AJ's Marc Truesdale Finishes the Boston Marathon

By Mandy Catoe

Local runner Marc Truesdale added an orange Volunteers flair to the 123rd Boston Marathon on Tuesday.
Truesdale, 39, sported the cross country colors of the Andrew Jackson High School team he coaches, completing the 26.2-mile course in 3:18:45. The Kershaw native teaches government and economics at AJHS.
The weather was warm and very humid, with Truesdale battling dehydration, nausea and fatigue at the end.
Immediately after the race Truesdale said, “It was a bad day and a good day. I struggled today, but I finished.”

For the first 18 miles, Trusedale was on pace to finish under three hours. He reached the halfway point with a time of 1:28:40.
Some have described the marathon by saying the halfway mark is at Mile 20 when the body has used up its glycogen stores and the runner feels intense pain in his legs, lower back and hips.

The legendary Boston course has an incline at that critical 20th mile, known as Heartbreak Hill.


Truesdale said when he was running the hills between miles 16 and 21 the heat began to take its toll. He said he thought it was just the terrain and that he would be fine once he was back on level ground, but by Mile 22, Truesdale’s had depleted his physical reserves and had to rely on sheer will.
“Coming down Chestnut Hill which is after Heartbreak Hill, every step was so painful, I had to stop,” he said. “I hydrated, ate an orange slice and poured water on my head and tried to re-gather myself.”
The father of three then spotted his wife, Stephanie and daughter, Charlee, 9, on the side of the course next to their hotel. The Truesdales also have two sons, Denton, 7, and Connor, 4. Denton has been diagnosed with autism.
For a spit second, Truesdale thought about walking off the course into the comfortable room to end his agonizing pain.
“I thought about the AJ top I was wearing and how I was representing my community and all the hard work I had put in to just get here,” he said.
Then Truesdale told his wife that he would finish even if he had to walk the remaing distance.
He trudged ahead and began to slowly jog at a 9-to-10-minute pace and in the last mile he quickened to an 8-minute pace.
“My legs were hurting. Every step was so painful,” Truesdale said.
Near the end, he spotted a photographer and hammed it up a bit.
“I saw that camera and I said I am going to act like I am happy and I am going to smile,” he said. “I put on a show.”
Looking back, Truesdale said he would have been wise to back off his pace earlier to keep “something in the tank” for the final miles.
“It feels great to finish,” he said. “I was humbled by the course.”

The Finisher's Medal

A little perspective
About 30,000 runners lined up to run the 26.2 miles. Truesdale was the 6,251st runner to finish. After he crossed the finish line, there were 24,000 runners still hoping to reach that point and get a finisher’s medal.
The first one to cross the finish line was Kenyan Lawrence Cherono with a time of 2:07:57. The last one was a lady named Red Hilton whose time was nearly nine hours.
One hour and 10 minutes after Truesdale finished the race, a marine, Micah Herndon, nine years his junior, crawled across the finish line.
For a runner, the Boston Marathon is the ultimate goal. It is one of the most challenging marathons in the world.
To run Boston, one must qualify based on age and gender. For Truesdale, that meant he had to run the 26.2 miles in three hours and 10 minutes. He ran the Tobacco Road Marathon in Cary, N.C., in March 2018 in 3:02:40 and came in under three hours (2:57:30) at the Kiawah Island Marathon this past December.

“It’s the holy grail of marathons in the United States,” Truesdale said.  “It’s a bucket list item that I knew I was capable of based on my past running times.”
Support system
Stephanie Truesdale had complete faith that her husband would finish the marathon. She shared her thoughts before the race.
“He has been training tirelessly for years now, while still finding time to coach the cross country team at AJ, be an amazing teacher, and a dedicated husband and father,” she said. “Most of the time that means getting up at 4:30 a.m. and running in the pitch-black dark and returning home in time to help me get the kids ready and off to school.”

Marc, Stephanie, Charlee, Denton, Connor

Marc Truesdale said he owes a lot to running buddies Keith Crapps, Tony Yarborough, Michael Knight, Cole Horton, Brent Stogner, and Jareth Bailey.
Truesdale played soccer until his mid-30s.
As he and his friends began to raise families, he transitioned to running. He has won the last three annual Laps for Lancers, a local 10K. One of his most meaningful victories was when he won the Pacing for Pieces Autism Half Marathon this past March.
“I won that one for Denton,” he said.

(Similar version published in The Lancaster News April 21, 2019. Photos supplied.)