Hello! Welcome back to The Footprint – and happy Friday.

I love Prospect Park. I love Central Park. So the NYC Half Marathon, which runs from one to the other, with a detour through Times Square, is one of my favorite races – and, as Conner Mantz noted the other year, probably the best traffic-free sightseeing tour of the city.

At the start line on Sunday, I decided to push. This set up a tough race, and I spent a lot of it in my head, grappling with random doubts and worries.

Towards the end I saw my wife, who spent the morning volunteering at a water station. Thanks to some tough love – as well timed as it was bluntly delivered – I stopped questioning whether I could do it, and just felt grateful that I had the chance.

📬 Today: With a month to go until the 129th Boston Marathon, we hear from a first-timer and a last-timer.

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Boston Beckons

The US team manager returned from the first modern Olympics with an idea. John Graham wanted to replicate the road race that took place at the 1896 Games – a grueling slog from the Greek town of Marathon into Athens – on home soil. 

The result, in 1897, was the Boston Marathon. Like the race it was modeled on, runners set out on the very outskirts of a major city, tackling a course that guided them through a string of communities as each mile came and went.

Thousands upon thousands of runners have since made their way to Massachusetts to take on what became the world’s oldest marathon. 

Starting in Hopkinton, they pass through half a dozen towns and cities – inspiring an untold number of residents and visitors along the way – before finishing up in Boston. 

Josh and Aaron Belowich grew up among the crowds, cheering and handing out water and oranges between Miles 16 and 17. 

Taking part the Boston Marathon has been a “lifelong dream” since Josh, 34, was left mesmerized watching an array of runners, from the world’s fastest to weekend warriors, go by.

It is a dream he and his brother Aaron, 31, are set to realize next month, when they run the race side by side. “We know the course,” said Josh. “We've run it all at various points in our lives.” 

Passing through Natick, about 10 miles in, they are likely to receive some of the loudest cheers of the race. The brothers are raising money for Kids Connect, a non-profit tutoring program for young people in the town. 

“I can't throw a pitch at Fenway, I can't play for the Celtics, but I can more or less line up behind the world's best runners: Olympians, world record holders,” said Josh. “I know I'm not going to win, but I just think it's an amazing competition with yourself.” 

Who knows? They even might inspire a few more young Bostonians along the way. 

Debbie Tupper’s Dad grew up in Newton, around Mile 18, at the foot of Heartbreak Hill. When she first ran the Boston Marathon, in 2006, it was in memory of him.

Tupper can’t really explain what happened next. “I just got addicted,” she said. The race has been a fixture on her calendar ever since. 

It became “like a ritual for me,” Tupper recalled. “What am I gonna do if I don't train? Will I get myself in trouble? That kind of worries me.” 

For almost two decades, come hell or high water, she has taken part most years – including once with a broken foot, and another time with a needle through her finger. 

“I'm no spring chicken, and I'm by no means a star athlete,” said Tupper, 60. “But I like the idea that I can still do it.” 

When Tupper runs the course, she thinks about her family, who have lined it for so many years. She thinks about how proud her Dad would be. And she thinks about all the times she’s faced this challenge before.

Tupper, who works in the radiology department of Massachusetts General Hospital, says this year will be her last running Boston. 

Her family has heard it before. “We might be having this conversation next year,” she laughed. 

But this time “I know in my heart,” she added. Tupper is ready to try new races, in new places – once she’s had the chance to say goodbye.

Next month she will line up in Hopkinton for the final time, setting out along Route 135 through Ashland, Framingham, Natick and Wellesley. She’ll wave at the Newton sign for her Dad, and wrestle with the most famous climb in marathoning once more, before heading on to Brookline, and finishing up in the heart of Boston. 

Beyond the finish, new challenges await. A friend recently suggested an ultramarathon.  

“I'd love to do an extreme race like that,” said Tupper. “One,” she added, hastily. 

AROUND AND ABOUT

🎯 Grant Fisher doesn’t change his mind. “There's always a point in the race, or many points in the race, where doubt comes into play,” Mike Scannell, the Olympic bronze medalist's coach, told the Fast People podcast. Fisher, who broke two world records in six days last month, is “able to focus only what he wants to get done,” Scannell said, adding that he'd be a billionaire if he knew how.

🎬 Matt Richtman wins LA Marathon. The first American to win the race in 31 years finished in 2:07:56. It was his second marathon. “I learned so much every mile,” he wrote afterwards.

🗽 Boston hopefuls dominate NYC Half. Kenya's Sharon Lokedi won the women's race, with Britain's Calli Hauger-Thackery in third. Kenya's Abel Kipchumba won the men's race for the second year in a row, ahead of US Olympian Conner Mantz.

📍 New York, NY: Kipchumba and Mantz led the men’s race into Manhattan on a very foggy Sunday morning. It was the first time a New York Road Runners race has crossed Brooklyn Bridge.

RECENT EDITIONS

• #06 Letting It Run | with Honolulu Marathon president Jim Barahal

• #05 Listen Up | with three-time Six Star marathoner Thomas Eller

• #04 Family Business | with marathon champion Liz McColgan

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think: just hit ‘reply,’ or email me.

Have a great weekend.

– Callum