When the gun fired in Hopkinton, Mass. yesterday, droves of Tufts students took off running.
While regular runner President Lawrence Bacow sat this year out, the Tufts President's Marathon Challenge (PMC) team saw remarkable success in the 112th Boston Marathon, according to PMC director and coach Don Megerle.
"Of the 189 [Tufts runners who started the race], there were four that didn't finish," Megerle said.
Yesterday's warm, sunny weather was not favorable for the runners, the coach said. "They were probably thinking, 'Good weather, run a little faster,' and it came around to bite them," Megerle said, adding that more runners vomited at the end of the race than he remembers seeing in his four years coaching the PMC team.
Fortunately, the weather did not stop many members of the team from finishing the PMC's sixth annual marathon. Megerle was extremely impressed with the times recorded by Tufts team members, who range from students to faculty to alumni.
Wayne Chan, a student from the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences on the Boston campus, led the team, finishing the 26.2-mile race in 2 hours, 53 minutes and 47 seconds (2:53:47). Chan finished in 632nd place out of the more than 20,000 runners, and 610th among the men.
Sophomore Katherine Rosen led the women on the team, finishing the race in 3:24:41. Rosen finished 701st out of the women.
"Those are both very, very good times," Megerle said, adding that Rosen ran faster in the second half of the marathon than in the first.
In addition to the 189 runners, Tufts sent 150 volunteers who stood on the sidelines of miles 10, 11 and 22 of the race. The volunteers assisted in tasks like handing out water. Roughly 100 parents and friends of the runners also looked on at mile nine from the office of trustee David McGrath in Natick.
One non-Tufts-related member of PMC was Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone. "He did a lot better this year than last year," Megerle said. "He improved his time by 40 minutes." Curtatone finished in 4:42:35.
Curtatone "is great because what he does is build a wonderful relationship with the university," Megerle said. The coach added that Curtatone runs the race because of Bacow's involvement in PMC. "I wouldn't run the race if it wasn't for Bacow," Megerle quoted Curtatone as saying.
Megerle praised Bacow for continuing to support the PMC, although he did not run this year. "I was very impressed with President Bacow, and [the way he] interacted with the runners," he said. Bacow has trained some with the PMC team, and he was with Megerle at the marathon to encourage the runners and to greet them at the finish line.
"He's so tied in to what the runners are doing and what Tufts is doing," Megerle said.
The PMC acts as a fundraiser for the Friedman School of Nutrition and Tufts' Personalized Performance Program. According to Megerle, the PMC has raised $300,000 so far this year and expects to raise another $100,000 before the drive ends in June. Bacow is "the guy that makes this happen," Megerle said.
