Lynn’s Mike Derby hitting Marathon milestone for a very worthy cause

LYNN – When the runners take off from their starting positions for the 2010 Boston Marathon on Patriots’ Day, one runner – Mike Derby of Lynn – will mark two decades of honoring the memory of his late sister, Linda.Linda Derby died of liver cancer in 1988. She was 44 years old. Her brother, who will turn 56 in May, runs to raise funds to combat the disease that took her life. This year will represent his 15th straight Marathon running to benefit the American Liver Foundation. In the first five years he ran it, the foundation was not organized with marathoners, so he ran for the American Cancer Society.”When my sister passed away, I didn’t deal with it real well,” Derby said. “I started running and set a goal. It was what drove me on. I needed that so I could stay focused so I could keep on track with my career and life.”His sister’s death was not the first tragedy Derby had to endure – he lost his brother and his father at a young age – but he said that his mother and sister were support mechanisms throughout the early adversity.”She helped me a lot,” he said of his sister.Running in what will be his 20th straight Marathon, Derby has found a means of coping with his sister’s death, as well as a way of adding some structure to his life.”The Marathon has made my life what I consider a success,” he said.He has developed a running routine. While he runs all year round, he begins his Marathon training in October. As the weeks and months progress and the temperatures grow colder, his training heats up with runs of 16 to 18 miles each weekend. The practice will reach a crescendo with a 19-mile run on the first weekend of April ? and then, just before the Marathon, he will get in “an easy run, about 10 miles, to stay loose,” he said.For the past four years, he has run with Terry O’Brien of Wakefield. O’Brien is coming off a struggle of her own: She has made a full recovery after being diagnosed with breast cancer last year.Derby and O’Brien work together at ENE Systems in Canton, where Derby is a director of operations. Their training routes are a blend of each other’s home turf as well as the finishing city of the Marathon: around the lake and through the city in Wakefield ? Swampscott through Marblehead Neck and back ? and running along the Charles River in Boston up through Watertown and back through Cambridge to the Boston Common.”Mostly it’s been through Wakefield,” Derby said. “We try to mix it up.”He has derived support from his family: Lisa, his wife of 18 years, and their sons Michael, 16, a student at Malden Catholic, and Matthew, 13, who attends Our Lady of the Assumption in Lynnfield. He said that he “always” crosses the finish line with his family.His wife, whom he affectionately calls “my bride,” helps with “all the difficult work,” he said, “fundraising, thank-you notes, tracking deposits. She’s truly the backbone of the whole Marathon. I’m not good at being organized.”Three businesses are sponsoring him this year: his employer, ENE, as well as the Lazy Dog in Wyoma Square and J.D.’s on Lewis Street.He also has a focus on the future. Five years from now, in 2015, if he is able to run in his 25th consecutive Marathon, he will qualify for the Boston Athletic Association Hall of Fame – a group whose membership numbers “probably 400 or less,” he said. He said he also hopes for his son Michael to join him for this race.”I’ve got a long ways to go,” he said.It has already been two decades, and time has brought new challenges into the lives of Derby and his running partner, O’Brien. Last year, O’Brien was diagnosed with breast cancer and could not run while she was in treatment.”On the weekend, she’d take her bike out and do, if she felt strong enough, 10 to 12 miles with me,” Derby said. “She made a full recovery. Everything worked out excellent. She’s running with me again. It adds to my inspiration. It’s amazing what some people can do. She’s a very strong person.”It seems that Mike Derby could say the same thing about hims