by Taylor Polomarenko
History teacher Mary Beth Ryan had many concerns going into the Boston Marathon this year, but those concerns did not involve her safety and the security surrounding the race. She worried about her ability to actually run in the marathon.
Ryan was diagnosed with overtraining syndrome, an injury caused by running too much. With the injury, Ryan was told she could not run at all.
So going into the marathon this year, Ryan trained much differently.
“I did a lot of hot yoga to keep myself sane until I was able to run again. When I was able to run again, because I took so much time off, I had to build a base. So I ended up doing about two months worth of long runs on the weekends and putting in some miles.”
Ryan is going into the race without a time goal this year. Because of her injury, participating and experiencing another marathon is all she wants this year.
Even though Ryan was not affected directly by knowing any of the victims, the events last year impacted her emotionally. As the events happened last year, Ryan had already crossed the finish line and was with her parents down the street. She found out through text messages from others and watching the news at the restaurant.
“I think it tarnished an event that’s so important to me and so many people who train so hard and raise a lot of money, and it’s a really important race for the running community and it was sort of stolen from us.”
After the events last year, Ryan participated in a lot of fundraising efforts such as the One Fund because that was the way for her to make a difference. She would also wear blue and yellow ribbons to show her support.
Ryan does believe the marathon will be different, but it is different every year for her anyway. “Even though it’s the same course, your journey along the course is different. You just have different physical and emotional experiences, and this year will be more emotional than physical because I don’t really care too much about my time. I’m more focused on the event itself.”
After debating whether to run the marathon again, Ryan decided she would run again, more for the experience.
“The events from last year motivate me to do the marathon this year because there really is nothing like crossing a marathon finish line.”
