Quinn Cunningham, CSOM ’22, said he began training for the 2022 Boston Marathon after enduring an injury in the fall. After qualifying for the marathon at the 2021 Providence Marathon last May, Cunningham said his training process was slower than usual, as he had to monitor his gradual recovery.
“Normally in a marathon cycle, you try to have four to eight weeks of base training, and then you start doing more marathon-specific stuff and longer stuff,” Cunningham said. “But … since I was coming back from injury, I didn’t really have that process, so I just had to start running 20 plus–mile runs and longer runs when my legs weren’t really ready for that yet.”
Though he has been running since around the fourth grade, Cunningham said he stuck with it because of his experience running in high school. There, he learned the basics of running and training for long-distance runs.
“I think the reason I stuck with it was I had a really good high school team, actually a pretty good program and a good coach,” he said. “I just loved my teammates and we had a really good culture there.”
Because of his passion for running, Cunningham said running the marathon was a natural goal of his as a Boston College student.
As he approached BC’s campus, Cunningham said he was in a lot of pain. He made an effort to make his way to the course’s barriers to high five his friends as he ran down Commonwealth Ave.
“I … boxed out an area for myself, so I could high five people,” he said. “I just came down Comm. Ave, just like high fiving everyone on the side. … It was such an adrenaline boost, and I probably ran down it too quickly. All my friends were like, ‘We waited so long for you, and you were there for like half a second.’ But I was just really excited. So yeah, it was super cool.”
