No ordinary rabbit
Professor and XC coach CJ Albertson loves the early lead
The history of the BAA Boston Marathon is replete with tales of race rabbits, individuals who draw attention by dashing to the front at an ungodly clip for a 26.2-mile trip.
The rabbit sprints from the starting line to create significant separation from the elite field on the downhill from Hopkinton Center. The TV truck that is out in front has no option but to zero in on the rabbit thus ensuring quality face time before a worldwide audience.
The 15 minutes of fame awarded the hare seldom exceeds its allotted time limit. The rabbit does a slow fade and is unceremoniously swallowed by the surging pack by Ashland Center, never to be seen or mentioned again.
But Clayton “CJ” Albertson of Fresno, Calif., was, in the cinematic words of Monty Python, “no ordinary rabbit.”
Albertson is a professor who supplements his income as the cross country and track coach at Clovis Community College in Fresno. Albertson made his Boston debut in the only autumn race in BAA history last Oct. 11, his 28th birthday. The 2020 race and the 2021 April race were cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Albertson employed a scorched-earth, take no prisoners pace from the gun. But unlike the outrageous frontrunners of the past, Albertson nearly pulled it off.
Albertson ran the opening mile in 4:32.0 and maintained a sizable lead onto the Framingham flats and through the business districts of Natick and Wellesley.
Albertson was still running solo at the firehouse turn and onto the first of the four Newton hills, but began laboring on the doorstep of Heartbreak Hill and was engulfed by a pack of 15 tactical runners before the summit.
Even with his race plan falling to pieces, Albertson refused to fade into the background. He rallied on the downhill to Cleveland Circle and crossed the finish line in Copley Square in 10th place with a splendid rookie time of 2:11:44.
“After they passed me, I just made a conscious effort to keep them within reach,” said Albertson. “I basically ran as hard as I could to the top of the hill and luckily there was only about 100 meters left of the uphill when they passed me.
“Then I got on the downhill again and basically, I just ran as hard as I could to catch them and get back in the race. At that point they hadn’t made their moves yet and I was able to catch back up with them.
“Shortly after that they put the hammer down and the race broke open from there. So, it was a combination of my accelerating on the downhill before they started really accelerating.”
Albertson went back to training over 100 miles a week to prepare for his second Boston run and will gather with the elite field for the 126th edition on Patriots Day morning.
The year following a Summer Olympics is a boom time for the Abbott World Marathon Majors and the BAA believes this is the fastest field ever assembled for Boston. The Tokyo games were held in 2021 instead of 2020 because of the pandemic.
Barring late scratches, the professional men’s field has 11 entrants that have run under 2:06.00, with five former Boston winners including last October’s champion Benson Kipruto of Kenya, who broke the tape in 2:09:51.
The other returning champions are two-time winner Lelisa Desisa (2013, 2015) and Lawrence Cherono (2019) of Kenya, Lemi Berhanu (2016) of Ethiopia and Yuki Kawauchi (2018) of Japan. Albertson said he plans to run fast from the start but expects to be in some good company this time out.
“I figure I will start pretty similarly and I think most of the field will start a bit quicker,” said Albertson. “My pace will be the same but I will probably be with a pack this year but you never know.”
“I thought the same thing last year but this year with how talented and how good the field is and the sheer number of guys, I imagine someone else is going out fairly quickly.”