Mike O’Callaghan, who helps coach the Camp Verde High School cross country and track teams, has been running for most of his life. But sometime in the near future, he’ll get the chance to do something in the sport that he’s never done. Just what that will be, however, is still unknown.
The 66-year-old had signed up to run the Boston Marathon on Sept. 14 for the Brigham Stepping Strong Team in support of the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation in Boston. Reny was wounded during the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The cause is near and dear to O’Callaghan because of his mother, sisters, wife, daughter and numerous girls that he’s coached over the years. He said if they were in an incident similar to Reny, he’d want a capable trauma center to handle their injuries.
But on May 28, the decision was made that, because of the COVID-19 crisis, the 124th Boston Marathon would be canceled for the first time in its long and storied history. The race had already been postponed from it’s traditional time in April to September. The recent cancellation left O’Callaghan in a state of limbo that will last until June 18, when his team next meets online.
“I’m figuring the most likely is the virtual marathon,” O’Callaghan said. “They’ll give you the opportunity to run and keep track of your time. Send you the shirt and a finisher’s medal. That to me is probably the most likely one. While you don’t have the official Boston Marathon, you still have a virtual Boston Marathon.”
While that would mean O’Callaghan wouldn’t experience the actual race, he did find a positive spin on the alternative.
“It would be kind of neat to have a medal for the only Boston Marathon that was ever canceled,” he said.
If the option was offered, O’Callaghan said he’d be interested in running the race in 2021. Even if it’s not, though, O’Callaghan still might have a way to run the marathon trail — if not the actual race.
Additionally, while there will be no physical Boston Marathon in 2020, O’Callaghan said that he and his wife, Jenny, are still planning on going to Boston in September. If it’s allowed, he might opt to run the course during that trip.
“We have a 12 day trip — we fly out Friday and on Sunday, I could have Jenny drive me out to Hopkinton [where the starting line is] and run the course myself,” he said. “As a runner I’d say, ‘Yes, it was the year it was canceled but I got to run the course.’ I’d like to say that I got to run the Boston Marathon course even if I was the only person out there. Or, by the same token you might see someone else with the same idea you had.”
O’Callaghan’s first marathon came more than 51 years ago when he partook in the inaugural Tucson Marathon in February, 1969. In the subsequent decades, he’s participated in 30 marathons, 100 half marathons and 500 5Ks. Not including other races or training, that’s a distance greater than 3,600 miles, exceeding the distance between Camp Verde and Boston by more than 1,000 miles.
The opportunity for O’Callaghan to run in the 2020 Boston Marathon only came after the April 20 date was postponed.
O’Callaghan used to be the head coach for the Cowboys cross country and track and field teams. The commitment to the track team had always kept him from running the Boston Marathon, as he felt that leaving the athletes during the season would be wrong.
Last summer, he and Jenny were in Boston for a summer baseball trip when he walked by the finish line for the Boston Marathon, which remains painted throughout the year. At that point, O’Callaghan lamented that it could be his only chance to see the finish line. Now that he’s retired as the head coach of the cross country and track teams and has moved to an assistant role, the option remains open.
“Once I retired, if something came up that we both wanted to go to, it would be easier,” he said. “Kind of like this.”
More information about O’Callaghan and the cause he’s running for can be found at bit.ly/steppingboston.
