LOWELL — It certainly wasn’t a case of beginner’s luck that Mike Danaher raced to victory in his first-ever marathon.
Baystate men
The 23-year-old Nashua, N.H., resident is a former four-year distance runner at Dartmouth College, who after basically a year off from the sport decided to resume training with the goal of running a marathon.
Although Danaher, who grew up in Clifton Park, N.Y., spent a good part of the race running against the wind, he showed he was completely in step from start to finish on an otherwise perfect day for running with temperatures in the low-50s.
Danaher crossed the finish line in 2:29:24.1 to win the Ashworth Awards Baystate Marathon on Sunday morning.
Patrick Moulton, a former Pelham High and Providence College standout, was second in 2:32.39.5, and Logan Trimble of Somerville was third in 2:34:57.6.
“I didn’t do a whole lot of running last year since I was adjusting to work,” said Danaher, who graduated from Dartmouth in 2013 with a degree in economics and works at Fidelity in financial research. “But running was tough to give up. I got the bug to run again and decided to give it a shot. I just couldn’t get away from it. I like competing. Running is a life-long sport.
“I’ve always been a distance runner, but marathons are something new. I wanted to give it a try and see how I can do. I decided to try it now because you can’t really answer how good you are when you are in your 40s or 50s. You can still have some great times, but this is my prime. So I’m grinding away with my training and I want to see how far it takes me.”
For starters, it took Danaher over the Baystate Marathon’s 26.2 mile course faster than anyone else in the field.
“Since it’s my first marathon my goal time was 2:30,” said Danaher, who put in 90 miles of training weekly over the summer. “If I felt good enough I thought I could get to 2:27 or even 2:26, but there was a lot of wind out there. But I was able to bear down and kept going.
“Once I got to 24 miles and I knew I’d have a decent shot at (winning). I just made sure I didn’t cramp up. I watched over myself and the crowds kind of helped bring me home. To have so many people out there cheering, the adrenaline pulls you through. I finished strong because of the fans. We had a great crowd.”
In the Ashworth Awards Baystate Half Marathon, Ethan Brown put his home course advantage to great use.
Lowell’s Brown, 29, a Hall of Fame runner/swimmer at Lowell High who ran in college at the University of Michigan, finished first in the half marathon in 1:12:41.7.
Joshua Grant of Nashua, N.H., was second in 1:12:57.9, followed by Max Bulger of Newton Highlands (1:13:17.6), Chris Grange of Methuen (1:13.22.9), Timothy Catoggio of Boston (1:13:44.1) and James St. Pierre of Dracut (1:14:54.0).
“I’m very familiar with the course because I actually live in downtown Lowell and I train on it every day,” said Brown, a former tri-athlete who is close to earning his MBA at UMass Lowell. “I think that was an advantage. There was kind of a big headwind going out and coming in we had a tailwind. I’m used to that because it’s kind of like that all the time running here.”
Brown made his move on the lead pack with roughly four miles to go, and once he surged in front was able to finish up strong.
“I didn’t feel good at all for the first half of the race,” said Brown. “About eight or nine miles in I just had to make a move. I knew I wasn’t going to get my goal time. So I figured I’d go for the win. If I blew up in the process, at least I’d have nothing to lose.
“Once I started picking people off in the eighth or ninth mile, I picked up my pace. I can’t say I felt better, but I was able to maintain a rhythm and keep it going. This is definitely a race I was keying on. I wanted to win because it’s like my home course. It’s been a season-long goal of mine, and I’m proud to have accomplished it.”
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