Michael Demars of Claremont, NH was one of the brave runners to power through the vicious weather in the Boston Marathon on Monday. In his seventh time running a marathon (fourth time at the Boston Marathon), Demars finished with a time of 2:52:53. He finished 804 overall out of 26,948 participants and was the 16th runner from New Hampshire to cross the finish-line. In fact, at 46-years-old, Demars was the oldest runner in NH’s top-30 finishes.
It wasn’t age that slowed down Demars on Monday. It was the weather that served as the overwhelmingly-challenging obstacle for runners in the Marathon. “It was interesting… definitely an adventure. It was windy the whole time,” Demars said, “It was really gusty at points. There were three or four times during that run where there were gusts that were surreal. I felt like I was going to get blown over. It rained the entire day and at some points it was just a torrential downpour. It felt like if you have ever been on a motorcycle going fifteen to twenty miles per hour… and you are just getting pelted by rain. It was just that awful combination of wind, cold, and rain.”
When asked if it was the toughest thing he ever had to endure physically, Demars said, “Running-wise… for sure. In terms of outdoor activities… it was in the realm of some of the most difficult winter hiking that I’ve done… 5,000 footers… Mount Washington in January… in terms of some of the mental and physical stresses that you have to deal with.”
It was the harshly cold weather and the headwind rushing into runners’ faces that opened the door for two unlikely winners on Monday, as the runners normally at the top could not perform like they are used to. For Demars, he was able to stick to his pace for the most part.
Demars credited his success on Monday to his experience in knowing what to wear for the race. He said, “I kind of nailed it on what to wear… just a little bit of experience I guess. You’re standing there in the morning looking out the window… you’ve got to figure out what you’re going to do. A lot of people got it wrong and I think they suffered because of that. I saw a lot of people running out there with shorts on and tank tops. I elected to go with a long-sleeve synthetic T-shirt, a running vest… and I wore thin tights… that was a pretty good combination… and I actually had ear muffs on for the first six miles until I eventually got too hot with those and just chucked ‘em.”
Demars acted accordingly because this was his fourth time running in the Boston Marathon. His experience at the race dates back to 1996, which was the 100th anniversary of the marathon. “I ran [the Boston Marathon] in ’96 and ’97 at 24 and 25-years-old. I did those two and then I kind of didn’t run for a long time,” Demars said, “… kinda got back into it in 2012. I qualified again and ran in 2017… last year… so this year was my fourth. My time in ’96 was 2:45.12 I believe and then the next year I was a couple minutes slower. My goal yesterday… and I trained like an animal for it… was to beat the 2:45:12… my youth if you will… but obviously mother nature wasn’t cooperating. I think I honestly had it in me to do that… but I wasn’t going to that yesterday given the weather.”
When asked what he did in order to train for the 26.2 miles, Demars replied, “My peak week preparing for this race was 100 miles and I had around 80 mile-a-week averages since mid-December. I really was serious about making that goal and I did everything I knew to get there, but unfortunately it wasn’t the right day.”
“My goal last year was to break three hours… and I ran 3:01. This year, the goal was 2:45, but the weather wasn’t there so I didn’t quite hit that,” Demars said, “I’m pretty confident that if I stick with it, and get a little more luck maybe… that I can hit the 2:45 at some point. I don’t give up. My theory is if it doesn’t go your way… you gotta go back and try again.”
Demars plans to run the Boston Marathon again next year, saying that he hopes that after next year’s race, he can share that he made his desired time. “I’m qualified to run next year and I’m looking forward to it. It’ll only be harder as I get older.”
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