Countdown to Boston: 27 Days – Murphy determined to make it to Marathon finish line

Name: Mike Murphy
Age: 44
Hometown: Hermiston, Ore.
Where you live now: Sanford, Fla.
Occupation: Lieutenant firefighter for the City of SanfordQ:Have you run a marathon before? If so, how many, and which ones?
A.I ran my first marathon at age 40 in Pittsburgh in 2011 for the purpose of qualifying for Boston in 2012. To my surprise, I came in 23rd overall and ran 2:39:16.
Q.How many times have you run the Boston Marathon?
A.This will be my second attempt. I ran in 2012 and ended up going to the medical tent at 14.5 miles. Turned out I had a partially torn Achilles’ tendon. That was the first race I have ever not finished! It was very hard to walk off the course because I had put so much into qualifying and training to compete at a high level in that race.
Q.Why do you run it?
A.To be truthful, I would rather run a fast 5k over a marathon any day, but I love Boston and visiting the family here. Nana (Lynn’s own Leda Barr) hosts my pre-race dinner and the whole family helps prepare traditional Italian food. It makes her so happy to have the family over and her gnocchi is to die for! If I have to run a few extra miles here and there and run the most grueling race distance of them all to put a smile on her face, it’s a minor sacrifice.
Q.How long have you been running? How did you get into running?
A.I started running my eighth grade year. I missed the bus one day in seventh grade and we lived 3 or 4 miles outside of town, so I started running to school. About a mile away from school, my science teacher picked me up and gave me a ride. He talked to me about how effortless I looked running, and about joining jogging class. After that, I was hooked.
Q.What is your best/favorite running memory?
A.Running at state my senior year of high school. Coming from a small school in eastern Oregon, we didn’t get to compete against the best runners in the state. So toeing the line that day with the best of the best, it felt like it was me and my coach against the world. I will never forget that look of pride he had every time I came around the track. I set a personal best by 21 seconds and broke our 20-plus-year-old school record.
Q.What are you most looking forward to on Marathon day?
A.Going past the Newton firehouse and waving to my brothers. Then I will be an emotional mess at the finish, but before that I want to take in the crowd like I watched Meb [Keflezighi] do last year when he won it.As told to Katie Morrison