Rich on Running: Lynn’s Pawlicki meets challenge, qualifies for 2014 Marathon

If you’ve run a race in Lynn over the last few years, chances are you’ve seen Jim Pawlicki.The Lynn resident is a frequent runner at local races, including the Hibernians 5K Recovery Run, the Great Stew Chase and the Lynn Woods Summer Cross Country Races. Last week, Pawlicki finished third in the long (5.72 miles) race at Lynn Woods.Pawlicki met a different kind of challenge last month, meeting his qualifying time for the 2014 Boston Marathon with a finish of 2:57:26 at the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington on Memorial Day weekend.Just as remarkable as Pawlicki’s finish is his motivation to run Vermont in the first place. He found inspiration to qualify for Boston after the Marathon terror attacks this year.He volunteered at the Marathon this year, handing out water and Gatorade from 11 a.m. to three p.m., “just after mile 12,” he said, “pretty much on the Wellesley College campus,” with his partner Krissy Kozlosky and fellow North Shore Striders Running Club members.Later, after he got home, “I heard what was conspiring in Boston, and what a tragedy that was,” he said. “It got me fired up to qualify (for Boston in 2014). I’ll probably enter the Boston Marathon next year. I talked to a lot of people, and they felt the same way as me.”He said that he would not be deterred “from doing what we love doing,” calling the Marathon terror attacks “an attack on the running community and Boston in general.”Pawlicki got his chance to qualify for Boston in the Vermont City Marathon, after receiving an invitation to join friends from the Wicked Running Club at the race.”(They said), ‘Hey, you should come up,'” Pawlicki recalled. “I said, ‘You know what? I think I’ll do this. It was around six weeks (before), a little extra.”I would try to run every day. In about six weeks, I prepared myself.”This preparation included long runs each weekend for five weeks with friend Brett Rickenbach of Danvers, a 22-miler one weekend, and the Quincy Half Marathon in early May.”There was a lot of emotion and determination,” Pawlicki said, “a lot of people getting their Boston qualifier so they could sign up in September.”Pawlicki, 38, had to finish the Vermont marathon in 3:10 or better to qualify for Boston in 2014. He previously ran Boston in 2012 and missed re-qualifying for 2013 by four and a half minutes.Pawlicki ran Vermont with three friends: Rickenbach, Brad Gates of Danvers (in his marathon debut) and Michael Paulin of Beverly.”Four people chasing the same time,” he said. “Three hours or a little quicker.”He faced a challenge shortly in, having to change shoes about two miles in after experiencing pain in his calf.”It really scared me,” he said. “I was quick to judge my footwear. They were too flat. I was running on my toes and had calf problems.”He spotted Kozlosky, who had a backup pair, on the left-hand side of the road at mile three. He switched from the red and white Inov8 shoes he had worn at the Quincy Half Marathon to the backup pair, a pair of blue and gray Nike Lunaracr2s that he has used in several races.”I probably lost about two minutes,” he said, but the shoes gave him “a little more cushion. I could run more on the heel, not on the toe. My hands were freezing cold. I did my best to untie the shoes, and tie and double-tie and tuck the laces.”Pawlicki said that after “a slow jog, the pain was still there, but it was not getting any worse.” He caught up to his friends at mile nine.”I was back in the saddle,” he said. “It was enough to take my mind off how my legs were feeling. I didn’t really think too much about the calf.”He reported a bruise on his calf later in the day, and said, “It was pretty funny. I’m very grateful and thankful that I was able to finish.”He and Paulin crossed in 2:57, with Rickenbach finishing in three hours and Gates, in his first marathon, in 3:04.”I suspect I’m going to sign up for the Boston Marathon in September and see if I get in,” Pawlicki said. “I should be able to get in.”Rich Tenorio can be reached a