Lynn man with cerebral palsy sets sights on Boston Marathon

LYNN – Bill McClory admits he was never a runner.Throughout his participation in Little League, as well as and football and basketball at Lynn Vocational Technical Institute, the 33-year-old lifelong Lynn resident said running was always his least favorite sports activity.However, when his father, Jack, became sick with lung cancer last year, McClory said he took up running as a way to stay in shape because he did not have time to make it to the gym.McClory said that when he was sitting with his father last April, a month before the elder McClory died, the Boston Marathon came on television – a race the younger McClory always said he would run but never did. When he made the vow to run the marathon this year, his father wanted to make sure McClory finally stuck to his word.?He basically put me on the spot and said, ?Look at me, I?m not going to make it another year.? And at that point, I didn?t want to hear that. ? He basically told me to do it next year,” said McClory, a real estate investor.Not letting his father down, McClory qualified for the Boston Marathon in early January.McClory also has mild cerebral palsy. The left side of his body is much weaker than the right. McClory said his left foot and leg muscles are smaller than those of his right side, which can cause some pain after running because of the difference in pressure absorption. He had surgery when he was 3 years old to strengthen his left leg, and wore braces growing up. But McClory and his mother, Lynn resident Theresa Corcoran, said the handicap has never been a big impediment.?Nothing really held him back,” Corcoran said. “He always compensated for that left side to keep going.”McClory initially thought it would not be possible to get a spot in the April 16 race because he did not think there were any spots left. But when he went on a date after New Year?s with a woman who was running on the American Liver Foundation?s Run for Research Team, she told him there were openings on the team. Now McClory is eligible for the race and must raise $4,000 for the Foundation by early April, but his goal is $10,000. He has collected around $2,000 to date.Corcoran said she was proud when she got the news from McClory, especially after the teasing he received growing up.?After we hung up, I?m calling everybody telling them,” Corcoran said, adding that she will be there at the marathon finish line in April with McClory?s sisters.McClory said he started running local races last March as a way to gauge if he was prepared to run the Boston Marathon?s 26.2-mile course. After qualifying for the marathon in early January, he started training with the American Liver Foundation team, which takes Saturday morning runs along the marathon route. McClory said he takes runs around Lynn three other days out of the week.On race day, McClory will have three people especially in mind – he is running in memory of his father and his aunt and uncle, Jo and Ed Petrell, who both died in June.McClory said he is also running to show he has moved beyond being the last child picked in gym class, and that mild handicaps are not necessarily a limitation.?I want other people with mild handicaps to realize that they can do it. It just might be a little more challenging at times,” he said. “They?re not much different than everyone else, and the cruel world out there doesn?t care if you have a handicap.”To help reach his fundraising goal, McClory will hold a raffle on March 11 at Fauci?s Pizza on Lynnfield Street at 4 p.m. The tickets are $50 each, and the first prize is an all-expenses-paid trip to Chicago to see the Cubs play the Red Sox. To purchase raffle tickets or for more information, call McClory at 781-724-9637.Sarah Mupo can be reached at [email protected].