Wrangell resident Dale McMurren will travel over 3,700 miles to Boston next month to run 26.2 miles in the world’s oldest annual marathon.
This will be the 52-year-old’s sixth marathon in four years. McMurren ran his first in 2008, and has traveled to Phoenix, Juneau, Anchorage, Birmingham and Honolulu to participate in marathons.
McMurren said he enjoys running the lengthy races, and finds the first 18 miles of a marathon “easy.”
“That’s when the race begins. It’s mental after that,” he said.
McMurren started running years ago to get into shape. He said it wasn’t until he was over 40-years-old that he ran more than the nearly two-and-a-half mile “airport loop” in Wrangell.
But over the years, McMurren has increased his training and built up his endurance to be able to run 26 miles straight.
“It took a long time to be able to run that distance,” he said.
Before running his first marathon in 2008, McMurren ran a half marathon, which is roughly 13 miles. He has followed training programs, which help runners slowly increase their ability to run for longer distances. But, the training has not been easy, McMurren said.
“The hardest thing is getting up to your miles,” he said. “You have to do it slowly, or you can get hurt.”
Another challenge is training in Wrangell’s sometimes harsh weather, McMurren said. It takes self-discipline to be able to get outside and run for miles in the snow, rain and wind, he said.
“You have to be hard-headed,” he said.
In order to qualify for the Boston marathon, men in McMurren’s age group need to run a prior marathon in three hours and thirty-five minutes.
McMurren qualified for Boston with a time of three hours, thirty minutes and 59 seconds. His goal is to cut those 59 seconds off his time.
He said he wants to run the 26-mile race in under three and a half hours, which comes to an eight-minute mile. In previous marathons, McMurren has run 8:03 and 8:04 minute miles.
The Boston Marathon is scheduled for April 16. This isn’t the first year McMurren has qualified for the marathon. Except for the Honolulu race, McMurren has qualified for Boston in every marathon he has run.
However, personal conflicts and not registering in time have kept McMurren from traveling to Boston before.
Over the next few weeks, McMurren said he has a couple more long runs to get in before he starts to taper down his training to allow his body to rest before the big race. He leaves on the 10th of April to head east and will be visiting family who live in Maine during his trip.
Ideally, McMurren said he would like to run a marathon in every U.S. State. He said it’s a good way to travel to new places. For instance, he said he likely wouldn’t get to see Boston unless he was running a marathon in the city.
McMurren said he also would like to run the marathon in Wrangell this summer during Bear Fest, but thinks it might be too soon after the Boston race.
For now, McMurren is “pumped” for his big day in Boston coming up.
“I think it’s awesome,” he said. “I never would have thought that I could ever, ever do it.”
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