Stephenson’s next step
Rome’s Jay Stephenson is set to race in his first Boston Marathon on Monday.
For more than 20 years, Jay Stephenson has been a constant in Rome’s running community. Whether it is managing GoGo Running at the Shoe Box, coaching athletes of all levels or competing in his own events, Stephenson has always been around a track or trail.
But on Monday morning, he takes a few more strides forward when he competes in one of the largest marathons in the world.
Stephenson will take part in this year’s Boston Marathon, marking only his third marathon he has ever competed in. He’s been training for the event for more than a year, and he’s ready for the experience something so large can bring.
“I think the most exciting part has been other people’s excitement around me,” Stephenson
said. “I’ve been running for 20 plus years, and I don’t know if I have ever done anything that more people were familiar with.”
For his final preparation, Stephenson flew up to Boston with Berry cross country coach Paul Deaton during a recent weekend to get a better look at the course. Deaton has run Boston three times and coached Stephenson since he came to Berry in 1999.
The most crucial part of the course comes after 18 miles, where runners have to go mostly uphill for several miles. It ultimately ends with Heartbreak Hill, one of the most notorious elevation changes in long-distance running.
To combat this, Stephenson plans to save his energy while going uphill and downhill, making sure he has something left down the stretch.
With only days before the race, Stephenson was still full of excitement.
It’s another stride in his running career, no matter what his final time may be.
“I coach several athletes all over the country, and I have a few of them that are going to run in Boston,” Stephenson said. “So, because I’ve coached these athletes that have run Boston, I really feel to develop as a coach I have to run it myself.”
His re-entry into marathon running came only be happenstance a year ago when he was visiting a friend in Minnesota. While there, his friend suggested they run a loop that was about 21 miles, longer than Stephenson typically ran.
“After that run in Minnesota, I was just thinking about how I should run a marathon,” Stephenson said. “If I could run 21 miles, I could definitely run 26.2 miles. So that just kind of sparked my desire to do a marathon again after a couple of long runs.”
Stephenson felt great afterwards, so he began to think about running longer distances. Ultimately it led him to the Grand Rapids Marathon, where he posted a time and place that qualified him for Boston.
Stephenson claims he has come close to injury in the last few months, but has done everything in his power to stay healthy. He has run at least 20 miles twice a month for his training, most recently running 25 miles in the week leading up to Monday’s race.
In his effort to improve his time in the 26.2-mile race, Stephenson has had some good-natured fun working to beat the pace of both his wife and one of his employees at GoGo Running. Stephenson first ran a marathon at 16, finishing in three hours and 30 minutes, and has trimmed that down to 2:48.
“Right now my marathon goals are just to beat the girls,” Stephenson said. “Because they’re always messing with me about my marathon times, so the desire increases a little more.”