obtain an official entry into the Boston Marathon, a runner
has to either have a qualifying time from another certified
marathon or be a member of one of the charities that partners
with the Marathon. Tufts secured 25 official charity numbers
in the first year and was able to offer first-time marathon
experience to students. This year Tufts got 200 numbers. Tufts
and John Hancock have continued to develop a strong partnership:
the company made a major investment in the Friedman School
of Nutrition Science and Policy, resulting in the naming of
the John Hancock Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition.
Students who wanted an official Tufts race number committed
last fall to raising a minimum of $1,000. Alumni, faculty,
staff, parents, and friends were asked to commit $2,500. Even
with those amounts, there were still more people who wanted
to participate than numbers to go around. So a lottery was
held last November, after a 10-mile training run that ended
at the President’s House. Everyone was then invited to
train with the group over the next five months, through the
darkness of winter and the opening weeks of spring.
Collectively, the group will raise nearly $350,000 in 2005
for Tufts’ research on nutrition, obesity, famine, hunger,
and the diseases related to nutrition and aging.
Planning has already begun for next April’s event. To
get involved in the 2006 Boston Marathon as a runner, volunteer,
or sponsor of the Tufts team, go to marathon.president@tufts.edu.
Group training will begin in September and a lottery for numbers
is likely to be held in November. Also see the “Info
for Runners” page at the website for Coach Megerle’s
collection of training schedules, tips on how to prevent injuries,
and inspirational guidance. |
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