Hip injury behind him, Paul Gouthro readies for Marine Corps Marathon

Paul Gouthro is a man of many hats: Lynn resident, 30-year General Electric employee, Marine Corps veteran. In October he plans to broaden his portfolio by running the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC.Yet his training had to overcome an early obstacle.He is planning for the marathon through an 18-week intermediate training program using the guidelines of marathon guru Hal Higdon (whom Gouthro learned of through a Google search). A few days before the start of Gouthro’s first week of training, though, he felt “something wrong with my hip,” he said.”As I tried to run, my hip felt more painful,” he said. “I rested it, iced it, heated it.”Gouthro went to the GE medical center, where he was sent to Union Hospital for an X-ray and got a diagnosis of a mild case of arthritis in his hip joint. He described feelings of concern about his marathon training.”I felt I didn’t have time for all the exercises and glucosamine,” Gouthro said. “If I couldn’t start running soon ? it was going to stop (him from doing) the marathon.”He remembered that a few years ago, two doctors had diagnosed him with plantar fasciitis in his heels, and that a pair of cortisone shots one year apart had been successful. He told his primary care physician that he needed a cortisone shot in his hip. The doctor sent him to an orthopedic surgeon for more X-rays. The diagnosis was ultimately not arthritis, but bursitis. Gouthro ended up getting his cortisone shot ? in his bursar sac.”He nailed it,” Gouthro said. “Week 4 (of training) was last week. God knows what’s ahead of me. (Two Sundays ago), I did my 11-mile long run in Peabody and West Peabody. So far, so good. Knock on wood, I’m OK.”This week’s regimen includes three miles today and six more on Wednesday. Then it’s back to three for Thursday and some rest on Friday. Saturday it’ll be six miles, and Sunday Gouthro is shooting for 12.”I’ve run a couple half-marathons,” Gouthro said when asked about the longest distance he’s ever run. “Within a few weeks, I’ll be surpassing that.”Those half-marathons are the Run to Remember in Boston to benefit the police this past May, and the Wicked Half-Marathon in Salem last year.Gouthro first got a chance to run in the Marine Corps Marathon three years ago. The Veterans Council at GE (which helps hire veterans and coordinate activities there) offered him one of the bibs that the company receives for being a major corporate sponsor.”I politely refused,” Gouthro said. “I said I was not ready. I recommended someone and he ended up running.”Two years ago, he got the same offer and declined again for the same reason. Yet after last year’s marathon, he said, “I happened to visit the website.” He noticed that “the course touches all the historic sites in DC, crossing the Potomac two times, and ending at the Marine Corps Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.”I said, ‘You know what? I think I’m going to try it.'”He asked his friend Joe Gould at GE if he could get him a bib ? and he did.Gouthro started cross-training on New Year’s Day this year, taking classes in Pilates and yoga at the Peabody YMCA. He still cross-trains. However, he said, “Nowadays it’s more running than cross-training.”A Roxbury native who grew up in Dorchester, Gouthro, 54, is married to a West Lynner, and they have four grown daughters (the oldest two like to run as well). He moved to Lynn 28 years ago.He took up running seven years ago, after he stopped smoking.”I was spending a lot of lunch hours in Lynn Woods,” he recalled, “walking with a trail map ? Walking turned into walking with some running to running with some walking to running.”Now, he said, “I know Lynn Woods so well that I don’t need a map. I can come in at any point and go out at any point without a map.”He used to run the Lynn Woods Wednesday-night summer races, but – in an indication of how his marathon training is taking top priority – this year they coincide with his Pilates classes.