Keeping the Pace

Photo by Cory Godwin / Story by Steve Hanf

The national championship. The pinnacle. The ultimate. The common man’s Olympics.

There are more phrases than miles when it comes to describing the experience of running in the Boston Marathon. It’s the reason so many local runners slog through their neighborhoods on cold, rainy evenings or train endlessly on the hill at the Wright Brothers Memorial, day after day.

Because, sure, the scenery is beautiful here on the Outer Banks – but as Nags Head resident Tom Thomas tells it, those 26.2 miles through Boston are hallowed ground.

“Getting to run it was probably the biggest privilege I’ve ever had,” explains Tom, who ran a blistering 2:59 at the age of 49 in 2017 – putting him number 1,271 out of 26,400 entrants and 78th in his age group. “Most people will never know what it’s like for a pro athlete to run out of the tunnel during the Super Bowl. But that’s kind of what Boston felt like.”

Considering the small size of the Outer Banks community, there’s a remarkably large contingent of locals who have conquered Heartbreak Hill and the rest of the world’s most famed course. Some have run it once, others every time they qualify. And some have struggled race after race just to get there in April so they can bask in the glow of finally being a Boston Marathon finisher.

“It’s such a beautiful event,” says Kitty Hawk real estate agent Jessie Jennings, the local with the longest streak of consecutive appearances at Boston with six straight. “After my first year in 2014, I kept getting back in, so I just kept going.”

Jessie doesn’t know how long she’ll try to keep this streak, which she started at the age of 30 after being inspired by Outer Banks Marathon runners along the Manteo waterfront.

“For now, I’m happy with the experiences I’ve had,” explains Jessie, who set a personal record of 3:15 in 2015. “It’s been a really awesome race to get to participate in. No matter how many times I go, it feels like the first time.” Photo by Cory Godwin / Story by Steve Hanf

For others, such as Pete Barranti, longevity was a one-time goal. After running Boston five years in a row, he was aiming to join the “Quarter Century Club” – an elite group of runners who have completed the Boston Marathon at least 25 consecutive times – before a pulmonary embolism made it hard to catch his breath during training.

But while starting a new 25-year streak probably isn’t feasible now at the age of 62, Pete definitely plans to earn another qualifying time and a return ticket north. After all, simply qualifying is what drove him to run Boston from 2015 to 2019.

“To get into Boston, I think you’re in the top four percent of all marathon runners in the world,” Pete says. “So the questions are: Am I good enough again, can I make it in? Qualifying is the real challenge.”

He knows this from experience. The first time Pete went after a qualifying time, he missed it by 29 seconds. On his next attempt, he was a minute and 22 seconds better than the qualifying time – until so many people signed up for Boston that year that the cutoff changed, and he missed it by 16 seconds.

“I ended up waiting a year and a half to find out I wasn’t going,” he says. “A year later, I beat my time by five minutes, nine seconds, so I knew I was going. After that, my goal was to beat the qualifying time by five minutes or more to guarantee getting in. I did that for five years straight.”

But just how hard is it to qualify? Times for the 2020 race range from three hours flat for men in the 18 to 34 age bracket to 3:50 for those in the 60 to 64 age group. For women, it’s 3:30 for the youngest age set, and 4:18 in the 60 to 64 category.

And Pete isn’t the only local who’s struggled to qualify. Sherry Celesia’s next marathon will be her 50th, but getting into the one that mattered most proved frus trating. The first time she really tried to qualify, she missed the time by two minutes. After overhauling her entire training regimen, she took 10 minutes off that time, then 10 minutes off the next one. After a lot of hard work, she ran the 2009 Boston Marathon in 4:22 at the age of 53.

“When you talk to anybody about doing a marathon, they always go, ‘Have you done Boston?’ and for years I would say, ‘No, I haven’t qualified – because it’s so hard,’” Sherry explains. “I think I smiled the entire time I was in Boston, because it took me 33 marathons to get there.”

Manteo resident Shane Miles also needed a little help to make it to Boston. Prior to qualifying, the appropriately named runner had logged a dozen marathons in the 3:45 range, but he didn’t seem to be getting any faster.

“You know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” Shane says good-naturedly. “I had seen some of my friends qualify for Boston, and I asked if I could join them. That definitely changed my running from regular running to specificity, where every day has a purpose – and over two marathons I got my time down 21 minutes.”

But it took a dramatic move from his partner, Heather Gardiner, to make Boston happen. She ran Boston in 2015 and qualified for the 2016 race, but told Shane she wasn’t going. Instead, she would run the Emerald Isle Marathon with him to make sure that he’d qualify for 2017.

“Oh my gosh, that’s a lot of pressure to put on a man!” Shane recalls. “We trained at 18,000 feet of elevation over a 20-week period before Emerald Isle. I ended up running a 3:20, qualified for Boston, and I’ve never been more elated in my life.”

At the 2017 Boston Marathon, Shane and Heather crossed the finish line together in 3:52 – which Shane now calls one of his most spectacular memories.

On the surface, it may seem disappointing to record a slower Boston time than the one you qualified with, but most runners are just happy to enjoy the experience.

“I didn’t cry at the end of the Boston Marathon,” Heather says. “I cried at the end of the marathon that qualified me for Boston. When I knew I did it, I felt so emotional. Boston is like the icing on the cake.”

That’s metaphorical icing, of course, because a good diet is part of the training process as well. Most of the locals who eventually go on to run the Boston Marathon are involved with the Outer Banks Running Club, a group that enjoys getting together in order to log miles, meals and emotional support.

“There’s no magic plan, but if you don’t have a plan you’re probably going to fail,” explains Sherry’s husband, Angelo Celesia. “Everybody has to figure out what plan works for them.”

In 2008, Angelo ran Boston at the age of 59 after training with a running group in Virginia Beach. A friend with experience running Boston went with him and helped Angelo maintain a perfect pace for the first 13 miles – which is downhill and can trick inexperienced runners into going out too fast. The magical day ended with Angelo earning a personal record of 3:29, which landed him number 6,532 overall, but a lofty 577 out of 2,796 runners in his age group.

“It was the best race I ever had, which is why I only did it that one time,” Angelo says. “At mile 20 I started passing people, thousands of runners – it was incredible. I crossed the finish line, looked at my watch and said, ‘This will never, ever happen again.’ I’m going to carry it with me. I’m not giving up that moment.”

To go just once or twice also makes sense economically, as locals estimate the cost of attending Boston is in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. Registration for the race itself is $200, then there are the travel fees, and hotels have three-night minimums. But ultimately, those who run the race say that you can’t put a price tag on the experience.

From walking down Boylston Street with its freshly painted finish line to short warmup runs before the timer starts, there’s plenty to love about Boston. And during the race itself, seeing – and hearing – the hundreds of thousands of spectators along the entire course can feel magical. Sherry loved the Wellesley College girls’ iconic “scream tunnel” at the midway mark. Heather wrote her name on her arm and remembered all the calls of “Go, Heath-ah!” in distinct Boston accents.

The post-race can prove magical as well. Shane and Heather arrived back at their hotel room after crossing the finish line to discover already-personalized framed certificates congratulating them on their finishing times. For most, that means it’s time to don that $110 Boston Marathon jacket, grab their finisher medal and hit the town.

“‘You ran the marathon? Drinks on me!’” Heather says they heard over and over. “The community really embraces you. They’re happy that people are there running their race.”

Overall, Boston fosters a sense of community that can feel familiar to longtime Outer Bankers. So whether they’ve run personal records or persevered through injuries just to finish, come to distance running early in life or late, the locals who make that springtime trek north often find common ground on at least one fact:

“If there’s any way possible that you have a shot at qualifying and going, you’ve got to do it, even if it’s just one time in your life,” Tom says. “When I’m old and lying on my deathbed, what I’ll always remember about Boston is taking that final left turn onto Boylston and hearing the crowd.”

“All the greatest runners of all time made that left turn,” Pete adds. “Everybody’s cheering for you. It’s so loud. And no matter how tired you are, you pick it up.”