LYNN — The Rev. Godfrey Musabe is running again. And that, he says, is a good thing.
“When I’m running,” Father Musabe says, “my body feels fully awake. Since I started again, I’ve sensed a change. My body is alive.
“When I’m not running, I feel lazy.”
Father Musabe, a parochial vicar for the St. Pius V/Holy Family parish collaborative in Lynn, got back into running last year after a series of events and setbacks. And he feels well enough that he has entered next month’s Boston Marathon, running to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club of Boston, and to help pay for the roof of a new retirement home for priests in his native Uganda.
“I started running when I was in high school, but then I got away from it for a while.”
That’s because he went into the seminary. And after he was ordained, it was off to the United States and St. Pius — his first parish assignment — in 2017.
“Then, I had to get settled here, he said. “Finally, once I was all settled, I decided to start running again.”
His return to running almost ended as soon as it began. At Christmastime in 2018, Fr. Musabe went back to Uganda for a visit. When he came back to the U.S., he was sick and had to be hospitalized. By the time he was fully healthy, he was ready to start running again.
“During that winter, I became more and more focused on getting back to my running,” he said. “I started training at (Planet Fitness) and then started running around (Flax) Pond.
“Finally, I began looking for hills so I could build up my endurance,” he said.
Fr. Musabe knows hills. That’s one of the natural advantages African runners have when they race in this country. They train in the mountains, and then run at sea level in Boston. High-altitude running makes the blood more oxygen rich.
“I ran in high altitudes over in Uganda,” he said. “It helps.”
Like many first-time marathoners, Fr. Musabe knows that if he had to qualify for the race with his time, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Instead, what a lot of racers do is get a number through one of the many local charities and nonprofits. He got his number through the Boys and Girls Club.
To do that, however, one must raise $5,000. Father Musabe is in the process of doing that now.
But for him, it’s not as simple a matter of setting up the usual “GoFundMe” account online. He is in the United States on a Religious Worker Visa (he has applied for a green card and is working toward obtaining one), which means he cannot handle any money raised on his behalf. The fund goes through St. Pius.
Meanwhile, he is hard at work training for the race. He’s tried to learn all he can about the 26-mile, 385-yard course that winds from Hopkinton to Copley Square in Boston.
Right now, he’s just working on increasing his endurance.
His mileage on a day-to-day basis varies.
“I might do 10 one day, 12, the next, then 15,” he said. “My goal is to keep a good pace.”
Fr. Musabe said training for the marathon as a priest can be difficult, since most of their days — and even some of their nights — are taken up by their duties, meetings and other errands.
“When I’m on duty,” he said, “I do most of my training at night.”
And he says running long distances soothes him, and allows him to really think about things.
“When you start a run, you’re thinking about running,” he said. “But the more I run, the more relaxed I get. It allows me to think about other things — things I have to do, or my sermon for Sunday. It helps me a lot.”
