When he was a student at Boston University in the late 1990s, Marshall Crane would wander from his brownstone apartment on Patriots Day with his buddies to watch the Boston Marathon. The former Bishop Brady basketball star said, “We’d be those typical college guys, pounding drinks and handing out water to the runners and cheering them on.”
“I’ve experienced the marathon on the other side of the fence many times, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be on the inside of the fence,” Crane, 35, said. “Anytime someone would mention it to me, if I’d ever run it, I was like, that’s the last thing in the world I’d want to do.”
And yet today, that’s exactly what Crane will be doing – running in the 120th Boston Marathon.
Maybe a former Division I college athlete running the marathon doesn’t sound like a big deal. But Crane isn’t a runner. And since his college days ended, he wasn’t much of an athlete, either. He’s been working in the restaurant business all those years (he’s currently the general manager at the Lake Sunapee Country Club) and it wasn’t easy to resist temptation, constantly being surrounded by food and alcohol.
“I am your typical has-been high school, college athlete who stopped working out,” Crane said with genuine, and easy, honesty. “I just needed to make a change in my life.”
That change was inspired, in large part, by Crane’s childhood friend and former Brady basketball teammate Jeremy Woodward. Woodward had open heart surgery at age 22 and 29, but that didn’t keep him from competing in Ironman triathlons, becoming a personal trainer, opening Jeremy’s Boot Camp on Manchester Street and, last year, running the Boston Marathon for Tedy’s Team – the charity of former New England Patriot Tedy Bruschi that raises money and awareness for stroke victims and research.
“I said to myself, if Jeremy can do it, after he’s gone through all these heart issues, and make it through one of the tougher marathons with the weather last year, then I’m going to go after it,” Crane said. “And he finished, so that’s when I started applying to different charities and foundations, because I knew I couldn’t run a qualifying time for it, I had never done anything over six miles.”
Crane’s application was accepted by the Greg Hill Foundation, a charity that, according to its website, “responds to the immediate requests for assistance to improve the lives of local families touched by tragedy, through matching the charitable donation of Greg’s media audience (Hill is a radio personality in Boston).” For more info on the Greg Hill Foundation go to thegreghillfoundation.org. To make donations in Crane’s name, go to crowdrise.com/thegreghillfoundation/fundraiser/marshallcrane.
After being accepted by the Hill Foundation, Crane began training in November. He struggled to finish his first 5k run, but with the help of coaches provided by the foundation, he ran 20 miles of the Boston Marathon course a couple weeks ago and is ready to compete on Monday.
“If I had to do this by myself, cold turkey, it would be no way,” Crane said.
Which is why none of his family and friends believed him when he began this journey back in November.
“I just did a fundraiser two weeks ago and when I got on the microphone to thank everybody, I asked how many people here, when they found out I was doing this, did you actually believe it was true. And only two people raised their hands, my mom (Lucy Crane) and Mel (Keeler, Crane’s fiancee),” Crane said. “But you know what, I don’t blame anybody because if one of my friends who was not working out and doing the same things I was doing all of a sudden said, I’m going to run the hardest marathon in the world, I would have been like, ‘Ha!’ ”
As Crane chronicled his training on social media, and the mileage numbers kept increasing, the doubters became believers. The process has been transformative for Crane, as well.
He had his last training run on Friday morning, a short 5.25-mile jaunt through Concord. Crane said it was “an emotional run, and it all really hit me in that last mile, that everything I’ve been doing for the last five or six months is all coming to its end.”
He spent Sunday night in Boston, then planned to head to the Boston Common around 7:30 a.m., get on a bus for Hopkinton at 8:35 and then wait for his 11:15 start time. Just like he did when he was playing basketball, Crane will prepare himself mentally before the race. He knows he can’t get too excited with the opening downhill miles and he knows he has to keep his own pace. But he doesn’t have any time in mind when it comes to finishing, just like he didn’t have any tangible goals with his health.
“When I first started this, I said it wasn’t about the weight, it wasn’t about the time, it was about finishing. So I’ve never gotten on a scale. Have I lost inches off my waist? Immensely. Have I lost weight? Yes. How much, I don’t know, Mel would probably say 20 or 30 pounds,” Crane said. “But I never wanted it to be about numbers. The only number I want is 26.2.
“But I’m sleeping better, I’m eating better, I don’t drink soda anymore, I’ve cut back on alcohol, I don’t have that desire to splurge with food. And when you change your health, you change your atttiude, and I’m just much happier now. I feel like a brand new person.”
But some of that old Crane, the college-aged one who was handing out waters and cheering on Marathon runners, will also make an appearance on Monday.
“By the time I cross the line, I think my hands will be sore from giving out so many pounds and high fives on the course,” Crane said. “I’m going to enjoy every step, and if it adds another 15 minutes to my time, so be it.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)