J. Ann Tipton
Copy Editor
On April 19, senior Shane Oakleaf ran in the 108th
annual Boston Marathon. Oakleaf ran a 6 minute 55 second mile and finished 371st
out of almost 18,000 runners with a total time of 3:01.01. Oakleaf qualified for
this race on Feb. 1 in Columbus, Ohio.
This, Oakleaf’s second marathon, stood in stark contrast with the Feb. 1
marathon where the temperature in Columbus barely reached zero degrees
Fahrenheit. The temperature in Boston hovered in the mid-80s on the Monday of
the race.
“When it gets that warm, I don’t usually run very well,” Oakleaf said. “I wanted
to start off slow, and I was really cautious at the beginning. I poured water
and Gatorade on myself that they were passing out along the course. Three hours
is a long time to be running in heat like that.”
Oakleaf said there were several other differences between the marathons as well.
“(The marathon in February) was 26 laps, this one was a one-way course, so it
was something new and mostly flat,” Oakleaf said. “There were people along the
entire course that would cheer me on, and that was great.”
Mile 20 of the marathon course included a stretch of road that runners
affectionately refer to as “heartbreak hill.” Oakleaf said that the difficulty
that runners have with this gradual incline is that it comes so late in the race
when most runners hit the wall.
“If you get any kind of incline, it feels like a mountain,” Oakleaf said, “but
compared to the hills around here, it was nothing.”
Oakleaf’s time was good enough for him to qualify for next year’s Boston
Marathon. He said that he has made no definite plans to return next year.
“It’s a long ways away. (I probably won’t run in the marathon), but it could
change,” Oakleaf said. “It depends on how much time I have to do the training.”