Denna Laing and Bobby Carpenter are bringing a hockey mentality to the Boston Marathon
With how close-knit the hockey community is, Bobby Carpenter thinks he heard about Denna Laing’s injury at the 2016 Women’s Winter Classic within minutes. Laing, a 25-year-old from Marblehead, suffered a severe spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed while playing for the Boston Pride during a game at Gillette Stadium. Carpenter, a Peabody native, says he played hockey with Laing’s father, Dennis, pretty much his whole life, starting around age six. Through the years, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer followed Laing’s progress in the sport through her father and meetings at the rink where his own daughter, Alex, was also playing. But when asked if they’d met before they decided to team up for the 2017 Boston Marathon, neither Laing nor Carpenter could pinpoint an exact moment.Laing said she didn’t know what to expect last June when hockey’s former ‘Can’t Miss Kid’ approached her family with the idea of pushing her in the Boston Marathon for Journey Forward, a Canton-based nonprofit focused on improving the lives of people with spinal cord injuries.“I was happy when I met him,” she said. “He’s very funny, and he’s going to be good on the course.”Boston.com: Denna, how did you feel about teaming up for the marathon after you were approached by Bobby? DL: At first I was a little hesitant. Just being an active person, being an athlete, I didn’t know how excited I was about not doing anything physically in the race. But then Bobby said that we would run for Journey Forward, and Journey Forward has been such an integral part of my recovery process. They’re an organization that is really close to my heart. When that became the focus of our run, it was really a no brainer for me at that point. Bobby, you wrote on the team website that you knew running marathon was something ‘WE needed to do.’ What did you mean by that? BC: Well, I had the experience of running last year. I ran late, so I had a chance to stand and walk around. And I was just in awe of all the different people and the different things that were going on. It didn’t really start to hit me what I wanted to do until the summer time when I realized I was going to do it again. But I didn’t want to do it for myself. I think the amount of exposure that this could have brought was exactly what I thought was going on right now. It was just the right thing to do. The hockey world is such a close knit community, and everyone came together. It was the easiest way to get the best result. DL: We were hockey players, and we’ve always been a part of a team. So when I say I was a little hesitant at the beginning, and it was a easy choice once we decided to run for Journey Forward, it’s that notion of giving to something bigger than yourself. Being a part of the team. And I think that might have been a little bit of what Bobby said on the page resonated with me. When did the training start and what’s the routine like?BC: Well, we actually don’t train together. It’s hard between our schedules. The only time that we actually did run together was when we had to qualify and went down to Clearwater and did that half marathon. I have the wheelchair where I put sandbags and weights in to simulate, so I train with that. But with our schedules, it’s extremely difficult to get everything done.DL: It’s just tough for me because when you get injuries like the one I have, your temperature controls are in your neck. My temperature controls are a little off, so I get very cold very easily. So the weather has not been a good a friend of mine the months leading up to the marathon. That’s one of my biggest challenges for this marathon, just fighting with the weather a little bit. How are you feeling going into Marathon Monday?BC: Good. I would be really nervous at this point if I did not know the course and had not run it. But at this point, I think it’s going to be good. We’re not trying to break any records. We’re going to go through and enjoy it. Make some stops and talk to some people, see some friends. DL: I haven’t been in the chair too much. Honestly, I’ve never run a marathon, I’ve never run anything close to a marathon. But I’ve got to believe that a large part of running a marathon is mental, and I think Bobby and I have really good chemistry. We’ve done a lot of events over the past couple months, been at hockey games where his daughter plays. I think we’ve gotten along really well, and I think that will go a long way on Marathon Monday.Do you think that both of you coming from a hockey background helps your training and working together? How does it compare to being on the ice as part of larger team?
Denna Laing and Bobby Carpenter
DL: Definitely coming from hockey background just gives us something to relate to. I know that when I finished college, I was looking for a group exercise class to be in because I just never had that mentality of being able to really train by myself. And I bet Bobby’s going to say something similar because he has great trainer. It definitely helps. It gives us a deeper level to talk about things. I think it’s kind of in our court to act as a team even in something that doesn’t seem so much of a team sport.
BC: I think she’s definitely right with that. I think obviously the training part is still with you. When you’re a kid, with hockey, you’ve got it your whole life. More importantly, when you are playing a team sport you have to communicate with each other. You have to know what’s going on, especially on and off the ice. When we started this process, there was so much that I didn’t know. At the beginning, we did some things and Jerilyn [Denna’s mother ]said, ‘We should do it this way, this is the reason why.’ And I’m like, ‘Perfect, I didn’t understand. I didn’t know that.’ I mean I learned something new from Denna every day, and it’s going to continue that way. All those things that I’ve learned over the last few months is going to help me with her when we do this. It’s been a learning process for me that’s for sure, but it’s been phenomenal.
Denna, you’ve said before you never really liked long-distance running. Did you ever expect to be competing in a marathon? How are you feeling about it?
DL: I never really was much of a runner. A sprinter of course — you need that for your off-ice training for hockey. But I would say that I never ran more than 7 miles at once in my life — and that might be pushing it. But I’m definitely excited. I think the Boston Marathon every year has a way of coming up on you and getting you excited. I think that there is a huge energy that comes with the Boston Marathon. I love watching One Boston Day. I love watching all the promos for the marathon. I’ve always loved watching the marathon itself and the stories. I think that the people we are running for is a perfect example of a perfect metaphor of running the marathon. Because with the marathon, you push yourself to do something that you never thought you could, or never thought you would again. And I think that’s what they are doing at Journey Forward every day — pushing you to reach goals that you didn’t think you could reach.
What has been the most challenging part of this process?
BC: I think getting together, like I said, with our schedules.
DL: I definitely agree. Arranging our schedules has been tough. Especially since I’m still trying to recover. I am a little bit over a year out of my injury, but I still have a long way to go. It’s a very slow process. It’s not a bad problem to have that a lot of people are interested and a lot of people care about the story and about what we’re doing. So we’re very appreciative of the problem, but it is definitely a tough part of this process.
Bobby, what has working with Denna taught you about yourself?
BC: I’ve learned so much through her, from her. I think, I got to be honest with myself here, probably one of the things that I learned that I had to adjust to is that I’m not a patient person. I want to do this, and I want to do that, and I’m always moving. I think through this, I learned patience. I learned to listen. I learned to understand. I learned to ask the right questions. To find out what’s going on.
Denna, what has working with Bobby taught you about yourself?
DL: I realized — they say I’m really strong, and I really have a lot of respect for people who put themselves out there and run a marathon to start with. But to push someone in a marathon is an entirely different story. And I think it takes a lot strength. And I think that Bobby has dealt with this whole race with a lot of dignity, and he’s putting in a lot of work. And it’s really nice to see someone being so unselfish and just really reaching out to help me and to support an organization that is so important to my life and to the people who go there as well.
Is there anything else you want to say?
DL: I’m feeling confident. I’m super appreciative of all of the support we’ve been getting. The whole process of my being injured, I have been so overwhelmed in the best way by the support that I’ve gotten. Not only from people I know but from complete strangers. I think that Bobby and I’s journey to this marathon finish line has been nothing short of that. The support and the love is still ever growing, and I’m just super appreciative and grateful for all of the love we’ve been getting and pushing us to the finish line.
BC: It’s been unbelievable what people have done for us to make this happen. And you can’t say enough and you can’t thank enough. There’s no words that can be said who have helped, the graciousness of these people who have helped this thing to get to the level where it’s at.
DL: It’s really a team effort and I think we touched on that a few times here. But I think it’s just definitely our hockey team mentality. And it’s going to be good. It’s going to be great.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Carpenter is a member of the NHL Hall of Fame. Carpenter is an inductee of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Photos: The Boston Marathon Through the Years
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