Chapter 39 – Ray Achieves a Milestone Inspired by Andy

In the late Fall of 2015, Andy had surgery related to his spina bifida to replace some valves and tubes that had previously been implanted, but now were approaching their expected lifespan. Because the recovery period was 4 to 6 weeks which would require Andy to defer the start date of his marathon training program, Andy elected to skip the 2016 Boston Marathon as a push-rim wheelchair entrant and participate, once again, as my Patient Partner. So I’ll be looking forward to Andy inspiring me because I know that he’ll be there waiting for me at the top of Boylston Street.
This Boston Marathon would be the 17th consecutive time that Andy and I were partnered together, but it also represented a milestone for me as the 2016 Boston Marathon represents my Marathon No. 100.  If you have interest in seeing a list of the marathons, go to this link:  Ray Phillips – Marathons List

Andy was my Patient Partner for my first Boston Marathon in 2000, which was just my 13th marathon overall. I wanted to be able to run the Boston Marathon just the one time, and had no plans to continue running marathons once I had achieve that goal. But then Andy and I made our commitments to each other to cross the finish line together every year until he was able to be a wheelchair entrant in the 2014 Boston Marathon when he would meet the age requirement of 18 years old.
So I continued running marathons, and most of those marathons I considered as just training runs to get me to the next Boston Marathon. So from my first Boston Marathon in 2000 with Andy as my Patient Partner to the 2014 Boston Marathon (my 91st), Andy has been my inspirational force. Once Andy achieved his life-long dream of completing the Boston Marathon as a push-rim wheelchair entrant in April 2014, the next logical goal for me was completing 100 marathons. Without the promises that Andy and I made to each other back in April 2000 and re-affirmed every year since, I expect that I would have stopped running marathons a long, long, time ago.
Andy is planning on being a push-rim wheelchair entrant once again in the 2015 Boston Marathon, and hopes to continue to be an entrant on an annual basis. As for me, I am now hoping that I can remain healthy enough to complete 25 consecutive Boston Marathons. So my goal now is to complete every Boston Marathon every year through April 2024 when I’ll be 76 years old. And my dream is when I make it to the top of Boylston Street in 2024, Andy Martin will be waiting for me there, and I hope by then that the security restrictions on the marathon course will be relaxed, so we can travel the final 600 yards to cross the Finish Line together, once again.

And of course, when I finally arrived at the top of Boylston Street at the 2016 Boston Marathon, as expected, there was Andy, smiling and greeting me with the usual “Hey Ray.  What took you so long?”

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Chapter 40 Boston Marathon 2016 – Credit Unions Kids at Heart Marathon Team