Boston Marathon comes to Steinbach, sort of

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This article was published 03/09/2020 (1782 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the famed Boston Marathon, like so many events around the world, not being held this year, those who had previously qualified to run the gruelling test, will still run the marathon this year at a location of their choosing.

And for two Steinbach runners, Greg Penner and Chris Schroeder, they will be running the marathon on Monday, Sept. 7 on the running track at Stony Brook Middle School in Steinbach.

Of course the original Boston Marathon, which is the most celebrated marathon in the world, was scheduled to be run on April 20, but became a casualty of COVID-19.

Instead, all those who qualified, and were originally registered for the April 20 event, will have the opportunity to participate in the virtual alternative to the marathon, which can be run any time from Sept. 7-14.

Participants in the virtual marathon will be required to complete the 26.2 mile distance within a six-hour time period and provide proof of time to the Boston Athletic Association, which runs the marathon.

Penner, a top marathoner in the province for the past decade or more, has been on the podium in the past at the Manitoba Marathon and has a career best of about 2:36. He says his goal on Monday will be to break to 2:30, “or at least try for a personal best.”

For Schroeder, whose personal best is 3:05.51, he is striving to go under the 3-hour barrier.

“When Greg suggested we run at the track, I thought he was crazy,” said Schroeder, a teacher at Woodlawn School in Steinbach, “It will present a unique challenge, and it will be a mental game because of the monotony.”

To complete the required 26.2 mile distance, they will traverse the track 104.8 laps. The inner lane of the track, which was constructed for the 2016 Manitoba Summer Games in Steinbach, is 400 metres.

As they will be running at a different pace, Schroeder plans to start his marathon marathon at about 6:30 a.m. and Penner will commence his jaunt at 7:00 a.m., with the goal of both finishing around 9:00 a.m.

“Doing it on the track makes it easy for friends and family to cheer for us and for us to have water and ice support,” said Penner, also the organizer of the annual Let’s Run-Steinbach. “Plus there is zero traffic at the track.”

Penner says as their plans developed to run the marathon at the track, they also decided to add a charitable component into it. “We’ve partnered with the Steinbach Family Resource Centre school supplies drive. We are asking all our family and friends to donate $20 and then guess our finishing times.”

The closest to the correct times will win prizes, including airplane rides through Harv’s Air.

To make a donation go to www.steinbachfrc.ca and click on Boston Marathon Steinbach.