Luke Shane, 2:37:54: Marathon perfection

For the better part of the last eight years, the marathon – specifically, the chase for a sub-2:40 marathon – has been the obsession for Marist Running Alum (Class of 2012) Luke Shane. He has come tantalizingly close to it, several times. He’s had some great races, some good races, a DNF, and a debilitating foot injury that landed him in a boot for a few months. Luke trains hard, relentlessly hard; we’ve battled over the phone, via text, via email, about his penchant for too-hard training. His drive has been equally relentless. He wanted to break 2:40. He was going to break 2:40. He NEEDED to break 2:40. Would he ever break 2:40? For a while, to him at least, it seemed like it would never happen. Would it happen? Well. Yes. On Saturday, at Indianapolis, it all came together for Luke in a big, big, BIG way. He broke 2:40. He broke 2:39. He broke 2:38. He ran 2:37:54, the race of his life, a perfectly executed negative-split race, a thing of beauty, an effort, a time, a PR that left him sobbing tears of joy at the finish line. The only thing less than perfect here are the photos he could provide me (all we got is this post-race shot that appeared in the Indy paper). Here are his remarkable stats from his remarkable race.

10km: 37:58 (6:07 pace), 59^th place

Half marathon: 1:19:35 (6:05 pace), 55^th place

30km: 1:52:50 (6:04 pace), 53^rd place

Finish: 2:37:54 (6:02 pace), 36^th place

Second 13.1 miles: 1:18:19 (5:59 pace)

Luke, the former fat kid from Bolton Landing, the caboose of many a Marist XC race from his time in the red and white, the grinder who worked too hard and cared too much … finally got to the finish line he craved -- we craved -- for so long. We are very, very happy for him.