In his book, 26.2 Miles to Boston, Michael Connelly writes, “The Boston Marathon is not run in April, but instead in the winter months prior, when there are no cheering fans, cameras or medals — only self-discipline.”
There’s nowhere this is truer than Cape Cod. Running even short distances here in the winter is not for the faint of heart. Running lonely miles every day to prepare for a race that seems like it may never arrive requires superhuman determination.
On Patriots Day, four local runners will be among the 30,000 in Hopkinton prepared to tackle what is arguably the world’s most iconic marathon course. Truro’s Erin Milliken, Paisley Gavin from Orleans, and Eastham’s Laird Anthony and Brian Lowry have spent the winter preparing to cross the finish line near the Boston Public Library on the afternoon of April 21.
There are two main ways to gain entry to the race: by posting a strict qualifying time at a previous marathon or by running for a charity approved by the Boston Athletic Association. Milliken, 37, is running for Dana Farber in memory of her grandmother, Lilli Briner. Gavin, 22, is part of the Running for Rare Marathon Team, a program of the National Organization for Rare Disorders. She is running in memory of her cousin, Trevor Gavin, who succumbed to metachromatic keukodystrophy (MLD), a rare genetic disease, in 2001. This is the first marathon for both women.
Lowry, 58, and Anthony, 57, have several marathons to their credit, although Lowry is running Boston for the first time. They both qualified for the 2025 race in last May’s Sugarloaf Marathon.
All four runners battled the worst that Cape Cod weather could throw at them. Milliken, a merchandiser for a children’s clothing company with three young sons, trained mainly in Truro and Wellfleet, with runs to Corn Hill and Ballston Beach interspersed with longer runs to Wellfleet Harbor. Frequently, she ran by the water in winds so fierce it “seemed like I was jogging in place.” One day, icicles formed on her eyelashes.
Lowry, who works in restaurant sales and website development, had a similar experience. Running in a snowstorm in Eastham on Super Bowl Sunday, blowing snow stuck to his face and impeded his vision. He ran on because “my motivation was Boston.”
Anthony, who works at the Orleans Council on Aging, embraced the foul weather for inspiration. “Knowing other people are inside and I’m not, I use that as motivation,” the Eastham runner said. “I know I’m doing something that others aren’t, and I like that.” His regular run was an eight-to-nine-mile route on the bluff high above the windswept Atlantic between Nauset Light and Coast Guard Beach.
Gavin was in the process of finding work after graduating from UMass Amherst with degrees in economics and sustainable development and had always identified with the race, even helping out at the starting line. “I felt if I was going to run Boston in my life, when else would I do it?” she said. At the encouragement of her older sister, Darby, and with her cousin in mind, she committed to run in September. “There are times when you don’t want to go out,” she said, but she persevered because “I am running for Trevor and his memory.”
Milliken’s decision came after her grandmother died of cancer in July. Her grandmother had advised her to do everything she aspired to do while she was still young. It was not until September that she bought a pair of running shoes. An avid runner in college, she had not run since her first son was born, over six years ago. After several weeks of getting back in shape, it dawned on her that she wanted to run Boston in her grandmother’s memory. She applied to Dana Farber and was accepted.
Lowry is reaping a Boston Marathon seed that was planted almost 50 years ago when his gym teacher in Ithaca, N.Y. told the class he had just completed the Boston Marathon. Ever since, Lowry has wanted to experience the race for himself. Last Thanksgiving, at a Turkey Trot in Ithaca, a proud Lowry had the opportunity to tell his former teacher that he had qualified.
Anthony, who started running late in life as a way to meet people, had not initially aspired to run any marathon, let alone Boston. It was his dad, Eric, who recognized the importance of that achievement. Two months before his father died, Anthony was able to tell him that he had qualified to run the 2020 race.
Gavin, Milliken and Lowry have no preset time goals. All are approaching the race with a “just here to enjoy the experience” attitude, a healthy strategy for first-time Boston Marathoners. Anthony, the only Boston veteran in the group, wants to “prove to myself that I can do quite a bit better” than his performances in his two previous runs on the Boston course.
The Independent will be at the finish line on Monday to document the experiences of all four runners.
