2008 Boston Marathon For Ella and Ronald McDonald House
For the past 15 years, I have been competing in marathons. I began in this endurance sport in the fall of 1994 in the Ocean State Marathon. This race began at Narragansett Beach and ended at Warwick Veterans High School. At the time hardly anyone gave me a chance of finishing the 26.2-mile course, but 12 hours later I crossed the finish line, thus my marathon career began.
Over the next 14 years I raced in 40 marathons across the United States, however each year I looked forward to one marathon in general: the Boston Marathon. This is known worldwide as the most challenging endurance race anywhere. Because of the strict qualifying times and the way I have to race because of my disability (propelling my racing chair backwards with my legs), I had to fight my way to be an official entry. After several years of racing this marathon unofficially I was granted the right to officially race the Boston Marathon. I was thrilled and I look forward to heading up to Beantown every year.
This year I felt as prepared as any other year in the past. I had a couple of injuries but I recovered from all of them several weeks before the race. This was also my second year racing for the Providence Ronald McDonald House Running Club (PRMHRC). Being a part of this unique club motivates me to get out there and train even harder than before.
On Monday April 21st I headed up to Hopkinton, Massachusetts to compete in my 14th consecutive Boston and my 41st career marathon to date. I couldn’t have asked for better weather. Temperatures were in the high 50’s to low 60’s all day. Both the New York and the Boston Marathons are not only races, they are major sporting events. This is apparent as soon as you arrive on the scene.
As I warmed up I felt very well and I couldn’t wait to get underway. At 9 o’clock when I started my 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to the heart of Boston I could feel the excitement in the air. This year my guide runners, Randy and Q, accompanied me.
The first two miles of this marathon is all down hill so I get a good start but it is difficult to get my legs warmed up. I enjoy this race because there are people watching everywhere along the course. Sometimes the people cheering leave your ears ringing. For Massachusetts this race and day is one to party and have fun. As the race went on I became aware I was not going to set any personal records, but this is one year I will remember because of all the people that followed me along the course. My guide Randy had made a shirt with writing on it that said “Go Jason”. I must have heard my name called a million times that day.
Pushing my way up and down the hills I took time to look at some of the spectators. I saw people of all ages, business people, families, children and a few disabled individuals. Unless you compete in one of these endurance races you really can’t imagine how much energy you can draw from the crowd. I especially enjoy hearing the small children yelling “Go Jason Go”. As I reached heartbreak hill at mile 18, a woman drove up with her son in the car. She got out of her car and approached us and asked if her son could meet me. We took a short break and talked to him and gave him one of my trademark Team Pisano rubber bracelets, and continued on our way. As we traveled on to Boston we met many more special people. Everyone is so encouraging on marathon Monday. I started hearing “You’re almost there” with about two miles to go and I think I heard those same words about five feet before I crossed the finish line.
Monday was not a banner day in my marathon career, however it was a very rewarding day in my life. I hope as I make my way to my ultimate goal of 51 marathons I can continue to inspire people of all ages and walks of life and show them that nothing is impossible.
-Jason Pisano
Monday, April 28, 2008
Boston-The Not so Good
Jason Recently wrote the the BAA:
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Jason Pisano. I am a 36-year-old male from West Warwick, RI, and I have Cerebral Palsy. For the past 14 years I've competed in you marathon ( 6 years unofficially & 8 in your Mobility Impaired division) . The first 4 years in your MI division were very good but the last 2 have been terrible ever since you changed all the starting times it has left me and many other of the athletes out on the course to fear for ourselves with traffic open, limited or no fluids, no energy gel, and having to race on the sidewalks! This no way to treat us or any of your other athletes! Not to mention you do all this to us and then we see the race director run the entire course with a full police escort after the entire race is over! Maybe he thinks his race and his life is more important than ours but I don't! I can't see why the NYC Marathon (a marathon twice the size and with like four times as many disabled! racers) can treat all there athletes so much better while Boston does such a poor job. Yesterday I raced for a charity and I still had to pay the full entry fee but did not receive any of the services I feel I deserved! I will be waiting for a timely response to this email or I will be contacting a lawyer and the media.
Respectfully,
Jason Pisano
Frelance Journalist
The Guide Q Commented:
It makes you wonder what the purpose of the Boston Marathon is.
I understand that they want to limit the impact of the marathon on the towns along the route and also maintain their high qualification standards by keeping the race as short as possible, but the cost may be the very founding spirit of the marathon.
Legend says the when Pheidippides burst into the senate after his journey from Marathon to Athens, he exclaimed "Νενικήκαμεν", which translates to "We have won".
"We have won", not "I have won". We.
There are maybe a handful of people of the many thousands that run a marathon with hopes of the fastest time, and so it must follow that the winning is - not who comes in first, but something all together different.
No light, no fanfare, no cheering, no banner awaited Pheidppides on that first of marathons. And so it is with Jason Pisano.
What is your message when you burst throguh the doors of the senate? The message that has driven you the long hard journey, step by step, driven through pain and suffering with only your will to keep you going?
I am a purist, an idealist, so I remain unmoved by the fanfare, the pomp and circumstance, the false and easy message of "I have won". It must be hard for people who carry that message to see Jason, so caught up in the "I", they see that they have no excuse for their whining, their complaining, or even perhaps they see their accomplishments are not so great as they believed them to be.
What they should see is that, yes, they don't have an excuse for whining and complaining. That what they've done is not all that it could be, that there are no limits.
That is the message of Pheidippides, of the Marathon, of Jason Pisano:
"Νενικήκαμεν", WE have won.
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Jason Pisano. I am a 36-year-old male from West Warwick, RI, and I have Cerebral Palsy. For the past 14 years I've competed in you marathon ( 6 years unofficially & 8 in your Mobility Impaired division) . The first 4 years in your MI division were very good but the last 2 have been terrible ever since you changed all the starting times it has left me and many other of the athletes out on the course to fear for ourselves with traffic open, limited or no fluids, no energy gel, and having to race on the sidewalks! This no way to treat us or any of your other athletes! Not to mention you do all this to us and then we see the race director run the entire course with a full police escort after the entire race is over! Maybe he thinks his race and his life is more important than ours but I don't! I can't see why the NYC Marathon (a marathon twice the size and with like four times as many disabled! racers) can treat all there athletes so much better while Boston does such a poor job. Yesterday I raced for a charity and I still had to pay the full entry fee but did not receive any of the services I feel I deserved! I will be waiting for a timely response to this email or I will be contacting a lawyer and the media.
Respectfully,
Jason Pisano
Frelance Journalist
The Guide Q Commented:
It makes you wonder what the purpose of the Boston Marathon is.
I understand that they want to limit the impact of the marathon on the towns along the route and also maintain their high qualification standards by keeping the race as short as possible, but the cost may be the very founding spirit of the marathon.
Legend says the when Pheidippides burst into the senate after his journey from Marathon to Athens, he exclaimed "Νενικήκαμεν", which translates to "We have won".
"We have won", not "I have won". We.
There are maybe a handful of people of the many thousands that run a marathon with hopes of the fastest time, and so it must follow that the winning is - not who comes in first, but something all together different.
No light, no fanfare, no cheering, no banner awaited Pheidppides on that first of marathons. And so it is with Jason Pisano.
What is your message when you burst throguh the doors of the senate? The message that has driven you the long hard journey, step by step, driven through pain and suffering with only your will to keep you going?
I am a purist, an idealist, so I remain unmoved by the fanfare, the pomp and circumstance, the false and easy message of "I have won". It must be hard for people who carry that message to see Jason, so caught up in the "I", they see that they have no excuse for their whining, their complaining, or even perhaps they see their accomplishments are not so great as they believed them to be.
What they should see is that, yes, they don't have an excuse for whining and complaining. That what they've done is not all that it could be, that there are no limits.
That is the message of Pheidippides, of the Marathon, of Jason Pisano:
"Νενικήκαμεν", WE have won.
Friday, April 25, 2008
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