
“[Lenny] had a massive heart attack. They found him in the shower. He was a big guy. They came home, it was out of the blue, two years ago.”

“I am 36, I’ve been running for about three years, and I don’t really have a great story. I just started running because I had young children, and it was the easiest thing to do. I’m a little bit of an obsessive-compulsive person, so when I do something, I do it. … I still feel like every race I learn something new about myself and maybe what I can and what I can’t do. I’ve seen myself be able to do things that I never thought I’d be able to do.”

“I always have a cigar after every race, even if it’s a 5K. I got married when I was 47, and in three years, we had four kids. We don’t have friends that can help us this morning, so my wife is at home with the kids. I did not train at all for this. I’m 30 pounds overweight, I’m 53, I didn’t set foot on the street for the last month, I’ve had two meniscus operations, but I paid my money, so I might as well get tortured. My PR is a 3:05, and I think if I got back down to weight, even at my age, I might be able to get close to that. I did a 3:25 a couple years ago. This time I was gunning for 4:00, and I just blew up at [mile] 18, so I did 4:25.”

“It’s my first marathon. A friend of mine kind of bamboozled me into doing it. I’ve done a few halves, and I always said I’d never do a full because I didn’t want to train for it, but here we are. I had a good buddy’s wedding that I was the best man at yesterday, so it was a sober reception for me, and I had to get out of there a little early, but I ran a lot of miles for them today.”