Earning Boston

Sure, you put one foot in front of the other from the starting line at the Hopkinton Center to the finish on Boylston Street near Copley Square.

Sure, you wind your way through towns with quaint names like Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, and Brookline with knowledgeable, appreciative crowds cheering you on literally every step of the way.

Sure, you have to summit Heartbreak Hill, an unforgiving landmark near Boston College aptly named because it comes just before the 21-mile mark along the point-to-point 26-mile, 385-yard route.

Sure, your lungs can pound and your leg muscles burn, a price dedicated distance runners pay yet an experience they savor for the goal – or is it gold? – awaiting them at the end.

But no, you don’t just run Boston. You earn it. You definitely earn it.

You earn it through hour after hour of intentional training. You earn it by qualifying, no small feat. And you earn Boston by finishing.

This past October 11, a field of 15,374 runners completed the 125th Boston Marathon, rescheduled from the traditional date of Patriots’ Day in April because of Covid protocols.

One was Rives Fleming, a 1983 Collegiate School graduate and Middle School teacher/advisor, head coach of girls’ varsity basketball and JV cross country, and varsity softball assistant coach at his alma mater.

“Running Boston was on my bucket list,” he said of his tenth completed marathon. “I thought it was possible, so for me, it was a great accomplishment to get there.”

Covering mile after mile with uncanny consistency, he crossed the line on this humid, overcast, mid’60’s New England fall day – great “watching” weather but not great running weather – in 3:34.24.

For 25.2 miles, his pace varied from 8:04 and 8:45. He ran the last mile in 7:32 to average 8:11 per mile. He covered each half of the race in 1:47.

“I have a typical plan about how I run a marathon, but I was a little more conservative about how fast I tried to run this one,” he said. “I’d trained pretty hard. I wanted to run a decent speed. A marathon can go south quickly, and I didn’t want to be miserable over the last five miles. I wanted to enjoy it and be a little competitive. It worked out well, but it was still pretty hard. The dream plan was to go a little faster at the end if I felt better. I didn’t feel better, but I felt good enough.”

After a lifetime of running for fitness and racing for fun, Fleming signed on with the Sports Backers Marathon Training Team six years ago. That association has provided a host of training partners as well as a plan.

He’s been a regular competitor in the Blue Ridge Relay, a team event in which 12 competitors run three legs in rotation over a 208-mile course stretching from the base of Mt. Rogers in Grayson Highlands State Park near Mouth of Wilson, VA, to Asheville, NC.

This past January 2, he and Jason Engle, former Collegiate athletic trainer, covered the 51.2 miles of the Virginia Capital Trail.

“We did it very slowly and very easily,” Fleming said. “It was a lot of fun. That was the only thing I’ve done as far as an event in the last year or two.”

It proved a fitting launching pad for his preparation for Boston, entry into which he earned with a 3:35 performance in the 2019 Richmond Marathon.

Fleming began his Boston-focused training in earnest three months out: 50 miles per week including a long run (usually 20 miles) on the weekend, a 10-miler (or so) at mid-week, and appropriate hill and speed training plus recovery runs and rest days interspersed.

After much planning and pavement-pounding amidst family and professional responsibilities, the moment arrived. 

“We had a great weekend,” he said. “My kids (Rives, Collegiate class of ’14, Ellie ’15, Katie ’18, and Mary Grace ’20) were there. We went to the Expo and Fan Fest. We went to hear runners speak, but somewhere in the pit of my stomach, I still knew I had a marathon to run.”

When dawn broke on Monday, he was eager and more than ready.

“Got there in the morning and climbed on the bus (to the starting line) like all these people have done for 125 years,” he said. “I really like to interact with the crowd when I’m running so I don’t get bored and don’t get in my head. There were people along the way yelling (encouragement) at me and high-fiving me. That was the really fun and emotional part of it. My kids were at 21 right after Heartbreak Hill. That was a good moment. The last couple of miles, I was trying to tunnel in and finish.” 

Once he crossed the line, he slowed to a walk, shared the moment with his family, and began to process in his humble way the accomplishment of “earning” Boston.

“Anytime you do something you’re happy about, you don’t want it to end,” he said. “I wanted to take it all in. It was nice to relax and appreciate what had happened.”
~Weldon Bradshaw