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From left, Katelynn Ledford-McCoy and Kallup McCoy hold up the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians flag while visiting Boston for the 127th Boston Marathon.
Jessica Webb
editor@thesmokymountaintimes.com
Swain County’s own Kallup McCoy completed his first Boston Marathon on April 17, 2023, with a time of 2:40:24—a true testament to what hard work, faith and change can manifest.
There were 30,239 racers including 17,272 male runners with participants from all 50 states and 106 countries. McCoy placed 650th among the male runners—squarely in the top 1,000.
During the 127th marathon, Boston was also marking the sad anniversary of the Boston bombings that shook the city killing several people and injuring more than 250 runners and spectators back in 2013. It made the experience of being in the city that much more powerful.
“I feel like every city has its own energy, and Boston is known for its grit and how they come together for their sports teams and marathons,” McCoy said, adding that experiencing that far exceeded anything he could have imaged.
The race and the city had several events throughout the weekend to honor those who had been lost.
McCoy remembers the time of the bombing, which was the first time he became aware of the iconic race.
“In 2013 when the bombing happened, I had just moved in with my dad who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer I had no purpose, vision, hobbies or anything like that,” he said. His life seemed directionless at the time, he recalls, as he was in the midst of addiction.
“I was withdrawing that day,” he said. “Just thinking that I would have been there 10 years later, standing in that race, I could never have dreamt that up!”
Running in the Boston Marathon was unlike any other race McCoy has completed—both for how challenging it is, known as the most challenging among the top 6 marathons in the world—and for the level of energy and support along the course.
“I think a lot of times in races you get into this frame of mind when you start hitting those valleys, it’s challenging to work through that, but having that many people making you feel like a rock star, like they were cheering on you individually,” McCoy said, was incredible.
“I was high-fiving kids and people along the route, and that continued to keep me in an optimistic mindset and pushing in those tough moments of the race,” he said.
A full week later, he said his quads were still sore from the challenging downhill sections of the course.
“It’s a net downhill,” McCoy explained. “You have to be very careful about how you go out on it. If you go out too fast, you’ll pay on it on the back end, which is what happened to me.”
Even though McCoy is used to running varied terrain training here in Western North Carolina, the course was still a brutal one.
“You’re constantly up or down; there’s not a lot of flat surfaces out there. Then, you’ve got the Newton Hills that start at 17 miles,” he said. “I run on steeper hills than that, but it’s because of where it’s at on the course that’s hard. Your legs are already fried from the downhills. Then, you’ve got Heartbreak Hill as the culmination. It’s over ½-mile gradual climb. It can definitely take your soul, but the crowds get you up there.”
He was shy of his 3:35 goal, but that didn’t stop friends and family members from cheering him on—with a flood of positive comments filling his Facebook page the day of the race.
Having completed the Boston Marathon, McCoy is as energized as ever about what will come next.
“It lit a fire in me,” he said.
He said he would love to return to the Boston Marathon.
“I’d love to go up there and get to 100 in a couple of years. People will continue seeing me run the roads around here and chase that dream,” he said.
Following a short 2-week window of recovery, McCoy will be back on the roads soon. He’ll be returning to Missoula, Montana in 8 weeks for his next marathon “chasing a 2:35 out there,” he said, and has hopes of running the Dublin Marathon later this year.
“I want to say thank you to anybody that’s been following the journey, reached out, been praying for me, I just appreciate that,” he said, adding he could really feel that support when he was in the race and it helped keep him going.