Sunday, September 27, 2015

Alumni racing: The most unlikely marathoner

A former member of our track team, an alumni who still holds track school records in several events, completed his first marathon today. Now. If you take that sentence on its face, literally, it doesn't sound all that noteworthy. So many members of our Alumni Track Family have successfully tackled the marathon distance.

But! When you consider that the alum, a loyal and honored member of the Marist Track Family, is the school record holder in the indoor and outdoor shot put and the indoor 35-pound weight throw -- and now he is a MARATHON FINISHER -- wow, that's pretty remarkable, isn't it.

That's right! Adam Waterbury, former lineman on the Marist football team, former excellent thrower on the Marist track team, completed his first 26.2-mile race. And, Adam picked a pretty difficult place to do it, completing the hilly Adirondack Marathon in 4:28:29, an average of 10:15 per mile. Adam is now 33 years old, married, with a young child, and coaching track down in Westchester County. And now? He can add "marathon finisher" to his already impressive resume (photo to the left is Adam at mile 25). Nicely done, Adam!

1 comment:

peter van aken said...

Adam--

Great effort! I remember when I was giving you some rudimentary coaching in the weight throw, and the spring of your senior year, when you no longer needed to participate in spring football practice, you were glad for the opportunity to lose a little weight....

I can't imagine what your waist size and body weight could be now!

Being fit and healthy as the years go by is important. I still weigh the same as I did in college, and although I have lost muscle mass and strength, and my technique is rough, I still continue to enter master's track and field meets and participate in the throwing events. I also did a 5k road race, three years in a row, 24:28:40 was the fastest amongst the three efforts. No marathon in my foreseeable future, though, so I'm very impressed with your achievement.

petervanaken@yahoo.com