BOSTON — 2024 Endicott College graduate and 2020 Lynnfield High graduate Bryan Mallett ran his first Boston Marathon Monday. He finished the race in 4:03.53.
Mallett raised more than $11,100 to support the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Hepatic Arterial Infusions program in memory of Sharla Sieve, a 1991 Lynnfield High graduate and former high school and college tennis standout, who died in 2022 from stage IV metastatic colorectal cancer. The two families are very close.
Mallett only started running two years ago.
“I tried a half-marathon about two years ago and it went really well,” he said. “A friend said, ‘You did a half – might as well do a full,’ so that’s how I started thinking about running a full marathon.”
He began training in mid-November and his last long run was 10-plus miles about two weeks ago.
“Once you get past mile 20, it’s all about whatever you have left,” Mallett said. “Boston is different because of the hills. You can’t really train for that. On race day, it doesn’t really matter how you’ve trained when you get to that point. It’s the hardest marathon in the world for a reason, so you have to be ready for it.”
Mallett said the support he got from not only a large number of family and friends, but complete strangers, made a huge difference.
“One of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and I’m very grateful to have been granted the chance to represent the hospital that did so much for Sharla,” Mallett said. “And I’m very lucky to have had the opportunity to run the hardest marathon of the (Marathon) Majors at my age – very fortunate.”
When asked if he would consider attempting the Abbott World Marathon Majors series (Boston, New York, Chicago, Tokyo, Berlin, London), Mallett said it’s in consideration.
“I’m a runner for life now, so I would definitely consider running the Abbott,” he said. “But right now, all I can think about is just trying to walk normally tomorrow.”
