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These 10 runners will inspire you this Marathon Monday
The 127th Boston Marathon will take place on April 17.
As Boston’s biggest sports event, the Boston Marathon draws a talent field of impressive athletes and new runners looking to make an impact by completing the 26.2-mile race. When they cross the finish line on Boylston Street on April 17, many of the 30,000 runners have made a difference in their community or for a charitable cause.
Each year, Boston.com highlights runners whose stories are particularly impactful. This year, that list includes a runner tackling the marathon while fighting Parkinson’s disease, one of the first runners in the BAA’s new nonbinary division, an eighteen-year-old running for Boston Children’s Hospital, and more. Here are 10 runners who will inspire you this Marathon Monday.
Deirdre Peters
Deirdre Peters was just nearing the finish line when the bombs went off at the 2013 Boston Marathon. She was so close that she said she could feel her clothes smoking as she ran away from the finish line and towards safety at the Westin Hotel. After struggling with survivor’s guilt and depression, Peters is back to run the marathon ten years after the attack.
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“I will be running the Boston Marathon in 2023 for one simple reason, to reclaim the finish line,” she told Boston.com. “Fast forward almost 10 years and I am a different person. I have healed from the attack (as much as possible) and while I can never be thankful for what happened that day, I can appreciate the lessons it has taught me. I want to show my two boys what determination looks like and that their mom can finish the 2023 Boston Marathon.”
Joseph Rossi
Joseph Rossi, the post commander at the Jamaica Plain American Legion Post, is running Boston this year in support of local veterans. Rossi’s race will raise funds for the Nicholas G. Xiarhos Fund, named after Nick Xiarhos, who died in Southern Afghanistan on July 23, 2009, while rescuing his fellow Marines in combat.
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When Rossi crosses the finish line on April 17, he will complete his sixth major marathon and win the Abbott World Marathon Majors award for running Boston, New York City, Chicago, Berlin, London, and Tokyo.
Cameron Hoyt
Fans of the Boston Marathon are likely familiar with the inspiring father-son duo, Dick and Rick Hoyt. For 32 years, dad Dick pushed Rick, who has cerebral palsy, in a wheelchair for all 26.2 miles. Dick Hoyt passed away in 2021 and Rick announced that he would be unable to participate in more races, but their family legacy lives on.
Cameron Hoyt, the grandson and nephew of the father-son duo, is running the Boston Marathon for Team Hoyt. He and other members of the family are raising money for the well-being of disabled young people.
“While this will be my first marathon, I feel very confident in my abilities to complete this amazing task and live by the mission of Team Hoyt: “Yes You Can,” Hoyt told Boston.com.
Cal Calamia
For the first time in the marathon’s century-long history, there will be a division for nonbinary runners. Cal Calamia is one of 27 runners in the category and worked with the Boston Athletic Association to create more gender inclusivity in the race. The 26-year-old has been an avid runner since childhood and has had their eye on Boston for years. After an ACL injury delayed their 2022 run, Calamia began advocating for the creation of a nonbinary division. They previously ran the San Francisco and Chicago Marathons, but this will be their first time running Boston.
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“The running world is a microcosm for the world at large,” Calamia told Boston.com. “And if we can just have people begin to acknowledge that people do exist beyond the gender binary of male and female or man and woman, then that opens up a more inclusive space where as many people as possible can enjoy running.”
Steve Gilbert
At 77, Steve Gilbert will be one of the oldest athletes on the marathon route. He’s also running the marathon with Parkinson’s, a diagnosis that he hasn’t let stop him from chasing after his goals. Gilbert is a regular at Rock Steady Boxing, a gym that uses on-contact boxing training to fight symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, and is running the marathon to raise funds for their work.
“If I have a run not up to my expectations, sometimes I get paranoid: ‘Could this be the end?’ Then I go out the next day, and it’s OK,” Gilbert told the Indianapolis Star. “I’m thrilled at the end of a good run. At the end of a bad one, I say, ‘Tomorrow will be better.’”
Robert Wheeler
Robert Wheeler went from runner to first responder when the bombs went off at the 2013 Boston Marathon. The then 23-year-old took off his shirt to use as a tourniquet for a man who’d been injured by the blast. The man he helped survived and Wheeler walked away from the events of that day with traumatic brain injury and some hearing loss, according to GBH. Ten years later, Wheeler is running Boston on a day he expects to be “heavy.”
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“Every year running Boston since, there’s that last mile or two, it’s always emotional. I’m always lost inside my own head. And a million memories kind of rubbing against you,” he said in an interview with GBH. “But at the same time, when you finish that, it’s freeing.”
Ben Fleishman
Eighteen-year-old Ben Fleishman will be one of the youngest runners at this year’s marathon and he’s raising funds for a cause deeply personal to him. He’s taking on Boston for the Boston Children’s Hospital Miles for Miracles team. At just nine weeks old, Fleishman was diagnosed with a rare liver disease and has been a patient at the hospital on and off for much of his life, he told Runner’s World. He hopes to raise $15,000 for the hospital and staff who have “given me a lot of hope in terms of where I was and where I am now.”
Erika Kemp
Erika Kemp may be among the elite runners at this year’s Boston Marathon, but unlike most of the others in her field, she’s never run a marathon before. The Boston resident, 28, is a six-time All-American in cross-country and track and one of the few Black Americans in the women’s elite field.
“The longer the distances and the more you get into that endurance-sport space, you definitely see a lot less people that look like me,” Kemp told The Boston Globe. “I’ve started to get [messages] from people after races thanking me for showing up and running my race and just being out there.”
Hansi Rigney
Hansi Rigney, an 81-year-old from Carmel, California is the oldest female runner in the 2023 Boston Marathon. Rigney told Boston.com she didn’t start marathon racing until she was 60 and she’s run five to six a year since then. Marathon Monday will be her 115th marathon and she hopes to complete it in under five hours. Not to be stopped, Rigney plans to run another marathon just two weeks later in California.
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“My children would like me to run less,” Rigney said. “They think it’s too hard on my body. But as long as I can do it, I’m going to do as many as I can. I have pared down somewhat. I don’t run as many marathons now as I used to. They want me to run shorter distances. But I enjoy the challenge of the marathon, and I’ll keep doing that as long as I can.”
Tyson Park
Tyson Park, the oldest male runner at this year’s race, ran his first Boston Marathon in 2013 — barefoot. The 81-year-old has since run 10 marathons in Boston. Park was born in North Korea and fled the country with his mother and sister in 1950. He came to the United States to get his degree in 1968, but it wasn’t until years later, when he was 68, that he decided to take up running.
“Without it, I don’t have motivation,” he told Boston.com. “To prepare for a marathon, you have to run … it’s all about progress. When you start, you hate it, but after your run, you always feel really good. It’s like what Nike said, ‘Just Do It.’ And after you do it, you feel so good.”
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