By FRED KRONER
*All photos and video submitted
The fans were in position.
The National Anthem was played, on cue.
The race starter followed with a countdown, announced through a Bluetooth speaker, going from 10 to the firing of the airhorn after reaching the number one.
With that brief prelude, the 2020 Boston Marathon started at 7 a.m. on Saturday (Sept. 12) for three members of Mahomet’s Butcher family, who toed the starting lineup simultaneously for the 26.2-mile event.
Their milestone race was held at Lake of the Woods, starting and finishing at the Botanical Gardens.
In a year that will be forever remembered for the coronavirus pandemic that brought many recreational and business pursuits to a halt more than six months ago, Boston Marathon administrators allowed qualifiers to participate in the race after all this month.
They did it virtually. On their own. Some literally ran solo for the duration. Others – like the Butchers – made it a family venture.
With Brian Butcher, a senior at the University of Illinois majoring in computer engineering, taking charge, they mapped out a 6-mile loop that they would run four times, concluding with a 2.2-mile finish to make the distance official.
This is serious business.
“We’ll be part of (the 124-year) Boston Marathon history,” said Debbie Butcher, the mother who joined her two sons for the grueling race. “They mailed us packets with our bib numbers, and now we’ll get a medal and a shirt.”
Debbie Butcher has now run 13 marathons, including Boston eight times.
“For me, this is probably one of my most memorable marathons,” she said, “doing it in Mahomet, with family and friends there.”
John Butcher echoed that sentiment.
“Brian and I have started a lot of races together,” he said, “but I’ve never been able to start one with my mom.
“That was neat. It’s a much different atmosphere when there’s 30,000 runners (the projected number had the race taken place in Boston in April), but every one is important to you when you’re at the starting line.”
All three had previously qualified for the 2020 marathon – usually held in April – and had planned to participate until COVID-19 caused the event on the actual course – which passes through parts of eight communities – to first be postponed and eventually canceled.
Runners at Boston start in ‘waves,’ based on their qualifying times. Debbie Butcher wouldn’t have been with her sons.
“John and Brian would have started about an hour before me,” Debbie Butcher said.
John Butcher put that time in perspective.
“I’m at 11-plus miles into the race when she crosses the starting line,” John Butcher said.
The family that starts a marathon together doesn’t necessarily stay together.
On Saturday, Debbie Butcher kept pace with her sons for only a brief distance.
“About 10 feet,” she said. “They wanted a 6-minute pace (per mile). My first mile was in 8:45.”
For someone who had part of her meniscus surgically removed in August, 2019, Debbie Butcher knew she wouldn’t be challenging her all-time marathon-best time of 3 hours and 28 minutes.
“My goal was to run it,” she said.
Debbie Butcher finished in 4 hours, 1 minute and 29 seconds.
She took every step herself, but had some help along the way.
“I couldn’t have done this without the people who paced me,” she said. “They helped tremendously.”
She ran the first 6-mile loop by herself.
Her daughter, Jessica, jumped in for the second 6-mile stretch.
Veteran Mahomet marathoner Chet Fall helped set the pace in the third 6-mile loop, but actually stayed on the course for the remainder of the distance and ran a total of 14.2 miles.
Tonya Nunn made it a threesome of runners for the fourth 6-mile section – along with a gentleman on a bicycle – and Jessica helped her mom finish the remaining 2.2 miles.
“I felt strong the first 18 miles,” Debbie Butcher said, “but the humidity took a toll on me.
“I’m really thankful I had four people and a biker run with me. It would have been a battle to finish otherwise.”
Meanwhile brothers Brian (a 2017 M-S graduate) and John (a 2012 M-S graduate) ran side-by-side throughout the first 10 miles in Brian’s third-ever marathon.
“Then I pulled away a bit,” said Brian Butcher, who was a first-time qualifier for the historic Boston Marathon.
He nearly kept pace with his pre-race goal of finishing in 2 hours and 35 minutes.
Brian Butcher was timed in 2:36.45.
Runners had an app to time themselves and afterwards, Brian Butcher said, “we uploaded our results,” to the Boston site.
The Boston Marathon is accepting times only during an eight-day period that started on Sept. 7 and ends on Sept. 14 (the date the race was originally rescheduled for). Organizers are expecting about 15,000 persons to take advantage of the opportunity.
Nearly 60 countries have been represented thus far in the virtual results leaderboard.
“Everyone’s course is different,” Debbie Butcher said. “Someone even ran it on a treadmill.”
Had the race taken place in April, there were about 30,000 qualifiers.
Brian Butcher discovered how well his time fared when he checked the Boston Marathon web site the Saturday evening of his run.
He was 16th among all runners who had submitted times and was first among those with addresses in Illinois.
The following day, at 11 p.m. on Sept. 13, he was still among the top 30 overall.
He had anticipated a successful race even though his last competitive run was in October, 2019, at the Chicago Marathon.
“My training went pretty well,” Brian Butcher said. “I got altitude training in Colorado (during a two-month summer internship).
“I ran every day, but not as much as I would like for a normal marathon.”
Debbie Butcher trained in intervals.
She worked out from December until March, preparing for the original date. When the postponement was announced, she said, “I laid back and did some base training.”
She got serious about training again after summer arrived.
“I did a 12-week plan,” Debbie Butcher said, “running six days a week and maxing out at about 50 miles (a week).
“I typically don’t do a lot of fall marathons because training in the summer is brutal.”
John Butcher, who has run every Boston Marathon consecutively since 2014, expects his brother to continue to flourish at the 26.2-mile distance.
“He had a great race, running the last half by himself, and has a bright future in the marathon,” John Butcher said.
Brian Butcher said there’s no telling how much quicker he would have been in a competitive field.
“It would have helped to have had more competition around you,” he said.
After starting at the Botanical Gardens, the Butchers made their way over the covered bridge, then into one of the neighborhoods before reaching Lake of the Woods Road and then re-entering the park.
It was a challenging course that was far from flat.
“Brian made the course and it was very hilly down Lake of the Woods Road,” Debbie Butcher said.
The Butchers were impressed by the reaction of area residents.
“I was surprised by the number of people who came out to cheer and support us or run with us,” Brian Butcher said.
The runners found water stations at the 2- and 4-mile marks as well as signs that made them think about Boston.
“Friends made signs that represented the different towns (the actual race encompasses),” John Butcher said.
“Each time I’d go through (the starting area), there’d be new people and some that were there all morning,” Debbie Butcher added. “People seemed to know what was going on.
“It was amazing, everything I thought it would be, and more.”
John Butcher, who hasn’t been training specifically for a marathon, dropped out of the race after 18 miles, though he returned to the course for the last 2.2 miles to finish with his brother and “push him a little bit,” he said.
John Butcher will enter his first Half-Ironman event in Waco, Texas, on Oct. 18.
“Everything is a ‘go’ so far,” he said.
The Half-Ironman event starts with a 1.2-mile swim and is followed by a 56-mile bicycle ride and then a 13.1-mile run.
“I started triathlons this year and this is a new challenge for sure,” John Butcher said.
Looking ahead to the October race made it seem like a good call for John Butcher to not finish Saturday’s full marathon at Lake of the Woods.
“I have a lot of training this week and didn’t want to be too sore,” he said. “When I train for a marathon, I run every day, but I’m only running three times a week now and spending a lot more time on the bike.”
Instead of devoting his Sundays to a long run, in the neighborhood of 20 miles, he is biking for three hours and running for one on Sundays.
John Butcher, who lives in Lawrenceville, has ‘Marathon’ on his mind most days.
The University of Illinoi graduate, who has a degree in chemical engineering, is a consultant for Marathon Oil & Gas Refinery (located on Marathon Ave.), in Robinson.
Debbie Butcher had a good feel in advance for what a virtual marathon would be like.
Previously this year, she ran virtually all three of the races in the annual Mahomet event (5-kilometer, 10-kilometer and half-marathon) because, she said, “it’s a good cause to support MAYC.”
After Saturday’s marathon, the weary runners stayed at Lake of the Woods, grilling out with family and friends.
“I was up at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, and it’s exhausting for the support team,” Debbie Butcher said. “My husband (Jeff, the race director and starter) was out there (at the course) by 6.”
Boston Marathon officials have announced that individuals who had qualified for the 2020 race will be invited back for 2021 … if the race is held.
Three runners are ready to commit.
“If we can go to Boston, we will,” Debbie Butcher said.
