Deale runner Tango completes Boston Marathon — virtually

For many runners, qualifying and finishing the Boston Marathon is a lifelong goal. It can take years of disciplined training to reach certain time goals, and up to a year can go by between the qualifying race and the actual Boston Marathon.

Not everybody gets to run Boston, and anyone who does run it will tell you it is special. You are following in the footsteps of Clarence DeMar (7-time winner), Johnny Kelley (2-time winner), Bill Rodgers (4-time winner), Bobbi Gibb (unofficial 3-time winner), Katherine Switzer (first woman to officially run as a registered woman) and Joan Benoit Samuelson (2-time winner). Everyone who runs Boston gives their best on race day, as the history, course and 500,000 spectators deserve it.

To qualify for the 2020 Boston Marathon, runners had to run a qualifying marathon before September 2019 and meet qualifyingstandards by age group and sex. For example, any male under 34 had tor una prior marathon in 3:00 (6:50/mile), and a woman a 3:30:00 (8:00/mile).

And at the other end of the spectrum, a 70-year-old male had to run a 4:35 and a female a 4:50. Those times, however, only qualify you to enter; they didn’t automatically get you in. Because more people with qualifying times apply then there is space, that 34-year-old male had to run a 2:58:21, the female a 3:28:21, and the70-year-oldmalehadtoruna 4:48:21 and the female a 4:48:21.

If that sounds like a lot of numbers and math, it is, and those on a quest to Boston focus on mile splits with the focus of Andrew Wiles’ trying to solve Fermat’s Last Theorem, if Wiles’ was trying to solve the Theorem at mile 22 with runner’s fuzzy brain math.

For the 2020 version of Boston, of the 27,288 applications, 3,161 applicants were unable to be accepted due to the large number of eligible qualifiers who applied. In other words, even though they qualified, more than 3,000 runners didn’ t get to run the race, a bitter pill for sure.

But Boston 2020 didn’t happen this year. When runners qualified between September 2018 and September 2019, the coronavirus pandemic did not exist. So, what happened to all those runners who qualified? Boston allowed runners to use their times for the 2021 event and run the event virtually in 2020.

One local runner took up that challenge and designed a course in south county to mimic, as best one can, the Boston experience.

Peter Tango is an exceptional 57-year-old runner from Deale who works for the Department of the Interior’s U.S. Geological Services as the Chesapeake Bay Monitoring Coordinator. He is also not one to be deterred from reaching his goal of running Boston in 2020, after qualifying at the International Peace Marathon( aka Abebe Bikila Marathon)in Washington, D. C. in 3:05, following upon his personal best of 2:56 at the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he said at the time he would never run another marathon, as most marathoners say at the finish line.

On Sept. 7, 2020, Peter set out to run the virtual Boston, utilizing Deale as the start and finish while traversing Muddy Creek, Southdown Clubhouse and Mill Swamp Roads, as well as Route 2, with a turn-around spot at South River High School in Edge water. The route has wide shoulders at points and narrow country roads at others, but the key feature is exposure to the sun, especially in September.

Thank fully, Peter had a mobile water stop/ cheering station, with his wife Michele and his in-laws Sharon and Steve Dosti posting up and opening the trunk for instant water stops setup all over the course.

Even though Peter had great support, there is something special about a runner setting home from his home, knowing that it is, in the end, up to him to finish the event. None of the cars passing by him likely had any idea they were witnessing a runner pushing hard and giving his best effort to simulate Boston.

Peter said he approached the run with a focus on“feeling good throughout the work of it all, staying hydrated, enjoying the ride, and celebrating the culmination of the journey.”

When asked whether the virtual event could compare to the actual race, Peter noted “running the virtual Boston Marathon gave me a personal sense of satisfaction that all my training was put to the test. Crossing the finish line in 3:07:34 was a nice way to complete the journey.” Peter summed it up with fond “memories of the homegrown event” that are “forever and priceless.”

So, what was Peter’s prize for such a great run? His wife Michele baked him a homemade Boston Crème Pie, which is in the spirit of the chili the Boston Marathon used to give out at the finish. Great job, Peter!