Marathon runner letting supporters choose attire

SWAMPSCOTT – His donors may demand that he run the Boston Marathon wearing a tiara and pink tutu, but Alex Shopov is so grateful for their support that he?s offering them that choice.Shopov, 36, a New England Aquarium volunteer and software engineer, will be running his first marathon this year on the 25-member aquarium team. Money he raises will go toward the aquarium?s community outreach programs.The Swampscott resident, who is also working on a master?s degree in environmental management and sustainability at Harvard Extension School, said he got into running six years ago as a way to relieve stress after quitting smoking.?I didn?t think I?d enjoy it, and I ended up taking to it right away and now I couldn?t see myself not doing it,” Shopov said, adding he finds running very meditative.While he may have been bitten by the running bug late, he said he is now hooked on long-distance feats like this year?s marathon.Before he started training for the marathon in September, Shopov said he had only done 5K races, but the combination of raising money for marine education and being at the aquarium during last year?s race motivated him to put his name in for this year?s team.Shopov said he was getting some work done in the office when those at the aquarium got word about what had happened at the finish line. There was between a half hour and an hour where he and his co-workers were listening to the police scanner and trying to figure out if everyone on last year?s aquarium team was OK, he said.?It was a scramble to find out where everyone was because we knew a few people had finished, we knew others hadn?t, but we didn?t know exactly where everyone was,” Shopov said, adding everyone on the team turned out to be safe.Shopov said he was thrown for quite a loop when he found out he made the team, after being picked from a lottery.The race team coordinators called him and let him know his training partner, Sarah-Anne Johnson, a teacher in Lynn, made the team, but they told him he didn?t make the cut.?They kept it going for, like, 10 minutes,” Shopov said. “Of course, I?m dying inside.”After the coordinators stopped the ruse and gave him the good news, Shopov, who took the call while driving, said he “almost crashed at that point.”Training, he said, has been going well, besides the perils of running in the winter and recovering from a knee injury in January that almost sidelined him. Shopov, who would normally take his runs along the shore, said he had to get a gym membership because it was too hard to run in snow and ice.?Thirteen miles on a treadmill, not my idea of a good time, but at least they were showing the Muppets at the gym,” he said. “That did help.”The aquarium team has also been taking weekend runs together, gradually increasing the distance in the months leading up to the marathon, Shopov said, which supplement his local, mid-week runs.Shopov has raised $4,316 of his $5,000 goal, according to his fundraising page on the aquarium?s website. He said he?s been touched by the generosity of his supporters, especially the contribution from a former lab partner, along with a few others, at the end of March after he put a call out on Facebook for help with his goal.?In the span of 14 hours, I jumped over $1,200,” he said. “So I was kind of in shock.”As a thank you, Shopov said he is letting his supporters choose what he wears at the marathon: his aquarium team uniform, the uniform with a hat that looks like a shark is eating his head or that pink tutu and tiara. In addition, he said those who helped will be entered into a raffle for a meet and greet with a harbor seal at the aquarium, a pair of Red Sox tickets and other gifts.As for his plans for after the marathon, besides a team party and a week rest from training for his next race, Shopov joked he will “eat his body weight in pasta.”