Lucas Punkari
Sixteen years after he took part in the 100th anniversary of the Boston Marathon, local runner Lorne Ricard made the trek back down to Beantown last Monday to compete in this year’s edition.
Even though it was his second time, the 57-year-old said this year’s event was a lot different than when he first ran it back in 1996.
“In 1996, they opened it up to everybody who wanted to take part, so there was about 20,000 more people than were there for a regular marathon, so it was a lot more of a party,” Ricard explained.
“This year, though, it was a lot more of a normal race as you had the 27,000 registered runners who all got in as a result of qualifying times.”
Having qualified for this year’s race as a result of his 3:18:28 time at the Manitoba Marathon in Winnipeg last June, Ricard decided a few months later that he was going to try and make it to Boston once again.
“Before I ran that time in Winnipeg last year, I didn’t know if I would be able to qualify once again,” Ricard admitted.
“But once I got the qualifying time, I thought it would be nice to go down there and try it again one more time.”
After registering for this year’s event last September, Ricard continued with his regular training regiment of running every day, which was aided by spending his winter in Mexico.
“I think that helped out a lot as it’s easier to do longer runs in weather like that down there,” he remarked. “But mind you, we did have our best winter around here in a long time this year.
“However, no matter where you were training, I don’t think anyone could really get you ready for what everyone ran in during this year’s race,” he stressed.
With the temperature hovering around 31 degrees C (89 degrees F) throughout the day, runners had to deal with the unusual heat as they tried to make it to the finish line.
“In fact, this was the first year that if you weren’t able to finish due to the heat, you could defer your qualifying time into next year’s event,” Ricard noted.
“However, the percentage of runners that finished the event turned out to be pretty high than what you might have expected, and I think a lot of that had to do with people being there already and wanting to finish.
“And that was my mindset when I started going.”
While his overall goal was to finish the 26-mile route in a time around 3:30:00, Ricard crossed the line at 4:24:40, which put him 13,260th overall, 8,478th among males, and 537th in the male 55-59 age group.
“The first 10 miles were really good,” he recalled. “But after halfway, the heat started to get to me and I start cramping up a bit.
“Around Mile 20 or so, I started to walk and run from that point on, but I pushed through it and took what the day gave me.
“At first I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t achieve my original goal,” Ricard said. “But when I saw that a lot of people were pretty down and out once they all finished up, I was really pleased with how I finished.”
While Ricard currently is preparing to run with his son, Rick, in a 10-miler in Thunder Bay on Victoria Day in preparation for this year’s Manitoba Marathon on Father’s Day, he’s pretty sure this Boston Marathon was his last.
“Even if I get another qualifying time, I probably wouldn’t go,” he said.
“I’ve been there and done that, and while it would be nice to get to go again, there a lot of other marathons that I want to try,” he added.
