Published in the Daily Hampshire Gazette on April 21, 2015
BOSTON — At the end of the day Monday, Mike Kent will have hung up a famed jacket in his closet.
It was not Masters green or medical-coat white. Instead, it’s royal purple with orange detail, and Kent earned it by finishing the 119th Boston Marathon.
The addition to Kent’s coat closet also represents his 25th straight Boston Marathon. On Monday, at age 51, he finished in 4 hours, 25 minutes, 05 seconds to add another medal to the bag on the floor the closet.
“I feel like I accomplished something,” said Kent, a Granby native and police chief of Burlington. “Doing 25 of anything for 25 straight years is an accomplishment, and this race in particular. It was a lot of fun. It’s always fun.”
The colors of the jacket change every year as Adidas, a sponsor of the marathon, picks the design. For the runners, the medals and jackets are keepsakes that represent an accomplishment, which the community can see.
“I’ve got it all. I use (the jackets) for training runs,” Kent said. “One of these days, I’ll get the medals framed and hang it in my office. … People know, runners themselves, friends of runners, know what a special race this is.”
Kent picked up the sport of long-distance running while training for the police academy. He was an Amherst officer for 29 years before taking the job in eastern Massachusetts in 2010. Kent and his wife, Kara, still have a house in Granby, despite spending most of their time in their Billerica home.
“In police work, you kind of have to keep yourself in decent shape,” Kent said. “Honestly, I never ran in high school or anything. If it’s a 100-yard dash, I’m probably not going to catch you, but over a while, I do OK.”
In addition to running, Kent is active in the weight room. He’s a muscular 6-foot-2 that he said doesn’t translate to “long distance runner” on first glance.
“I’m not the natural runner’s physique. I don’t have a very good stride at all,” Kent said. “People tell me I look as bad at the first mile as I do at the last mile.”
Kent never truly intended to run Boston 25 times, but as he kept with the sport and avoided injuries, he never had a reason not to run Boston each year.
“Did my first one and never really gave it much thought,” Kent said. “Did another and before you know it, I was in double figures and here I am at 25. Unfortunately, over the years, I’ve gotten slower with age, but it’s still good to be out there.”
Kent’s personal best in Boston is 3:14 while his all-time record is a 3:11 in Chicago. The Boston course and the crowd make it an easy race to come back to year after year.
“It’s a very special race,” Kent said. “There was a time when I used to do a lot of marathons, and now it’s basically only one and it’s that one because of the history, because of the crowd, the people. You’re not going to do your PR, or best time, in Boston, but you’re going to have your best time, enjoyable-wise, running that race just because of the course, the fans and everything.”
He feared his streak was in jeopardy on April 15, 2013, as he was one of the first runners stopped after the bombs went off. A quarter-mile before the finish, just before the turn onto Hereford Street, he was told he couldn’t go any farther. Twenty minutes later, news came that the race was canceled.
As a first responder by profession, he knew something serious had to have happened for officials to cancel the race. But like many other stopped runners, he didn’t know the extent of it until he got home and turned on the TV.
“I guess I didn’t think that deep into it,” said Kent, who ran to his car to finish the 26.2 miles. “I remember saying, ‘well, at least I ran the marathon distance,’ although I didn’t take the right onto Hereford and left onto Boylston. … After I got home, I flipped the TV on and, frankly, I felt very guilty at that point that I was more concerned (about my streak) than the carnage that had taken place. It went from a personal thing to me to ‘Oh, my god.’”
In the aftermath of the bombings, with a large chunk of runners unable to finish, the Boston Athletic Association officially recognized anyone past the 13.1-mile mark as a finisher.
Running in 2014 was an especially exhilarating feeling given the significance, and Kent believes that neither he nor the other runners will run on Boylston the same way.
“Anytime you come down Boylston now, you’re going to think of what happened,” he said. “That tragedy has made this race even more special.”
With a quarter-century’s worth of Boston Marathon finishes to his name, Kent is already thinking about No. 26.
“I’ll probably be back,” Kent said just beyond the finish line. “It was fun. Knock on wood, I haven’t had any serious injuries. I’m just getting slower. As long as the body holds up, I should probably keep doing them.”
WESTERN MASS REPRESENTS — The Western Mass Distance Project (WMDP) finished 29th out of 51 teams in the Women’s Open Division. Apryl Sabadosa (3:11:10) was the team’s top finisher. Anne Paredes finished in 3:29.35 with Emma Hynes right behind in 3:29:38, for a team time of 10:10:23. Sabadosa, Paredes and Hynes are all from Westfield.
Teammates Amy Rusiecki, of South Deerfield, and Karin George, of Florence, finished together in 3:30:33. Belchertown’s Nancy Cook completed the course in 3:57:34, while Dawn Roberts (West Springfield) ran a 3:43:22.
The men’s WMDP team didn’t compete, but individually, UMass alum Jason Ayr placed 37th overall in 2:25:14, while Ivan Cordero, of Northampton, finished in 3:00:45.
LOCAL LEADERS — Hopkins Academy graduate Brad Mish returned to the course for the third straight year as a member of the BAA team. He finished 110th overall in 2:32:36 as the BAA team finished sixth in the Men’s Open field after winning in 2014. Mish’s father, Jeff Mish of Hadley, finished in 3:23:04.
Steve Bruner was the top Amherst finisher in 2:57:30. Aaron Judge was the first to finish from South Hadley in 3:08:45. Easthampton resident Matthew Musiak followed in 3:17:24.
Peter Gagarin of Sunderland crossed in 4:05:30.
Southampton and Leeds each had a pair of runners compete. Tim Gaudet finished in 3:43:47 with Elaine Skawski not too far behind in 3:49:08 for Southampton. Leeds was represented by Sue Dean, who finished in 3:56:41, while Bill Romito completed his 29th Boston in 4:13:05.
Martha Berrouard was Granby’s lone runner, finishing in 3:29:37. Pelham was represented by Rick Scott in 3:39:24. Rafer Dannenhauer was Shutesbury’s lone runner. The Amherst Regional alum finished in 2:37:24 to break into the top 200 (193).
Cordero, George, Cook and Resiecki were each the top finisher from their hometowns.